In this town, especially Mrs. Merriwether, Mrs. Elsing, Mrs.

Whiting and Mrs. Meade. If I have to crawl on my belly to every

fat old cat who hates me, I'll do it. I'll be meek under their

coldness and repentant of my evil ways. I'll contribute to their

damned charities and I'll go to their damned churches. I'll admit

and brag about my services to the Confederacy and, if worst comes

to worst, I'll join their damned Klan--though a merciful God could

hardly lay so heavy a penance on my shoulders as that. And I shall

not hesitate to remind the fools whose necks I saved that they owe

me a debt. And you, Madam, will kindly refrain from undoing my

work behind my back and foreclosing mortgages on any of the people

I'm courting or selling them rotten lumber or in other ways

insulting them. And Governor Bullock never sets foot in this house

again. Do you hear? And none of this gang of elegant thieves

you've been associating with, either. If you do invite them, over

my request, you will find yourself in the embarrassing position of

having no host in your home. If they come in this house, I will

spend the time in Belle Watling's bar telling anyone who cares to

hear that I won't stay under the same roof with them."

Scarlett, who had been smarting under his words, laughed shortly.

"So the river-boat gambler and the speculator is going to be

respectable! Well, your first move toward respectability had

better be the sale of Belle Watling's house."

That was a shot in the dark. She had never been absolutely certain

that Rhett owned the house. He laughed suddenly, as though he read

her mind.

"Thanks for the suggestion."

Had he tried, Rhett could not have chosen a more difficult time to

beat his way back to respectability. Never before or after did the

names Republican and Scallawag carry such odium, for now the

corruption of the Carpet bag regime was at its height. And, since

the surrender, Rhett's name had been inextricably linked with

Yankees, Republicans and Scallawags.

Atlanta people had thought, with helpless fury, in 1866, that

nothing could be worse than the harsh military rule they had then,

but now, under Bullock, they were learning the worst. Thanks to

the negro vote, the Republicans and their allies were firmly

entrenched and they were riding rough-shod over the powerless but

still protesting minority.

Word had been spread among the negroes that there were only two

political parties mentioned in the Bible, the Publicans and the

Sinners. No negro wanted to join a party made up entirely of

sinners, so they hastened to join the Republicans. Their new

masters voted them over and over again, electing poor whites and

Scallawags to high places, electing even some negroes. These

negroes sat in the legislature where they spent most of their time

eating goobers and easing their unaccustomed feet into and out of

new shoes. Few of them could read or write. They were fresh from

cotton patch and canebrake, but it was within their power to vote

taxes and bonds as well as enormous expense accounts to themselves

and their Republican friends. And they voted them. The state

staggered under taxes which were paid in fury, for the taxpayers

knew that much of the money voted for public purposes was finding

its way into private pockets.

Completely surrounding the state capitol was a host of promoters,

speculators, seekers after contracts and others hoping to profit

from the orgy of spending, and many were growing shamelessly rich.

They had no difficulty at all in obtaining the state's money for

building railroads that were never built, for buying cars and

engines that were never bought, for erecting public buildings that

never existed except in the minds of their promoters.

Bonds were issued running into the millions. Most of them were

illegal and fraudulent but they were issued just the same. The

state treasurer, a Republican but an honest man, protested against

the illegal issues and refused to sign them, but he and others who

sought to check the abuses could do nothing against the tide that

was running.

The state-owned railroad had once been an asset to the state but

now it was a liability and its debts had piled up to the million

mark. It was no longer a railroad. It was an enormous bottomless

trough in which the hogs could swill and wallow. Many of its

officials were appointed for political reasons, regardless of their

knowledge of the operation of railroads, there were three times as

many people employed as were necessary, Republicans rode free on

passes, carloads of negroes rode free on their happy jaunts about

the state to vote and revote in the same elections.

The mismanagement of the state road especially infuriated the

taxpayers for, out of the earnings of the road, was to come the

money for free schools. But there were no earnings, there were

only debts, and so there were no free schools and there was a

generation of children growing up in ignorance who would spread the

seeds of illiteracy down the years.

But far and above their anger at the waste and mismanagement and

graft was the resentment of the people at the bad light in which

the governor represented them in the North. When Georgia howled

against corruption, the governor hastily went North, appeared

before Congress and told of white outrages against negroes, of

Georgia's preparation for another rebellion and the need for a

stern military rule in the state. No Georgian wanted trouble with

the negroes and they tried to avoid trouble. No one wanted another

war, no one wanted or needed bayonet rule. All Georgia wanted was

to be let alone so the state could recuperate. But with the

operation of what came to be known as the governor's "slander

mill," the North saw only a rebellious state that needed a heavy

hand, and a heavy hand was laid upon it.