New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-02-27
A RAINY Day.

The fountains of the great deep were unsealed
over us the last Friday evening, and until q
late hour on Saturday the flood gates Of the
heavens were open and overfowing. The wa
tiers come down much in the manner Southey
describes them at Lodore;
"Dashng and flashing. spIashing and crashing;
And so never ending but always descending
Sound and motions forever and ever are blending
An at once and all DER with mighty uproar;
and this way the water comes down at Lodore'
The Horatian measure of hail and wind ac-
companied the storm, as though Father Jove
were inclined to renew in our experience the
stories of old and cause US to send up suplica-
tions that the watery storm should cease It
blew cats and dogs, and then kittens and little
puppies, throughout the night, and RECON-
menced with unabated vigor on the next MORN
ing. Some of the more elevated streets were
converted into brooks, others into rivers and
not few became standing lakes in which ad-
venturous little boys navigated at pleasure.
The distinctive geography of nearly all the gut
ters was temporarily lost sight of, and the high
est banquettes became the beds of streams as
suddenly created as President Walkers new
republic. For time water held undisputed
sWay-falllng In torrents from above and rolling
in torrents below; rushing madly from every
direction to swell the ''ebbing Neptune of Lake
Pontchartrain and the Gulf The Tempest y
at the Varieties had power to conjure up a rival
tempest, more potent to keep in than it to draw
out; with louder thunder and sharper light
ning-wherein the scenes were as animated and
almost as good as those which come from the
brush of Hillyard. 1t had more actors but
fewer visible spectators, and was not, to the
best of our belief, half SO well relished as its
competitor.
rainy day in New Orleans is thing by
ITSELF both in character and consequences
signal, especial and to be remembered. 1t may
rain as hard elsewhere for a few moments, but
nowhere else does it hold out with equal vigor
and perseverance; nowhere else does it so
monopolize all attention and rise into such
absolute royalty. The waters cannot run into
the river. inasmuch as the river is higher than
the streets. The cutters are not competent to
carry off the deluge so fast as it falls and,
consequently, in few moments the times of
Deucaleon seem about to be renewed. All wo-
mankind are locked in doors as despotically
here as at Constantinople, and of men, only
those who are compelled can be found wading
through unexplored streams and the beds of
torrents unfathoned and unmapped The
streets, for the time being, are deserted and
life seems to have gone into sleep. The cabs
ply profitable trade, and at the commence
ment Of the storm, itinerant umbrella mer-
chants reap rich and rapid harvest Shortly,
however, the continuance of the rain and the
growing darkness and increasing waters en-
barge out-of-d door existence The amusements
are not strong enough to draw out visitors, and
the street-lamps and vivid lightning combined
cannot irradiate all the dangerous depths and
lurking mud-holes. Loungers continue at the
drinking shops later than elsewhere, endeavor-
ing so to moisten their clay inwardly with plea
SAINT liquids that no outward storms shall be
sorts close, and their tenants go gloriously
homeward, singing:
II fear not rain nor hail, nor cold
am wrapt and thoro'Iy apt
In jolly good ale and old
Friday, in addition to its rainy character,
had darkness almost equal to night-some-
thing swarthy and ominous, which overlaid all
the other dreariness of the day and enhanced
the universal dsoomforts. The eye of faith
might discern the sun hang darkling in eter-
nal space" but to all other optics the fact was
far from clear; and when finally, after brief
interregnum of sunshine, the street lamps and
gas-burners Of the city had been lit suddenly,