as the train carried scarlett northward that may morning in 1862, she thought that atlantacouldn’t possibly be so boring as charleston and savannah had been and, in spite of her distastefor miss pittypat and melanie, she looked forward with some curiosity toward seeing how the town had fared since her last visit, in the winter before the war began.
atlanta had always interested her more than any other town because when she was a childgerald had told her that she and atlanta were exactly the same age. she discovered when she grewolder that gerald had stretched the truth somewhat, as was his habit when a little stretching wouldimprove a story; but atlanta was only nine years older than she was, and that still left the placeamazingly young by comparison with any other town she had ever heard of. savannah andcharleston had the dignity of their years, one being well along in its second century and the otherentering its third, and in her young eyes they had always seemed like aged grandmothers fanningthemselves placidly in the sun. but atlanta was of her own generation, crude with the crudities ofyouth and as headstrong and impetuous as herself.
the story gerald had told her was based on the fact that she and atlanta were christened in thesame year. in the nine years before scarlett was born, the town had been called, first, terminus andthen marthasville, and not until the year of scarlett’s birth had it become atlanta.
when gerald first moved to north georgia, there had been no atlanta at all, not even thesemblance of a village, and wilderness rolled over the site. but the next year, in 1836, the state hadauthorized the building of a railroad northwestward through the territory which the cherokees hadrecently ceded. the destination of the proposed railroad, tennessee and the west, was clear anddefinite, but its beginning point in georgia was somewhat uncertain until, a year later, an engineerdrove a stake in the red clay to mark the southern end of the line, and atlanta, born terminus, hadbegun.
there were no railroads then in north georgia, and very few anywhere else. but during the yearsbefore gerald married ellen, the tiny settlement, twenty-five miles north of tara, slowly grew intoa village and the tracks slowly pushed northward. then the railroad building era really began.
from the old city of augusta, a second railroad was extended westward across the state to connectwith the new road to tennessee. from the old city of savannah, a third railroad was built first tomacon, in the heart of georgia, and then north through gerald’s own county to atlanta, to link upwith the other two roads and give savannah’s harbor a highway to the west. from the samejunction point, the young atlanta, a fourth railroad was constructed southwestward to montgomeryand mobile.
born of a railroad, atlanta grew as its railroads grew. with the completion of the four lines,atlanta was now connected with the west, with the south, with the coast and, through augusta,with the north and east. it had become the crossroads of travel north and south and east and west,and the little village leaped to life.
in a space of time but little longer than scarlett’s seventeen years, atlanta had grown from asingle stake driven in the ground into a thriving small city of ten thousand that was the center ofattention for the whole state. the older, quieter cities were won’t to look upon the bustling newtown with the sensations of a hen which has hatched a duckling. why was the place so differentfrom the other georgia towns? why did it grow so fast? after all, they thought, it had nothingwhatever to recommend it—only its railroads and a bunch of mighty pushy people.
the people who settled the town called successively terminus, marthasville and atlanta, were apushy people. restless, energetic people from the older sections of georgia and from more distant states were drawn to this town that sprawled itself around the junction of the railroads in its center.
they came with enthusiasm. they built their stores around the five muddy red roads that crossednear the depot. they built their fine homes on whitehall and washington streets and along the highridge of land on which countless generations of moccasined indian feet had beaten a path calledthe peachtree trail. they were proud of the place, proud of its growth, proud of themselves formaking it grow. let the older towns call atlanta anything they pleased. atlanta did not care.
scarlett had always liked atlanta for the very same reasons that made savannah, augusta andmacon condemn it. like herself, the town was a mixture of the old and new in georgia, in whichthe old often came off second best in its conflicts with the self-willed and vigorous new. moreover,there was something personal, exciting about a town that was born—or at least christened—thesame year she was christened.
the night before had been wild and wet with rain, but when scarlett arrived in atlanta a warmsun was at work, bravely attempting to dry the streets that were winding rivers of red mud. in theopen space around the depot, the soft ground had been cut and churned by the constant flow oftraffic in and out until it resembled an enormous hog wallow, and here and there vehicles weremired to the hubs in the ruts. a never-ceasing line of army wagons and ambulances, loading andunloading supplies and wounded from the trains, made the mud and confusion worse as they toiledin and struggled out, drivers swearing, mules plunging and mud spattering for yards.
scarlett stood on the lower step of the train, a pale pretty figure in her black mourning dress, hercrêpe veil fluttering almost to her heels. she hesitated, unwilling to soil her slippers and hems, andlooked about in the shouting tangle of wagons, buggies and carriages for miss pittypat. there wasno sign of that chubby pink-cheeked lady, but as scarlett searched anxiously a spare old negro,with grizzled kinks and an air of dignified authority, came toward her through the mud, his hat inhis hand.
“dis miss scarlett, ain’ it? dis hyah peter, miss pitty’s coachman. doan step down in dat mud,”
he ordered severely, as scarlett gathered up her skirts preparatory to descending. “you is as bad asmiss pitty an’ she lak a chile ‘bout gittin’ her feets wet. lemme cahy you.”
he picked scarlett up with ease despite his apparent frailness and age and, observing prissystanding on the platform of the train, the baby in her arms, he paused: “is dat air chile yo’ nuss?
miss scarlett, she too young ter be handlin’ mist’ charles’ onlies’ baby! but we ten’ to dat later.
you gal, foller me, an’ doan you go drappin’ dat baby.”
scarlett submitted meekly to being carried toward the carriage and also to the peremptorymanner in which uncle peter criticized her and prissy. as they went through the mud with prissysloshing, pouting, after them, she recalled what charles had said about uncle peter.
“he went through all the mexican campaigns with father, nursed him when he was wounded—in fact, he saved his life. uncle peter practically raised melanie and me, for we were very youngwhen father and mother died. aunt pitty had a falling out with her brother, uncle henry, aboutthat time, so she came to live with us and take care of us. she is the most helpless soul—just like asweet grown-up child, and uncle peter treats her that way. to save her life, she couldn’t make up her mind about anything, so peter makes it up for her. he was the one who decided i should have alarger allowance when i was fifteen, and he insisted that i should go to harvard for my senior year,when uncle henry wanted me to take my degree at the university. and he decided when mellywas old enough to put up her hair and go to parties. he tells aunt pitty when it’s too cold or toowet for her to go calling and when she should wear a shawl. … he’s the smartest old darky i’veever seen and about the most devoted. the only trouble with him is that he owns the three of us,body and soul, and he knows it.”
charles’ words were confirmed as peter climbed onto the box and took the whip.
“miss pitty in a state bekase she din’ come ter meet you. she’s feared you mout not unnerstan’
but ah tole her she an’ miss melly jes’ git splashed wid mud an’ ruin dey new dresses an’ ah’d‘splain ter you. miss scarlett, you better tek dat chile. dat lil pickaninny gwine let it drap.”
scarlett looked at prissy and sighed. prissy was not the most adequate of nurses. her recentgraduation from a skinny pickaninny with brief skirts and stiffly wrapped braids into the dignity ofa calico dress and starched white turban was an intoxicating affair. she would never have arrived atthis eminence so early in life had not the exigencies of war and the demands of the commissary departmenton tara made it impossible for ellen to spare mammy or dilcey or even rosa or teena.
prissy had never been more than a mile away from twelve oaks or tara before, and the trip on thetrain plus her elevation to nurse was almost more than the brain in her little black skull could bear.
the twenty-mile journey from jonesboro to atlanta had so excited her that scarlett had beenforced to hold the baby all the way. now, the sight of so many buildings and people completedprissy’s demoralization. she twisted from side to side, pointed, bounced about and so jounced thebaby that he wailed miserably.
scarlett longed for the fat old arms of mammy. mammy had only to lay hands on a child and ithushed crying. but mammy was at tara and there was nothing scarlett could do. it was useless forher to take little wade from prissy. he yelled just as loudly when she held him as when prissy did.
besides, he would tug at the ribbons of her bonnet and, no doubt, rumple her dress. so shepretended she had not heard uncle peter’s suggestion.
“maybe i’ll learn about babies sometime,” she thought irritably, as the carriage jolted andswayed out of the morass surrounding the station, “but i’m never going to like fooling with them.”
and as wade’s face went purple with his squalling, she snapped crossly: “give him that sugar-tit inyour pocket, priss. anything to make him hush. i know he’s hungry, but i can’t do anything aboutthat now.”
prissy produced the sugar-tit, given her that morning by mammy, and the baby’s wails subsided.
with quiet restored and with the new sights that met her eyes, scarlett’s spirits began to rise a little.
when uncle peter finally maneuvered the carriage out of the mudholes and onto peachtree street,she felt the first surge of interest she had known in months. how the town had grown! it was notmuch more than a year since she had last been here, and it did not seem possible that the littleatlanta she knew could have changed so much.
for the past year, she had been so engrossed in her own woes, so bored by any mention of war,she did not know that from the minute the fighting first began, atlanta had been transformed. thesame railroads which had made the town the crossroads of commerce in time of peace were now of vital strategic importance in time of war. far from the battle lines, the town and its railroadsprovided the connecting link between the two armies of the confederacy, the army in virginia andthe army in tennessee and the west and atlanta likewise linked both of the armies with the deepersouth from which they drew their supplies. now, in response to the needs of war, atlanta hadbecome a manufacturing center, a hospital base and one of the south’s chief depots for thecollecting of food and supplies for the armies in the field.
scarlett looked about her for the little town she remembered so well. it was gone. the town shewas now seeing was like a baby grown overnight into a busy, sprawling giant.
atlanta was humming like a beehive, proudly conscious of its importance to the confederacy,and work was going forward night and day toward turning an agricultural section into an industrialone. before the war there had been few cotton factories, woolen mills, arsenals and machine shopssouth of maryland—a fact of which all southerners were proud. the south produced statesmenand soldiers, planters and doctors, lawyers and poets, but certainly not engineers or mechanics. letthe yankees adopt such low callings. but now the confederate ports were stoppered with yankeegunboats, only a trickle of blockade-run goods was slipping in from europe, and the south wasdesperately trying to manufacture her own war materials. the north could call on the whole worldfor supplies and for soldiers, and thousands of irish and germans were pouring into the unionarmy, lured by the bounty money offered by the north. the south could only turn in upon itself.
in atlanta, there were machine factories tediously turning out machinery to manufacture warmaterials—tediously, because there were few machines in the south from which they could modeland nearly every wheel and cog had to be made from drawings that came through the blockadefrom england. there were strange faces on the streets of atlanta now, and citizens who a year agowould have pricked op their ears at the sound of even a western accent paid no heed to the foreigntongues of europeans who had run the blockade to build machines and turn out confederatemunitions. skilled men these, without whom the confederacy would have been hard put to makepistols, rifles, cannon and powder.
almost the poising of the town’s heart could be felt as the work went forward night and day,pumping the materials of war up the railway arteries to the two battle fronts. trains roared in andout of the town at all hours. soot from the newly erected factories fell in showers on the whitehouses. by night, the furnaces glowed and the hammers clanged long after townsfolk were abed.
where vacant lots had been a year before, there were now factories turning out harness, saddlesand shoes, ordnance-supply plants making rifles and cannon, rolling mills and foundries producingiron rails and freight cars to replace those destroyed by the yankees, and a variety of industriesmanufacturing spurs, bridle bits, buckles, tents, buttons, pistols and swords. already the foundrieswere beginning to feel the lack of iron, for little or none came through the blockade, and the minesin alabama were standing almost idle while the miners were at the front. there were no iron picketfences, iron summerhouses, iron gates or even iron statuary on the lawns of atlanta now, for theyhad early found their way into the melting pots of the rolling mills.
here along peachtree street and near-by streets were the headquarters of the various armydepartments, each office swarming with uniformed men, the commissary, the signal corps, the mailservice, the railway transport, the provost marshal. on the outskirts of town were the remountdepots where horses and mules milled about in large corrals, and along side streets were the hospitals. as uncle peter told her about them, scarlet felt that atlanta must be a city of thewounded, for there were general hospitals, contagious hospitals, convalescent hospitals withoutnumber. and every day the trains just below five points disgorged more sick and more wounded.
the little town was gone and the face of the rapidly growing city was animated with never-ceasing energy and bustle. the sight of so much hurrying made scarlett, fresh from rural leisureand quiet, almost breathless, but she liked it. there was an exciting atmosphere about the place thatuplifted her. it was as if she could actually feel the accelerated steady pulse of the town’s heartbeating in time with her own.
as they slowly made their way through the mudholes of the town’s chief street, she noted withinterest all the new buildings and the new faces. the sidewalks were crowded with men inuniform, bearing the insignia of all ranks and all service branches; the narrow street was jammedwith vehicles—carriages, buggies, ambulances, covered army wagons with profane driversswearing as the mules struggled through the ruts; gray-clad couriers dashed spattering through thestreets from one headquarters to another, bearing orders and telegraphic dispatches; convalescentslimped about on crutches, usually with a solicitous lady at either elbow; bugle and drum andbarked orders sounded from the drill fields where the recruits were being turned into soldiers; andwith her heart in her throat, scarlett had her first sight of yankee uniforms, as uncle peter pointedwith his whip to a detachment of dejected-looking bluecoats being shepherded toward the depot bya squad of confederates with fixed bayonets, to entrain for the prison camp.
“oh,” thought scarlett, with the first feeling of real pleasure she had experienced since the dayof the barbecue, i’m going to like it here! it’s so alive and exciting!”
the town was even more alive than she realized, for there were new barrooms by the dozens;prostitutes, following the army, swarmed the town and bawdy houses were blossoming withwomen to the consternation of the church people. every hotel, boarding house and privateresidence was crammed with visitors who had come to be near wounded relatives in the bigatlanta hospitals. there were parties and balls and bazaars every week and war weddings withoutnumber, with the grooms on furlough in bright gray and gold braid and the brides in blockade-runfinery, aisles of crossed swords, toasts drunk in blockaded champagne and tearful farewells.
nightly the dark tree-lined streets resounded with dancing feet, and from parlors tinkled pianoswhere soprano voices blended with those of soldier guests in the pleasing melancholy of “thebugles sang truce” and “your letter came, but came too late”—plaintive ballads that broughtexciting tears to soft eyes which had never known the tears of real grief.
as they progressed down the street, through the sucking mud, scarlett bubbled over withquestions and peter answered them, pointing here and there with his whip, proud to display hisknowledge.
“dat air de arsenal. yas’m, dey keeps guns an’ sech lak dar. no’m, dem air ain’ sto’s, dey’sblockade awfisses. law, miss scarlett, doan you know whut blockade awfisses is? dey’s awfisseswhar furriners stays dat buy us confedruts’ cotton an’ ship it outer cha’ston and wilmin’ton an’
ship us back gunpowder. no’m, ah ain’ sho whut kine of furriners dey is. miss pitty, she say dey isinlish but kain nobody unnerstan a’ wud dey says. yas’m ‘tis pow’ful smoky an’ de soot jes’ ruinin’
miss pitty’s silk cuttins. if frum de foun’ry an’ de rollin’ mills. an’ de noise dey meks at night!
kain nobody sleep. no’m, ah kain stop fer you ter look around. ah done promise miss pitty ahbring you straight home. … miss scarlett, mek yo’ cu’tsy. dar’s miss merriwether an’ miss elsinga-bowin’ to you.”
scarlett vaguely remembered two ladies of those names who came from atlanta to tara to attendher wedding and she remembered that they were miss pittypat’s best friends. so she turned quicklywhere uncle peter pointed and bowed. the two were sitting in a carriage outside a drygoods store.
the proprietor and two clerks stood on the sidewalk with armfuls of bolts of cotton cloth they hadbeen displaying. mrs. merriwether was a tall, stout woman and so tightly corseted that her bustjutted forward like the prow of a ship. her iron-gray hair was eked out by a curled false fringe thatwas proudly brown and disdained to match the rest of her hair. she had a round, highly coloredface in which was combined good-natured shrewdness and the habit of command. mrs. elsing wasyounger, a thin frail woman, who had been a beauty, and about her there still clung a fadedfreshness, a dainty imperious air.
these two ladies with a third, mrs. whiting, were the pillars of atlanta. they ran the threechurches to which they belonged, the clergy, the choirs and the parishioners. they organizedbazaars and presided over sewing circles, they chaperoned balls and picnics, they knew who madegood matches and who did not, who drank secretly, who were to have babies and when. they wereauthorities on the genealogies of everyone who was anyone in georgia, south carolina andvirginia and did not bother their heads about the other states, because they believed that no onewho was anybody ever came from states other than these three. they knew what was decorousbehavior and what was not and they never failed to make their opinions known—mrs. merriwetherat the top of her voice, mrs. elsing in an elegant die-away drawl and mrs. whiting in a distressedwhisper which showed how much she hated to speak of such things. these three ladies dislikedand distrusted one another as heartily as the first triumvirate of rome, and their close alliance wasprobably for the same reason.
“i told pitty i had to have you in my hospital,” called mrs. merriwether, smiling. “don’t you gopromising mrs. meade or mrs. whiting!”
“i won’t,” said scarlett, having no idea what mrs. merriwether was talking about but feeling aglow of warmth at being welcomed and wanted. “i hope to see you again soon.”
the carriage plowed its way farther and halted for a moment to permit two ladies with basketsof bandages on their arms to pick precarious passages across the sloppy street on stepping stones.
at the same moment, scarlett’s eye was caught by a figure on the sidewalk in a brightly coloreddress—too bright for street wear—covered by a paisley shawl with fringes to the heels. turningshe saw a tall handsome woman with a bold face and a mass of red hair, too red to be true. it wasthe first time she had ever seen any woman who she knew for certain had “done something to herhair” and she watched her, fascinated.
“uncle peter, who is that?” she whispered.
“ah doan know.”
“you do, too. i can tell. who is she?”
“her name belle watling,” said uncle peter, his lower lip beginning to protrude.
scarlett was quick to catch the fact that he had not preceded the name with “miss” or “mrs.”
“who is she?”
“miss scarlett,” said peter darkly, laying the whip on the startled horse, “miss pitty ain gwineter lak it you astin’ questions dat ain’ none of yo’ bizness. day’s a passel of no-count folks in distown now dat it ain’ no use talkin’ about.”
“good heavens!” thought scarlett, reproved into silence. that must be a bad woman!”
she had never seen a bad woman before and she twisted her head and stared after her until shewas lost in the crowd.
the stores and the new war buildings were farther apart now, with vacant lots between. finallythe business section fell behind and the residences came into view. scarlett picked them out as oldfriends, the leyden house, dignified and stately; the bonnells’, with little white columns andgreen, blinds; the close-lipped red-brick georgian home of the mclure family, behind its low boxhedges. their progress was slower now, for from porches and gardens and sidewalks ladies calledto her. some she knew slightly, others she vaguely remembered, but most of them she knew not atall. pittypat had certainly broadcast her arrival. little wade had to be held up time and again, sothat ladies who ventured as far through the ooze as their carriage blocks could exclaim over him.
they all cried to her that she must join their knitting and sewing circles and their hospitalcommittees, and no one else’s, and she promised recklessly to right and left.
as they passed a rambling green clapboard house, a little black girl posted on the front stepscried, “hyah she come,” and dr. meade and his wife and little thirteen-year-old phil emerged,calling greetings. scarlett recalled that they too had been at her wedding. mrs. meade mounted hercarriage block and craned her neck for a view of the baby, but the doctor, disregarding the mud,plowed through to the side of the carriage. he was tall and gaunt and wore a pointed beard of irongray, and his clothes hung on his spare figure as though blown there by a hurricane. atlantaconsidered him the root of all strength and all wisdom and it was not strange that he had absorbedsomething of their belief. but for all his habit of making oracular statements and his slightlypompous manner, he was as kindly a man as the town possessed.
after shaking her hand and prodding wade in the stomach and complimenting him, the doctorannounced that aunt pittypat had promised on oath that scarlett should be on no other hospital andbandage-rolling committee save mrs. meade’s.
“oh, dear, but i’ve promised a thousand ladies already!” said scarlett.
“mrs. merriwether. i’ll be bound!” cried mrs. meade indignantly. “drat the woman! i believeshe meets every train!”
“i promised because i hadn’t a notion what it was all about,” scarlett confessed. “what arehospital committees anyway?”
both the doctor and his wife looked slightly shocked at her ignorance.
“but, of course, you’ve been buried in the country and couldn’t know,” mrs. meade apologizedfor her. “we have nursing committees for different hospitals and for different days. we nurse themen and help the doctors and make bandages and clothes and when the men are well enough to leave the hospitals we take them into our homes to convalesce till they are able to go back in thearmy. and we look after the wives and families of some of the wounded who are destitute—yes,worse than destitute. dr. meade is at the institute hospital where my committee works, andeveryone says he’s marvelous and—”
“there, there, mrs. meade,” said the doctor fondly. “don’t go bragging on me in front of folks.
it’s little enough i can do, since you wouldn’t let me go in the army.”
“ ‘wouldn’t let!’ ” she cried indignantly. “me? the town wouldn’t let you and you know it.
why, scarlett, when folks heard he was intending to go to virginia as an army surgeon, all theladies signed a petition begging him to stay here. of course, the town couldn’t do without you.”
there, there, mrs. meade,” said the doctor, basking obviously in the praise. “perhaps with oneboy at the front, that’s enough for the time being.”
“and i’m going next year!” cried little phil hopping about excitedly. “as a drummer boy. i’mlearning how to drum now. do you want to hear me? i’ll run get my drum.”
“no, not now,” said mrs. meade, drawing him closer to her, a sudden look of strain coming overher face. “not next year, darling. maybe the year after.”
“but the war will be over then!” he cried petulantly, pulling away from her. “and youpromised!”
over his head the eyes of the parents met and scarlett saw the look. darcy meade was invirginia and they were clinging closer to the little boy that was left.
uncle peter cleared his throat.
“miss pitty were in a state when ah lef’ home an’ ef ah doan git dar soon, she’ll doneswooned.”
“good-by. i’ll be over this afternoon,” called mrs. meade. “and you tell pitty for me that if youaren’t on my committee, she’s going to be in a worse state.”
the carriage slipped and slid down the muddy road and scarlett leaned back on the cushions andsmiled. she felt better now than she had felt in months. atlanta, with its crowds and its hurry andits undercurrent of driving excitement, was very pleasant, very exhilarating, so very much nicerthan the lonely plantation out from charleston, where the bellow of alligators broke the night stillness;better than charleston itself, dreaming in its gardens behind its high walls; better thansavannah with its wide streets lined with palmetto and the muddy river beside it. yes, andtemporarily even better than tara, dear though tara was.
there was something exciting about this town with its narrow muddy streets, lying amongrolling red hills, something raw and crude that appealed to the rawness and crudeness underlyingthe fine veneer that ellen and mammy had given her. she suddenly felt that this was where shebelonged, not in serene and quiet old cities, flat beside yellow waters.
the houses were farther and farther apart now, and leaning out scarlett saw the red brick andslate roof of miss pittypat’s house. it was almost the last house on the north side of town. beyondit, peachtree road narrowed and twisted under great trees out of sight into thick quiet woods. theneat wooden-paneled fence had been newly painted white and the front yard it enclosed was yellow starred with the last jonquils of the season. on the front steps stood two women in blackand behind them a large yellow woman with her hands under her apron and her white teethshowing in a wide smile. plump miss pittypat was teetering excitedly on tiny feet, one handpressed to her copious bosom to still her fluttering heart. scarlett saw melanie standing by her and,with a surge of dislike, she realized that the fly in the ointment of atlanta would be this slight littleperson in black mourning dress, her riotous dark curls subdued to matronly smoothness and aloving smile of welcome and happiness on her heart-shaped face.
when a southerner took the trouble to pack a trunk and travel twenty miles for a visit, the visitseldom of shorter duration than month, usually much longer. southerners as enth(was) usiastic visitors as theywere hosts, and (a) there wasnothing unusual in relatives coming to sp(were) endthe christmas holidays and remaining until july. often when newly married couples went on theusual round of honeymoon visits, they lingered in some pleasant home until the birth of theirsecond child. frequently elderly aunts and uncles came to sunday dinner and remained until theywere buried years later. visitors presented no problem, for houses were large, servants numerousand the feeding of several extra mouths a minor matter in that land of plenty. all ages and sexeswent visiting, honeymooners, young mothers showing off new babies, convalescents, the bereaved,girls whose parents were anxious to remove them from the dangers of unwise matches, girls whohad reached the danger age without becoming engaged and who, it was hoped, would makesuitable matches under the guidance of relatives in other places. visitors added excitement andvariety to the slow-moving southern life and they were always welcome.
so scarlett had come to atlanta with no idea as to how long she would remain. if her visitproved as dull as those in savannah and charleston, she would return home in a month. if her staywas pleasant, she would remain indefinitely. but no sooner had she arrived than aunt pitty andmelanie began a campaign to induce her to make her home permanently with them. they broughtup every possible argument. they wanted her for her own self because they loved her. they werelonely and often frightened at night in the big house, and she was so brave she gave them courage.
she was so charming that she cheered them in their sorrow. now that charles was dead, her placeand her son’s place were with his kindred. besides, half the house now belonged to her, throughcharles’ will. last, the confederacy needed every pair of hands for sewing, knitting, bandagerolling and nursing the wounded.
charles’ uncle henry hamilton, who lived in bachelor state at the atlanta hotel near the depot,also talked seriously to her on this subject. uncle henry was a short, pot-bellied, irascible oldgentleman with a pink face, a shock of long silver hair and an utter lack of patience with femininetimidities and vaporings. it was for the latter reason that he was barely on speaking terms with hissister, miss pittypat from childhood, they had been exact opposites in temperament and they hadbeen further estranged by his objections to the manner in which she had reared charles—”makinga damn sissy out of a soldier’s son!” years before, he had so insulted her that now miss pitty neverspoke of him except in guarded whispers and with so great reticence that a stranger would havethought the honest old lawyer a murderer, at the least. the insult had occurred on a day when pittywished to draw five hundred dollars from her estate, of which he was trustee, to invest in a nonexistentgold mine. he had refused to permit it and stated heatedly that she had no more sense than a june bug and furthermore it gave him the fidgets to be around her longer than five minutes. sincethat day, she only saw him formally, once a month, when uncle peter drove her to his office to getthe housekeeping money. after these brief visits, pitty always took to her bed for the rest of theday with tears and smelling salts. melanie and charles, who were on excellent terms with theiruncle, had frequently offered to relieve her of this ordeal, but pitty always set her babyish mouthfirmly and refused. henry was her cross and she must bear him. from this, charles and melaniecould only infer that she took a profound pleasure in this occasional excitement, the only excitementin her sheltered life.
uncle henry liked scarlett immediately because, he said, he could see that for all her sillyaffectations she had a few grains of sense. he was trustee, not only of pitty’s and melanie’s estates,but also of that left scarlett by charles. it came to scarlett as a pleasant surprise that she was now awell-to-do young woman, for charles had not only left her half of aunt pitty’s house but farmlands and town property as well. and the stores and warehouses along the railroad track near thedepot, which were part of her inheritance, had tripled in value since the war began. it was whenuncle henry was giving her an account of her property that he broached the matter of her permanentresidence in atlanta.
“when wade hampton comes of age, he’s going to be a rich young man,” he said. “the wayatlanta is growing his property will be ten times more valuable in twenty years, and it’s only rightthat the boy should be raised where his property is, so he can learn to take care of it—yes, and ofpitty’s and melanie’s, too. he’ll be the only man of the hamilton name left before long, for i won’tbe here forever.”
as for uncle peter, he took it for granted that scarlett had come to stay. it was inconceivable tohim that charles’ only son should be reared where he could not supervise the rearing. to all thesearguments, scarlett smiled but said nothing, unwilling to commit herself before learning how shewould like atlanta and constant association with her in-laws. she knew, too, that gerald and ellenwould have to be won over. moreover, now that she was away from tara, she missed it dreadfully,missed the red fields and the springing green cotton and the sweet twilight silences. for the firsttime, she realized dimly what gerald had meant when he said that the love of the land was in herblood.
so she gracefully evaded, for the time being, a definite answer as to the duration of her visit andslipped easily into the life of the red-brick house at the quiet end of peachtree street.
living with charles’ blood kin, seeing the home from which he came, scarlett could nowunderstand a little better the boy who had made her wife, widow and mother in such rapidsuccession. it was easy to see why he had been so shy, so unsophisticated, so idealistic. if charleshad inherited any of the qualities of the stern, fearless, hot-tempered soldier who had been hisfather, they had been obliterated in childhood by the ladylike atmosphere in which he had beenreared. he had been devoted to the childlike pitty and closer than brothers usually are to melanie,and two more sweet, unworldly women could not be found.
aunt pittypat had been christened sarah lane hamilton sixty years before, but since the long-past day when her doting father had fastened his nickname upon her, because of her airy, restless,pattering little feet, no one had called her anything else. in the years that followed that second christening, many changes had taken place in her that made the pet name incongruous. of theswiftly scampering child, all that now remained were two tiny feet, inadequate to her weight, and atendency to prattle happily and aimlessly. she was stout, pink cheeked and silver haired andalways a little breathless from too tightly laced stays. she was unable to walk more than a block onthe tiny feet which she crammed into too small slippers. she had a heart which fluttered at anyexcitement and she pampered it shamelessly, faulting at any provocation. everyone knew that herswoons were generally mere ladylike pretenses but they loved her enough to refrain from sayingso. everyone loved her, spoiled her like a child and refused to take her seriously—everyone excepther brother henry.
she liked gossip better than anything else in the world, even more than she liked the pleasures ofthe table, and she prattled on for hours about other people’s affairs in a harmless kindly way. shehad no memory for names, dates or places and frequently confused the actors in one atlanta dramawith the actors in another, which misled no one for no one was foolish enough to take seriouslyanything she said. no one ever told her anything really shocking or scandalous, for her spinsterstate must be protected even if she was sixty years old, and her friends were in a kindly conspiracyto keep her a sheltered and petted old child.
melanie was like her aunt in many ways. she had her shyness, her sudden blushes, her modesty,but she did have common sense—”of a sort, i’ll admit that,” scarlett thought grudgingly. likeaunt pitty, melanie had the face of a sheltered child who had never known anything but simplicityand kindness, truth and love, a child who had never looked upon harshness or evil and would notrecognize them if she saw them. because she had always been happy, she wanted everyone abouther to be happy or, at least, pleased with themselves. to this end, she always saw the best ineveryone and remarked kindly upon it. there was no servant so stupid that she did not find someredeeming trait of loyalty and kind-heartedness, no girl so ugly and disagreeable that she could notdiscover grace of form or nobility of character in her, and no man so worthless or so boring thatshe did not view him in the light of his possibilities rather than his actualities.
because of these qualities that sincerely and spontaneously from a generous heart, everyoneflockedabouther,forwhocanre(came) sist the charm of one who discovers in others admirablequalities undreamed of even by himself? she had more girl friends than anyone in town and moremen friends too, though she had few beaux for she lacked the willfulness and selfishness that gofar toward trapping men’s hearts.
what melanie did was no more than all southern girls were taught to do—to make those aboutthem feel at ease and pleased with themselves. it was this happy feminine conspiracy which madesouthern society so pleasant. women knew that a land where men were contented, uncontradictedand safe in possession of unpunctured vanity was likely to be a very pleasant place for women tolive. so, from the cradle to the grave, women strove to make men pleased with themselves, and thesatisfied men repaid lavishly with gallantry and adoration. in fact, men willingly gave the ladieseverything in the world except credit for having intelligence. scarlett exercised the same charms asmelanie but with a studied artistry and consummate skill. the difference between the two girls layin the fact that melanie spoke kind and flattering words from a desire to make people happy, ifonly temporarily, and scarlett never did it except to further her own aims.
from the two he loved best, charles had received no toughening influences, learned nothing of harshness or reality, and the home in which he grew to manhood was as soft as a bird’s nest. it wassuch a quiet, old-fashioned, gentle home compared with tara. to scarlett, this house cried out forthe masculine smells of brandy, tobacco and macassar oil, for hoarse voices and occasional curses,for guns, for whiskers, for saddles and bridles and for hounds underfoot. she missed the sounds ofquarreling voices that always heard at tara when ellen’s back was turned, mammyquarrelingwithpork,rosaa(were) nd teena bickering, her own acrimonious arguments with suellen,gerald’s bawling threats. no wonder charles had been a sissy, coming from a home like this. here,excitement never entered in, voices were never raised, everyone deferred gently to the opinions ofothers, and, in the end, the black grizzled autocrat in the kitchen had his way. scarlett, who hadhoped for a freer rein when she escaped mammy’s supervision, discovered to her sorrow thatuncle peter’s standards of ladylike conduct, especially for mist’ charles’ widow, were even stricterthan mammy’s.
in such a household, scarlett came back to herself, and almost before she realized it her spiritsrose to normal. she was only seventeen, she had superb health and energy, and charles’ people didtheir best to make her happy. if they fell a little short of this, it was not their fault, for no one couldtake out of her heart the ache that throbbed whenever ashley’s name was mentioned. and melaniementioned it so often! but melanie and pitty were tireless in planning ways to soothe the sorrowunder which they thought she labored. they put their own grief into the background in order todivert her. they fussed about her food and her hours for taking afternoon naps and for takingcarriage rides. they not only admired her extravagantly, her high-spiritedness, her figure, her tinyhands and feet, her white skin, but they said so frequently, petting, hugging and kissing her toemphasize their loving words.
scarlett did not care for the caresses, but she basked in the compliments. no one at tara hadever said so many charming things about her. in fact, mammy had spent her time deflating herconceit. little wade was no longer an annoyance, for the family, black and white, and the neighborsidolized him and there was a never-ceasing rivalry as to whose lap he should occupy. melanieespecially doted on him. even in his worst screaming spells, melanie thought him adorable andsaid so, adding, “oh, you precious darling! i just wish you were mine!”
sometimes scarlett found it hard to dissemble her feelings, for she still thought aunt pitty thesilliest of old ladies and her vagueness and vaporings irritated her unendurably. she dislikedmelanie with a jealous dislike that grew as the days went by, and sometimes she had to leave theroom abruptly when melanie, beaming with loving pride, spoke of ashley or read his letters aloud.
but, all in all, life went on as happily as was possible under the circumstances. atlanta was moreinteresting than savannah charleston tara and it offered so many strange war-time occupationsshehadlittletime(or) tothinkormo(or) pe. but, sometimes, when she blew out the candleand burrowed her head into the pillow, she sighed and thought: “if only ashley wasn’t married! ifonly i didn’t have to nurse in that plagued hospital! oh, if only i could have some beaux!”
she had immediately loathed nursing but she could not escape this duty because she was on bothmrs. meade’s and mrs. merriwether’s committees. that meant four mornings a week in thesweltering, stinking hospital with her hair tied up in a towel and a hot apron covering her fromneck to feet. every matron, old or young, in atlanta nursed and did it with an enthusiasm thatseemed to scarlett little short of fanatic. they took it for granted that she was imbued with their own patriotic fervor and would have been shocked to know how slight an interest in the war shehad. except for the ever-present torment that ashley might be killed, the war interested her not atall, and nursing was something she did simply because she didn’t know how to get out of it.
certainly there was nothing romantic about nursing. to her, it meant groans, delirium, death andsmells. the hospitals were filled with dirty, bewhiskered, verminous men who smelled terribly andbore on their bodies wounds hideous enough to turn a christian’s stomach. the hospitals stank ofgangrene, the odor assaulting her nostrils long before the doors were reached, a sickish sweet smellthat clung to her hands and hair and haunted her in her dreams. flies, mosquitoes and gnatshovered in droning, singing swarms over the wards, tormenting the men to curses and weak sobs;and scarlett, scratching her own mosquito bites, swung palmetto fans until her shoulders ached andshe wished that all the men were dead.
melanie, however, did not seem to mind the smells, the wounds or the nakedness, which scarlettthought strange in one who was the most timorous and modest of women. sometimes whenholding basins and instruments while dr. meade cut out gangrened flesh, melanie looked verywhite. and once, after such an operation, scarlett found her in the linen closet vomiting quietlyinto a towel. but as long as she was where the wounded could see her, she was gentle, sympatheticand cheerful, and the men in the hospitals called her an angel of mercy. scarlett would have likedthat title too, but it involved touching men crawling with lice, running fingers down throats ofunconscious patients to see if they were choking on swallowed tobacco quids, bandaging stumpsand picking maggots out of festering flesh. no, she did not like nursing!
perhaps it might have been endurable if she had been permitted to use her charms on theconvalescent men, for many of them were attractive and well born, but this she could not do in herwidowed state. the young ladies of the town, who were not permitted to nurse for fear they wouldsee sights unfit for virgin eyes, had the convalescent wards in their charge. unhampered bymatrimony or widowhood, they made vast inroads on the convalescents, and even the leastattractive girls, scarlett observed gloomily, had no difficulty in getting engaged.
with the exception of desperately ill and severely wounded men, scarlett’s was a completelyfeminized world and this irked her, for she neither liked nor trusted her own sex and, worse still,was always bored by it. but on three afternoons a week she had to attend sewing circles andbandage-rolling committees of melanie’s friends. the girls who had all known charles were verykind and attentive to her at these gatherings, especially fanny elsing and maybelle merriwether,the daughters of the town dowagers. but they treated her deferentially, as if she were old andfinished, and their constant chatter of dances and beaux made her both envious of their pleasuresand resentful that her widowhood barred her from such activities. why, she was three times asattractive as fanny and maybelle! oh, how unfair life was! how unfair that everyone should thinkher heart was in the grave when it wasn’t at all! it was in virginia with ashley!
but in spite of these discomforts, atlanta pleased her very well. and her visit lengthened as theweeks slipped by.
1862年五月的一个早晨，火车载着思嘉北上了，她想亚特兰大不可能像查尔斯顿和萨凡纳那样讨厌的，而且，尽管她对皮蒂帕特小姐和媚兰很不喜欢，她还是怀着好奇心想看看，从前年冬天战争爆发前她最后一次拜访这里以来，这个城市究竟变得怎样了。
亚特兰大历来比别的城市更使她感兴趣，因为她小时候就听父亲说过她和亚特兰大恰巧是同年诞生的。后来她长大了一些，才发现父亲原来把事实稍稍夸大了些，因为她习惯地认为一定夸张只能使故事变得更趣味，不过亚特兰大的确只比她年长九岁，它至今她听说过的任何别的城市比起来仍显得惊人地年轻，萨凡纳和查斯顿有着一种老成的庄严风貌，一个已经一百好几十年，另一个正在跨入它的第三个世纪，这从思嘉年轻人的眼里看来已俨然是坐在阳光下安详地挥着扇子的老祖母了。可亚特兰大是她的同辈，带有青年时代的莽撞味，并且像她自己那样倔强而浮躁。
杰拉尔德讲给她听的那个故事也有确实依据，那就是她和亚特兰大是在同一年命名的，在思嘉出世之前九年里，这个城市先是叫做特尔纳斯。后来又叫马撒斯维尔，直到思嘉诞生那年才成为亚特兰大。
杰拉尔德起初迁到北佐治亚来时，亚特兰大根本还不存在，连个村子的影儿也没有，只是一大片荒原。不过到第二年，即1863年，州政府授权修筑一条穿过柴罗基部族新近割让的土地向北的铁路。这条铁路以田纳西和大西部为终点，这是明确的，但是它的起点在佐治亚则尚未确定，直到一年以后一位工程师在那块红土地里打了一根桩子作为这条铁路线的南端起点，这才确定下来，同时亚特兰大也就从特尔米纳斯正式诞生，开始成长起来。
在北佐治亚那时还没有铁路，别的地方也很少。不过在杰拉尔德与家伦结婚之前的那些年里，在塔拉以北的25英里处的那个小小的居民点便慢慢发展成一个村子。铁轨也在慢慢向北延伸。于是建设铁路的时代真正开始了。从奥古斯塔旧城，第二条铁路横贯本州往西，与通向田纳西的新铁路相连接。从萨凡纳旧城，第三条铁路首先通到佐治亚心脏地带的梅肯，然后向北推进，经过杰拉尔德所在的地区到达亚特兰大，与其他两条铁路衔接起来，给萨凡纳提供了一条通往西部的大道。从年轻的亚特兰大这同一个交叉点开始，又修了第四条铁路，它是朝西南方向往蒙哥马利和莫比尔去的。
亚特兰大由一条铁路诞生，也和它的铁路同时成长。到那四条干线完成以后，亚特兰大和西部、南部和滨海地区连接起来，并且通过奥古斯塔也同北部和东部连上了。它已经成为东西南北交通的要冲，那个小小的村子已经蓬蓬勃勃地发展起来。
在一段比思嘉17岁的年龄长不了多少的岁月里，亚特兰大从一根打进地里的桩子成长为一个拥有上万人口的繁荣小城，成为全州瞩目的中心。那些老一点、安静一点的城市，总是用孵出了一窝小鸭子的母鸡的感觉来看一个闹哄哄的新城市。为什么这个地方跟旁的佐治亚市镇那么不一样呢？为什么它成长得这么快呢？总之，它们认为它没有什么好吹嘘的----只不过有那些铁路和一批闯劲十足的人罢了。
在这个先后叫做特米尔纳斯、马撒斯维尔和亚特兰大的市镇落户的人，都是很有闯劲的。这些好动而强有力的居民来自佐治恶州老区和一些更远的州县，他们被吸引到这个以铁路交叉点为中心向周围扩展的市镇上来，他们满怀热情而来，在车站附近那五条泥泞红土路交叉处的周围开起一店铺，他们在大白厅街和华盛顿大街，在地脊上那条由印第安人世世代代用穿鹿皮鞋的脚踩出的名叫桃树街的小径两侧，盖起了漂亮的住宅，他们为这个地方感到骄傲，为它的发展感到骄傲，为促使它发展的人，即他们自己，感到骄傲，至于，那些旧的城镇，让它们高兴怎样称呼亚特兰大就怎样称呼去吧。
亚特兰大是一点也不在乎的。
思嘉一直喜欢亚特兰大，她的理由恰恰就是萨凡纳、奥古斯塔和梅肯诋毁它的那些理由。这个市镇像她自己一样是佐治亚州新旧两种成份混物，其中旧的成份在跟那个执拗而有力的新成份发生冲突时往往退居其次。而且，这里面还有一种对于这个市镇的个人情感上的因素----它是和她同一年诞生，至少是同一年命名的。
头天晚上是整夜的狂风暴雨，但是到思嘉抵达亚特兰大时太阳已经开始露出热情的脸来，准备一定要把那些到处淌着河流般的红泥汤的街道晒干。车站旁边空地上的泥土，由于车辆行人来来往往，不断塌陷搅拌，快要成一个给母猪打滚的大泥塘了，也时常有些车轮陷在车撤中的烂草里动弹不得。军用大车和救护车川流不息，忙着装卸由火车运来的军需品和伤员，有的拼命开进来，有的挣扎着要出去，车夫大声咒骂，骡马跳着叫着，泥浆飞溅到好几丈远，这就使那一片泥泞加一团混乱的局面变得更糟了。
思嘉站在车厢门口下面的那个梯级上，她穿着黑色丧服，绉纱披巾几乎下垂到了脚跟，那纤弱的身材还是相当漂亮的。
她犹豫着不敢走下地来，生怕泥水弄脏了鞋子和衣裙，便向周围那些扰攘拥挤乱成一起的大车、短途运输车和马车匆匆看了一眼，寻找皮蒂帕特小姐，可是那位胖乎乎红脸蛋的太太连个影儿也没有，思嘉感到焦急万分，这时一个瘦瘦的花白胡了的黑人老头，手里拿着帽子，显出一种庄重不凡的气度，踩着泥泞向她走过来。
“这位是思嘉小姐吗？俺叫彼得，皮蒂小姐的马车夫，你别踩在这烂泥地里。"他厉声命令着。因为思嘉正提起裙子准备跳下来。"让俺来驮你吧，你跟皮蒂小姐同一个毛病，像小孩似的不怕弄湿了脚。"他尽管看来年老体弱，却轻松地把思嘉背了起来，这时，瞧见百里茜怀里抱着婴儿站在车厢梯台上，他又停下来说：“那孩子是你带来的小保姆吗，思嘉小姐？她太年轻了，看不好查尔斯先生的独生婴儿呢！不过咱们以后再说吧。你这小女儿，跟俺走吧，可当心别摔着那娃娃。”思嘉乖乖地让他驮着向马车走去。一面不声不响地听他用命令的口吻批评她和百里茜。他们在烂泥地里穿行，百里茜嘟着嘴一脚泥一脚水地跟在后面，这时思嘉回想查尔斯说过的有关彼得大叔的话来。
“他跟着父亲经历了墨西哥的全部战役，父亲受了伤他就当看护----事实上是他救了父亲的命。彼得大叔实际上抚养了我和媚兰，因为父母去世时我们还小呢。大概就是那个时候。皮蒂姑妈同她哥哥享利叔叔发生了一次争吵，所以她就过来同我们住在一起，并关照我们了。皮蒂姑妈是个最没能耐的人----活像个可爱的大孩子，彼得大叔也就是这样对待她。为了明哲保身，她事事都不作主，要由彼得大叔来替她决定。我15岁开始拿较多的零用钱，那就是他决定的；当亨利叔叔主张我拿大学的学位时，也是他坚持要我到哈佛去念四年级的。他还决定媚兰到一定年龄就盘头发并开始参加舞会。他告诉皮蒂姑妈什么时候太冷或下雨时不宜出门，什么时候该戴披巾。……他是我所见过的最能干的黑人老头，也可以说是最忠心耿耿的一位，唯一不幸的是他把我们三个连精神带肉体，都当做他个人所有的了，这一点他自己也是清楚的。"查尔斯的这番话，等到彼得大叔爬上马车驾驶坐位并拿起鞭子时，思嘉便认定是确确实实的了。
“皮蒂小姐因为没有来接你而不大高兴。她怕你见怪，但是俺告诉她，她和媚兰小姐要来，只会溅一身泥水，糟践了新衣裳，而且俺会向你解释的。你最好自己抱那娃娃。思嘉小姐，瞧那黑小鬼快把他给摔了。"思嘉瞧着百里茜叹了口气。百里茜不是个很能干的保姆。
她刚刚从一个穿短裙子、翘着小辫儿、瘦得皮包骨头的黑小鬼，一跃而成为身穿印花布长裙、头戴浆过的白头巾的保姆，正洋洋得意，忘乎所以呢。要不是在战争时期，在供应部门对塔拉的要求下，爱伦不得不让出了嬷嬷或迪尔茜乃至罗莎或丁娜，她是决不会在这么小小年纪就上升到这样高的位置的。百里茜还从没有到过离“十二橡树”村或塔拉一英里以外的地方，因此这次乘火车旅行，加上晋升为保姆，便使他她那小小黑脑瓜里的智力越发吃不住了。从琼斯博罗到亚特兰大这20英里的旅程使她太兴奋了，以致思嘉一路上被迫自己来抱娃娃。此刻，这么多的建筑物和人进一步把她迷惑住了。她扭着头左顾右盼，指东指西，又蹦又跳，把个娃娃颠得嚎啕大哭起来。
思嘉渴望着嬷嬷那双肥大又老练的臂膀。嬷嬷的手只消往孩子身上一搁，孩子马上就不哭了。可如今嬷嬷在塔拉，思嘉已毫无办法。她即使把小韦德从百里茜手里抱过来，也没有用。她抱着同百里茜抱着一样，他还是那么大声嚎哭。此外，他还拉扯她帽子上的饰带，当然也会弄皱她的衣裙。所以她便索性装做没有听见彼得大叔的话了。
“过些时候也许我会摸准小毛头的脾气，"她烦燥地想着，同时马车已颠簸摇晃着驶出了车站周围的烂泥地，"不过，我永远也不会喜欢逗他们玩。"这时韦德已哭叫得脸都发紫了，她这才怒气冲冲地喝斥了一声：“我知道他是饿了，把你的兜里的糖奶头给他，百里茜。无论什么都行，只要叫他别哭就行。可现在我一点办法也没有。"百里茜把早晨嬷嬷给她的那个糖奶头拿出来塞进婴儿嘴里，哭叫声果然停息了。由于耳边恢复了清静，眼前又不断出现新景象，思嘉的情绪开始好转。到彼得大叔终于把马车赶出水坑泥洼驶上了桃树街时，她觉得几个月来头一次有点兴致勃勃地感觉了。这城市竟发展到这个地步啦！距她上次拜访这里才一年多一点，她熟悉的那个小小的亚特兰大怎么会发生这许多变化呢？
过去一年她完全沉溺在自己悲痛中，只要一提到战争就不胜烦恼，因此她不明白从开战的那个时刻起亚特兰大就在变了。那些在和平时期使亚特兰大成为贸易枢纽的铁路，如今在战时已具有重大的战略意义。由于离前线还很远，这个城市和它的几条铁路成了南部联盟两支大军即弗吉尼亚军团和田纳西部军团之间的联系纽带。亚特兰大同样使两支大军与南部内地相沟通，从那里取得给养。如今，适应战争的需要，亚特兰大已成为一个制造业中心，一个医疗基地，以及南方为前线大军征集食品和军需品的主要补给站了。
思嘉环顾四周，想寻找那个她还记得很清楚的小市镇，它不见了。她现在看见的这个城市就像是一个由婴儿一夜之间长大起来并忙于扩展的巨人似的。
像个嗡嗡不休的蜂窝，亚特兰大一片喧嚣，它大概骄傲地意识到自己对南部联盟的重要性，所以在没日没夜地工作，要把一个农业社会加以工业化。战争开始前这里只马里兰以南有很少几家棉纺厂、毛纺厂、军械和机器厂，这种情况还是南方人引以自豪的。南方产生政治家和士兵，农场主和医生，律师和诗人，可是肯定不出工程师和机械师。让北方佬去挑选这些下等职业吧。但是现在南部联盟各州的港口已被北方炮舰封锁，只有少许偷越封锁线的货物从欧洲暗暗流入，于是南方也就拼命制造起自己的战争用品来了。北方可以向全世界要求提供物资和兵源，在它优厚的金钱引诱下，成千上万的爱尔兰人和日耳曼人源源不断地涌入联邦军队。而南方就只好转而依靠自己。
在亚特兰大，只有一些缓慢进行生产的机械厂用来制造军需品----之所以缓慢，是因为南方很少可供模仿的机器，几乎每一个轮子和齿轮是按照从英国偷运口的图样制成的。现在亚特兰大的街道上有不少陌生的面孔。一年以前市民们还会驻足倾听一个西部腔调的声音，可如今连来自欧洲的外国话也无不注意了。这些欧洲人都是越过封锁线来为南部联盟制造机器和生产军火的。他们是些技术熟练的人，如果没有他们，南部联盟就很难制造手枪、来福枪、大炮和弹药了。
工作昼夜不停地进行，你几乎可以感觉到这个城市的心脏在紧张地膊跳，将军用物资输送给血管般的铁路干线，然后运到两个战区的前方去。每天任何时刻列车都吼叫着在这个城市进进出出。新建工厂的烟囱吐出滚滚浓烟，像阵雨似的纷纷落到白房子上。到晚上，直到夜深人静以后许久，工厂里仍是炉火熊熊，铁锤丁当。那些一年前还空无人迹的地段，如今已有了许多工厂在那里制造马具、鞍鞯和平鞋，许多兵工厂在生产枪炮，碾压厂和铸造厂在生产和用来补充战争损失的货车，还有种种的零件厂在制造马刺、缰辔、扣子、帐篷、扭扣、手枪、刀剑、等等。因为越过封锁线运进来的为数极少，铸铁厂已深感缺铁，而亚拉巴马铁矿工都上了前线已几乎停产。亚特兰大的草地上已看不见铁栅栏、铁凉棚、铁门，甚至连铁铸的人像也没有，因为它们早已被送进碾压厂的熔化锅里派上用场了。
在桃树街和附近的街道两旁有各军事部门的总部，它们每间办公室里都挤满了穿军服的人；还有物资供销部、通信队、邮政服务公司、铁路运输机关、宪兵司令部，等等。市郊区有马匹补充站，一群群骡马在宽敞的马棚里转来转去。
根据彼得大叔所说的情形，思嘉
觉得亚特兰大已成为一座伤兵城了，因为那里数不清的普通医院、传染病医院和流行病医院，而且每天下午列车开到五点正时还要卸下大批的伤病员哩。
那个小小的市镇不见了，如今有的是一个迅速扩大的城市，它正以无穷无尽的力量与紧张喧扰的活动不断更新自己的面貌。这种繁忙景象使得刚从农村悠闲生活中出来的思嘉快要喘不过起来了，可是她喜欢这样。这地方有一种振奋的气氛令她鼓舞，仿佛她真正感受到城市的心脏在同她自己的心脏一起合拍地跳动