Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1851-11-15
New Orleans at Present.

INC" OEx06Q0 az 3AV00A~
One who has been acquainted with New Or
leans for a number of years, and who has been
in the habit of visiting it periodically, could
not fail to observe at present the great number
of new and elegant buildings which have late
ly gone up, changing the whole appearance OF
some streets, particularly in the Second NUM-
cipality and in noticing likewise the extreme
business dearth for this season of the year, and
the great scarcity of strangers from the West
ern and Middle States. This evil grows out
of the unusually low stage Of water at this
time of all the western rivers; and We think
| that the distress which this circumstance brings
upon the business community of the city, will,
now that reform and progress are SO loudly
called for, ultimately tend to their advantage,
by %arousing them from their lethargy, and uni
ting them upon some method to prevent the re-
currencc of such evils. Indeed, the present
inanimate appearance of the city-more imme-
diate'y exhibited by the vacant wharves and
the deserted appearance of the steamboat land
ings, comparatively speaking-is the best argu-
ment that can be adduced for the necessity of
Railroads. that the city's prosperity should not
be dependent upon the caprice of the various
, streams which flow into the Mississippi, but at
| all times have a regular trade and commerce
at all lines offering a speedy transit for exports
and imports of every description, to and from
every part of our country.
No one can presume to calculate the gran
| deur which New Orleans will reach, even with
in a period of q quarter of a century, if her
energies be not cramped and her course retard-
ed by unwise and injudicious legislation. Look
ing back to its situation fifteen or twenty years
| ago, we could not have believed it would have
reached its present climax of greatness so
swiftly and SO surely. Its strides have been
magical and mighty. Large numbers of her
citizens, almost pennyless at the period refer
red to, are now through the exercise of ener-
gy and industry, distinguished for their wealth
and influence and quicker and greater fortunes
are yet to be made by shrewd and far-seeing
men, taking advantag &C of the still swifter strides
in wealth and importance which New Orleans
is still destined to make, if assisted by laws
10 aid the expansion of the strength and in
dustry of its citizens.
The day is not far distant, in our opinion,
when one continuous street will reach from the
liver to the lake. Several new and beautiful
roads are now opening in this direction, with
4 branch of the Carrollton railroad in progress
squares of lots being laid off and cross streets
made where WAS a dense forest a short time
back-and many other indications, all pointing
to the speedy consummation of rendering Lake
Pontchartrain one of the boundaries of the
city.
Let the people of New Orleans, then, look
to their interests well-keep on in the same
spirit for improvement and progress which they
have manifested in the delegation they have
lately elected to, the Legislature-and the
course of their great city viii! be triumphant
and onward. But let our lawmakers cramp
her energies, confine to narrow limits her pecu.
mary resources, and thus cause her TO be una
bic to aid in the construction of railroads and
other internal improvements-deeply injuring
her merchants and other business men, by ma
king them dependent upon navigation alone
for their prosperity--and many such scenes as
The present will be exhibited in New Orleans,
eventually scattering her capital, and ever rest
ing as an incubus upon the energy and indus
try Of her citizens.