The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1864-09-23
Letter from New Orleans.

FRIEND CALEDoNIAN: Returning the 9TH
er day upon the l. 8. Military Railroad,
formerly the n. o. & Opelousas,) from a
tour Of ST. Mary, Terrebonne and l-afourche
parishes, fell in with two r!"rgymen. One
vas the chaplain of the celebrated Illinois
Normal Regiment, which Is now guarding
this railroad irom raids--the old duty # our
S,h Wand which. by the way, has consid-
erably lost its normal character by the de-
nands of other regiments, especially some
Of the late Corps d'Afrique, for its school
masters as Cificers The other was a South
eyn Methodist, who owns handsome y an
ta,on near Brashear, and is one of tie few
whose keenness of observation and candor
OF judgment render them as good secular
as religious guides. Our discourse soon found
itself under the text What and how many
things seeth Yankee here nowadays which
he counteth as "so'thin' main queer. -
Don't you turn pale now that propose to
have YOUR readers talked to by the minis
ter>.' For ! promise them the keynote
shall materially vary from the pulpit mono
tone, and the " exercise shall be no more
extended than the conclusion of few
wot off, when they have arrived at the" But
one word more, beloved, and | am done"
Os course, the Firstly" of the queer
things was the weather ard climate. SIT
superinduces in me" said the chaplsin, "a Pc
culiar languor, whereby find it impossible
10 bring my reflections to focus; and, fur
thermore, think it has the same effect upon
all of you residents here who have come un-
der my observation" You just try to swap
horses with some of u.s. replied the preach
er, land you'll find We can bring our ideas
to focus ;; and, furthermore if you make
trade, it won't be many days afterwards,
before you'll find your own thoughts coming
together in hurry" agreed with the lat
ter, that, in any cline or race, the mental
operations derive their inspiration and activ.
lty very much from the nature ci tn. subject
matter; and added that there seems no
limit to the capabilities of the Southern
mind when fraud particularly and deviltry
generally are under consideration. The
preacher, who is Union ma, "in his way,
merely responded quietly" BY their fruits
hall 1, {.
others, dishonor."
This brought us to our secondly" oi
queer things. For We were whizzing along
an immense cotton plantation in bloom
iof mad noticed the white blossoms over
'pfeao an area of several arpents then, al
adjacent space had nearly half its blossoms
N oeautilui red, while the faal arpent con
tanned scarcely white blossom. | hat
heard that " cctton's Cotton" that the Sc.
Island is distinction OF quality rather thar
Of species, that the flowers are white. AMI
accordingly l enquiringly propounded to tn,
Rev planter, the theory that the difference
Of color might depend on The difference j,
togal sex, and was about 10 speak Of NAL
aud female pumpkins, etc, Il. e., "talk som
pumpkns,) when he good naturetly inloru
ed me OF fact, which, though had seen
SIMILAR phenomenon in my Vermont garde
lad entirely escaped me, namely, that tn
cotton plant bursts from bud to bloom /
pure red (nearly Solfelino,) and, 26 hour
Afterwards, changes to milk white color
remaining until the petals fall. / ha