From Norfolk.
[special correspondence of the Dispatch.]
The monotonous tramp of squads of soldiers, the rumble of army wagons, and the rapid galloping of war-steeds, give a military appearance to our streets; such evidences of war as are also common in your city of hills and inclined planes, crowded hotels, monuments, manufactories and Yankee-prison houses.
Some of our retail stores are well patronized by cash customers, and with some houses there are considerable wholesale transactions pertaining to the war. Our business streets and wharves, however, present a very different appearance now from that which was witnessed here several months ago, when large piles of cotton bales obstructed the sidewalks and piers, and a hundred thousand bushels of North Carolina corn changed hands weekly, besides heavy operations in lumber, bacon, dried fruit, hides, &c. Our wide and deep harbor is not obstructed at this time, as heretofore, by a fleet of a hundred sailing vessels and thirty steamers. But this is all as it should be. The knowing ones say that instead of doing a mere coasting trade — shipping our produce to New York and Boston, thence to be re-shipped to Europe — a heavy and profitable foreign trade will certainly be done here, when the Yankees shall have been sufficiently whipped, and our port shall be open to the sea and to the world.
Yesterday a difficulty occurred between a colored bar-keeper in the restaurant of Mr. Wm. S. Pepper. and a soldier, who discharged a pistol at the colored man, and also at Mr. P, a ball striking the latter on the chin and entering the bone, making an ugly and painful wound, which it is feared will cause tetanus. The soldier was arrested.
The weather here is quite cool and rainy, the wind having shifted from south to east, an agreeable change from the hot temperature and burning sunshine experienced here recently.
Our market is well supplied with beef, mutton, poultry, vegetables, &c., which are sold at reasonable prices:
Beef and mutton sell at 10c a120., chickens 15 a37, geese 50 each, ducks 25a37, eggs 20, butter 31a50, tomatoes and potatoes 12 per peck, apples 37 per peck, peaches (common) $2.50 per bushel, green corn 6 a12 per dozen, sweet potatoes 25a37 per peck, cabbages 4a12 each, cantaloupes 1a5c, (plentiful and very fine,) watermelons 3c a25 Fish are quite plentiful, though principally of the kind known as the spot, second only to the hog fish--price 10a12 for six of fair size.
The only case of importance in the Mayors court to-day was that of David A. Fish, charged with feloniously shooting Wm. S. Pepper. Several witnesses were examined, and the prisoner was committed to jail for examination before the Corporation Court. The weapon used is Smith & Wesson's revolver, which drives a slug with great force.
No important war news from this quarter.
Galeaius.
