Newspaper Page Text
teln Counts IJetos.
£ H, GBOUBY,
Editor, Proprietor & Publisher.
BLAK'T/LY:
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 17, 1864.
A jug of honey has been left at this of
fice tor —well, we don’t intend to tell who,
vet awhile ! But if -somebody will only
brio-' us iu a jug of “good old Peach,”
we’ll warrant the chap who expects to get
auy honey from this office will be badly
fooled! Just try us!
‘ :
Wc are indebted to our friend, 11. D.
Lanier, Esq., of the Cth District, for aline
Pig—the largest and finest one to its age
we have ever seen. - Mr. Lanier has our
thanks tor- this tine “squealer,” as well as
for many other favors shown us. If the
world was filled with such men as Lanier,
there wouldn’t be half so much growling,
' fighting and thieving in the) country as
there is now. lie is one of our very best
citizens Wc do not say this because ho
has made us a valuable present, but from
the fact that he is really deserving it.
—~ ♦
We are indebted to many lady friends
for several lots of rags “ without money
and without price.” The ladies have al
ways favored us iu every way possible, and
wc arc glad to chronicle the fact. 11. shows
that they appreciate our poor efforts to ex
pose and correct the meanness of some of
the men who have lately lost their souls,
principle , a nil every good trait they ever had,
in order to make money. Thanks to the
ladies for the many favors shown us, nud
may they never want for anything, and
their lives he as pleasant and sweet as a
flower iu spring time!
♦'—*►- 4-
Gen. Duff C. Green has left with the
Eutaw (Ala.) Whig a sample of thread
spun from flakes of cotton without the us
ual process of carding. The Whig says
the specimen is equal to any coarse thread
made from the carded roll, and for making
coarse cloth will answer the samewpurpose.
If once tried by our farmers, we think they
w ill be induced to abandon cards entirely
iu the manufacture of negro clothing. The
following is the modus operaudi for prepar
ingdlie cotton : “ Gin the cotton slowly, so
as to throw large flakes through the flue,
which arc caught in a hamper basket plac
ed uuder the flue, and take to the spinning
wheel, without pressing the cotton.*
The “ gals ” and “ boys ” around this
“ burg ” have been having a fine time of
it sending sweet “ Valentines ” to one
another for the past few days. The Editor
himself has received several. Wc are glad
to know that some of the “sweets of cre
ation ” have not forgotten us in our old
age. We kuow very well who sent us the
card with the inscription of “ You have
found your match,” with a genuine match
stuck iu one corner of the card ! We do
not know whether or not the match sent
is really “our” property, but we do know
that wc had a great deal rather have the
sugar-pink who sent it for “ our match,”
and risk the consequences, than the one
sent us! But that’s “ out of the question.”
Mighty sorry, but can’t help it!
Wc learn that botlw Houses of Congress
have passed a hill to employ free negroes as
teamsters, &c., in the army, in lieu of able
bodied white men. This bill takes all able
bodied tree colored men from 18 to 50,
who arc to draw rations and 811 per month.
Such as may he needed at home, by the
interest of the public, can be excused by
the Secretary of War. The bill also cou
scribes 110,060 slaves for army service, to
receive the same pay —hut any slave thus
employed who escapes to the enemy, or
who sickens and dies, or gets killed or dis
abled, is to have his value paid to his mas
ter by the Government. To this we arc
opposed, for tlio reason that we caD see no
justice iu paying for the loss of a nigger,
ot- allowing damages for his disabled car
cass, and withholding pay for the loss of a
poor white man. Are negroes better than
poor white men ? Where is the justice iu
taxiug a poor white owns no
negroes, and never expects to, to pay for a
refugee uegro ?
We think that notorious bridge will soon
bo repaired!
We kuotf of none of our women who
are whipped at heart by the Yankees, hut *
there are plenty of men throughout the
land who are utterly subjugated, and who
scarce bear the semblance, much less the
spirit of freemeu. They whine like cats
with their caudal extremities mashed; buzz
like bees driven from their hives and hon
ey, and strive to possess every one else with
the same unmanly fears that they possess.
They are men who have never been in ser
vice, and who never intend to be if they
can help it. Men who stay at home and
find fatilt with every body and everything,
denounce the administration of the Gov
ernment, refuse its currency, and do all in
their power to weaken and break it down.
They are men who have lost nothing by
the war ; on the other hand, have made it
the means of enriching themselves, and
now tremble for fear they will, if the war
continues, be forced to part with some of
their ill-gotten gains. At the bottom of all
their cowardly fears is the secret apprehen
sion and belief that our enemies will yet
subjugate us, and strip them—they don’t
care a curse about others —of their negroes,
and they are very desirous to lay a good
predicate beforehand, for an alliance, offen
sive and defensive, with the trifling Yan
kees. ffhey would, to-day, if they could
receive a guarantee of the quiet possession
and enjoyment of their property, vote to
close the war on any terms our enemies
might dictate. The love of their property,
and the apprehension of losing some of it,
are the reasons they have no faith in our
final ultimate triumph, and can see noth
ing ahead but calamities, and subjugation
in the end. Such craven-hearted, pusillan
imous creatures ought to be made hewers
of wood and drawers of water; boot blacks
and menials to their superiors, the ever-to
be-hated Yankee race. They arc unfit for
liberty, and have no right to be called free
men. Because, forsooth, they prefer to
have Yaukce rulers, Yankee task-masters
and Yankee associates —associates only fit
for such persons—rather than run the risk
of losing a little property, they desire to
sell out themselves, and try to persuade
others that it is the policy. Such men had
better secure a hiding place about the skirts
of their wives’ dresses as soon as possible.
There can be no doubt that the ap
proaching spring campaigu is to be one of
the most desperate and important which
have yet signalized this blopdy wav. Both
sides seem to recognize this fact, and are
mustering all their forces for the dreadful
conflict. The early movements of the ene
my in Mississippi and Virginia are proba
bly projected moro with a view to making
diversions from the real points, and to pre
vent the concentration of our troops now
vapidly re-enlisting, than for any great cam
paign. Looking at the results of their
draft for three hundred thousand men, with
the meagre yield, according to official esti
mates, of from fifty to seventy-five thou
sand men, it is not at all likely that they
expect to do more than annoy and divide
our armies, before April or May. The
more we look at the condition of our af
fairs, the more firmly we are convinced that,
with proper wisdom, vigilance and energy,
wc have nothing to fear from the spring
campaign. Whether we take a retrospec
tive view, and see that our arms have tri
umphed two out of three years, and only
lost the third year because of the over
weening self-confidence of our leaders, or
take a prospective view of the difficulties
which must besot the path of the enemy
in his marches hundreds of miles to the
interior of the country, the discomfiture of
our malignant pursuers appears to us equal
ly certain. The necessity of our situation
requires that compact, solid bodies of our
forces be drawn together on short lines as
speedily as possible at the vital and corns
manding points, so as to strike the long
lines of the invader where he least expects
it. If we wait until he confronts our po
sition with his superior numbers and appli
ances, then, indeed, the issue might be
doubtful. But before a people united and
determined, in support of an army invin
cible in spirit and discipline, led by men
in whom the people and the army havo
confidence, the enemy must be more inglo
riously driven back than in any previous
campaigns of the war.
4
The Tan Yard of J. Si. Stewart, near
this place, was burned down last night.
Supposed to be the work of ioecDdiary.
The House has passed a bill declaring
that the act to put an end to substitution
shall not apply to any farmer or planter
who was engaged on the sth inst. in the
production of grain, provisions or family
supplies. The vote stood yeas 54, nays 31.
Congress ought to have fixed this matter
up a month ago.’ The farmers ought to be
now preparing their lands for seeds, but in
stcad # of this very many of them are doing
nothing, and lfave been idle for some time,
under the impression that they are to be
put into the army, and that it is useless to
make any preparation for a crop. Soon it
will be too late. Are there any farmers in
Congress ? We meau men who have plow
ed, hoed corn, &c., and who are aware of
the importance of fixing up farms before
the seeds are given to the soil. Thereaije
Congressmen, no doubt, who own farms,
but who wear kid gloves, cork-heel boots,
and never did a day’s work in their lives—-
but these men know very little about farm
ing. Farmers whose services areindispen
sible to the making of a crop, and who
have substitutes, should be left at home,
and be required to sell their surplus pro
ducts at Government price, and Govern
ment should fix farmers’prices on all essen
tials of life, and he who sells for more ought
to be made to pay every cent of the over
plus into the County Treasury, for the ben
efit of the poor. Tanners, shoemakers,
blacksmiths and cotton factory men should
also have fixed prices, and he who sells for
more ought to be made to pay over the sur
plus, as above, and trot into the army.
+ »
Congress, from some inexplicable cause,
has a mighty “ itching” towards silencing
the newspaper press of the Southern Con
federacy. Indeed, the chief study of some
of the members seems to be how to demol
ish the printing press. What can be the
object? Are they afraid of the press?
Are their deeds so evil that they prefer
darkness rather than light ? Do they fear
public exposure ? We tell them that but
for the press they would long since have
danced to the crack of the Yankee whip,
and the Southern Confederacy would have
been numbered with the things that were
but are not. There is no estimating the
value of the printing press in this strug
gle. Ignoramuses may be blind to the in
fluence and value of the press, but wise
men see and acknowledge it. A free press
has always been a terror to fools, and
a thorn in the side of tyrants, despots aud
corrupt demagogues. When tyrants seek
to make slaves of freemen, or demagogues
aim at deeds of corruption and villainy,
the first idea is to demolish the press, or
strangle its voice. The people have more
to fear from the “secret sessions” of Con
gress —from the selfishness, vanity, dema
goguery and corruption of its members than
they have f.om all the evils growing out of
the press. The press watches with Argus
eyes the acts of these “ rulers,” and reports
their conduct to the people. The wicked
and corrupt dislike to be watched—honest
and good men invite the world to keep an
eye on them.
Is it true that there is a man in this
country that is so mean and penurious that,
| before weighing his meat, he first cuts off
the head and out the backbones of his
hogs, so that thereby he swindles the gov
ernment out of a good part of the “ tenth ?”
We hear it reported that there is a man,
not more than a thousand miles from this
place, who is guilty of this thing! We
have heard of a great many little things
I since the war commenced, but we have no
i hesitancy in saying this is the littlcst and
meanest of them all. We would like to
know the man. Hope wc will fiud him
out. Ho should be sent to Atlanta or
! llell!
The Richmond Sentinel states that a gen
tleman from abroad is now boarding at one
of the best hotels in that city, and enjoy
ing its handsome accommodations, who pays
his bills in specie at sixty cents per day !
From which the Sentinel argues, and cor
rectly, that the difference between gold and
treasury notes is not altogether a deprecia
tion of the latter, but in great part an ap
preciation of the former. Gold is no lon
ger a correct standard of value. It is
wanted for blockade running. So much of
it has been carried off in that way that it
has become scarce, and sixty cents of it
will buy the equivalent of five doliais at
the old value.
Piney Woods, Ga, Jan. 6, 18G4.
Friend Grouby: There was a nice
young Druggist, 1G years old, who received
a beautiful beauquet from a young lady of
a College near the “ Y ” of the S. W. R
11., and the Professor intercepted and read
the note sent with the same, and sent it
hack to Johnnie S , the young Drug-*
gist. A few evenings afterwards the young
Druggist was called on by the Professor to
notify him not to write to his “ gals ” any
more. Johnnie told him he only wrote her
a note of many thanks. Johnnie has just
returned from “way down to Charleston,”
on a Seed Pepper hunt. I think it ought
to be noticed. Johnnie is engaged to be
married soon. Give Johnnie a “ puff” iu
your paper. Yours,
Piney Woods Observer.
As will be seen by the date of the above
communication, it was written to us from
the “ Piney Woods.” It was received by
us last week. We know the sweet, “ par
ty” little 16 years old “Johnnie,” and
have frequently had our attention called to
his many “ down to Charlestons ” before.
“ Johnnie ” is a beautiful boy—we will
give our readers a description of hisn : He
is about 20 years of age, (though, being
afraid of Yankees, he says he’s only 16,)
rather light complexion, about 5 feet 6
inches in height, a nose about 6 inches
long, fingers about 10 do., is raw-bony, and
when spoken to replies quickly, and in a
general fool way. Now, reader, how do
you like him ? Ain’t he a beautiful young
man ? No wonder he and the “ gals ” are
so thick ! This chap knows about as much
about putting up drugs as a blind man,
though, to hear him tell it, one would think
he was a tip-top Druggist. lie shouldn’t
prepare medicine for a sick hog for us !
Wc believe this is the same chap who once
visited Charleston with sixty bushels of
ground peas to “ barter ” for a stock of
drugs ! lie thinks he is the biggest maa
in his neighborhood, and the “ gals” ad
mit it, for they say they have never seen a
bigger fool l In our description of this
chap we forgot to say that he wears a No.
10 boot, which indicates that he has a good
“ understanding,” though he has not the
sense of a fool! He is a “nice young
man” generally, (!) but we pity the “gal”
that gets herself spliced to this young Dis
gust !
The enemy are making preparations to
commence hostilities at the earliest day
possible. It is to their interest to do this.
Many regiments, brigades and even corps
of their forces will go out of service dur
ing the next three months, and they have
no such material to fill their places; and
it is plain that they will get all the service
out of them they can before they are dis
charged. They furthermore know that
it will be impossible for us to get a large
per cent, of our new levies in the field at
an early day. We want time more than
they do, and they know that very well.
> -«» »
Adj’t. Gen. Cooper has found it necessa
ry to publish a general order forbidding
the impressment of supplies of provisions
in transitu to arsernals, armories and ord
nance depots, under the order of the com
manding officer of the same. It appears
that the mania of impressment has gone to
such an extent that even the Government
has to protect itself agamst the violence of
its own officers.
Wo cail attention to the advertisement
of Col. Stafford.