The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1849-05-18
aSs,e fs{sai k5sslsisS,

MtW ksttnt MsatslHSi
BY sa advertisement Ia tina Della Of yssissday
the virtues OF new patent snsdieins--!stsly
patented and commissioned by the Governor of the
State of Lousiana-are made known to the public.
The price Of it is something dear to be sure, being
$500 year, together with sundry extra charges In
the way of contracts; but the article is SO ilne
model of the quack nostrum that we think 1t ought
to be bottled up and sent, without delay, to the
Patentoffice at Washington. The ingredients of
the new medicine rare A bit of clergyman
las the Rev. Sydney Smith would say, large
portion of the pedagogue, small quantity of the
Postmaster, and great deal of the gas of the
would be savant, have been mixed up together,
and then having been labelled Civil Engineer of
the Stale of Louisiana our worthy Governor has
granted patent for the article. The advertisement
yesterday is worthy the skill in putting of veteran
nostrum dealer though we are assured that it was
inserted by entirely gulless of literary ability.
We should not notice particularly this new speci-
men of quack-advertisement if it were not that we
have previously attempted TO show the public the
injury to which it was exposed in the use of the
nostrum, and as some suspicion has been expressed
the part of Mr.. Vox Populi that we should be so
incorporating in our opposition to the new mix
ture. The public, which in the last few days have
so seriously experienced the necessity for sound
engineering knowledge and experience, will under
stand why we strong in our hostility to the
article which the Governor has attempted TO foist
on us as a Civil Engineer for the State of Louis
lana. The municipal authorities of New Orleans
have shown that they placed the same value on
Mr.. Woodridge's engineering capacity that we do;
for they have sent to Mobile in order to get Mr..
Grant to come and stop the crevasse. So even
though Gov Johnson has declared by his appoint
ment of Mr.. Woodbridge that, he is, in the words of
the statute, skilled in the theory and practice of
Civil Engineering" yet the municipal authorities
are unwilling to believe that commission can
bestow knowledge and experience. They prefer to
trust the crevasse and the safety of the city to
man who has not received the endorsement of Gov.
Johnson.
Mr.. Woodbridge and his friends have several times
attempted to change the issue between themselves
ard the Crescent. They have tried to make it ap-
pear that oppose the State Engineer because he
has piety and learning. If Mr.. Woodbridge is en-
dowed with more than ordinary piety why did he
not stick to the sacred desk Does he like Israel
of old, dislike the desert and banker still after the
fesh-pots of Egypt! Is it the $500 per annum
which have lured him from the focks that may
await MS tenOlTS OF is IL, peTcHdnce, because tDe
focks found that he could not dispense to them the
bread Of life and wandered from his CHARGE that he
now seeks employment in more worldly and lucra-
tive occupations As TO his learning it seems to
consstfin suggesting Latin signatures to his de-
tenders, and in talking nonsense about " the folly
and madness of the widest epochs of the first
French revolution" We are not endowed with a
large share of sagacity or learning; but we know
hawk from hernshaw," and we can distinguish
in some degree between truly scientific man and
a vain and ignorant pretender. We want nothing
more than the Suggestions which Mr. Wool
bridge published in the Picayune the oter day, in
order convince us that his science is shallow and
his experience imperfect. Weakness, incapacity,
and ignorance, are stamped upon every line of that
communication; and these qualities are only re-
lieved by an effort to make the public believe that
the writer possesses a knowledge far too profound
for the understandings of common folks. Again,
we say to Mr.. Woodbridge and his friends, that we
wage an eternal war with humbugs of all sorts
and especially will we be untirng in our efforts to
expose ignorance and pretenton when they usurp
those places in which science and experience
would be Of vast service to the community.