Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1861-12-26
A Vivid Picture of New Orleans.

A correspondent of the N. Y. Herald
who writes from Cincinnati, as follows:
In New Orleans the news of the fall
Sumter was received with great rejoicings.
Lincoln's proclamation was ridiculed be-
yond measure. Men and. money were rais-
ed. The banks made strong, and all felt.
rich. ssi ,-rF
"This state of things continued till the
blockade of the month of the Mississippi,
about the middle of June. Then. you
could see long faces, for then We we were
seized by the throat; but when the trade.
upon the river was cut off it was lightning
tie pressure past endurance. Notwith-
standing the inhabitants bore up cheerful
ly; for relief was surely at hand and every
body knew, and no one dared dispute the
fact IN the month of October England
and France would interfere TO raise the
blockade. l wish 1 could imperss on
you the absolute certainty with which they
regarded this. 1t was unsafe to hazard
doubt about it. They would admit no
question on the subject. The coup at
Hatteras produced an alarming shock
People began 10 open their eyes. Whose
turn next? was asked. The weeks went
by: October was gone and no French and
English fleet. Then the "Southern heart"
down in New Orleans ceased to be "fired
Much despondency prevailed, and the news
of the capture of Port Royal completed
the CONSERVATION. Exhausted, poverty
stricken, trembling lest the next blow
should fall on them it is difficult to des-
cribe their absolutely wretched condition.
| do believe it impossible for the people Of
New Orleans to hold out three months
longer. The city is shrowded in funeral
gloom. The river looks like what it is
"a great waste of water; the levee empty
and deserted; no business after three-the
hour for drill. By half past seven o'clock
the street are silent. Northern men, who
were the loudest for secession, and who
control everything in business, look each.
other in the face ready to exclaim, "Whas
fools we have been." .s .-s-i
Meanwhile the pressure grows worse and
worse. The following are the retail prices
for certain articles of necessary consump-
ton:
Tea, three dollars per pound; coffee, one
doliar-burnt rice is now substituted place
ofcofee almost universally pork, sixty five
dollars a barrel; potatoes ten dollars.
hams, forty five cents per pound: medi-
cine, many kinds not to be had, the rest
at fabulous prices; Havana segars all gone
smokes a pipe-soms mis-
cradle penny segars selling at five cents;
clarret wine, very little in the city, and
the price enormous; brandy still abundant
-ayears supply said to be on hand; flour
fourteen dollars per barrel: corn one DEL
lar and twenty five cents a busheI; rice
abundant and cheap, also sweet potatoes
and various vegetables; also brown sugar
no white sugar; beef, (all from Texas)
moderately dear; butter, eighty cents per
pound; salt very dear: clothing about
seventy five per cent dearer than in New
York; shoes, do; fashions-alas, the Ia
dies have to wear their old clothes. &
Postage five and ten cents, according
to distance, and the mails miserably regu-
lated. The St. Louis Hotel is shut.
The st. Charles obont one third full
The banks do not pay out their own bills
only Confederate notes, which are not
payable at all but receivable for taxes and
subscriptions to Confederate bonds. Go
with check for hundred dollars to a
bank and the teller will throw you out two
notes for fifty dollars each. Ask for
something smaller, and he will say. Gall
l can give you. If you want small shin
plasters you must 60 to the broker and pay
one per cent for them. The newspapers
no longer print double sheets, but are re-
duced in size, and on miserable paper
The price of real estate remains firm, be-
cause people prefer to hold it rather than
take Confederate notes or bonds in pay
ments. On the contrary, negroes are
very cheap. For six hundred dollars you
can buy a negro worth fifteen hundred.
They are considered now "mighty uncer-
tain" property, but the hire of negroes is ex-
horbitant, great many French families
are preparing TO leave, pursuaded that bus
iness is at end till the close of the war.