Year: 1868

| Oh eNllS which IL Was pTeuicleu WOuIu ONeT'
take it during the winter just past. Instead
of the prevailing distress and business stag
nation Of the autumn having been greatly
aggravated by the lapse of time, we are able
to note marked improvement in nearly
every department of industry, despite the
numerous obstacles, political, financial, and
otherwise, which have been interposed. We
know not how much assurance of future
benefit to build upon present indications, but
we are disposed to make the most of them,
and to take fresh courage in renewed efforts
to lift our business interests out of the slough
in which they have long been mired


1t is true that Congress has not shown
itself particularly astute in its management
of financial questions, nor has it adopted any
decisive measures of positive relief Never
theless, what has been done is of a character
to inspire confidence and effect and improve
ment In the business aspect of the country
generally 1t is now settled that there will
be no disturbance of the volume of the cur.
rency for the present. one way or the other,
either in the direction of expansion or con-
traction Reputation is scotched, and the
preservation of the public faith assured the
National Banking system will be fostered
and protected while in all that concerns
taxation and expenditure progress in the
| right direction is perceptible.


This improvement in trade is specially
noteworthy in the Southern States-due
chiefly to the recent rise in the price of cot
ton from 152 to "a Ca 25 cents Under its
magic cal influence the feecy staple is being
exhumed from dusty places of long conceal.
ment. and there is promise that the crop will
exceed By 800 900 bales the highest estimate
of the Fall. The local press speaks in cheer
ful tones of future prospects. Country mer-
chants are generally meeting theii obliga-
tions, contrary to the expectation some time
ago, when cotton fell to so low price :;
planters are paying up their Indebtedness of
1851, and help is promised them to carry
on the farming operations of the current
year; negroes are inclined to make contracts :;
and the once dependent and apathetic are
preparing TO go to work to raise cotton and
corn with as much animation as though they
were just commencing life. In the culture
of rice, too, very few have failed to make re-
munerative crops, while the profits of those
who have held on for an advance have been
very large. Under an impetus such as this
is, land is rising in value, and tracts that
have been abandoned for several years, are
now being taken up for cultivation. The
press is most urgent in pressing upon North





holds out to them, and there is an increasing
disposition among capitalists to avail them.
selves of them Within a few days past
planters have been able to negotiate numer-
Gus loans here in New York.


OF course this activity at the South has its
effect upon trade here, the more especially
as Southern mercl ants are buying fair bill
of dry goods and general merchandise for the
Spring consumption. Cotton goods have
materially advanced, and mills which had
stopped or were running on short time, are
employing more hands. In the foreign Dry
Goods trade there i; also perceptible i'm
provement, and the same is true of,business
generally, not only here, but in New Eng
land and in the West. Down East there
are signs of disposition among the ship
| builders to resume business, and several
contracts have already been made. In
Massachusetts the shoe business is looking
up; the iron mills of Troy have started
anew; locomotive works are increasing their
scale OF operations; the building trades here
and at the west promise an amount of work
for the coming season fully equal to that of
last year. The Albany Board of Trade re-
ports the business of hat city as largely on
the increase, and in the main prosperous
This is the pleasing information that comes
to US piecemeal from various quarters Let
US hope that the promise of returning pros
perity will not fail of the fulfllment for the
interests involved are of incalculable benefit
to the country.-Harper's Weekly.


ANDREW JoHNSoN's INTENTIONS. Tile
predicament in which the President has
placed himself by bis nfraction of the Civil
Tenure Act is thus admirably illustrated by
the Chicago Tribune


A burglar, once upon time, was caught
working with his tools on safe containing
money. To the policeman who laid hands
upon him, and invited him to the lock up, he
replied that he was trying to see if the safe
was good one-merely testing of the iron
and the construction of the lock. 1t was
intimated to him that that method of testing
safes was not sanctioned by the Legislature,
and that the officers of the law were instruct
ed to treat it as a crime. There is no recor
ded case where man has engaged in thai
kind of experimenting the strength OF
bolts and locks, who was not deemed a felon
Such plea urged in defense of any such
criminal must be regarded either as piece
of the most desperate effrontry, or else Joke
of the most ponderous size. And vet Andrew
johnson and his friends have the impudence
to claim that when be undertook to thrust
Stanton out of the War Office and put
Thomas in his place without consulting the
Senate. he was merely trying the constitu
tionality of an Act of Congress. He was
just driving the cold chisel into the door.
to see i. the iron was all right, and the fac
Jennings firn.. He had no notion of going in
and taking possession contrary to law-not
the slightest! No such idea ever entered
his head He simply wanted to know
whether he could get in if he tried whether
there was any constitutional obstruction in
the way. 1t was only an experiment.


QUARREL ABOUT A KIss.-A ludicrous in
cident recently occurred at a rehearsal Of
certain tableaux vivants gotten up for the
benefit of Christ Church. They were play.
ing some internal nonsense, where an ex.
hausted maiden, all dressed in white. is