The Portland daily press., 1866-11-28
Peculiar New orleans Custom.

A correspondent of the New York Times
| furnishes the following instructive account of
New Orleans custom which has not been
much talked of heretofore, and which bears
striking resemblance to what Democratic NOR
alists are accustomed to condemn under the
name of miscegenaton. Indeed, we cannot
see that it would have been any worse for pub
lie morals, if the parties 'placed" together, as
| the phrase goes, had been actually married:
The inhabitants of the city present strange
combination of incongruous elements Gre
oles Americans, Germans, Irish, and Spanish
and Mexican trash, with gOodly sprinkling
| of bona .jide Johnnie Crapeaus are to be found,
and more pleasure-loving, pleasure-seel1ing
community does not exist anywhere outside of
Paris itself. They are particularly notable for
neatness of dress, approaching extravaganza
in the way of ornaments, for every other per
son you meet wears a diamond ring or pin.
Even the darkes afford Brazilian pebbles, and
sport gold watches and Malaeca canes. To
Northerner however, the quadroons and octo-
rooms, who abound plentfully, are the strang-
est part of the whole compound, suggesting
very forcibly the idea of practical amalgamation
which would shock the sensibilicies of theoret-
ical Oberlinites The prettiest forms in the
city are those of the quad" and "octo" girls,
and generally they are the most tasteiully
dressed A neatly-turned ankle, pretty hand
and tapering waist, with a naturally airy and
| jaunty carriage, are almost q sure indication
of nearly extinct African blood. Color is no
| criterion and stranger will often mistake an
olive complexloned creole Tor nulatto, II not
something darker.
1t will be news to many of your readers to
learn that these quadroons and octoroons are
mi-legitmate--i. e. they are generally the off
spring of place marriage, which IS an instltu-
ton SO peculiarly local that but few, except the
residents of the locality, know of its existence
or understand its obligations. Among the pure
creoles, the strictest Catholics imaginable, a.
custom resembling a mock marriage has OBJ
tanned A regularly ordained priest offciates,
and white man is placed with colored
girl in such manner, that although they vio-
| late law decency and good morals by living to-
gether, they satisfy thedemands OF the church
and the confessional The American quad
rooms however, not being so strict Catholics,
and, in some cases having no religion at all ac-
cept an offer to be kept as mistress from any
reliable white man without ceremony Previ-
Gus to the war the place obligation was more
frequently incurred than since its close, and it
is the universal evidence of those who should
know, that it was seldom, if ever, violated on
the part of the females. They lived as cbas5e
and yirtuous to their "so-calied" husbands as
they would have done if they had been white
and lawfully married. LII was customary for
planters who raised children by their negro
| queens" to free them with their mother, and
i send them to this city to be educated and in
many instances the girls were sent to Northern
| schools and even to France. On leaving school
and reaching maturity they met their inevita-
/ bic fate OF Illicit se1ni-marrlage Young men
"courted" them after the usual manner, pop
ped the question" and We're referred to ma
| ma, who generally decided the application with
| view to money, demanding that a certain
| amount should be settled ON the daughter, and
certain number of slaves he given to her, and,
| in short, regular establishment be set up for
her. These young women, many of whom, as
| have already stated bear no evidence of their
African blood, except magnificent physique,
are thus pledged to life from which their cul-
tivated minds sometimes revolt with honest
| Indignation and horror. Having every sens-
bility that refined and cultivated woman nat
| urally possess, they are doomed TO hateful
existence, as disreputable and illegal as Nor
| monism itself The existence of bona fde
white wife did not always interfere with the
desire of man to assume the place obligation
| fthis is not the refinement of licentious ANAL
gaI1ation, am mistaken. A race of bastards
is the result.