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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,