Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1851-01-03
From the y. .. DeIta
Hotel life In New Orieank.

!
In New Orleans it is all three. palace for crea-
ture comfort college for the study of human ma
ture, and an exchange for money and appetite But
certainly, from the buildings exterior. you would
never imagine it hotel, unless wagishy told that 1t
was built by Barnum that immortal guardian Of
Tom Thumb and American godfather of Jenny Lind,
And who according divers of the Connecticut peo-
pie. is an intuitve architect.
Its builders were very modest men, and construct
| ed it upon an angular piece of ground, hemmed III
bv lofty stores and narrow streets and Swallowed by
neighbOring balconies, and garnished with oyster sa-
looms, fruit shops and billiard saloons; and all IN
such way that one is as long in finding out its val
ne to a CITY where fine edfces are as vet exceptions.
as was the celebrated fnancier. J. B, (whose
pen and purse control its destnes in discover
ing its value for investment.
| Some whose critical ideas Of architecture have
never vet been realized, (and probably never will
until they go to heaYen) unable to discover the
beauty of the building An imposing look it certain
ly has, seen distracted in the minds eye. from its
neighboring masses of brick and mortar, but in its
present site is only mammoth pearl thrown before
| swine.
Apropos. Oh, City Fathers Of New Orleans
clean out the hog-pens around the St. Charles.
But where in this hotel study human ma
ture
Imprmis il the large barroom beneath the grand
porch and reception hail. whose subterranean en-
trance from the pleasant air would mpar great sat
isfactiOn to regiment Of Goughites. and add new
spirits to their wacry eloquence. For in it Emperor
Appetite and King Alcohol hold their court in most
recherc style. There. of a winters morning when
the sun is near meridian. Or of winters evening.
when the damp air chilly nOrthers without seem
to say, all apr0pos Of sandwiches and punch may
be hundreds of steady. conscientious lovers Of
lunches and liquors. going returning. cluster
ing by pillar and column in social merriment listen
ing TO the play of knife and fork and the click of
spoons in heavy tumblers, and looking at the ruby
sparkle in the polished decanters Hungry men and
those athirst there get new appetites Those fresh
from the gombO soup. and the ham, and the punch
and julep rushing back gain unable TO be torment
ed by the mere loOker-on. Woe be to that deputy
barkeeper, who in this retreat is slow of motion. or
deficient in energy, or weak in constitution. treul
| bic to think of the juleps and punches, and nogs
and soups. and plates of fish. and game, and beef
and loaves Of bread. that have seen appear from
side doors and vanish like superior fireworks in old
Nlblos OF dry week. among the waiting crowds at
the long counter or Of the piles of dimes that each
devoted (yet willing in all his agency bar keeper
swept into the little holes to nestle in boxes and for
aught you or know, reader-in barrels below.
These crowds appear and disappear day by day
reentlesSy eating and drinking their way (lunch-
wise) into the early summer. Then the bar boys
| breathe less short; and punches and soup. from
quick consumption, get into decline. Hot water Is
uncaled for, jueps and iced ale in demand until
the sunny hours of August, when Yellow Jack comes
into town, and the room echoes TO the tread of
score or so, whom death disease brighten
from the worship Of the appetite: or who secure lv
acclmation, over their blinking glasses ice-r z
ing gobets laugh at the passing terrors of the grim
conqueror'
The crowds Of last winter where are they!
lis we'll we have SO large country" thought T.
asking myself the above question one September dav
as just myself through the yellow fever ordeal
stood in the room. One bar-keeper then looked sor
rowfuly over the airtenanted before him. and
winked despondingly as he thought of last winter
and of Tom this, and Harry that, and Ned the other
who We're now over the Alleghanies far away. trout
fishing in Ne" England. polka dancing in Sarato
ga, or flirting at Newport theatre bill of the St
Charles. three months oldone of the last night of
the past season, and as yellow as though sick with
the tever-hung mourntully a side wall an old
steamboat card. lis no less SorrOwful neighbour and
old shipping list hard by, hanging 10 their rusty
tacks with the tenaeity Of autumn leaves hickory
| bOUghs.
| But the bar-room below is t-ide.
| Turn to the left in the centre room above, about
| the hour of three, January afternoon.
The door opens. 4 hum of voices and clash of
knives and forks and spoons salute You stunninsly
! " hat is the occasion -! 4 gala day! 4 public din
/ ner
| You frantic walters dashing round going and
coming-darting here-dartng there; provisions
every where FOR army. surely.
Nothing but the gentlemans ordinary of the no.
/ tel The feeding of three hundred individual
/ bachelors and Cxlled married ones. who call New
Orleans their home for five or six months in each
year and for the rest hold an underlined position in
! the world.
! -AHoilS ticil although Il lew ola StaTerS to whom
+ Nudge and Wilson iworthy hosts, would YOU knew
! them reader) are fathers and mothers and nothing
/ else.
Dinner over. the inner and the outer porches and
the pavement fifteen feet below are peopled as if bv
magic, with crowd whose to0thpicks will accord in
poetry Of motion with the eyes cleaning so satisfied
above What, This large tooth picking crowd es-
capped from the ordinary just left! Whv not -
Very true, there FIVE and forty eating-bous
es just about aud eat at restaurant and pick YOUR
/ teeth on hotel steps Is a stale Boston Joke
Or Is 1t winter evening, and in the ladies' draw
! ing room last Lights CT beauty and gas and Jew
! els.
/ The weekly soiree Of the establishment
| We have the bachelor dodgers in their eatinp
and drinking and tooth picking WAYS Of life: behold
now the ladies with their husbands brothers lovers
and few friends from the outside CITY Marvellous
collection The blonde from New England and
the Southern planters son the brunette from Ala
| bama or Georgia, interior parish of Louisiana.
and the male representatives of Western trade Of
Eastern manufactures, of British mercantile snob
bishness. dancing amieaby risa-vis in the n,onoto
nous, untlrlng quadrlle whirlng in the walt
the gddy waltz. of course after the usual phrase
ologT or in that mysteriously born dance the Polka
| of which an American bard, long since despond;ng
| " asked
| Oh. Polka, Polka pray. how come Won 50!
I've asked ten handles, and the don't know
Here, too is modest beauty from Ohio lro,,o :; a.
pork trade; , therea dashing belle whose affairs al
Saratoga and the Sulphur Springs are vet warm With
sacr1hees OF her last admirers Iher third yin
ter al New orleans, and no husband yet1 In wonder
corner red checked, blue-eyed miss from, New Enp
land her grand parents snugly in bed the while r
the old homestead and little dreaming of tbe-ta
tnen1-degenerate conduct of their descendant Or