Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-01-21
4 Rebel View of the SituatieR-NeW Years
Reflections In Dixie.

| No Sanguine hope of Intervention buoys III
! the spirits Of the Eonfedcrate public as al
the end Of 1851. No brilliant victory like
/ that Of Fredericksburg encourages us to look
| forward to a speedy and successful termina-
| ton Of the war, as in the last weeks of 1862
| Meade has been foiled, and Longstreet has
| had a partial success in Tennessee: but
| Meade's advance was hardly meant in earnest
and Beams Station is poor set-off to the
loss of the gallant men who fell in the muir.
| derous assault on Knoxville Another darino
Yankee raid has been carried out with com.
parative impunity 10 the invaders, and timor.
Gus capitalists may well pause before they
| nibble at eligible investments in real estate
| situated far in the interior. That interior
has been feartully narrowed by the federal
march through Tennessee, and owing to the
Deficiencies OF our cavalry service, Lincoln's
squadrons OF horse threaten to be as univer-
sal d terror, as pervasive nuisance, as his
squadrOns of gunbOats were some months
since. The advantages gained at Chancel-
louisville and Chickamauga have had heavy
counterpoises. The one victory led to the
fall of Jackson and the deposition of Hooker,
the other led first to nothing and then to the
indelible disgrace Of Lookout Mountain. The
Confederacy has been cut in twain along the
line of the Mississi ppi, and our enemies are
steadily pushing forward their plans for BIZ
secting the Eastern moiety. No wonder,
then, that the annual advent of the reign OF
| mud is hailed by all classes with sense of
| relief-by those who think and feel Alright, as
| a precious season to prepare for trying an
other fall with our potent adversely.
Meanwhile the financial chaos is becoming
wilder and wilder Boarders keep more
resolute grasp than ever on the necessities of
life. Non-producers, who are at the same
time non-speculators are suffering more and
more. What was once competence has be-
come poverty, poverty has become penurv,
penury is lapsing into pauperism. ANY me-
chanical occupation is more profitable than
the most intellectual profession; the most
accomplished scholars in the confederacv
would be glad to barter their services for
food and raiment; and in the complete up
turning of our social relations the only happy
people are those who have black hearts or
black skins The cry of scarcity resounds
through the land, raised by the producers in
their greed for gain, re-echoed by the con-
sumers in their premature dread of starvation
and nakedness. We are all in the dark and
men are more or less towards in the dark
We do not know what our resources are-and
no one can tell US whether we shall have a
pound of beef to eat at the end of 1864, or
a square inch of leather to patch the last shoe
in the contederacy. Unreasoning confidence
has been succeeded by depression as unreas-
oning, and the Yankees are congratulating
themselves on the result, which they hawk
about as the beginning of the end"
Theologians tell US that the disasters of
the closing year are the punishment of our
sins. This is true enough; but cheap peni-
tence will not save us from the evil conse-
quences. There is no forgiveness for polite
al sins, and the results will as certainly fol-
low as if there had been no repentance As
all sins are, in a higher sense, intellectual
blunders we must strain every fibre Of the
brain and every sinew of the will if we wish
to repair the mischief which our folly and
our corruption have wrought. The univers-
al recognition of this imperative duty is a
more certain earnest of our success than the
high spirits OF our men in the field, or the in
domitable patriotism Of our women at home,
from which newspaper correspondents derive
so much comfort. The incompetence and I'M
taithtulness Of government officials have had
much to do with the present sad state Of af-
fairs, but the responsibility does not end
there: the guilt does not rest there alone
Every man who has suffered himself to be
tainted with the scab of speculation has done
securities; every man who has withheld any
necessary of life has done his worst to ruin
the country; every one, man or woman, who
has yielded to the solicitations of vanity or
appetite, and refused to submit to any priva-
ton, however slight, which an expenditure,
however great, could prevent, has contribut-
ed to the general decentralization. 1t may be
said that, with the present plethora of paper
money, such virtue as we demand is not to
be expected of any people made up of mere
ly human beings But some such virtue is
necessary for any people whose duty it has
become to wage such contest as ours: and
if the virtue is not spontaneous, it must be
engrafted by the painful process through
which we are now passing. We cannot go
through this fiery furnace without the smell
of fire on our garments. We can no more
avoid the loss of property than we can the
shedding of blood. There is no family in the
confederacy that has not to mourn the fault of
some member or some connection, and there
is no family in the confederacy which ought
to expect to escape scatheless in estate. The
attempt is as useless, in most cases, rs it is
ignoble in all. A few, and but few, in COM
parison with the whole number may come
out of the war richer than when they went in 4;
but even they must make up their minds to
sacrifice part, and large part, in order to
preserve the whole. The saying of the stole
philosopher, "You can't have something for
nothing though it sounds like truism, in
fact, conveys a moral lesson of great signif-
canoe. Men must pay for privileges. If they
do not pay Voluntarily their neighbors will
make them pay, and that heavily. Had those
who employed substitutes to take their places
in the army refrained, a class, from specu-
lation and extortio., they would not now be
lamenting the pro Nect Of a speedy further
ance to the camp instruction. However
just their cause, the ,anner in which too
many of them abused the immunity acquired
by money has deprived them all of active
sympathy ....-
We all have heavy score to pay off, and
we know it. This may depress US, but our
enemies need not be jubilant at our depres-
sion, for we are determined to meet our liza
bilities. Whatever number of men, or what
ever amount of money shall be really want
ing, will be forthcoming. Whatever economy
the straitening of our resources may require
we shall learn to exercise. We could only
wish that Congress was not in such fever
ish mood, and that the government would do
something towards the establishment of sta
tistical bureau, or some other agency, by
which we could approximately ascertain what
we have to contribute, and to what extent
we must husband our resources. Wise, cool,
decided, prompt action would put US in good
condition for the spring campaign Of 1864,
and the close of next year would furnish a
more agreeable retrospect than the annus
nairabilis of blunders which we now consign
to the dead past. ..r.
CUR1os1T1Es OF FAsHIoN.-It is a question, l
think, whether the fashion influences the age,
or the age moulds and shapes the fashion !;