[correspondence of the Richmond Dispatch.]
Things in Georgia.
Augusta, Ga., Feb. 1, 1862.
I have been visiting some prominent points in this great Commonwealth, and am now ‘"lying over"’ in this beautiful city.--As Georgia is the Empire State of our young Republic, all news from this direction finds eager readers in Virginia.
Gov. Joseph E. Brown is immensely popular with the masses in the country, but less so in the cities.
He is popular with the people because they believe him an honest, sensible, economical officer, about whom there is nothing of the politician.
He is also an humble, pious, consistent Christian.
For some years he has been the President of the Baptist State Convention, attends prayer meetings, delivers exhortations and Sunday School addresses, and seeks to save the souls of his fellow men. He despises King Alcohol from his inmost soul, and never permits it to come into the Executive mansion.
It would be better for humanity if the same could be said of other Southern Governors.
Gov. Shorter, of Alabama, is also a pious man and a consistent member of the Baptist Church.
Business is brisk in these inland cities.--The average price of cotton for twenty years has been eight cents, and it is bringing that very readily now. It is being stored away and insured.
I fear the present buoyant prices and the prospect for the removing of the blockade will lead to the seeding of a large crop.
I saw pork sold in Savannah yesterday at nine cents a pound.
Though Savannah is blockaded, and has a large army of Confederate soldiers to feed, I looked upon 4,000 pounds of the nicest pork, which was bought at nine cents, and, while I was in, the seller came back to beg that the buyer would take more at the same price.
Ice is very abundant in Savannah at two cents per pound at the Pulaski; we had it at every meal.
I find the Dispatch everywhere.
In some of the cities in these Gulf States it is more read than their own dailies. 