New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-01-20
The Enyirons of New Orleans.
NUMBER NINE.

at the epoch of which we are treating our read
ers will recollect that there were then no paved
streets or shelled thoroughfares, and that very
often during the rainy winter months, or after a
succession of long wet weather, communication
by land was no easy matter 1t is true, in the city
some stage coaches had been introduced from the
North, and in the few livery stables, besides riding
horses, some such conveyance as an old country
caleche might be procured; hut after all in those
primitive times, people would not hesitate in tax
ing to q simple market cart, often drawn by pair
of steers, when bound to some country seat, or
even much oftener, take to the common way of
Professionalism. 1t was, then, in this latter way
that most 0f our first yisitings were paid to the
environs Of New Orleans, after our arrival in the
fore part AZ the month Of July, 1916 indeed, we
had duly honored the celebration Of the 4th at the
entrance Of the Mississippi, in the vicinity Of the
Baize, at which then was the principal pilot sta
ton, and also the principal entrance Or Pass.
Wen, after some little city accommodating, We
started then, on bright Sunday morning, on the
already described route up the river, along the
leyee, and following what was called the great
Tchoapitoulas road. We need not here repeat the
already enumerated succession of beautifully
located plantations, commencing from Delord5
street, and fronting the river in the direction to
that splendid sugar estate, the Iisaudais planta-
ton. We must now recur to what we have before
stated, that the great McCarty creyasse in the
spring OF 1916 had submerged all The back parts
of numerous plantations from Garrollton Point,
then McCarty's,) down to the city proper
Hence, when we reached the fine sugar estate of
the late Francois Livaudais, we were soon put in
possession of the devastation which this innnda-
tion had wrought upoS ssgreater part of ground
under culture Of tlsaa NM all the lower or back
ward parts Of the as had been completely
covered, and tile planting Of d crop of several
hundreds Of hogsheads Of sugar would not yield
the tenth part Of an ordinary crop.
50 itresulted, for it 80 happened that the com
[meyeial house in whose employ the writer Of these
lines then was became in the fall Of that year the
purchaser of THE entire crop Of sugar, Of very
lne quality, no doubt but only giving twenty weight
4 hogsheads. Now tllis FOR the moinent was no
doubt great misfortune Mi tlesowner, Tie worthy
Mi. Francois Livaudais, with whom, iii after time,
\ we had d much nearer acquaintance, and it was
one of the causes why the splendid residence Of
his, commenced about that time and never finish
ed afforded even unto these latter years, the spec.
/ tacle of All abandoned castle, so much 50 that It
! went often by the name of the haunted house.
4 (near Washington avenue in Lafayettel but vet
4 this very circumstance of the whole Of the hack
part Of the Plantation area being covered by the
i McCarty crevasse waters finally turned out a most
beneficial accident, in raising the same ground
several feet by the remaining deposit or alIuyial
sediment Of the Mississippi water. It was then
that the value of this plantation became greatly
4 enhanced on account of its being high and dry
land to its uttermost limits towards the woods; and
4 when some years after, q company Of SPECTATORS
acquired by purchase great part Of this estate,
the now beautiful garden district, or the Fourth
took its rise from this very circumstance Of the
overflow in ISL "a fter visiting this, we also in
spected some otherliyerp at all Of which
we were ever received with the greatest hospital
II MI, though mostly unknown to the. people and
walking, a circumstance which in some
parts of this country, wonld have been taken for
II sign of,J fennry, and been rather a drawback
IL upon cordial reception. But then ut that time
the country had not yet been oyerrnn by bands of
Il deceiving adyentnrers and pundering sharpers,
hence the planters and the country people il gem
II eral were hospitable and open handed ana 10,
II ceycd strangers with undjsguised cordially.
How their customs and manners have been chang
Il ed IN after times, and how, more particularly,
4 farmers and planters III tie neighhorheod Of the
II ely, have become suspcious and nhospitable, is
easily to be accounted for, when We remember
the nurnbelless cases Of fragrant abuse praeticed
4 by all -ihe SCUM which the world tossing ocean
4 has waited upon the devoted shores of the father
Of rivers.
But in those far away times, any decent looking
/ white man was welcome even in the wealthiest
i planters home and when calling or stopping al
/ a country place. about dinner time or at meal
4 times, people wonlJ Invariably be invited to the