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P' 7'" ^ l ^--YV X "f< *-/'P"* ~>Arr^r~ ^tr\ ~~~-f ' ' / v J *- 2l >r '-n*'-", '-.^ '' . ~y^ ?' VOL. XXII?NO. 40. CAMDEN, S. C., FRIDAY, FEB#AKV, .1?; M64. ". fflff SERIES?VOL. : lgSO. 1. ' . ' ' j ' , ; ''.. / "'-"I- . ' -*'' iBy IX. D. HOCOTT. T E JR. IMI S . ~ I Months, - 00 0 " - 3 (K) it 44 ... 2 00 Rates for Advertising: ' For one Square ? twelve lines or less ? TWO Ywyttars for the first insertion, and OXE DOL tAR and FIFTY CENTS for each subsequent. Obituary Notices, exceeding one Square, charged at advertising rates. Transient Advertisements and Job "Worn MUST BE PAID FOR IN ADVANCE. No deduction made, except to our regular advertising patrons. . , iiiMarmanaainiiim iiiiibi? POET'S CORKTBR. ilORGAN'S SCOUT. l. Drearily lies the way to-night, But though the mr on uetiy To our lonely tramp Iter loving light, Yet there is a star still shining bright From a watch tower in the sky. ' " Look in thy heart to see its blaze, And joy in the boon it brings; 'Tis liberty shining through all its ravs, And wo who watch with a loving gaze, Shall joy in the song she sings. in. Singing of home, and dear delights, When the strife and storm arc o'er: - - > ? i? ..ir-i .kin 1 Ana the tana wnicn never a mo .mn^u^, t . And the Home secure through the winter night, And love at the cottago door. IV. What though we traverse a tangled way, And danger lurks in the brake; Yet we grapple the toil with a spirit gayj Aud desperate dash to the sudden fray, For Freedom's and Country's sake. v.' Nor need we a moon or star to guide, While we joy in happy glow, U home delights, and our country's pride; And hear the treiuulpus vo'ce beside, . . * -In r whisper thrt bids.us /'Go!" ' . VL ' That bids ns "go,"with a pang and tear, . Yet bids us come with a laurel wreath:? Hurrah, for the night, though dark and drear, Of Morgan's Men shall the foeman hear. As we .sweep them tit' vn to death! totxcc* : yjm-. . .. ?? r?- - - 3^ISOEXjL-A.ISrEOXJS. THE RLCHMOKD BLOCKADE It UK SEE. The Richmond Examiner, in an editorial which combines an amusing parody on the i description of the ymniu in Mvrius, (oiieol'the | five volumes of Lts Miserable.*,) with a pen ! and ink portrait of the blockade runner, as bo Is known to the Richmond people, thus graphically caricatures the species: "This little creature?this Trochi his <>1>si~ dionalis?this blockade running tomtit?is full of joy. He has rich food to eat everyday. Jle goes to the show every evening, when he is not ? oh duty, lie has a line shirt on his hack; patent leather boots onTiis feet; the pick' and choice of a dozen houses. lie is ol any age? chiefly of the conscript age ; ranges singly or in couples; haunts auction houses; dodges enroll ing officers; eats cauvass-backs; smell? of greenbacks; swears allegiance to both sides; keeps fail 11 with neither; is hand and odovo with Abe's j v?? -- i ? - Ot ; detectives as well as with Winders Plugs; ( smuggles iti an ounce of quinine for the Confederate Government, and smuggles out a pound of gold for the Lincolnitcs; fishes in troubled waters; runs with the hare and hunts with the hounds; sings Yankee Doodle through one nostril and My Maryland through the other; is on good terms with everybody?especially with himself?and, withal, is as great a rascal as goes unhung. ? * * * * * "He has sports of his own ; roguish tricks of his own, of which a hearty hatred of humdrum, honest people is the basis. He has his own occupations, such as running for hacks, which he hires at fabulous prices ; crossing the PotoHac in all kinds of weather; rubbing off Yanke< trade-marks and putting English labels in thei* stead, lie lias a currency of his own, slips >f green paper, wnicu nave an unvarying and wvjl regulated circulation throughout this gipsy bhJtl. * \ * * * * "He is Kvcr satisfied with his pantaloons unless they i^ve a watcli-1'ob, and never satisfied with his \atch-lbb unless it contains a gold watch. Somi:\ncs he has two watch-fob; sometimes a scoK, uThisrg^HgEg of our social unrealities. He looks on ready to laugh; ready also for something else, for pocketing whatever he can lay his hands on. Whoever you are, you that call .yourselves honor, justice, patriotism, independence, freedom, capdor, honestly, right, beware of the grinning blockade runner. He is growing. He will continuo*to grow. "Of what clay is he made? Part Baltimore _4. 4- ,i:_4 4 T T>r....? ,1 r.?^4 I btri'UL uII I) prll I cJftlUUd JU>Cl IIIUU, UCSI pai u I and worst part sacred soil ol'^Palestine. What 'will become of hira in the hands of the potter, chance ? Heaven grant that he may be ground into his original powder before he js ?tnck up on our mantle-piece as a costly vase, in which the choice flowers of our civilization can but wither and die." GJl'SIES. At the la3t meeting of the Ethnological Sc cicty, & paper was read "On the Origin of the Gipsies," by the President. The origin, as our oiu Jingnsii nas it, or tiie "ouuanuisii pcrsous i calling thcmselve of wandering impositcrs and I jugglers," is at least a subject ofgrcat curiosity, not to say of ethnological import. Although, though tlieir first appearance in Europe was coeval with the century which witnessed the discovery of the Nmv World and the new passage to the Indies, no one thought of ascribing them a Hindoo origin, and this hypothesis, the truth of which the author now proposed to examine, was of very recent date. Their Hindoo origin was not for a king time even suspected ; he has, however, of late years received general credence. The arguments for it consist in the physical form of the people in their language, and in the his? tnni.u lAJYy Ul UIUII 111 i?;i rvui'u. . Tuawii vi iiiwov the author examined sopcratoly in detail. The conclusion that the anther came to was that the Gipsies, when above four centuries ago they first appeared in Western Kuropc, were already composed of a mixture of many different races, and that the present Gipsies are still more mongrel. In the Asiastic portions of their lineage there is probably a small amount of Hindoo "blood, , -Hut fb.ia h~<!;thought was-tiia-wosL-iiiat .can ho.f predicted of their Indian pedigree. Strictly speaking, they are not more Hindoos in lineage than they are Persians, Turks Wullacliians or Europeans, f.>r they arc a mixture of ail these, and that in proportions impossible* to he ascer- ( taincd. Dr. Short also read a paper. entitled j 'An account of the Yenadis of the (.'hinglepnt District." Interspersed over not onlv this district, but also over most parts iff Southern India, is a rude class of people, by some supposed to have been aborgincs of the peninsula. This tribe is known by the names of '"Yenadi," "Yiileo," '"N ader" atuK-'.Marannr." The word ICUU'll IS a COiTlljmuil 1>I .iiiiiiiiiwi, ui .1 I man who has no guardian or guide. Yilloe i and Yador mean heaters and savages. Mara- j nur, hnntcis or savages who live in the woods, i These people speak the language of ihe dis'rict ; in which thev are located, hut somewhat corrupted. They for the most part foilow no trade or occupation, but generally gain a preearioi:living as wood-cutter?, or by selling dyes, rduis and medicinal herbs, collected in the jungle.? In the Xellore district, they go about with long bamboos sharpened to a point, with which they transfix hares as they squat in the bush with great agility. J Jr. Short had made a trial of some of the these people as servants, and thinks that these, as well as the Yeandis of the Striharcc-cottal), might be made in a few years through philanthropic efforts interested in agriculture, and so redeemed from their arbarons condition.? Liverpool T'nncs. "When is a plant like a hog? "When it be gins to root. And when is it like a soldier? When it begins to shoot. And when is it like an editor/ w ncu it oegins to mow. Esope of Prisoners.?A dispatch from ! QueboCj Canada, says : Marshal Kane of Baltimore, and thirteen rebels, mostly escaped officers, from Johnson's Island and Camp Douglas, left here this morning by the Grand Trunk Railroad for Kevicrc du Roup, to take the overland route to Halifax. A duel was fought in Texas between a Mr. S. K. Shott and A. W. Knott. The result was that Knott was shot and Shott was not. Under these circumstances we would'nt rather be Shott than Kr.ott ??John Happy. A Mr. Shott and a Mr. Willing also foil edit, a duel, in which both were wounded. This circumstance gave rise to the following lines: | Shott iic! "Willing did cngajre, In dud fierce and liot: ehott shot Willing, willingly, And Willing lie .shot Sliott. The shot Sliott shot ni.'Ij Willing quite A spectade to see, BSmfe. willing shot went right Shott's anatomy. . l. ILLEGAL IMFHESSMEXTS. To the Eilitor of the Mercury : It is to be b'Qped tbatf the synopsis of that portion, or the report of the Secretary of War relative to iraprlssrncnts, and the harsh and illegal manner i ri^rbich the Itppr<&me'nt Law is "so frequently eiScnted, a9 it appeared iiutbe i^erCniy" 'of a. recept <htte, has been read and re-tead!byevery rnkn in the Confederacy," and particularly by that cl.ass";pf individuals knotfn as-^Impressing Agents. 'T'lie Secretary of War, Jn what Liesa^bat'expresses the views of hif^coantrymen atjargq!',; The proceedings oLimpressing-agants' afd^b^y'-'ilfegal- iii ma* 'd list abbes, 3>nt. summary andyinquisitorial.. If snch 'pfaccecl-. ings'werc practiced only jr> regard .to .tha-* pppciiy of men who, from not being in the" inilitait|;'?emce of the country, are at home to see th^t'their rights are respected, it might, peril a|)6, lessen, at least to a"Jimitod extent, llic wring and injustice attending tliern ; but when thpy-tnkc advantage of the absence of soldiers ininic army, in order to practice them successfujly?as is not unfhiqiiently the ease?the injustice of their conduct amounts to an evil winch cannot and will not"be-submitted to.? Tips feeling is shared by. very many in* the arpy,-and the writer of this, in the name of iiis comrades-in-arms, as well, as in bis own behalf, warns persons claiming to be impressing agents (ajiargc majority of whom ought to be in the find) to beware in future as to the manner m wiicbvthey impress the property of soldiers, ar i tliaC.for any injustice or wrong sustained at their hands, they will not only be reported to 'the proper- military authority/or a violation of fche Impressment .Law, but will be,made amenable.to a civil tribunal for tbeir conduct. T e.Impressment Law, though hard apd exacting, will, nevertheless, be cheerfully -submitted to :df properly executed. Soldier. Pocotaligo, January 30th, i864.' The,Law of War.?The law of war between ni lions, a law illustrated in every page of histcry, appear to be^this?that wars are few .or fr^.juent in proportion to;the destructive- pow't^gLoLthc annViii usc.iv..Wlicnr the, club, was thli only weapon <>r ntirifk and delencc, more j w;.s no peace: every knave had iiis club, ami clul. law \va> universal. When the sword and I buckler took it> place, war came and went with the season. s 'on a- the harvest was sown, tin- Uoinait wenf out against his neighbor ?>r liis ncitrli1*'?r advanced against. liiia. Gunpow-j der w:ls a great peace maker. Jt", with that in-1 ven-ion. war beeain." more destructive, it reu>ed j to l>e the norma! condition of mankind. It | j*rew more and morn teriihlu?more brief, j Nations t<*11 how ijrcnt the loss must be ol a collision, and statesmen began to a?k them- j sdves if I lie |>os-i!*!e <rain would eijual the in-' rvita'ole h>ss. X<? ?! pasrion, ignorance. j j i'rsonal eupiility, often over-leapt the bunds of reason, and plunged all Europe into horrors; hut the violence never failed I obtain the ro[roach of public opinion?the brand of historv. .,nd no rnier. however poweriul, can dispense villi the in- \-il support of pill die opinion ; and hence, however warlike, the most passionate lever of war will hesitate long, and resort to a thousand tricks, as iiouaparte always did, rather 1 hau appear to Europe as the open aggressor, of blood. r- _Vv*? P,,.di<li I ii?\UliIOU V/ll All.1V/ I UIHO I IV?." " t *. . arc not a verv emotional ]??. ?when we do foe! very strongly, we nevertheless think it ?ooil breeding to,betray nothing of the matter. We are apt to treat even a great feeling as the Spartan hoy treated the fox hideti dttiidcr his garment, suffering it to prey upon our very bowels rather than l?y any word, gesture or expression t"> discover what we are harboring. j This is our insular characteristic. Wc all of, us have it, more or less, from the duke to the footman; tin; excess of outward indifference ' being the allowed test of the highest breeding. Educate a man into the insensibility of a post ' and vou make him a perfect gentleman; ron-! der a young lady seemingly pulseless as a prize I turnip, and she is the perfection of the very I choicest female nature. This is (be discipline J ot high life in its very highest; but the frost descends to the very roots of society. We button up our hearts as we button up our great coat-, all the more resolutely if our hearts, like oar great coat pockets, happen to have auy- i thing valuable in tlicm.?JJouriias jcrroia, Many of our exchanges conic to us with an-1 nouncetnciits of murder or robbery The war | has been a sad demoralizer in our communities, j and God alone car. foresee the horrible condi-! lion of alfairs that will follow the declaration ! of peace. Bibles are better than bayonets ;j and nothing but an elevation of army sentiment I an 1 an improvement of army tnords throtK^f Divine agencies can save ns from the enrse of a nation. ? . "N, Cotton ' Uureau is id cjljbtpn.?A corres pondent of the Mobile Reyisit^ writing from HonstoDj-Texas, sap: ' ,y "General*Kirby Smith, .bj^: advic&J dt . many of our leading citizen^hae organized "a . ( cotton bureau in tbis city, composed of Lieut. Colonel W, J.. Hutcbins,. assisted, by George ... Ballj-B. A^Sbepbenl, Jatbes SoFb^ and-W". J, Kyle.. Itis the design of the ^oard to.-pur- > chase for the Government one-balf of all the , * * cottonin. tbo State,-.giving certificates kof. ex- ^ emption from impresstncntipr.tbe o^ber. halt (. . TlrAw riS'Anrtcft tA r*orr frvr rt in thft *v* " .<~w> ~?.:~: est of which at a fair per cent. - willj jpe.paid in 'Specie,rprbyided tbcy'cah.'securo anacfoW3on- -1..'; .'gres^,for the purpose?. Cottonis., nbtr - here 45 a' &5.cents per pound. This boardjjj peels to pay iromv12 to 15 cents^ and it is 'believed that one-half of the cotton will beV - j, ' cheerfully-sold to tbeiti at that price. They " ' ' $ will export the cotton, either through-the blockade or to Mexico, and in' return' secure'ample .' supplies for the depariment It - may be14 thought that the Federal possession of tb"d A v nioutii of the Rio Grande will prevent this. A * glance at the map will slio'yy. that the Federals ' have not men enough in tfie Trans-Mississippi * , Dcoarlihent to occnov the wh'cl'e Rid Grande . ' valley; and if.tbey had they could not feed them. Once on Mexican soil-cotton eari bef hauled at less than a pent a pound* $er one hundred miles. Hence it is that the holdingof Brownsville was deemed of.so litUeimpbjrtauce '.to us. . . 0% V- ' " The crrareicy >nd TaxAtio? Measures. ?The Richmond Examiner of'Friday.-says; "It has already been mentioned that the ' Cur- . ' tency Bill passed the House of Representatives in secret session, last Saturday, it was considered by the Senate on Wednesday." .and re ferred to the Finance Committee. The .Finance Committee still have the.bill before tberaj and on yes terday xtcre excused from attending * * * *. the session of. the Senate, that their time might be devoted to this important, measure. "The bill, it is said, proposes to rednce the TcdimdnV.'trcmrwey by compulsory fuMingand heavy taxation. Treasury notes now outstanding are to be fundable, for the first month after the passage of the Act, in six per cent., bonds ; the second month after in five per cent., and so on : and all those not funded before the first day of next December, shall be not only no longer fundable, but sisal! be repudiated and declared of no value. "it is reported that in the matter of taxation the bill eut> deep, the tax on the value of all personal property being ten per cent." \hrests i.v Nsw York.?On the 14th inst.; Collector I >urne\\ of New York, refused ? eloer. ancc to certain goods to Nassau, per steamer Olympus, viz: Gunny bags, liquors, leather and other articles usually dealt in by blockade runners, and which were consigned to Alexander llahwing it Fro., an agent at Xassau of J. C. Kaiiwing, now in Front Lafayette. There is a good reason to suppose that the goods wore fjf the rebels. Malcolm Campbell, a prominent member of the New York bar, was arrested trh the 15th,bv order of Gen. Di.v. He actod as counsel for Win. Benjamin, who is charged with shipping contraband goods to Havanna and Nassau, and the Government desires possession of certain books and papers belonging to the latter, which Campbell refuse to give up. t* t .&AST J.ESNES3EIS. UUI1 JUUIIgsu'CCb SCCLUS IU be doing a very handsome business in East Tennessee, lie has re-occupied the greater portion of it. and is now in a position to threat^ en Knoxville, the only stronghold of the Yankees in the Valley of the JLTolston. At last accounts his cavalry were only a few miles from Knoxville,. to which place ail the enemy's forces East of the Holston had been driven. Longstrcet's successes have resulted, no doubt in his securing a large quantity of meat and other food supplies for his anny, in which that rich country abounds. Beef, pork and bacon, wheat, corn, fodder and forage, were much needed by his army, and be has no boubt avail- . ed himself of every opportunity of gathering up these necessaries. His further operations will be looked for with great interest in every part of the Confederacy. The Sword Bayonet.?A general order has been published at Richmond that the use of the sword bayonet having.been generally disapproved by the Board of Officers in the field, to whom the question of its usefulness was re ^^^^k^nanufacture has been ordered to be dM^g|^"bbayonet will b*