The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1868-03-28

u y

49,
Every body says that the times are hard
money scarce. and consequently, some say
there should lie a reduction in the price o
work. There is however, no diminuti"n ii
the price of necessary supplies, which ca>f
money can only buy. Provisions of al
kinds are higher than they were this time
last year; so with cotton goods, ami every
'ticle necessary for family Use.
A. a contrast; In, 1880, with a ten dol
lar Louisiana bank bill, We could buy &
barrel If -four and at least twenty five
pounds Of bacon. Now, a ten dollar green
back will only buy fo.ty pounds of bacon
or a little over half a barrel Of flour. Su.
gar sold at seven to eight cents per pound
-now+at twenty five retail. Coffee, fifteen
now %thirty-ive. Rents, upwards of fifty
per cent higher. Dry goods, beyond con,
trast. Our material costs fully one HIN
dred er cent more than then. Ten dollars
then was equal to twenty-five nov.
So says the Feliciana Democrat. Why
is this SO? 1t is not merely because the
negro has been emancipated and will not
work, fer North in a great measure, As
we'll as South, these double and treble pri-
ces prevail for all the nee '~ssaries of life
freight and eXchtnge making the only
perceivable difference.
The chief cause and difference in price
between 1860 and 1868 is not the value
of gold, for that is only 40 per cent, and
the average difference in the cost of food
and other necessaries is one $50 per cent,
or Ito per cent more than the difference
between gold and paper. What, then,
is the chief caus of this difference which
weighs as heavily upon the humble labor
err, black or white, as upon the rich man ?
1t is the United States tax to pay interest
on these bonds, an stealage to their Off
GERS.
We should never lose sight Of this.
We should never charge greenbacks or
gold with the burden which internal rev.
niue and treble import dues are putting
forget that he could now get treble extra
on us We should never let the freedman
-four for 81 per barrel and coffee, for ten
cents per pound, were it not for the
bonds, the b%ohdholders, and the United
States army of of6ceholders.
No doubt we could raise all our provis-
ions, unless coffee, in the State of Louisi-
ana, and almost every farmer could feed
and cl"the himself and fami y witho ut
buy ing a dimes worth from a store, and
thus save most of taxation but so long
as we raise or even buy such things as
must be taxed, We quadruple our cost
of living not SO much for the sake of the
best Government the sun ever shone up
on, but that of its camp followers and
usurers.-N q. Picaynne.
THEGREAT ELECTION FRAUD IN New
acknowledgements thousand
votes, it is reported by dispatches, have
been cast at the gubernstorial election
in New Hampshire. This vote of one
to every four of population is a result
that is simply impossible, in a just or
sense, in States of the character of
population of New Hampshire.
They do not usually give more than one
vote to five or six or Seven of popula-
It is stated by. telegraph that the
largest Republican gains are in the Dor
der towns; but it is just as easy to
brow a fraudulent vote in MAN" of the
cities of the State as in such towns. A
has transpired here within
a day or two that looks marvellously as ]
# the system of colonizing votes, which I
las so often affected election results in +
ven a national way, has been resorted
0 in New Hampshire. The advices {
Ire that the fifty thousand dollars raised r
~ the Grant interest in New York and :
Philadelphia at the last moment was
lnblushingly used at the polls on the
Of the election.-Natioual LuteUi;-