The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1849-02-28
Innate IN NEW ORLEANS


the ingenuity of classification or consistency of de-
scriptIon The wind and the sun in New Orleans
are to one Thing constant never, but always IN
warfare. 1t would seem, upon thinking of it, that
every emlgrant from the different ATTITUDES. zones
and tropics of this terrestrial ball, brought with him
thitherward bit of his own home climate by way
Of a souvenir and that with the collected bits an
involuntary joint stock climate company has gone
INTO operation, which said company, however, often
llquldates, always RECEIVERS again, and continues
operations more vigorously than ever.
AT New Orleans you may often walk beneath
orange trees whose tempting fruit and fragrant
foliage wave aggravatingly in a chilling blast,
while your own body corporate is wrapped in
great coat alarmingly suggestive of Rocky Noun
tain clothing store Or you may often put a red
nose more frosty than jolly red rose that grows
in an open garden in the wintry air; whilst the
vioets blooming at your feet alongside the flower
bed you pass shiveringly, contrast admirably in
color with your blue lips. The '' bon-vivants' of
the Plcayune newspaper enjoy their Wanted salad
and green peas by a blazing February fire, obi
gingy remembering the while the health of the
Boston Post, to whom Is reserved the discontinued
luxury of reading the account of the astronomical
dOIngs OF his Southern contemporaries. The iced
Juleps imbbed upon one December evening are
succeeded by the grateful hot punches of the sue
ceeding evening: indeed often the two may sit
costly upon the same sideboard to induce the expo
sure of individual thermometric feeling. And b.
reas and the Saamander hold levees upon alter
nate DAYS
The months move along in diversified procession :;
fantastic the reveries of your country parade
days. January, who comes in with merry voice,
and who in some latudes is as dignfed and
naughty Russian prince, is at New Orleans as
caprlclous and teasing village frt: now de-
handing your Overshoes, and your pumps {:
now asking your Butcher trousers, and next bring
ing your nankeens from their last autumn resting
place in your chamber armoir. February is spite
fuI md, VIII tbarSb a
doggedly at your ears. March is the month for the
trial of patience: you nose balmy day for week
before you feel its breeZes upon your temples and
sometimes try in vain for the same period of time
to forget damp, muggy day, whose "reminiscences
hang about your system like some goading wrong
But April. ah, glorious month; and true to her
poetic character. January had his ducks: fat,
juicy, delicious every way, whether you sewed
them or roasted them smOthered them in pastry
for game pie; but April with her pompano "a fish
of an Indian name) draws ducks from the memory
OF your palate as soothingy as Parmly draws pet
tooth from its much loved socket May is like
many lady whom you and ], reader, have often
met: she Is cool on first acquaintance, (perhaps she
thinks her sister, April has been too familiar with
her gentle goodness but gradually warns to your
affection. June is the month for your amateur in
meteoroogy, the month for consultations with the
thermometer broling on your piazza. If it hang
high, and you, like myself, are a short man. you
must needs eye the mercury on tiptoe, for it IS up,
up, up, among the doubling twenties. And yet
after walking in the sun bit, TO return and find
the mercury ranging at only 900, a feeling of dis
appointment has you fast, that so much heat should
come from an s'only 900 day. have known
some silly enough to quarrel with the heat-measu-
rer, and get themselves where they would have the
mercury, at fever heat July comes, and New Or
leans takes breath her Streets relieved by the alb
sence of some thousands of her winter population,
who, in their disappearing, work problems in nu-
meratlOn; at first going by units; then by tens ;
next by hundreds; and if, under the favor Of the
Board Of Health. an epidemic get public an
nOuncement, the leaving is by thousands. At ten
O'Clock of July morning the suns rays drop upon
the city with power if the atmosphere all
filled with concave lenses of which New Orleans
was the focus. Crossing Canal street IA levathan
of causeway in its breadth) becomes labor
worthy tile reputation of the fire-king Grass
which grew prolifcly upon the pavements now
they had ceased to ring with the continuous clatter
of business heels, has turned yellow and sere. Old
residents assume an attire quite the thing for a
troupe of genteel model arstes, and brave the heat
in loosely flowing trousers, with bust vestless
and throat stockless the bust and throat of
your sailor dandy. Unlucky cts attempt their first
summer-walk with step and cast of countenance
betraying mind preyed upon by anxiety; some
with umbrellas raised (heatshelders); Others walk
ing leisurely along, endeavoring TO derive some
passing benefit from every little shadow cast by
balconies and lamp-posts upon the suns reflected
path. The thermometer is suky; are the vexed
Ganymedes at the soda fountains (Gottschalk, thou
prince of druggists, passing tribute your carbon,
the drawers of the gaseous liquid mOmently show
ing signs of giving out. The day draws languidly
a close; the retires from an Italian sky and
long before the evening gun has doomed from the
Place d'Armes, there springs up from the Gulf
delicious breeze, which is elyslanllke TO breathe.
Then how the ice-cream saloons resound with clat-
tering spoons st. Charles street is garden of
mint you'd think, to snuff its atmosphere, although
at all the bars the worshippers unto Bacchus are
few and far between compared with their num-
Der month or two back, when ale and cocktails
were the cheese and nothin' else" The parlors
of the permanents open to the Caribee scented
breezes and the frontward pazZas, and the side
walks even assume, by the aid of chairs and mus
lin dresses, decidedly social appearance.
August and September are like James's novels
combinations of what Immediately preceded them.
October poshes up and oils the hinges of the city
gates for November to open and admit the return
ing exiles, who by December have fairly settled
down for another season of varied business and
pleasure
The summer weather of New Orleans can show
heat it is true but paradoxica it may seem, it
has its charms besides An old inhabitant' once
expressed his eloquent surprise i'll this wise: when
we have the finest weather the people all go out OF
town; where of all the atmospheres breathed en-
joyingly by mortal man, can You find one more
agreeable than that around US of July evening -
"Ah July eUeHlng ~
"True, the day is hot from nine TO three
F'Hot A furnace is a kitchen oven to Canal
street."
"The remedy is easy; stay indoors till night or
if you must pedestrianiZe, a half pound umbrella
will see you through. And even should business
call you out, the Outward waited evening breeze
will make you quite forget the morning.
The So old inhabitant - was right upon one point.
II one could only get over the morning heat, the
weather is delightful. Often for weeks and weeks
scarcely cloud obscures the brancy Of the blue
canopy through which the sun moves in dignifed
splendor or haze deadens the pleasant glim-
merings Of the "sentinel stars upon the quiet
night enyeloped city. 1t is in the midst of this
peculiar weather, however, that yellow Jack so
briskly drives his death-dealng chariot. And many
an unacclimated sojourner has the summer climate
lured to destruction. have often walked through
the streets of an August evening, knowing that
scarcely house which | passed but sheltered
patients sick with yellow fever; and wondered
where. in an atmosphere so balmy, and so soothing