A Little Traitor to the South
Page 1
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_MACMILLAN'S STANDARD LIBRARY_
"Miss Fanny Glen detested a masterful man."]
A Little Traitor to the South
A WAR-TIME COMEDY
With a
TRAGIC INTERLUDE
By
Cyrus Townsend Brady
The Illustrations are by A. D. RahnDecorations by C. E. Hooper.
NEW YORKGROSSET & DUNLAPPUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1903,By CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY.
Copyright, 1904,By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1904. ReprintedAugust, 1904; March, September, 1907; April, 1908; April, 1909.
Norwood PressJ. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
_To "Patty"_
_Most Faithful and Efficient of Coadjutors_
PREFACE
"The tragic interlude" in this little war-time comedy of the affectionsreally happened as I have described it. The men who went to their deathbeside the _Housatonic_ in Charleston harbor were Lieutenant George F.Dixon of the Twenty-first Alabama Infantry, in command; Captain J. F.Carlson of Wagoner's Battery; and Seamen Becker, Simpkins, Wicks,Collins, and Ridgway of the Confederate Navy, all volunteers. Thesenames should be written in letters of gold on the roll of heroes. Nomore gallant exploit was ever performed. The qualities and characteristicsof that death trap, the _David_, were well known to everybody. Thehistory of former attempts to work her is accurately set down in thetext of the story. Dixon and his men should be remembered with Decatur,Cushing, Nields, and Hobson.
The torpedo boat was found after the war lying on the bottom of theharbor, about one hundred feet from the wreck of the _Housatonic_,with her bow pointing toward the sloop of war and with every man of hercrew dead at his post,--just as they all expected.
I shall be happy if this novel serves to call renewed attention to thissplendid exhibition of American heroism. Had they not fought for acause which was lost they would still be remembered, as, in any event,they ought to be.
For the rest, here is a love story in which the beautiful Southern girldoes not espouse the brave Union soldier, or the beautiful Northerngirl the brave Southern soldier. They were all Southern, all true tothe South, and they all stayed so except Admiral Vernon, and he doesnot count.
CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY.
BROOKLYN, N.Y.,February, 1904.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Hero _versus_ Gentleman 15
II. She Hates them Both 33
III. A Strife in Magnanimity 51
IV. Opportunities Embraced 65
V. What happened in the Strong Room 81
VI. An Engine of Destruction 103
VII. The Hour and the Man 115
VIII. Death out of the Deep 125
IX. Miserable Pair and Miserable Night 141
X. A Stubborn Proposition 157
XI. The Confession that Cleared 171
XII. The Culprit is Arrested 185
XIII. Companions in Misery 199
XIV. The Woman Explains 223
XV. The General's Little Comedy 241