GALENA DAILY GAZETTE
OLD SERIES---VOL. XVI, NO. 167
NEW SERIES---VOL. I, NO. 48
Saturday morning, April 9, 1864


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PEN AND SCISSORS

--"The impolicy of the Government's turning engraver and bank not printer, is unhappily illustrated in the garret and cellar of the Treasury. Twenty-two hydrostatic presses are piled up smashed Northern machinists who supposed they were selling to Uncle Sam instead of an irresponsible and speculative go-between, are 'out' about $65,000, and savage in their grief. The Government is 'out' in experiments and failures about $145,000; and the magnificent Treasury building has received a permanent injury for the settling of the iron floor of a part of the upper story, from excessive weight."

--"On Tuesday morning one of the gasometers at the Insane Asylum, Washington, exploded, with terrific force, blowing the superintendent of the works, Mr. Feeney, who was on the top of the gasometer at the time, over a hundred feed into the air--of course killing him instantly."

--"The Cincinnati Enquirer is informed from a most reliable authority that very many of the advertisements of 'correspondence wanted,' published by women in one of the prominent papers of that city, are answered by convicts in the penitentiary at Columbus. The convicts append to their signatures, or state in the body of their letters, that they are in the employ of the government."

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REBEL REPUDIATION--REBEL CURRENCY

"The Southern press is quite jubilant over the result of the late rebel financial operation, by which all holders of Government notes, over a certain value, have been compelled to convert them into four per cent bonds, on pain of forfeiting a third of its value on the 1st of April, and the entire value on the 1st of January 1865. Under the gentle pressure thus applied, of course, the greater portion of what of it there is in the country has been funded; whilst some hundreds of millions, (there are $700,000,000 of it in all,) which are at the North or abroad, and cannot get back in time, will be a dead loss to the owners, although, we need hardly say, no more a loss than if they had been at home, and secured their bonds for it. The consequence is that prices are tumbling all over the Confederacy. There being less paper in existence, of course, less paper is required in payment for goods, and the Richmond editors chuckle over the phenomenon with barbarian simplicity, evidently looking on it as just as valuable as if it had been brought about either by the redemption of the Government paper in specie, or the voluntary purchase of its bonds by the holders of its notes.

It is scarcely necessary to say that the fall in prices will be but temporary, and that the upward tendency will show itself again almost immediately. The Confederate Government has no means of paying its expenses but by the issue of fresh notes, and the quantity issued will, of course, be in the inverse ratio of the extent of taxable territory in its possessions. In other words, the less taxes it can collect either in money or kind, the more paper it will have to issue. For purposes of raising revenue either in money or in kind, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Eastern Tennessee, have been lost to it since this time last year. Moreover, this device of funding the currency, which has proved so successful, and which the Confederate financiers dignify, with the name of 'taxation', is, in reality, a 'forced loan,' which is the technical name for robbery when committed by the constituted authorities. That is to say, those who happen to have most of the circulating medium, whatever it may be, in their possession, are called upon to hand it over to the Government, or have it taken from them, while those who were wise enough to keep none of it in their hands, escape without loss.

The natural result will be that when the Confederate authorities began to issue their notes again--and they have begun already--there will be increased unwillingness to receive them, and increased eagerness to get rid of them, owing to the general apprehension of repetition of the "dodge" which has now apparently proved so successful. This is but another way of saying that their purchasing power will be greatly diminished, and the smaller their purchasing power, of course the greater the quantity that must be issued in order to procure the commodities necessary to keep the Government going, and the more there are issued, the more they will depreciate, and so on in that infinite series with which everybody is now familiar.

We may, therefore, safely predict that during the coming Summer we shall witness issues of paper at the South on a scale as yet unparalleled; so great that we should not be surprised to learn that, by next August, ten thousand dollars was the smallest sum a Southern gentleman would carry as a day's pocket money, for omnibuses, cigars, "drinks," &c. At this rate, however, paper money would soon become as cumbersome as the iron money of the Spartans, and a man of extravagant habits would have to be followed by a pair of able bodied negroes to carry his purse; the Government would therefore doubtless, soon resort to its old plan of "taxation."

But as it is likely that during the Summer events will multiply very rapidly, and the necessity for prompt action be very pressing, the slow process of calling in the currency in exchange for bonds would never answer. We would, therefore, recommend respectfully, and with a due sense of our immeasurable inferiority, to such financiers as Mr. Memminger, that next time the process be simplified and that bankers, brokers, large retail dealers, and other persons of that class, be watched by trusty treasury agents, and that as soon as it is discovered that a considerable supply of the "circulating medium" has accumulated on their hands, they be compelled to disgorge without more ado. We cannot conscientiously advise that they be furnished with bonds in exchange. Paper is expensive, and printers are scarce, and the second batch of bonds would probably be treated with disrespect. --New York Times.

THE EXTIRPATION OF GUERRILLAISM ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER

The Lower Mississippi--the one thousand miles of the river which the rebels claimed the control of, not a great while ago--is now not only navigable, but is navigated by large numbers of commercial steamers. Boats with heavy freight and crowded with passengers are constantly passing to and fro between New Orleans, Natchez, Vicksburg, Memphis, etc., and from the last named point diverge to St. Louis and Louisville, of course, safely as ever. In the long stretch of hostile country from the Delta up to Cairo, the rebel interruptions and eruptions, which were foreshadowed as something so terrible as well as effective, had never amounted to very much, since the fall of Vicksburg, and of late months have hardly amounted to anything. Boats are rarely fired upon by guerrillas, and still more rarely damaged. We do not think that there have been two dozen commercial steamboats attacked since the opening of the year, although many hundreds have passed down and up. Traveling on the river is certainly, taking all things into account, not nearly as dangerous now-a-days as in the old times of high-pressure engines.

Various reasons may be assigned for the rebel failure to carry out their threatened programme of operations against us on the Mississippi River. One reason, doubtless, is, that they cannot afford to spare men for desultory and fruitless operations of this nature, but require the concentration of all their forces at, or within reach of, vital points. Another, and we think the controlling reason is, the peremptory and decisive retribution that was administered upon river guerrillas, and upon all who aided and abetted them, when first they attempted their cowardly tricks of firing upon passing trading steamboats. Farragut and Porter caused it to be announced along the river that these marauders would be dealt with in the most summary manner; that planters who harbored them would have their houses burned to the ground, and that towns which gave them refuge or protection would be demolished. The towns of Bayou Sara, Morganza, Donaldsonville, Grand Gulf and others, and the hundreds of blackened chimneys along the river, give proof that the threat was not an idle one. Such retribution for crime--such hunting down of the criminals--such ceaseless surveillance everywhere as has been kept up by such terrible gunboats as the Essex, taught the rebels a lesson which even rebels and murderers could not ignore. As a consequence, guerrilla operations on the river have all but ceased, and it is only now and then that we hear of a steamboat having been fired at--generally harmlessly.

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LOCAL MATTERS

MILLS

"Ten mills make one cent. Harry MILLS makes one grocery dealer at No. 163 Main street. The passer-by is requested to notice that new and beautiful sign of his.

-- Mark W. C. LEEKLEY has retired from the firm of LEEKLEY & MILLS, and Mills will continue the business alone. See advertisement."

SMART 'FELLOW'

"The local of the Rockford Democrat evidently thinks he's his mother's wonderful child. In an item of his in the Democrat, the following sentence occurs: 'You say I am handsome, and I will say so of you.'

We might do that for you, Mr. Local, if you would hide those ears of yours; but you stick them up every week to such length that it spoils your beauty."

ELECTION RETURNS

"The returns of the township elections in this County are all in. The Copperheads carry West Galena, Wards one, two and three in the city, Vinegar Hill and Pleasant Valley. All the remaining towns and wards are Union. The new Board of Supervisors is composed of 21 Union men and 7 Copperheads."

HORRIBLE MURDER IN WISCONSIN

"A horrible murder was committed in the town of Newark, Rock county, Wis., on Tuesday evening, the 26th ult.; the victim being Mr. Levi GRANT. He was seated in his room reading, when a rifle was discharged at him from without, the ball passing through the window and entering his head near the ear. He lived but a few minutes. The murderer has not yet been detected."

JEFF DAVIS' FAST DAY

"Yesterday, if we are not mistaken, was the day of fasting and prayer appointed by Jeff Davis. We are not aware that is was publicly observed by his followers in this city. Indeed, since the late elections, we guess they are in a better humor for swearing than for praying. We suggest to 'Petroleum O. Nasby, d------d' that he would do well to come along this way and organize a branch of his celebrated 'church uv the slawtered innercents.' He and his leading deacon, Dr. Olds, could find just the right kind of material here for the building up of their copperhead Zion."

ROUGH WEATHER

Yesterday was a rainy, windy day. All along Main street signs were creaking on their hinges, and the big hats, boots, eagies and mortars, hung out as signs, were blown hither and thither, and some of them were entirely loosed from their fastenings and blown to the middle of the street. It rained all day long, (except when it poured) and the mud and water became so deep in our streets that it was almost impossible to ford them. Oil cloth was in good demand; umbrellas considerable inflated.--Boots and shoes went down out of sight; dry goods clear up; elastics high, but not out of sight.

On account of the deep mud and bad weather nobody was in from the country. Trade suffers, but them this is fine growing weather for ducks, and we will be content with the consolation that 'there is no great loss without some small gain."

ITEMS

--"The first National Bank of Freeport went into operation on Friday, the 1st instant, and the second will start in a few days with Hon. J. H. ADAMS as President."

--"The Public Schools of Freeport are having a vacation of two weeks."

--"The members of the Carroll County Bar have endorsed W. W. HEATON, of Lee County, for Judge of the Supreme Court."

--"The Grant County Herald says that Mr. Nathaniel J. MOORE, for some years proprietor with Mr. J. R. GRAY, of the Sinsinawa Flouring Mills, and one of the best mill wrights in the Western country, has sold out and designs to leave for the West where there are a few more mills to be built."

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FORT GRANT

'Major Gen. McPherson has recently issued an order assigning names to the different Batteries on the new line of defense at Vicksburg. The whole line is to be known as 'Fort Grant.' There are twelve separate batteries included in this line, each of which is named in honor of some officer. No. 12, being a single gun on the left, is named 'Battery Melancthon Smith,' in honor of the lamented Lieut. Colonel of the 45th Illinois Volunteers. Mrs. Smith was received an official copy of the order." --Rockford Register

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New York, April 8

--"The champion billiard match between Kavanaugh and Tilman, was won by the former in 122 innings by a score of 1500 against 1265."