Part 12

In a city like this, amongst a concourse of strangers, the worst sort of men are doubtless to be met with, as in all large cities; but surely not in greater numbers. I question whether London or Paris can boast of less crime in proportion; certainly, not fewer felonies. Here, it is too true, a quarrel in hot blood is often followed by a shot or a stroke with the ready poniard; but for this both parties are equally prepared, and resolute to abide the issue: and for the stranger, all he has to do is to keep out of low places of gambling and dissipation, and, if in a large hotel, to keep his door locked; a precaution which would be as much called for at Cheltenham or Spa, were the congregated numbers equally great; although, in the latter places, I admit, the thieves might be nicer men, better dressed, and not chewers of 'baccy.

The streets, after nightfall, are the very quietest I ever saw in any place possessing one-third of the population. The theatres, I repeat, as far as my observation goes, might serve as models to cities boasting greater claims to refinement.

As a set-off, however, let the stranger visit the gambling tables, which are numerous; the low balls, masked or other, occurring every night, for whites or quadroons, or both; let him visit the low bar-rooms, or even look into that of the first hotel, which bar forms a half-circle of forty feet, yet is, during ten hours of the twenty-four, only to be approached in turn, and whose daily receipt is said to exceed three hundred dollars for drams; and he will, if such be his only sources of information, naturally come to conclusions anything but favourable to the moral condition of New Orleans.

The crowd so occupied, however, be it remembered, is composed of strangers, or what is here called the transient population, at this season counting at least forty thousand persons, the greatest proportion of whom are here without a home except the bar-room of a public-house, or a shelter save the bedchamber which they have in common with from three to twenty companions, as luck or favour may preside over their billet.

This assemblage is compounded of men from every section of the Union,--the quiet Yankee, cautiously picking his way to fortune, with small means and large designs; the gay Virginian, seeking a new location on the rich land of Mississippi or Alabama; the suddenly enriched planter of Louisiana, full of spare cash, which can only be got rid of in a frolic, having settled with his merchant and purchased the contemplated addition to his slave stock, and resolute to enjoy his holiday after his own fashion; the half-civilized borderers from the banks of the Gazoo, or the prairies of Texas, come hither with the first produce ever won by industry from the swamp or the forest, to see New Orleans, form connexions, and arrange credit for future operations.

Numerous as are these classes, they are yet readily distinguished by one who has seen and observed them in turns, and noted their characteristics, which are indeed sufficiently distinct.

The Yankee, slow, observant, concentrated, with thin, close-compressed lips, bilious complexion, and anxious countenance, may be picked out amidst a hundred other men, edging cautiously from place to place, scanning every group, and having, as it were, eyes and ears for all present.

The Virginian, tall of stature, thin and flexile of form, of an easy carriage, with an open up-look, and an expression at once reckless and humorous, talking rapidly and swearing loudly, frank in his _abord_, of engaging deportment, and assuming as though there were no country so good as the "Old Dominion," and no better man than her son.

The Kentuck farmer--whose marked characteristics are pervading all the States bordering on the Mississippi, and who, together with the Buck-eye of Ohio, will ultimately give tone and manner to the dwellers on its thousand streams--of a stronger outline and coarser stamp, as is fitted to and well-becoming the pioneer of the grandest portion of the continent, and of one who is putting forth the thew and sinew of a giant, to benefit posterity; his only present recompense the possession of a rude independence, and the consciousness of increasing wealth, to add to which his energies are unceasingly devoted; his relaxation, meantime, an occasional frolic or debauch, which he grapples with, as his father did with fortune and the forest, closely and constantly, only pausing for breath through sheer exhaustion, or prostration rather. His person is square, and better knit together than most men's; his complexion clear, though bronzed by exposure to sun and storm; his manner rustic, but not rude; with a self-possession that is evident at a glance, and which makes him at all times equal to any chance or change that may cross him. Good-humoured, sociable, and very observant, his confidence is quickly won, or lost, according to a first impression. Proffering largely, yet ever ready to more than make his words good; full of kindliness to those he loves or esteems; boisterous, rude, and ill to deal with, where he dislikes; capable withal of rapid refinement, and having a ready perception of its advantages.

The Creole of Louisiana forms another distinct specimen to be met with here, though seldom mixing much with either of the first named classes. He invariably conserves much of the air and appearance of _la belle France_, and can never be mistaken, offering, according to his disposition, all the varieties of his original stock, from the amiable deportment and companionable _bonhommie_ of the well-bred Frenchman, to the fierce _brusquerie_ and swaggering sneer of the gallant of the _estaminet_.

What will be the result of a complete amalgamation of all these classes, which one day must arrive, together with an admixture yet more opposed,--an admixture as certain nevertheless as is the march of time, but which cannot now be named, and which these classes would each and all shudder to contemplate,--an amalgamation that has already begun, and is in truth in full progress; and this increase a falling-off in the price of cotton, so as to render slave-labour less valuable, will infallibly hasten in a ratio perfectly geometrical.

Time is the surest emancipator after all; for proof of which look not to the prospect presented here, but turn back on the old States. At what period did philanthropy triumph there? why exactly at that point where interest joined issue with its dictates; the slave was, in fact, admitted as a hired labourer, when he ceased to be profitable as a bondsman: and that day will arrive here also, as surely as that the sun shines on Louisiana; and the lower valley of the Mississippi will yet be peopled by a free and hardy race, born on the soil made each year more fruitful and less pestilential, until it shall rival the valleys of the Ganges or the Nile, if not in the splendour of art, at least in the more solid and enduring possessions,--education, intelligence, and freedom; for only whilst so sustained can the institutions of democracy exist; these once failing to advance hand-in-hand with population, the whole fabric will, with inconceivable rapidity, be resolved into a rude anarchy for some bold mind to re-form and re-model.

One of the greatest works now in progress here, is the canal planned to connect Lac Pontchartrain with the city. In the month of February it was completed to within three miles of the lake; and as it was a pleasant ride to the point where the digging was in progress, I two or three times visited the scene, after its bearings had been explained by the two intelligent persons under whose guidance I first penetrated the swamp.

I only wish that the wise men at home who coolly charge the present condition of Ireland upon the inherent laziness of her population, could be transported to this spot, to look upon the hundreds of fine fellows labouring here beneath a sun that at this winter season was at times insufferably fierce, and amidst a pestilential swamp whose exhalations were foetid to a degree scarcely endurable even for a few moments; wading amongst stumps of trees, mid-deep in black mud, clearing the spaces pumped out by powerful steam-engines; wheeling, digging, hewing, or bearing burdens it made one's shoulders ache to look upon; exposed meantime to every change of temperature, in log-huts, laid down in the very swamp, on a foundation of newly-felled trees, having the water lying stagnant between the floor-logs, whose interstices, together with those of the side-walls, are open, pervious alike to sun or wind, or snow. Here they subsist on the coarsest fare, holding life on a tenure as uncertain as does the leader of a forlorn hope; excluded from all the advantages of civilization; often at the mercy of a hard contractor, who wrings his profits from their blood; and all this for a pittance that merely enables them to exist, with little power to save, or a hope beyond the continuance of the like exertion.

Such are the labourers I have seen here, and have still found them civil and courteous, with a ready greeting for the stranger inquiring into their condition, and a quick jest on their own equipment, which is frequently, it must be admitted, of a whimsical kind.

Here too were many poor women with their husbands; and when I contemplated their wasted forms and haggard sickly looks, together with the close swamp whose stagnant air they were doomed to breathe, whose aspect changeless and deathlike alone met their eyes, and fancied them, in some hour of leisure, calling to memory the green valley and the pure river, or the rocky glen and sparkling brook of their distant home, with all the warmth of colouring the imaginative spirit of the Irish peasant can so well supply, my heart has swelled and my eyes have filled with tears.

I cannot hope to inspire the reader with my feelings upon a mere sketch like this; but if I could set the scene of these poor labourers' exile fairly forth, with all the sad accompaniments detailed; could I show the course of the hardy, healthy pair, just landed, to seek fortune on these long-sighed-for shores, with spirits newly lifted by hope and brighter prospects from the apathy into which compulsory idleness and consequent recklessness had reduced them at home; and then paint the spirit-sinking felt on a first view of the scene of their future labour,--paint the wild revel designed to drown remembrance, and give heart to the new-comers; describe the nature of the toil where exertion is taxed to the uttermost, and the weary frame stimulated by the worst alcohol, supplied by the contractor, at a cheap rate for the purpose of exciting a rivalry of exertion amongst these simple men.

Next comes disease, either a sweeping pestilence that deals wholesale on its victims, or else a gradual sinking of mind and body; finally, the abode in the hospital, if any comrade is interested enough for the sufferer to bear him to it; else, the solitary log-hut and quicker death. Could these things with their true colours be set forth in detail before the veriest grinder of the poor that ever drove the peasant to curse and quit the soil of his birth, he would cover his eyes from the light of heaven, and feel that he yet possessed a heart and human sympathy.

At such works all over this continent the Irish are the labourers chiefly employed, and the mortality amongst them is enormous,--a mortality I feel certain might be vastly lessened by a little consideration being given to their condition by those who employ them. At present they are, where I have seen them working here, worse lodged than the cattle of the field; in fact, the only thought bestowed upon them appears to be, by what expedient the greatest quantity of labour may be extracted from them at the cheapest rate to the contractor. I think, however, that a better spirit is in progress amongst the companies requiring this class of labourers; in fact it becomes necessary this should be so, since, prolific as is the country from whence they are drawn, the supply would in a little time cease to keep pace with the demand, and slave labour cannot be substituted to any extent, being much too expensive; a good slave costs at this time two hundred pounds sterling, and to have a thousand such swept off a line of canal in one season, would call for prompt consideration.

Independent of interest, Christian charity and justice should alike suggest that the labourers ought to be provided with decent quarters, that sufficient medical aid should always be at hand, and above all, that the brutalizing, accursed practice of extorting extra labour by the stimulus of corn spirit should be wholly forbidden.

Let it be remembered that, although rude and ignorant, these men are not insensible to good impressions, or incapable of distinguishing between a kindly and paternal care of their well-doing, and the mercenary cold-blooded bargain which exacts the last scruple of flesh it has paid for.

I have inquired much, and have heard many worthy, well-informed men comment upon this subject, and feelingly regret the existing system; but it is only by the close supervision of the Directors of Public Works that this crying evil can be effectively checked, and the condition and character of the labourer improved.[4]

At present the priest is the only stay and comfort of these men; the occasional presence of the minister of God alone reminds them that they are not forgotten of their kind: and but for this interference, they would grow in a short time wholly abandoned and become uncontrollable; unfortunately of these men, who conscientiously fulfil their holy functions, there are but too few,--the climate, and fatigue soon incapacitates all but the very robust. Those who follow the ministry of God in the swamp and in the forest must have cast the pride of flesh indeed out from them, since they brave the martyr's fate without a martyr's triumph.

If a few of our goodly Cheltenham Parsons, the non-resident gentlemen, who so laudably desire to uphold their church, were to come here, they would find ample employment for their leisure, and might make hosts of converts; for courage and kindliness of heart are irresistible in appeal; and it is on these foundations, whether amongst the bogs and mountains of Ireland, or in the wilderness of America, that the Catholic priest of our days has built the unimpeachable influence he exercises over his people.

The gloomy picture of the labourer's condition, which my mention of this canal has drawn from me, may by some be considered overcharged; but I protest I have, on the contrary, withheld details of suffering from heat, and cold, and sickness, which my heart at this moment aches when I recall.

To return to the canal. It in all probability will never be used for the purpose designed, even when completed; it was, in fact, the bonus proffered to the legislature by a bank which required a certain charter; it will, at least, answer the purpose of a great drain, and so far must prove of infinite local importance, the more especially since it is in contemplation to redeem the whole of the surrounding swamp,--a measure that, if effectually carried out, will probably render New Orleans as healthy as any city south of the Potomac.

The police of this place I should imagine at present better than in the Northern cities, since noise or disturbance in the streets is a thing unknown, and after ten at night everything is usually still and quiet, excepting upon the Levee, where work at this season appears to go on by night as by day.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] These ways oftimes, in continued wet weather, become impassable, to the great injury of business: but remedy there is none, save patience; for any animal under the size of an elephant would be lost in the mud, swallowed wholly up.

[4] That this task would not be difficult I have the best authority for asserting,--the experience of one of the ablest and most honourable-minded men of this or any other country, Captain R. S----n. Finding on the great work, in the conducting of which he was a principal, the usual number of riots and disputes, he, with the practical good sense for which he is distinguished, applied himself to discover the cause: this he generally traced up to some real or fancied injustice complained of by the labourer, and quickly resented by outrage on his part. He next personally interfered, heard patiently, decided fairly, and in a kind manner made clear the ground of every decision for or against the labourers. In a short time he by this course completely won the confidence of these poor fellows, and not another riot occurred. In his absence even, however prolonged, any dispute growing to violence was quieted in a moment by one of the elders suggesting that they should wait quietly till the Captain came home.

No decision, however, against their views was ever objected to; and it was most gratifying to me to hear Captain S----n assert that he had never met with any class of men whose regard for even-handed justice appeared so strong as that of these poor Irish labourers.

THE LEVEE MARKET.

Viewed at an early hour, the large market-place on the Levee is a lounge of a most amusing kind, exhibiting at one glance a more striking picture of the variety of people to be found here than might be attained in any other place.

Here may be seen the Spanish creole, cloaked and capped, followed by a half-naked slave, making, with a grave quiet air, and in slow deliberate speech, his frugal market. Bustling along directly in his wake, but with frequent halts and crossings from side to side, comes a lively daughter of France, her market-slave leading a little boy fancifully dressed _à la hussarde_; with these she holds a running fire of chatter, only interrupted by salutations to passing friends, or nods and smiles to those more distant. Look yet a little longer, and, yawing along in squads of three and four abreast, you will see sailors of all kinds cheapening fruit and vegetables, together with cooks, stewards, and all their dingy subordinates. Here is the up-looking, dare-devil Jack of Old England; the clean, holiday-looking, well-dressed seaman of Marseilles, with large gold ear-rings twinkling beneath the rim of his high-crowned bright glazed hat. Next, moving stealthily by, with an uneasy, restless look, notice a couple of low-built, light-limbed, swarthy fellows, moustached and bearded, one wearing a red shirt and a broad-leafed Panama hat, the other clad in a white _blouse_ with a scarlet worsted sash drawn about his hips, a Montero cap, naked legs, and white canvass slippers.

These fellows might, on the high seas, be easily mistaken for pirates; here they are understood to belong to some one of the many snaky schooners lying here, hailing from Havannah and the various ports along the Mexican Gulf, and whose calling may be honest enough, but which certainly look as though the necessity of stowing a cargo had been quite overlooked in their building.

Meantime, circling about the outside of the building, stroll a band of twenty or thirty Indians, dressed in all the picturesque, draggled finery it is their delight to exhibit; the men half drunk or wholly so, thrusting, as they pass, their filthy fingers into the negro girls' baskets, and hiccuping forth some inquiry, to be repulsed by a monosyllable or a look of contempt and anger, the sight of which excites sorrow that any creature wearing the form of humanity should be fallen so low as to be subject to it. The squaws are never seen in this brutal condition; they crawl about with a load of light wood at their backs, or, having disposed of their venture, may be seen seated on their heels, telling their beads, or pulling their fingers through their thick black hair, that, if kept clean, would be beautiful, or in some other way tricking forth their charms to all advantage; for, though generally as ugly as sin, they are as full of coquetry as any _belle_ of May-fair, and as vain of admiration; of the which, to say truth, they appear to come in for more than a share from our tars, two or three of whom may usually be seen lounging alongside the youngest of the native group, looking things they know not how to utter.

In this market of the Levee there is also an abundant display of fish, flesh, and fowl, with as varied a store of earth's fruits as any one place can produce. In the month of February we had here peas, lettuces, beans of several kinds, kale, celery, pine-apples, bananas, oranges, limes, lemons, with sweet potatoes and edibles of various other kinds whose names were strange to me.

The beef here is, in appearance, inferior to that of the North, although fed on the finest pastures in nature,--those of the Ohio and Kentucky, but injured by the neglect and ill feeding consequent upon a voyage of ten or twelve hundred miles in a crowded steam-boat.

The creole mutton, I should say, is equal to the best in this country, being small-boned, sweet, and very fat. The great disadvantage the _artiste_ labours under is the not being able to keep the meat long enough to become quite tender; such is this climate that decomposition follows quickly on death, and here the man is buried or the mutton eaten without waiting until either becomes cold.

The _Place d'Armes_, near this market, is a large square, having an area enclosed with rails in the centre: here the Indians usually congregate, and within this a curious-looking group or two may commonly be found. To see the tribe at toilet is not a little amusing: some hair-hunting, catching and cracking this game, with a keen sporting look and an obvious relish of the pursuit quite _varmint_; others mixing red or white paint for the adornment of the nose, cheek, or eye, as custom or taste may decide.

I could not rightly discover whether these marks were simply directed by caprice, and assumed or laid aside at pleasure, or whether they were worn in compliance with some imperative custom, and having a translatable meaning, as some historians assert. Certain is it that I have noticed a little _Choctaw belle_, with whom I had established a sort of eye-flirtation of many days' standing; on one morning appealing to my taste by an insinuating streak of white lead over each of her bright eyes; on the next, giving my heart a stab from under a crimson half-moon; and on the third, killing me quite by a broadside from each chubby cheek, the right having at me with a ball of fiery red, the left exhibiting one of jet black.

The costume of these people, when divested of the eternal filthy blanket, is showy, and at times even becoming, and pleasing; bright colours, fringes, tags, beads, and feathers of the ostrich, parroquet, and eagle, constituted the raw material which the taste natural to the sex, and the love of finery inherent in the squaw, has to work upon.

JOURNAL RESUMED.

_Monday, March 16th._--During the last three days the weather has been warm, but not oppressively so: last evening a light shower of rain was followed by a lovely night. I am leading a dissipated life here, and engaged for every day I can yet count upon--must prepare for flight from this Capua, but how? that's the question! since up the Mississippi I won't steam again, that's poz!

Visited a noble packet called the Shakspeare, in which I feel hugely tempted to take passage, although by the route newly opened through Florida there is greater certainty, albeit with a good deal of hard work to calculate upon.