BOARDING-SCHOOL IN WAR TIMES
As soon as war was declared Madame Togno moved her school from
Charleston to Columbia, as every one knew it was only a question of time
as to when the city would be shelled. She rented Barhamville, a
well-known old school a few miles out of Columbia, and in November,
1862, my little sister and myself were sent there. The journey is
specially impressed on me, for my eldest sister had talked a great deal
of Mary Pringle’s delightful brother, Julius, who had left Heidelberg
(where he had graduated and was then taking a law course) as soon as he
heard of secession, and had run the blockade to join the Confederate
army. She had been at home when he called and I had not, and she talked
so much about him that I said, with my sharp tongue: “That seemed a
strange way for a girl engaged to one man to talk of another, and
wondered how her fiancé would like it if he could hear.” She did not in
the least mind this, but continued her praise, so that my opposition was
roused; and, when, as we were taking the train, with packages and much
impedimenta, our good Phibby included, for she was to go with us, Della
brought up the young man and introduced him to us, I said to her when he
went to make some inquiry at the office for her: “So this is your
paragon! You certainly shouldn’t choose for me!” However, he was a most
attentive companion on the journey, and stood and talked to me all the
way to Charleston, where we were to spend a few days before going on to
Columbia. Jinty made me very miserable, because I was painfully
dignified and speaking in the most correct and careful way, till I saw
that while he stood and talked to me, she, on the opposite seat, was
shooting peanuts skilfully into his coat-pockets. I could not speak to
her and reprimand her, for she would have answered me back promptly, and
I was terribly afraid he would turn and see what my little sister was
doing. He did not, however, and must have been much amazed later to find
his pockets full of peanuts.
Barhamville was much larger than any house madame had ever rented
before, and so she had many more boarders, and the character of the
school was somewhat altered. She still tried to make French the language
of the school, but it was much harder to carry this out. Most of the
girls were eighteen or nineteen and knew no French, so that it was
impossible for them to converse in it. Finding this the case, madame
made a rule that no one should speak at table except to say, “Passez moi
le pain s’il vous plait,” and all the other necessary requests for food;
for we had two long tables and only one waitress. Madame walked up and
down the room while we ate, so as to keep order. Very soon she began to
find it very hard to get the good food on which she always prided
herself. Tea and coffee had to be left out, and one thing after another,
until we ceased to come into the dining-room at all for supper. Two
large trays of very dry corn-dodgers were brought into the schoolroom at
tea-time, accompanied by two large pitchers of water and a tray of
glasses. The girls were all very good and never complained. Every one
knew there were privations in their own homes, and felt that madame was
doing the best she could for us.
Madame had been fortunate enough to secure very good teachers.
Mademoiselle le Prince, the French teacher, was quite a remarkable woman
as far as teaching went. Educated at a convent just outside of Paris,
she had the best accent, and it was her one idea in life to give a
correct and thorough knowledge of French; not only to have her pupils
speak it correctly, but to have them write with perfect precision all
the difficult terminations of the “participe passé.” She was hated by
many girls, she was so cross, but she was a delight to me, for she was
the real thing. I spoke French glibly and wrote it in the same easy way,
to my own satisfaction, but when I got mademoiselle’s point of view I
was heartily ashamed of my French and very soon rectified all that by
hard study, to her delight. The teacher of English was the Reverend Mr.
Johnson. He helped out his salary, which was inadequate to his needs, by
mending shoes, which he did well.
The music teacher, Monsieur Torriani, was also a joy. Thoroughly
competent, most appreciative of good work, it was a delight to work for
him. My music had become my great pleasure; and, when I took my first
lesson from this charming, appreciative Italian, I felt I was going to
have a delightful year at school, whatever the privations might be.
Madame assigned me two hours for practice, but very soon I felt that was
not enough and begged her to let me have another hour. She said it was
impossible; there were only three pianos in the school and I already
had more than my share of these three. I still worried her, and at last
she said: “If you are willing to get up early and practise an hour on
the piano in the drawing-room, you may do it; but it will be hard, for
it will have to be before the fire is made up.” I accepted with many
thanks; and all that winter I got up at six, broke the ice in my pitcher
to perform my hasty ablutions, and putting on my cloak took my candle
into the drawing-room, and often with tears rolling down my cheeks
practised that hour! My hands were so swollen with chilblains that I was
ashamed to take my music lesson.
I began to take singing lessons, too, and spent the whole of six months
on exercises before I took a single song. I can never forget my delight
when Monsieur Torriani applauded my first song--a very high, lovely
little song from the opera of “Martha.” “Dormi pur ma, il mio riposo tu
m’ai tolto, ingrato cor Buona notte, buon dormir.” I had a very small,
sweet voice, with clear, birdlike, high notes, but it seemed so very
little, for we had a girl in school with a beautiful big voice, Sallie
McCoullough, such a sweet, good, simple girl. If she had been more
sophisticated she would have had a happier life. M. Torriani took
delight in training and developing her voice, which was quite fit for
opera, but she was no actress, and failed to make the success she should
have made through that. Dear, big, sweet, simple Sallie! Every one loved
her, and when we got her to sing “Home, Sweet Home” and other old songs
in the schoolroom in the dusk without accompaniment, we all wept quarts.
One day I said to M. Torriani that I was going to stop my singing
lessons, that I had no voice and it was only a mortification.
He asked with a great air of respect: “Did you think of going on the
stage?”
“Oh, Monsieur Torriani, don’t make fun of me. I am too wretched. I have
so little voice, it really is none, and I would so love to sing.”
Then he sobered down and said: “Mademoiselle, you must not stop. Your
voice is little but very sweet and vous avez le feu sacré. You cannot
stop. You will give more pleasure all your life than many a big voice.
You will bring comfort to the sad heart. No, you must not stop, you!”
Then he went on to ask how long I practised at a time, and I told him
half an hour. “Oh, nevair, nevair,” he exclaimed, and told me never to
practise more than ten minutes at one time, and to spare and protect my
“precious little instrument,” as he called it, in every way. Never to
talk loud or shout, never under any circumstances to talk in a carriage
or car while it was in motion, and many other directions.
Clothes were becoming difficult. You could buy nothing, and it was much
colder up here than with us on the coast. We needed cloaks, both Jane
and I. So mamma had Maum ’Venia make for us each a coat from the lovely
white _plains_, which was bought for the negroes, with pearl buttons
taken from some old coats. They were immensely admired and were so nice
and warm. It was just like having a coat made out of the white part of a
very fine, soft blanket, and not the least part of the joy of them was
that they were very becoming.
It was this winter that my second great friend came into my life, Ruth
Nesbitt, from Georgia. She was the loveliest, sweetest girl, a tall,
very slender brunette with beautiful brown eyes, and a little tiptilted
nose and a large but well-formed mouth full of exquisite little teeth.
She was so quiet, so shy, so reserved and stiff. For a long time I
could only tell by her eyes that Ruth cared for me. I was greatly
surprised when I found myself devoted to her. I cared for so few and was
so easily bored. I constantly had girls devoted to me whose advances I
barely endured, and now to find a perfectly congenial companion was too
delightful. And to see the color rush over her pretty pansy-looking
face, and her bright brown eyes sparkle as I came near was a joy.
Travelling was so expensive that we did not go home for the Christmas
holidays, and Ruth and I read Dickens out under the trees every day. One
sewed while the other read aloud, and it was perfect bliss.
The news from the war became more and more exciting. I had letters
nearly every week from my cousin, Hal Lesesne, who was captain in the
army and stationed at Battery Wagner. They made me feel I was in the
midst of the fighting, they were so vivid, although very short. One day
one came, quite a long letter this time, but only a few words legible,
the rest soaked with ink. On a scrap of paper he wrote: “Just as I
finished this a shell burst near me and a fragment shattered the
ink-stand. I send it because I do not know when I can write again and
you may be able to make out some of it. Anyway, you will know that I
have written.” I kept all these letters. They were such a picture of the
life there; and, by a strange fate, they were stolen in 1870. It was a
great regret to me, for he was killed almost with the last shot which
was fired during the war. I was very fond of him. He was not a lover,
only a dear friend and cousin; and, besides that feeling, the letters
were history by that time, telling of the heroic defense of Batteries
Wagner and Gregg and the other fortifications on Morris Island.
_PART IV_
WAR TIMES