By treachery of those in charge of our navy-yards, arsenals, and
treasury, the South began the bloody strife better provided than the
simple North. But adverse fate seemed bent on keeping the disparity for
long in favor of the weaker contestant. By one of those wicked
dispensations tripping up our early march, the secretary of the navy
was selected in Gideon Welles, an estimable gentleman in person, but
wofully unsuited to the berth, if from age alone. Patriarchal in
appearance, with a long face and longer beard, white and sere, it
became proverbial without appearing much of a far-fetched joke that he
was the naval constructor to Noah of Ark-aic fame. Unfortunately his
"set" were antiques as well. Yet Lincoln clung to him--or he clung to
the President like the Old Man of the Sea--under which aspect he was
presented by the caricaturists. One day, however, said the gossips of
the White House, Mr. Lincoln dropped the newspaper in reading, and
exclaimed:
"Listen!" said he to his secretary, "a man has been _run over by a
hearse_! As I saw Welles not so long ago, it must be one of _Gideon's_
Band!"
A song entitled "Gideon's Band," introduced by the negro minstrels in
New York, was popular on the streets and in the camps.
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