Sugar planter. [volume] (West Baton Rouge [i.e. Port Allen, West Baton Rouge Parish, La.]) 1856-1925, 1866-02-10

I~NGENulrY AT JoHNsoN's lsLANp.-Wt,et
the Confederate prisoners, all officers, and
many of them higl,in rank, were confined
on Johnson's Island, opposite this city:
they exhibited great ingenuity. They
manufactured many little articles, such as
chairs, tables, bedsteads, etc, with which
to render prison life comfortable.
Many Of the articles were very fair
specimens Of Southern furniture and me-
chanism, and not totally devoid Of rustic
beauty. Ia the line Of chairs, they manu-
featured hundreds Of the old split-bottom
variety, bottomed With the leather Of old
boots, cut into strings, and neatly inter-
woven together. Owing to a scarcity OF
tools, the wooden frames were made with
only the use of the jackknife and augur,
and were really a stauch made chair. On
the release Of the prisoners, hundreds of
teese chairs were sold at public auction,
for whatever they would bring, and many
of them are now scattered about the coun-
try, some preserved by sympathizing
friends as relics, and all that remains of a
cause once dear to their hearts, but now,
alas no more.
Others carry one home simply as they
would a bullet or a piece of she'll from a
battle field, not that they attach any 10.
trinsic value or merit to it, but simply be-
cause it is a relic.
Every chair was marked with the own
er's name on the top Stat of the back, to-
gether with the number Of his regiment
and the State from whence he came
They were not marked, we suppose, be-
cause they suspected the honesty of their
fellow-prisoners, but simply that they
might be able to tell their own, and be
able TO reclaim their property should il
stray from their quarters. 1t is not an
uncommon thing o to see a chair sitting
around, once owned by Col. Sawyer, of the
l4th Mississippi, or of Brigadier Generals
Johnson Marmaduke, or other notables of
the prison, Fifty years hence such art;-
cies will be looked upon as greater curi9si-
ties than many that now grace our public
museums, at cost of hundreds of dollars.
Why Do WOMEN DREss?- As we pass
along the streets we sometimes look at
the beautifully dressed and elegant wo-
men. Said a friend to us the other day,
they uress to please their husbands aud
lovers aud to win the admiration of the
masculine generally" But it's no such
thing. Women do not dress TO please
their husbands or fascinate their lovers.
It's a vulga error. A fashionable wo-
is not half as anxious to win the ad-
miration of men as to provoke the envy OF
her own sex. The truth is, men, as a rule.
know but very lutte about the value of
female attire, except when they have to
foot the bills. Cost is the standard of a
woman's excellence in costume. Ladies
consnmmate critics too. No trades.
man in this city is a better Judge of the
articles in which he deals than the lady
fashion is of all the articles her sisters
wear.
With a single glance, rapid, keen and
searching, she can ''reckon up" the babi-
liments of a rival In the bean monde al.
most to a cent. No pawn-broker could
come nearer the mark. Imitation lace,
however vraisenblant. do not
her. She. can see through the
cheat as easily as a banker detects a for
ged bill. She triumphs in the reflection
that her splendors are genuine, and that
"set,,' sharp-eyed as a lynx, can dis
between tweedledum and tweed
Iedee. Mole-eyed man sees not the differ
ence, unless it is pointed out to him. Ii
IS plain, obvions then, that women dress
provoke envy in each other rather than
% command manly worship. OF course,
they like to be admired by men, certain
y, but to be enyied by their own sex is a
supreme luxury.
IRIFLING EvIDENcE.-A well known
awyer of the city being sent for to coun-