very event of the
action, like his grandsire. And yesterday evening, coming out from among
the plaudits of the crowd that had been paying honor to the wonderful
renderings of Couldock and Davidge in the "Chimney-Corner," Wetmore, the
critic and habitue, did not even bring away a play-bill. That little
domestic scene was so daguerreotyped upon his memory that he should
never forget one detail of cast or incident--never! And yet five years
hence, Wetmore will turn to some companion of the present and say: "Ah,
confound it--I cannot remember! Who _was_ it that played with Couldock
at the Winter Garden, in the--the--there, hang me if I have not even
forgotten the name of the piece!--that capital little Robson domestic
drama--the--the--the 'Chimney Corner'?"

So much by way of explanation, if not of apology, for catching the
colors of the background of general feeling at the particular period of
this story, before they have time to fade. And yet a few more words with
reference to that general feeling, as it took particular directions.

"Vox populi, vox Dei" is a motto so often falsified, at least in
appearance, that the world has come to place but little reliance upon
it; and yet it is as true to-day as when the old Latin maximist first
penned it, with the plurality of the gods of his dependence fully
manifest in the original "Dii" or "Deis." The people do not often err
materially or long. They may throne a wooden god or a baboon for a short
moment, but that moment soon passes. As a political body no demagogue
with words supplying the place of brains, can long override them; and as
an army they never make a favorite of a fool or a coward. The American
people did not err for a moment as to where the responsibility of the
sad check to the army of the Potomac did _not_ belong; and they erred
but little in their calculation of where it _did_. The army was
brave--its leader was both careful and capable--the very man for the
place: that they knew intuitively. They doubted the existence of brains
at Washington, and of loyalty in many of those who had been urging
"forward movements" without sufficient force or proper preparation; and
they have already been fully justified in the doubt.

But the people saw something more--execrated it, howled against it, spat
upon it; and after the Seven Days before Richmond, their abhorrence
culminated. That terrible something was _absenteeism_. Thousands and
tens of thousands who should have been