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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.