Wednesday, February 10, 2010

SIGN OF THE TIMES -- 150-YEARS-AGO


From http://www.uttyler.edu/vbetts/newspaper_titles.htm
DAILY GAZETTE & COMET [BATON ROUGE, LA], January 20, 1860, p. 2, c. 1
            A Bad Omen.—Yesterday morning when the "Star Spangled Banner" was hoisted to the mast head on the round tower at the Capitol it did not fling itself out the breeze, as it has so often done before on less momentous occasions.  It did not stand out stiff, but crouched about the pole in a very cowardly and unstar-spangled-banner-like manner.  Others noticed it—we noticed it and heard our friend Jones offer as an apology the fact that the wind was not blowing; but this is not satisfactory.  What has the wind to do with the stars and stripes of the country?
            It is a small matter, this, but big with some unborn event, that is even now getting ready to turn up.  It is a small matter this—as before said—a mere circumstance; but let us not despise small matters.  Have we forgotten the story founded on facts, of the sentinels falling asleep on the tower of liberty and being aroused and advised of the approach of the enemy by the cackling of geese?  If not, let us not despise small things, but take warning by the ominous signs of the times. 

DAILY GAZETTE & COMET [BATON ROUGE, LA], February 15, 1860, p. 2, c. 4
            Shall We Make Our Own Paper?—That it can be done is a settled question.  Mr. Thos. J. Spear, of New Orleans, who is now here, bears with him samples of paper made from bagasse, or the refuse of the sugar crop; cotton stalks, the wild indigo, and other indiginous [sic] plants heretofore supposed to be worthless.  The samples are good and will do; besides this he has samples of hemp from the banana and other plants and a good article of rope from the same.  Gentlemen who make a considerable fuss in favor of resolutions to put the South on an equality with the North in manufacturing at home, could very well find room in this direction to test their sincerity.  Let them turn their attention to home industry and home interests, and instead of appropriating to arm military companies and equip the State for mere buncomb [sic]; let them offer a bonus on paper or hemp, or any thing else calculated to develope [sic] our latent resources. 

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