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94
THE COUNTRYMAN.
TURNWOLD, GA., DECEMBER 15, 1862.
Woollen Jeans.
The only means to make money which
many a poor woman has had, during this
war, has been her spinning-wheel and
loom. Many cf our country women have
been able to make money to meet expenses,
by weaving jeans, and other kinds of cloth,
and selling the jeans at from $3 to $5 per
yard. Now the Georgia legislature comes
in, and sets a price of $2 a yard upon that
jeans, and says, virtunll), that the govern
ment agent may rob her of her goods.
The truth is, it costs the woman over $2
a yard to make her jeans. She pays, in
the first place, $3 or $4 a pound for wool.
The wool itself, to make a yard of jeans,
costs $1.50 to $2. Then the poor woman
must 'pay for her warp $5 to $7 a bunch,
Then she has to spin the wool, and weave
her cloth : and about the time she gets it
woven, here comes along some insolent
petty corporal—a tyrannical government
official—and takes the bread and meat out
of her children’s mouths, by paying her $2
a yard for jeans that cost her nearly double
that, to make it. But what care Georgia
legislators for that, so they make a little
temporary political capital by “ bringing
down prices V’
But we are told that the law ie not spe
cially intended for the jeans of the poor
woman : it is only intended for speculators
and extortioners, though it docs take the
jeans of the poor woman ; and if it happens
io bear hard in her case, it can’t be helped.
But I answer that all the laws that are
passed to regulate prices, will never reach
speculators and extortioners. They know
how to keep out of the way, and had just
as soon swear one thing as another, when it
comes to swearing about what their articles
cost them : but the honest producer will
swear to nothing but the truth, and he will
be the greater sufferer.
The law to fix prices remind^ me of a
biting dog. That dog is sure to bite the
wrong person. The- thief' knows how to
keep out of his way : but the honest man,
thinking nothing about dogs, comes along,
and is bitten. And just so with this law
fixing prices. It is a dog that will bite the
innocent, and will never be able to catch
the thief, upon whom he is set.
But it doesn’t matter if this law does
bear hard upon the poor women with their
jeans. It is aimed at the speculators and
extortioners, and they must be brought
down, even if innocent men and women are
brought down with them.—This reminds
me of the course a British officer ft said to
have pursued in a certain battle. The
British were being driven back at a certain
point, and the officer ordered his artillery
to bear upon that point. The reply was,
“ If we do, sir, we will mow down our own
men.” “ It matters not,” was the response
of the fiend : “The battle must be won,
even if our own men are sliot down.” A
man once wished to destroy the rats in his
barn, and in order to do so, burnt down bis
barn. In the opening of this war, when
large crowds collected in some of the
Southern cities around the yankee soldiers,
thej fired promiscuously in the crowds,
killing women and children, in order to de
stroy a few unruly men. We have a par
allel to all these cases, in the conduct of the
Georgia legislators.
They wish to destroy the speculators
and extortioners, and they shoot away, but
the speculators dodge their fire, and the in
nocent women and children suffer. They
burn tbe barn, and destroy the building in
this way, but the rats make good their es
cape.—Such is the folly of Georgia leg--
islators in robbing the poor woman of her
jeans, in order to hurt the speculator and
extortioner.
“ I told you So.
In his 2d speech on Conscription, Judge
Stephens takes occasion to remind the coun
try that he predicted or feared the present
war, ar.d therefore opposed secession. Sen
ator Johnson has a clause, in his speech, to
the same effect.
If these gentlemen simply intended to
justify their opposition to secession, this is
well enough. No one can object to that-
The country gives them credit for honest
opinions on the. great issue which divided
our people upon the election of Lincoln.
But if they intend to question the wisdom of
secession—if they intend the most remote
hint that seessionists plunged the country
into war unnecessarily—that upon South
ern patriots, instead of yankee thieves and
robbers, rests the responsibility of the blood
that now deluges the South—then they
will be met at the threshold. I trust and
believe that the two distinguished gentle
men referred to, had no improper design
in their allusions to the past.
But there are a few persons in the South
who yet believe secession was unnecessary :
whom Lincoln’s accursed policy has failed
to- convince that we could not live in
peace with yankees: who, in fact, charge
all this war to Secessionists.—All this is a
matter of great delicacy,, and I do not wish
to say one word that will produce one un*
pleasant thought. But I would remind
the class of persons to whom I have last al
luded, that they will not be permitted to
throw stones with impunity. Secessionists
might be forced to the unpleasant task of
referring Unionists to the documentary ev
idence which exists in a thousand yankee
records, from Abraham Lincoln’s messages
down, that but for the supposed'sympathy
of Southern Unionists, no war would have
been waged against us. Let Secessionists
then not be taunted with “7 told you so,”
and they will not refer to the record.—A
word to the wise is sufficient.
Analogy.
“ It has been asked which are the great
est minds, and to which do we owe the
greatest reverence : to those, who, by the
powerful deductions of reason, and the well
known suggestions of analogy, have made
profound discoveries in the science, as it
were 1 a prion,' or to those, who, by the
patient road ot experiment, and the subse
quent improvement of instruments, have
brought these discoveries to perfection, as it
were ‘ a posteriori who have rendered
that certain, which before was only conjec
tural ; practical, which was problematical;
safe, which was dangerous; and subservient,
which was unmanageable. It would seem
that the 1st class demand our admiration,
and the 2nd our gratitude. Seneca predic
ted another hemisphere, but Columbus pre
sented us wit h it. He that standing on the
shore foretells with truth many of the un
discovered treasures of the ocean of science,
even before the vessel that is to navigate
it, can be fully equipped for the voyage,
gives us a convincing proof of exalted wis
dom and of profound penetration. But he
that builds the vessel of experiment, and
actually navigates the wide ocean of sci
ence, who, neither intimidated by the risk
of failure, nor the expense of the outfit, re
alizes all that the other had only imagined,
and returning laden with the stores of
knowledge, communicates liberally that
which he has won so landibly—surely the
attainments of such a man are as fully enti
tled to our gratitude as tbe anticipations of
the other to our admiration. Sir Isaac
Newton predicted that both water and tbe
diamond would be found to have an inflam
mable base, if ever they could be analyzed,
a thing at that time uneffected. He was
led to this conclusion, by observing that all
bodies possessed of high retractive powers,
had an inflammable base, and water and
the diamond have those powers in a high
degree. Subsequent experimentalists have
succeeded in analyzing both these substan
ces ; pure carbon is the base of the diamond,