Morning journal and courier., 1885-01-09
SALT IN THE CONFEDERACY.
How Precious it Was and How Diff
 ficult to Get.

GcuIt to Get.
 From the Providence Journal
 A Spencer carbine in good condition is one of the small firearms among the war relics of the Soldiers and Sailors Historical socie- ty. The ''salting down" Of this frearm in the Cabinet is directly traceable to the lack of salt in the Confectionery.
 Salt, generally, is a cheap article, and in the ordinary run of Efe's affairs it is not counted upon much for it is so common there is not much use in counting on it. So universal is it that nobody thinks of desig- hating it except by the plebeian word com mon. and common salt is one of the common est expressions we have. There are no grades to salt Salt is salt all the time, though commerce continues to fix class prices to it on account of mechanical manipulations, but it is salt, pure and simple, first, last and all the time The only way to adulterate New England rum is to add water to it; anything else would be more expensive than the rt1m
 The only way to adulterate salt IS to put
 more salt with it, for there is nothing cheap CT than salt except dirt, and that wouldn't
 work If you want to say man IS not do ing anything, that he is loafng, or is not rendering an equivalent for the wages pad him, you say he is not earning his salt,
 which is about the same as saying he IS eat
 ing his head off This expression, learning
 his salt may seem to most people to be a
 modern one, and they may suppose that It
 always ha5 been used sort ot contempt-n ous application to express an Idea of the
 shiftlessness of bad workman or a poor
 wage earner. He who thinks thus makes big mistake, for great many years ago, 8 long while ago, somewhere about the Romu-
 Jus and Remus time, either before or after, in a certain locality, it may have been Rome, money was scarce, and so was salt, and pay ment for services was made with salt m lieu of money; hence the soldiers were paid in sal (salt) and hence the word salary. They didn't understand in those days how to man ufacture paper currency. Perhaps many of the Johnnies would have been better off if pecuniary, perhaps impecunlous would be a better word, ingenuity had not invented the method to this day, and they had received their pay in salt instead of Confederate scrip. In the Confectionery salt was scace and scrip was plentiful, and, as said at the beginning, the scarcity of salt caused the final deposition of this carbine with the so- ciety. So scarce was salt that every sort of means were resorted to to obtain it. Many 6 man undoubtedly sighed to become second Lot that his wife might cast her eyes back. Old salt bags were gathered up and boiled ont. old beef, pork and fish brine evaporated and the barrels that contained it were soaked. Even the earth in and around the smoke houses, where hams and bacon had been salted and smoked, was washed to dissolve out of it the salt that had become mixed with it through previous lavish use or i'm pregnation from brine dripping.
 Where access to the sea could be had there was no trouble in making salt, though owing ! to the limited resources of the Confectionery, 1 it's manufacture was upon small scale and by primitive methods. The blockading fleet broke up all such establishments as socn as l they were discovered, and the salt makers had pretty sorry time of it. It was hide | and -eo-seek game with them all the while | They would not much more than find good | hiding place when the marines from block | ader would be upon them and they would be 1 forced to seek another refuge and start anew. l Thus the game went on and there was no rest | for the wicked rebel salt maker. Although l the watchful fleet could keep them from | coming to the sea, fer a protracted stay at l least. they could not keep the sea from goine | to them when it got chance, or in other | words, when the typographical features ot ! the coast were such to permit it. The | Nansemond river is in the southeastern part of Virginia. It forms part of the natura l drainage system of the Dismal swamp, and | empties into the bay forming the mouth o1 | the James river, The ,ction of territory | through which the Nansemond flows was | rich in supplies, domestic supplies, of al ! kinds for a long time after the breaking out \ of the rebellion, and 1t was favorlte foraglns ground for the squadron in the adjoining wa ! ters Almost anything could be purchased for little salt, the value Of which was fully \ appreciated, for commercial agents visited ! there frequently to purchase, by barter ol | otherwise, the salt that was surreptitiously manufactured on the shore The business o1 manufacture directly upon the coast, how ever out-of- -the-way place might be found ! involved so much risk from discovery by thu | watchful fleet that those engaged in 1t finally gave it up where they had constant access t' ! salt water and re-established their works ol | the rivers and estuaries near the head of tide | water. Although water for evaporation
 could be collected at such points but twice il \ twenty-four hours, and weak-salinousl ! speaking water at that, it was considered t
 be more profitable to work at this disadvar
 tage, for discovery where strong water coul I be obtained, which almost inevitable
 meant not only the breaking up of bushes.
 but the joss of everything in the way
 plant, besides personal liberty if cut off fro1
 escape, which was more than probable. TT
 "contrabands' reported to the feet that the1 | were quite extensive salt works near the hes of tidewater on the Nansemond. Before fl