Confederate Makeshifts [pp. 71-79]

Confederate Make-Shifts.
after all it was only a strong reminder
of something better, and afforded none
of that sweet satisfaction that we get
from a cup of good coffee.
The rich looked back mournfully upon
the times of their extravagance, and all
could do nothing more than endeavor to
be content with the vexing substitutes,
or, as some did, brave the situation and
be satisfied wavith milk and cold water.
Some adopted the old North Carolina
beverage, sassafras tea, declaring it to be
"better than coffee anyhow," besides
being decidedly more wholesome, and
putting the drinkers of it beyond the
dangers of physic and the horrors of
doctors' bills. Then it was noised
abroad, that the discovery had just been
made that cotton-seed made a drink
which was the equal in flavor and as a
stimulant to the finest Rio. A few
were credulous enough to try the experiment. A trial was sufficient: parched
rye and dried potato chips were resumed.
But even had coffee been abundant,
there was still lacking the wherewith to
render it faultless to the popular palate,
for sugar was nearly as scarce as coffee.
I remember distinctly how sparingly the
loaf was nibbled in our family. When
only two loaves of sugar remained upon
the shelves of the little country grocery,
my grandfather bought them for four hundred dollars, and when he brought them
home wrapped in the deep-blue paper
that always covered these glistening
white cones, he set them upon the table
with the remark: "This is the last sugar
you will get until the war is over, at
least; better use it sparingly."
It was used sparingly indeed; a lump
in a cup of coffee would have been
deemed the height of extravagance. A
niggardly allowance was obtained only
on the rarest and most extraordinary
occasions; and even when necessary in
cases of sickness or for medicine it was
hesitatingly sacrificed. The report was
once rife in the town that the "Yankees
were coming," and my grandfather re
moved a step in the stairway, and here
deposited the loaf and a half that remained with about a half a pound of
coffee. Replacing the step, he defied
the Yankees to find the treasures. When
the war was ended, there still remained
two or three pounds of the last loaf.
Two loaves of sugar had been made to
last over two years.
Sugar was known as "short sweetening" in contradistinction to "long sweetening," by which name "sorghum"
syrup was generally known. The introduction of sorghum cane -" Early Amber"- throughout the South and West
had been attempted by the United
States government before the war, but
with little success, and all the encouragement that the Department of Agriculture could lend to the sorghum growing availed little in the South, though
some of the Western farmers took more
kindly to it. When the Federal ships
passed into the Mississippi, dividing the
Confederacy in twain, the supply of
sugar and molasses from Louisiana was
cut off, and the besieged people now
turned to the despised sorghum as a
common boon. Easy in its growth, exacting little from the soil, and requiring
but little cultivation, it was not long in
becoming an important part of every
man's crop. It furnished them with
much of their daily food, and with the
slaves especially, the regular diet was
sorghum syrup with bread for breakfast,
meat for dinner, and at supper "long
sweetening" again. Thus sorghum syrup took the place of meat in its absence
as often did rice, and so monotonous
became this new diet, that white and
black thought if ever the "good old
days" came back, they would never
want to look upon sorghum or rice
again.
The manufacture of the syrup was
carried on on every farm by the most
primitive methods and contrivances.
Two upright wooden cylinders supported
in a frame, and with a lever to one of
[Jan.
74