Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1862-11-18
rhs condition or q. countrr. I,

year. It is the part of wisdom to let the truth be
known in crisis like the present especially when
it touches not only the comfort but the lives of our
| people. That Gov. Vance and the Legislature will
do all in their power to relieve he wants of those
who are suffering. and to provide especially for the
| families of our soldiers, We entertain no doubt
A friend writing from Transylyana County, says:
| 81 see every body appears to be after the sPecn-
lators but the more you abuse them the worse they
get There is likely to be as great mania for spec
uation now, as there was for whiskey making ten
months ago. But how il is to be checked is more
than the wsest have been able to tell 1t is gene
rally confined to wide-mouth secessionists and Grip
! pies from the war; conservatives and anti-war men
would not be tolerated in speculation; but doubt
| very much whether newspapers and lectures on the
subject have not greatly aggravated the evil You
! have driven the conscientious and reasonable men
out of the market as it were, and lethe whole field
of speculation to the monopoly of few moned shar
pers whose consciences will hardly ever be racked
| by an article in the newspapers. My impression is
that had the papss and every body else encouraged
it that The better class of traders would by compe-
[ tition and supply, have kept everything at much
lower prices than the denuncatory policy heretofore
practised by editors and orators for the the stub
bornness of man is SUCH that he has an itching to
! do anything forbidden him by God or man. And
again, the condition and excess of the currency has
| the scarcity. You can have very little idea how
hard our people are pressed to live comforta.
bly,. The ground is frozen here and is, you would
call it bitter cold-perhaps cold Us you have ever
seen it in Raleigh Nearly all our people have more
| or less work to do out of doors-men, women and
children. Not one-half of them have the sign ola
shoe to their feet not one-third have shoes that
will keep their feet dry, nor do l know how they
are to get them. They are nearly all scarce OF
| wearing clothes. Cotton and wool is pretty hard
| - get-but the worst is cotton and wool cards can
scarcely be had at all, the old ones being about
| worn out. We would all be glad to do something
for our furnishing soldiers, but how can we, when
| we have more suffering at our doors than we can
| possibly reliever Then We are getting scarce of
almost everysarticle of necessity, from needle to
| scythe blade. Not few are out of knives, forks,
spoons, plates, dishes, tin cups and coffee potts.
| Then we may turn to edibles. Take out very
few families and there not enc pound Of salt to
! every white inhabitant in the county. We got
| from Wilmington some weeks ago, what we call
! government salt, and divided it out one pound to
every white person in family but did not get quite
around to all That cost us fourteen cents per
| pound We have the promise of salt at Saltville,
Va. but can't get it hauled hundred and forty
or fifty miles-dreadful bad road and no food to be
| haG. man can scarcely travel on horseback
| A'gentleman told me the other day he Travelled 40
| miles without grain for his horses. He says he
offered one dollar for ten ears of corn, and could
not get it; yet we must have it, perish for want
fit Very few of US have half hogs enough to
make our meat for next year !; would say not half
| as much in the county we ought to eat-nor can
we spare the corn to fatten what we have. Num-
bers of people have not put up hog yet, and say
they will not unless they have some sRety of get
ting salt They think they had better keep the
corn, and depend on bread and milk, than to lose
both corn and pork for lack of salt My opinion is
that numbers must perish before another crop is
olo tbo 10 IN 70
take better care of what they have than they have
ever done before. If the people are alarmed in
| time they can winter on half the grain generally
| used ! am satisfied there was nothing like half as
much grain raised here this year that there was
| -last yet we scarcely had enough to do US. see
you talking about cotton and tobacco crops next
year. We raise neither here. But il this war is
to last another crop season, say to next June
with all the conscripts in the army, our support
| must come from some where else. We will not
make it here. Our rulers understand raising an
| army better than feeding and clothing one. Iwoud
to the Lord the leaders had to take the place of
| the soldiers"
friend writing from Mecklenburg, says:
al fear the manufacturers are dlsregatdng the
exemption clause of the CONSUMPTION law by selling
their cloth, yarn, leather. Shoes and the like at
fabulous prices. Cloth that we used to pay from
81 to 81 % for, is now selling for 81 to So per
yard Yarn is selling at 81 per bale, and shoes at
from Sl2 to SIS per pair | firmly believe
there is enough of material in this County, in the
hands of spectators and exortoners to furnish at
least good pair of shoes for every soldier in one
j or more regiments, if it could be so applied A
| great many of our farmers make their own leather
| and shoes for their families. This does not get in
to the hands of the SPECTATORS and is therefore not
included in the calculation Ifany one ought to go
half clad and half shod those who stay at home
ought to do it. The soldier ought to have first
ha,n 1a,hk IL
d! his duty. OF this have 20 fears He has many
friends in this County, who rejoice that ne is doing
so we'll; and his enemies are astonished and vexed
to see that Conservative man is making so patri
otto Governor"
A friend writing from Caldwell County, says:
"The manufacturers of every kind, to avoid
odum from their neighbors and old customers pre-
fer to say they have government contracts to fill,
rather than ask their neighbors the prices these
spectators will pay for .hein. The thing works
thus: These SPECTATORS by this process of decep-
| tion monopolize the raw material with the knowl-
edge and consent of the manufacturers. They then
! make up the goods and charge their own prices.
In the same way they go through the country and
| buy up the grain, honey, brandy, whiskey, and
even potatoes at low rates. they say, for the SOL
diers, but really for themselves to speculate upon"
Another friend writing from Stokes County, says:
UNLESS you had visited our Western Counties
you can form no conception of the untold depriva-
ton which would be entailed on our women and
children by taking off the men from thrty-fV to
forty-fve. This County has enrolled about 1900
men, and of these about l. 100 aresin the service
Our corn crop is short-onethrd less than last
year, and almost an entire failure in the wheat rye,
and oat crops So that our people have to depend
upon corn alone for bread and to feed their stock
don't know half dozen men in the County who
are offering bushel of for sale, and they are
asking ten dollars barrel from the heap. Already
are our poor women seen trudging from place to
place barefooted, begging for corn, and to be
had, and these too the wives Of our brave men now
perllng their lives the field Of battle or widows
who have lost their husbands in defence of the
| country. Now and then you will find man who
will divide, even to the apparent itnpoverishinent of
his own family; but the great difficulty is, what
few men are left behind are in q constant state of