The Colfax chronicle., 1888-12-08


temporaneous Confederate jourfa
sent a strange contrast from monc
month and year to year. Perhaps the
most striking instance OF the advance
in prices of food supplies occurs In tne
case of -four, which in March, 1913.
sold for $25 per barrel; in January
1864. for $95 per barrel, and in January.
1865, for 81, 900 per barrel. The spectrai
army in the Confederate rear, led oy
General Hard Times, was closing up its
ranks, touching elbows, and moving az
a double-quick in those days OF Janu-
ary, 1865. There was death at the
cannon's mouth in front of the hungry,
foot-sore, shivering rebel, and starva-
ton in the rear. %s'
Even so early as February, 1868, the
money value of days rations for lOO
soldiers, which had in the first year OF
the war been about 50, was at market
prices $l23. In the corresponding
month of the following year days ra-
tions had no estimated market value.
From the soldier who possessed them,
money could not buy them. and he who
was without them was unable to pro-
cure them at any price.
Side by side with the reports OF bait
ties and the records of peace commits
sions. congresses and legislatures. tho
blurred columns of the Confederate
press were wont to TEEN with domestic
recipes for cheap dishes, directions for
raising and utilizing various vegetable
products, instructions for making much
of little in matters pertaining to every
phase of household life. Hard by
list of dead and wounded would stand
recipe for tanning dog-skins for
gloves; while the paragraphs just sue
ceeding the closing column of the de-
scription OF a naval engagement on
Hampton Roads were directions for the
use of boneset as a substitute for quin'
inc.
The journals of that day were printed
usually upon the poorest paper. made
of straw and cotton rags. and so brittle
that the slightest touch mutilated it.
The ink, like the paper, was OF the
cheapest and commonest, and left its
impression, not only on the face OF the
sheet, but on the hands no less than on
the mind of the reader. Few fonts of
new type found their way into the Con-
federacy during the war. and at the
end of four years the facilities for print
ing had come to low ebb. 1t was no
uncommon thing for publishers to issue
half sheets in lieu of complete paper.
with scarcely an apology to subscribers
for the curtailment of their literary
and news rations. It was generally
understood that this happened only
through stern necessity, and not from
any disposition on the part of the news
paper men to give less than an equiva-
lent for the subscription price. Some
times the journal which on yesterday
appeared in all the glory Of six
column page was to-day cut down to q
four-column half sheet; or publication
was suspended with the announcement
that the stock of materials had been
exhausted, and that as soon as the Of
fee could be replenished publication
would be resumed. Eagerly as the
rough sheets were looked for and
closely as they were read, a diminution
of matter in them, or failure to APP
pear, caused only passing comment on
dissatisfaction. Mems minds were 50
filed with the thousand things that
each day brought forth about them,
there were SO many rumors in the air,
and news few so rapidly even without
newspaper aid, as to cause them not
too greatly to miss that which to-day
has come to be one of the veriest neces-
stiles of American life-a daily journal
full of all the doings Of all the world
Century.