COLUMBIA.
Tuesday Morning, October 3.1865.
To Our. Readers.
. The undersigned tokes great plea?
sure in presenting to the public, as
one of the editors of the Phoenix, Vf.
B. Johnston, Esq., for many years
editor of the South Carolinian, and
more recently of thc Southern Guar?
dian. This gentleman's abilities are
fully known, and will, no doubt, be
justly appreciated, not only in South
Carolina, but the entire South.
JULIAN A. SELBY.
Tlie undersigned, in becoming con?
nected with the editorial management
of the Pho'nir, deems it proper to say
a few words to its readers.
Since Iiis retirement from the field
of journalism, a mighty change has
been wrought in our political and
' social systems. It is needless, ou this
occasion, to revert to the causes of thc
late gigantic conflict through which
the people of this country kare passed.
We have now to deal with its results,
and he is the best cition and truest
patriot who sincerely and earnestly
applies all his talents and resources
to the peaceful but important work of
restoration and reconstruction. To
aid in effecting tliis groat work, in
the speediest way consistent with the
welfare of the people of this State,
will be the chief aim and purpose of
the conductors of this journal, and it
is to be hoped their labors will not be
in vain. Let the dead past, with all
its errors and political complications,
remain unexhumed, and let us all
work heartily and together for tlie re?
storation of our beloved State to her
rightful position among her co-States
of the Union.
lu this place, it is but just and
proper, and it is eminently due to the
proprietor of the Pkarnix, to say to
its readers, that he deserves their cor-?
dial support in establishing a daily
journal at the Capital of the State.
Had it not been for his prompt efforts
in this respect, if: is probable that our
community would have been without
any medium of communication with
the outside world, and our friends in
other sections of the State without
? any vehicle of information, either
from the seat of Government or other
parts of the United States. He has
labored faithfully and with untiring
energy and perseverance, and, thus
far, has succeeded. He has not only
furnished to this community an admi?
rable newspaper, but a journal con?
ducted with sound judgment and
great ability. He deserves success,
and has a right to claim the earnest
support and co-operation of all who
have been benefitted by hie labors*
Our readers have had enough of
politics for the present, and it is,
therefore, not necessary to make the
Phonix a political journal, in the or?
dinary acceptation of that term. It
will endeavor to sustain the policy of
reconstruction enunciated by Presi?
dent Johnson, and wUl, to the extent
oi its influence, aid and support all
measures calculated to restore peace,
harmony and prosperity to the coun?
try. Further than this, politically,
we need not go, but it will be our
* great aim to give to our readers an
acceptable journal in all departments.
From the writer's past experience in
journalism, he feels some confidence
that if his right hand has not forgot?
ten her cunning, he will, to some
, extent at least, accomplish that aim
and purpose. What our people need
now is encouragement in -their efforts
to develop the industrial resources
which are still left to them, and that
encouragement we intend to give
them in every way, that the scope of
our duties permits or enables us to
do. It may be some days before we
get again wea accustomed to the edi?
torial harness, but have no doubt that,
erelong, everything will work smooth?
ly and satisfactorily.
WILLIAM ]J. JOHNSTON. .
FRACTIONAL CURRENCY.- The new
ten cent fractional currency is circu?
lating. The pieces are a little larger
.than the old ten-, and shorter than
the twenty-five cent slips. Upon the
face is a medalion head of Washing?
ton, with a factory chimney and a
ship's rigging on either side, and a
figure 10, in gilt, in four places; thc
back is of a red color, and the figures
10 in large gilt. They are printed on
bank-note paper, and promise to be
more durable than the present cur?
rency.
A new issue of fifty cent fractional
currency will shortly be made to
replace the present issue, which has
been greatly counterfeited?
THE WILMINGTON JOURNAL.-The
publication of'this paper, which was
suspended in February last, has been
resumed under the management of
its former proprietors, Messrs. Fulton
& Price, lt has been 'enlarged, and
appears in new typo. We will be
pleased to place it on our exchange
hs..
AMI LETTERS MUST BE STAMPED.
The Post Office Department has is?
sued a circular, giving notice'that the
penalties fixed by law for carrying
letters outside the mails when not
enclosed in Government stamped en?
velopes, will be rigidly enforced in
every instance where violators are
kno ?TI to exclude only letters relating
to cargo and freight of water crafts,
or other vehicles employed upon mail
routes, may be lawfully carried not
enclosed as above. By the terms of
this order, unpaid letters for delivery
and those prepaid by postage stamps
cannot be carried outside the mail by
any of these conveyances, without
subjecting captain, owners, drivers or
other omplo3-ees to a penalty of
for each offence.
BELIEF OF SOUTHERN COTTON HOLD?
ERS.-The Secretary of the Treasury
and the Commissioner of Internal
Revenue have now under considera?
tion a circular, which will be issued
in a day or two, to be directed to the ;
Government Tax Collectors, with a j
view of relieving the bedders of cot- !
ton in the Southern States. It is |
found that these cotton holders are
generally unable to raise tho money j
to pay the immense tax, etc., required
by the Act of July 2,18(34, to be paid
before shipment to the. Government
agent, in the nearest locality or
district in which the cotton may be
found, and it is also found impractica?
ble and sometimes impossible for
these cotton owners to come North
and obtain the requisite funds by
hypothecating their staple. The law,
as heretofore construed, seemed to
present an insurmountable obstacle to
the shipment of cotton to the North?
ern ports before the Government
assessments should be paid; but the
Secretary of the Treasury, with the I
aid of thc Commissioner of Internal j
Bevenue, has, it is believed, disco- j
vereu a plan by which owners may
ship their cotton to Northern markets
and pay the Government charges in j
those ports. If this.plan be carried 1
out, it will release and send to the [
Northern markets an immense amount I
of property which is now tied up in
the South by reason of the former
strict and technical construction of I
the law.
TREATMENT OF PRISONERS.-The
Cincinnati Gazette, an Abolition pa?
per, gives the following description of
a Federal prison at Chattanooga:
"Of the treatment of rebel prison
i ors at our hands, I have nothing to
?say; it is, no doubt, fully as good as
I it shordd bo in retaliation. True, the
prison is dirty, filthy and foul; true,
it is I nt meanly wanned, always damp
and unhealthy. Tlie place is almost
dark, and seems infernal. Their
clothing is a mere mockery, with
socks, when they have any, that look
like a rough coat of dirt or an un?
washed hoot."
One hundred thousand dollars,
formerly a portion of the Confederate
States treasure, and since the demoli?
tion of that institution secreted in
the South, was recently unearthed
and turned into the United, States
Treasure This sum, which consisted
of $90,?t n gold, $8,000 in silver,
and S'2,.)0h in silver bullion, was re?
cently sent North in charge of a guard
of twelve pieked men of the 19th
United States Infantry.
Tho Labor Question and Emigration.
Tlie following extract of a letter sent
by a member of. a commercial house
in England to a friend in Charles-*
ton we afford space for publication,
although we by no means agreet with
the author in his views concerning
the Coolies. We think that class of
people would be far lass efficacious
than the negro. The only class of
persons that will be of service to the
(South are white men from flie other
side of the Atlantic:
"We fully expect, from thc know-'
ledge we have of the idleness, "of the
negro in all countries where they have
been used as laborers und tillers ol
thc soil, that they will not work with?
out some degree of compulsion, and
if the legislatures of the Cotton
States do not poss sonic law that will
compel thc negro to hire himself by
the year, and also make him, under
severe penaities, perform his. con?
tract, thc South will be :i second
Jamaica. Your people will be com?
pelled to import white laborers*, and
on tia1 sea-board of South Carolina
ami Georgia we know of no labor
better adapted to tho soil and pro?
duction than the Coolie. They
answer veiw well in tee West Indies
I and on the cotton phu tations of Peru.
The passage money is ?14 Ts. 6d. per ;
head, and this, with shipping charges, |
brings their cost laid down about ?20 1
per head, or ?100. Very few die on the
voyage. The emigration is* entirely
voluntary, and each man has the term?
of his contract explained to him in
the presencec of a Mandarin and the
Consul. They contract for five years
at eight dollars per month, find them?
selves and pay back tho passage
money by monthly instalments, and
on these, terms they can be had in
great numbers. The Chinese Coolie
is very industrious and keeps faith?
fully to his contract. This is a matter
worthy the attention of your State
authorities. Many of the West India
islands would be totally unproductive
without them. Some action should
be taken by those in authority to
work your rice fields with this cheap
and desirable labor, and you cannot
urge this matter on them too soon.
We have seen the negro in every
clime,'and we know they will not
work steadily, particularly such la?
borious crops as rice and cotton.
Excuse our thrusting our views and
opinions on you. Your own experi?
ence will test their soundness."
CANADA AND C?I?F..>T BRITAIN.-The
truth is, that we have our choice of
two courses of policy with regard to
Canada-a warlike and a pacific, a.
retrograde and a progressive policy.
We may set ourselves to raise up a
rival power to the United States, and.
in order to defend that power from
their atttx;k, may plunge it into such
inextricable financial difficulties as to
deprive it of all attraction for the
intending emigrant, and even to drive
out of it much of the population
which h^s already chosen it. as a home.
We may look op our colony as a mili?
tary pos.tion to be defended, even as
a Kornau colonia planted as a menace |
or a curb to a rival people, which
must be drilled and fortified and kept
open dtring the inclemencies of a
Siberiai. winter, at whatev??r cost to
the mother country, and with a pros- ?
peet of success, however slender. Or !
we map relinquish the hateful and use
less occupation of struggling against
Naturi and look at our colony more
with icferenee to the future than the
present more with regard to its geo?
graphical position and commercial
intereste than to the hopeless task of
its military defence. Those who re?
gard Canada from this point of view
would rather expend the money of
England in improving her communi?
cation with those rich lands of which
she is the natural outlet, than in forc?
ing a vorthless passage for hopeless
successors across burren and inhos?
pitable deserts. The present moment
is, as ve have crften shown, the very
last in which we should seek to carry
embarrassmen" into Canadian finance.
It is-her-great opportunity, which, if
well used, will do more to make her
independent of all fear of invasion
from America than ten times the
fleets and armies of which we can
dispose. The fortifications of Quebec
and Montreal have, at any rate, this
advantage-that they may for a while
protect our troops, and possibly facili?
tate their embarkation. The Inter?
colonial Railway can do nothing but
mock them with the prospect of a
communication with tho sea, which
is sure to fud them just at the moment
when it becomes most imperiously ne?
cessary tor their preservation.
[ IjttmloiL Timm.
General Howard estimates that at
least 40,000 freedmen have learned to
read and write since th? war broke
ant.
Thc Rich Men, of New York-How
they Work.
No bank clerk on thc salary of a
thousand dollars a year goes to his
bank as regularly, or works as many
hours, as Wm. B. Astor, who counts
up his 840,000,000. His little one
story office, a step or two from Broad?
way, on Prince street, with its iron
j bars, making it resemble a police
I prison, is the den where he performs
j his daily toil, and out of his wealth
j and labor gets only his victuals and
I clothes. He attends personally to all
i his business, knows every dollar of
rent or income that is to become due,
pays out every dollar, makes his en?
tries in his own hand, and obliges his
subordinates to come to him for in?
formation, while he does not go to
them. He generally comes- down in
the omnibus at an early hour in the
day and remains closely absorbed in
! business until five o'clock. He rarely
I takes exercise, and finds his pleasure
! in the closest attention to business,
i A friend of mine rode to Washington
I with him in the saino car from New
I York, lie neither spoke nor got ont
j of his scat, and hardly moved, from
I Jersey City to Washington. He !
I usually leaves his office at five o'clock,
I and walks slowly up Broadway to
Lafayette; place. He is over six- feet
high, heavily built, with a decided
German look, small hazy eyes, as if
ho was half asleep, head round asa
pumpkin, and about as destitute of
hair. He is exceedingly hospitable,
and in the "season"' gives a dinner
to his friends weekly, at which the
richest viands on services of gold and i
silver are presented by liveried, ser?
vants to his guests.
Commbdore Vanderbilt never work- I
ed harder in his life, never worked I
mort* hours than now. He has a con?
fidential clerk, who works like a pack?
horse, who has been in his employ j
for thirty years. Besides this, Van
derbilt does his own business, makes
and executes his own contracts, and
this, with the business he does on
twenty millions, is no small toil. The
Commodore goes down to his busi?
ness regularly every day, and can be
found at certain hours. His only re?
creation-euchre and fast horses.
Moses Taylor, whose dividends from
coal stock alone this year reached the
pretty little sum of a million of dol?
lars, began business in New York
?when he was sixteen years of age,
kept his own books with his own
bands, and has done so ever since.
His library, in his own house on Fifth
avenue, is a regular work-shop. Every
night he brings up his own business
with his own hand. His vast business as !
trustee is kept by himself. He makes '?
all thc original entries of sort and
kind, and goes to his office for no in- ;
formation, and he knows just how :
things must be thero to be right.
And should every record kept by his
book-keepers and clerks be destroyed,
it would make no difference with
him, for he has the original in his
own hands. Many merchants spend
the afternoon in riding, or m games,
or in the excitement of the evening
stock board; but Mr. Taylor finds his
recreation in a bath, a good dinner, a
?omfortable siesta, and an evening
levoted to work.
[New York Cor. Boston Journal.
CAPTAIN WERZ.-"Druid," the well
mown correspondent of the New
fork World and News, publishes a
engthy letter, exculpating Captain
Virz from responsibility in regard to
he hardships of the prisoners at An
lersonville. He closes thus:
No-the responsibility for the suff?
erings of our prisoners at Anderson
rille rests upon those who are respon?
sible for keeping our prisoners there,
nstead of permitting them to be
exchanged. The Confederate authorit?
ies wen: anxious to have them ex
hanged. But the Secretary of War
efused to) have them exchanged, on
he pretext that the equality of negro
oldiers with white soldiers must first
>e acknowledged by the Confederate
rovernment, but really in order to
irevent (ion. Lee's army from being
einforced by the rebel soldiers whom
ie held at Chicago and Point Look
rot.
EXTENSIVE BANK ROBBERIES.-The
?let has just been made public that
xtensive bank robberies have lately
>een committed in the States of ( )hio,
'ennsylvania and Indiana, amounting
il the aggregate to nearly three hun?
ted thousand dollars. From inform
tion received at Chicago from Cleve
ind, Ohio, a man named Love was
rrested Sunday afternoon last, by
he police of the former city, and
hirty-one thousand dollars in bonds
diich had been stolen were found in
is possession.
-?.? :-.
Isaac WiHiams, a Virginian, has
eon sentenced to three years im
risonnient and a fine <>f ??1,000 for
isregarding his oath of allegiance.
Xiocal Items.
"Cotton Blanks" and permita- indispen?
sable to all persons purchasing or shipping
cotton-can bo-obtained at this office.
We owe to Messrs. Speck & Polosk a spe?
cial bottle of the "Mumm Champagne"-a
brand of peculiar virtues and high reputa?
tion.
MAIL FACULTIES.-A iaily mail leaves
th'.? city at 4 p. m., by stage, for Winns
j boro, Charlotte and the North. This is
I pleasing intelligence, and wc hope in a few
! days to be able to report the opening of
other rontes.
Dav Goons COMMISSION HOUSE..-Parties
in search of dry goods aro referred to thc
advertisement of Messrs. Edgerton &
j Richards, who have recently opened a large
wholesale and jobbing house at No. 32and,
34 Broad Btreot, Charleston. The?gentle?
men forming the linn arc well and favora?
bly known by thc business community in
j nearly every section of thc State.
! ASSAULTS AND RopBEiiiES.-Wc have been
j informed that assaults and robberies have
I been committed on some of our citizens on
on.- or two evenings of last week, but we
j are pleased to learn that the military au
I thorities at this post are making arrange?
ments to have an efficient police on duty
throughout thc city, so that we may not
expect a repetition of these outrages.
Tnuoucu IN TUREE DAYS.-To thc kind?
ness of J. P. Southern, Esq., we aro in?
debted for a copy of the New York Herald,
I of the 28th instant-just three days o?d?
as it was received here on Sunday morning.
Mr. S. has also furnished us with late Phi- .
ladclphia, Richmond and Petersburg pa
I p< rs. The Southern Express Company
also came to the rescue again, Sunday
I morning, with a full supply of Richmond,
j Wilmington and Winnsboro papers. In
j these days of irregular mails, such favors
arc highly appreciated.
TUE CAPTURE .VN? DESTRUCTION OF THE
j CITV OF COLUMBIA, S. C.-Originally Pub?
lished in liir Columbia Pktenix-Revised
and Corrected, by the. Author.-About the
middle of October, thc above work will bc
issued from the prcr-.s of the Columbia,
Phcenix-printed with new type and on tine
paper. Persons desiring copies are re?
quested to give their names as early as
? possible. Single copies will bc furnished ai
$l."S?Thc trade supplied at a discount.
NEW ADVERTISEMENTS.-Attention is call?
ed to the following advertisements, which
are published for tho first time this morn
hag:
Fenner. Bennett A Bowman-Com. Mer's.
Durbec A Walter-Furniture, Ac.
P. Cantwell-Goshen Butter.
*W. Simons-Estray Mule.
Nomination of Wm. Shiver for Legisl'rc.
Calnan & Kreuder-Just Received.
Richard Caldwell-- Groceries.
Hardy Solomon A Co.-Bolting Cloth.
Nomination of Candidates for Legisla're.
Apply at this Office-Room to Rent.
Udolpho WoHe-To the Citizens of S. C.
A. fi. Solomon-Confed'te Bonds Wanted.
F. H. Elmore-Removal of Clerk's Oftice
THRILLING SCENE-On Sunday,
while the lire in the woods at Cedar
Swamp was at its height, an extra
train of sixteen cars, bringing the
Fourteenth Maine Regiment, on their
way home to Augusta, came over the
Eastern Railroad. On either side of
the track' the flames rose forty feet
high, the noise drowning the sound
of the train. It was a fearful sight to
behold. The oil- on the wheels took
tire, and along the train were seen
revolving wheels of fire, while the
seven hundred officers and men of the
Fourteenth were, nearly smothered in
the dense smoke. Fortunately the
long train drawn by the "Cape Ann"
?rent through the tembl? ordeal
without accident, and ns the cars
'merged beyond the burning district,
he smoke rushed from the car win
lows into the ai?, giving an appear?
ance of a train on fire.-Portsmouth
X. J I. J Chronicle, Sept. 16.
AN IMPORTANT DECISION.-Owing to
he financial straits to* which a major-:
ty of the Southern people have found
hemselvcs reduced, now that the war
s ended, to their want of information
u regard to the requirements of the
nternal Revenue law, and for other
easons, the Secretary of the Treasury
as ordered that all articles in the
itely rebellious States which can be
liown to have been manufactured
efore the establishment of the col
action district in which they are
tund, shall be held free from the
resent assessment or collection of
,x, unless transported beyond the
bate limits.-Salisbury Watchman.
They are neither true friends of the
resident nor of thc colored people,
ho attempt to**exciie distrust of his
tentions. He will do for the freed
en what he believes it his duty to
>, not what Thad. Stevens or Gen.
itleifltells him he must and shall do
[Sjiri>oifield Republican.