Thibodaux minerva. [volume] (Thibodaux, La.) 18??-1858, 1856-04-12
from the New Orleans Crescent.
Five O'Clock-Saturday,

From the New Orleans Crescent
Five O'Clock Saturday.
There are some months in the year more no.
table and pleasant than other mouths; some
weeks that surpass their predecessors and sue
cessors, and some days colored with greater
eventfulness than those which herald or COM
plete them. So, too, there are particular hours
of each day that make the jewels OF the whole
and shine as burning diamonds upon the breast
or brow Of the bearer. The midnight of the last
days of December, the morning stroke of the first
day of January, twelve o'clock upon Christmas
night, the cocks growing upon the first of April,
are special and notable hours, big with recolec-
ton and freghted with remembrance. In our
own ilk, five o'clock in the post meridian of any
day-but five o'clock on Saturday, beyond all
its compeers, is resonant with business and no.
tably important to all whose pursuits are con-
nected with occupation upon the river aud its
great tributaries.
Saturday is par excellence the steamboat day
of the week. From an early hour of the morn
ing up to the moment when the gangway planks
are drawn in. the last passenger and his bag
gage-the mvariable gentleman who puts of
his arrival until the last stroke Of the bell and is
then in any amount of trouble to get on board,
has reached the deck. there is an incessant bus
tie, an unceasng tumult, a deafenng clamor.
Drays and baggage wagons, coaches and cabs
dash to and fro over the planking, in wild en-
deavor to make up for lost time; apple and Or
ange vendors scramble about in the most preca-
rious positions. in an effort to dispose of their
juicy merchandise; doubtful characters, in
doubtful boats, scull about under the levee, and
almost, under the steamboat Wheels old men
and young men acquire the vigor of machinery
and emit voices of brass, trying to sell the latest
novels or the evening papers; venerable heads
of families, who have tarried moment too long
to enjoy a stirrup-cup with some dear friend.
run along the hurricane decks Of adjoining steam
boats trying to jump on their own boats; the
whistle sounds clear and distinct above the sur
rounding noise the planks are suddenly with
drawn ; the deck hands gather forward and join
in a discordant chorus to the words of their lea
DER the great boat backs slowly out amid the
waving of handkerchiefs and bowling of heads,
drops few lengths down the current, points
her nose up river, gives slight tinkling of the
engineers bell, emits few hoarse snorts, tries
the escape pipes, and as smoke and steam make
great canopy overhead, starts against the cur
rent on her long journey to Vicksburg, Alexan-
dria, Memphis, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburg
or st. Anthony's Falls. The crew, gathered
forward, shout or sing:
''We're going up the Mississippi,
O-ah-oue;
Engineer, you let her rip,
A-e-ah-ah-ah:
and to this delightful ecitative-continued for
half mile, at the top of the lungs of fifty stall
wart ck-hands-the boat jumps along quick
ening her way, momently, as though an effort to
pierce and escape the din of the city. Order
then reigns-unless the pilots see fit to make
Of hoo oh
before them-in which case coal and pine tim
Der are burned up in manner indicative of a
wish to leave nothing for that grand conhagra-
ton which has been predicted is yet to arrive
A few passengers wander along the hurricane
deck, getting last view of the steeples, top
masts, house roofs, and other prominent mat
tiers of note that divide the heavens from New
Orleans. The remainder go below, look into
their state-rooms open some kind of social con-
versation, and endeavor by all the arts at their
to find amusement. As the latest of
the boats leaves an open space at the levee,
some defending packet pokes her nose into the
slight space, wedges her way inward, makes
fast to some strong post and vomits instantane
ously forth great food of life and merchandise
The deck hands and laborers, who live upon the
work and business of the levee, pick out their
and begin to transfer the floating
tors gradually disappear; tarpaulins are thrown
over perishable produce, if it threatens to rain
and Nature spreads her tarpaulin over ALL
Peace .reigns, except where some wharf-rat
moves secretly about in an effort to appropri-
ate, in accordance with the doctrine of equal
tights, from the pile of his more fortunate fell
ow. The police begin their patrol thousand |
amps make the city seem like sphere Of radi-
the levee is at rest.
We recommend all who wish to see the greatest !
panorama of the country, to behold picture
,ramed in no other city; to enjoy scene that is
without rival-to visit the levee on Saturday af-
ernoon, and walking circumspectly, from Ca
lal street to the Texas steamship landing, to
Keep their eyes busily engaged in inventorying,
md their minds active in chroncling the events
hat render Saturday afternoon, at five o'clock,
more busy aud active than any other hour in the
lays that make the weeks of every month in a
New Orleans year. Out of the turmoil and ex-
tement, the roar and hustle, they may carry
way something worthy of recollection. The
Gene is an old one to us-but so is the sunlight,
'ot the less pleasant either, however, from the
act that they have been seen before. Each day
las its peculiarities.