soreness out of me.' " " Something to love here, is there not?
And if the man liked laughter, he liked sunshine and quiet also, country air, and trees, and flowers. He him- self said that "in a very busy and tempestuous life a spacious garden with orchards and vineyards, was to him an unfailing source of recreation and pleasure." so He was a practical farmer, too, himself superintended vast plantations and had an army of slaves under his charge. Stephens, an unimpeachable witness, tells us that " his plantation discipline and his treatment of his slaves was on a perfect system of reason, justice, and humanity, looking as much to the welfare of his dependents as to his own pecuniary interests," and that his system and its success were wonderful. He would have as overseers only men of sobriety, good sense, and humanity.^i
In the personal relations of life, also, Toombs seems to have been full of charm. One vice he had, the taste for alcohol, which in later years overcame him disastrously. But even this, throughout his active life, he could and did control, when necessary, just as he dropped smoking, when he thought it injurious. " I found that smoking was ruining my throat and I quit it." 32 in any case ex- cessive drinking was but a feature of his strong social instinct and his love for the warm contact of his fel- lowmen. A true Southerner, he w^as ready to entertain everybody, and protested against the establishment of a hotel in his home town. " If a respectable man comes
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