By the necessities of the times the question of sustenance was of general consideration. As the rate of interest and salaries of civilians continued the same, they who depended for maintenance upon income from loans or upon stipends for regular services, suffered from the derangement in all affairs. Debtors who before had such strong reluctance to pay their just obligations, that their hearts fainted in the endeavor, became wholly metamorphosed. They manifested a cheerful zeal to settle their debts, which would not let them await the coming of the creditor. For they could pay in depreciated bank notes, or better still, Confederate notes were plentiful and could be used in liquidation. A citizen of well known loyalty to “the South,” especially one of prominence, could probably refuse them in payment of debts, but such a refusal by others might lead to unpleasant consequences. It might diminish one’s reputation as a friend of the Confederacy, or worse still, if that reputation were already damaged, subject him to the reproach visited upon all “Lincolnites, tories and traitors.” Nevertheless, the pecuniary disadvantage of taking a depreciated currency, which was going down all the time, as a valid tender, was too plain to fail of its influence. The unwillingness and refusals of people to be paid in Confederate notes, at length attracted the attention of the authorities, and it was ordered, in the spring of 1862, that persons refusing to receive such notes should be held guilty of political offense and be punished accordingly. The order sufficed to correct the growing tendency, as no instance of an arraignment for violating it was publicly known. The civil law courts were still held, but with imperfect sessions, except the County Court, which met regularly on the first Monday of each month. Justice, in a capacious robe, with bandaged eyes and a pair of balances in hand, had been thrust into the back-ground. And its imitation, dressed in regimentals, with stern visage and wielding a sharp sword, stood in the front. In the sphere of ordinary legal proceedings dullness reigned, but the Confederate tribunals and the courts martial derived a stiff business look, without any pleasant animation, from the trial of offenders for disloyalty or treasonable practices. From an early period of the troubled conditions, the State Deaf Mute Asylum was appropriated to use as a hospital for sick soldiers. The climate in winter was too cold for those who came from Alabama and other Gulf States, and they suffered much from the inclemency of the weather in 1861 and 1862. The mortality in hospitals that winter was great--two or three patients dying daily for a considerable time.