“Isn’t that a grand sight, young man! We employ 2,000 hands down there, and consume hundreds of bales of cotton a day. We began here after the war without a cent, except our faith, and this magnificent water power. Now look!” “You have certainly done a great work,” said Gaston, “I had no idea you had so many industries in the enclosure.” “Yes, I sit down here on the hill some nights in the moonlight and look into this valley, and the hum of that machinery is like ravishing music. The machinery seems to me to be a living thing, with millions of fingers of steel and a great throbbing soul. I dream of the day when those swift fingers will weave their fabrics of gold and clothe the whole South in splendour!--the South I love, and for which I fought, and have yearned over through all these years. Ah! young man, I wish you boys of brain and genius would quit throwing yourselves away in law and dirty politics, and devote your powers to the South’s development!” “Yes, but General, the people of the South had to go into politics instead of business on account of the enfranchisement of the Negro. It was a matter of life and death.” “I didn’t do it.” “No, sir, but others did for you.” “How?” he asked incredulously, with just a touch of wounded pride. “Well how many negroes do you employ in these mills?” “None. We don’t allow a negro to come inside the enclosure.” “Precisely so. You have prospered because you have got rid of the Negro.” “I’ve simply let the Negro alone. Let others do the same.” “But everybody can’t do it. There are now nine millions of them. You’ve simply shifted the burden on others’ shoulders. You haven’t solved the problem.” “If we had less politics and more business, we would be better off.” “But the trouble is, General, we can’t have more business until politics have settled some things.” “Bah! You’re throwing yourself away in politics, young man! There’s nothing in it but dirt and disappointment.” “To me, sir, politics is a religion.” “Religion! Politics! I didn’t know you could ever mix ’em. I thought they were about as far apart as heaven is from hell!” exclaimed the General. “They ought not to be sir, whatever the terrible facts, I believe that the Government is the organised virtue of the community, and that politics is religion in action. It may be a poor sort of religion, but it is the best we are capable of as members of society.” “Well, that’s a new idea.” “It’s coming to be more and more recognised by thoughtful men, General. I believe that the State is now the only organ through which the whole people can search for righteousness, and that the progress of the world depends more than ever on its integrity and purity.” “Well, you’ve cut out a big job for yourself, if that’s your ideal. My idea of politics is a pig pen. The way to clean it is to kill the pigs.” Gaston laughed and shook his head. When they returned from the mills, Mrs. Worth drew the General into her room. “Did he ask you for Sallie?”