New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1855-07-19
ACCORDING TO OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.
The following. from the Washington cores
pendent of the New York Courier and Enquirer,

| pondent of the New York Courier and Enquirer,
appeared in that paper Of the 18th instant:
Capt Bowman who superintends the building depart
ment has nearly completed extensive and thorough
tour Of duty from Texas to Maine, undertaken for the
purpose of selecting sites for the minor custom
houses about be built and determining the proper
materials to be used His report will be full OF interest
The immense structure at New Orleans which though
yet unfinished, has cost over three mions OF dollars
gradually sinking into the marsh of the Mississippi aud
Will probably disappear about the time that shall
have transferred other point in the South the
mercantile supremacy of the Crescent City.
OF course; it would be miracle if New Or
leans should escape snarling notice whenever
an appropriation is made for improvements in
the city or its immediate neighborhood. We
have become used to such things; 30 much so,
that we were hardly surprised when certain
papers in the North appeared to rejoice over the
awful ravages Of the epidemic of 1858, charging
all to the account of slavery, when not one in
twenty of the victims ever owned, or ever ex-
pected to own, a slave. But it seems to us that
these letter writer's, in their desire to injure
New Orleans, rather oyershoot the mark. They
put too little of the spice of truth in their enor
| nous dish of falsehood to make it 60 down with
the public They do not keep probability in
view sufficiently to enable their calumnies to
work the intended mischief. Wethrow out these
observations, in order that they may have fair
opportunity of improving in their labor Of SLAM
der and villifcation; not with the remotest
hope, however, that the future will be more
fraught with past.
The remark of the correspondent Of the Con-
| rier and Enquirer respecting the :" sinking of
the new Custom house " into the marsh of the
Mississippi" is as destitute Of truth as it well
could be- Marsh of the Mississippi 2 forsooth /!
Why, the Artesian well has been bored nearly
five hundred feet through that same marsh, u
and so far the Indications are that its uppe1
crust I has not yet been entirely perforated
The building is solid and substantial; and il
it does not sink until 4 railroads shall have
transferred to some other point in the South the
mercantile supremacy Of the Crescent City,, we
will all be content. When the Custom house
disappears beneath the aforesaid " marsh p
what an immense hole would be made, almost
as big as the falsehoods daily told about New
Orleans 1--WE will be willing to forego and sur
render all claims to any description of supre-
macy" mercantile or otherwise
Equally untrue are the estimates Of the COR
respondent regarding the amount of money ez :
pended in the erection of the new Custom house
He says it has already cost ouer three millions
Of dollars. A more incorrect statement never
appeared in the columns Of public print, as
we will proceed to show by giving the amounts
and dates Of appropriations, requesting the
reader to bear in mind that there is an une1-
pended balance on hand a&