New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-06-01
From cur Special Correspondent
FROM THE MO GRANDE.
MArAMonos. MnEIco. MaY is. is

mop on the other begin this letter, not knowing
whether will finish it or not. You needn't look
for any news; this is no news letter.
For many weeks past the weather hos been
very hot, tempered sometimes with cool southeast
breezes and a dash of rain. But for ice in the
daytime and the pleasant, cool nights, free of
MOSQUITOES, would not be able to endure it,
Matamoros makes its own lee and supplies
Brownsville. It is made in cylindrical pieces,
weighing twelve pounds each, and sold at rs
cents the piece, or at the rate of Gil cents per
pound. AS the company will not sell less than a
twelve pound piece, small families and poor folks
have to go without There are many devout peo-
pie, | am told, who would not use the ice if they
could get it for nothing, looking upon it sinful
to use an article thus produced against naturei
Latterly we have had one or two regular deluges
of rain, and, as consequence, the streets of Mat
amoros are sight to behold Except where the
streets are worn into hollows, they are perfectly
level with the sidewalks. There are no cutters or
drains of any kind. The consequence is, that
where the streets are worn hollow, the rain fills
them up like lakes; vehicles constantly passing,
soon churn the water to the thickness of cream.
| then batter, and finally great beds of the most
nauseous and unmitigated mud. Each passage Of
vehicle stirs up an odor quite as bad as that of
the draining canals back of New Orleans. That
Matamoros should be as healthy as it is, with all
this filth under summer heat, seems rather
surprising. The dry offal and garbage of
the city is carried away daily by the city carts.
For an oddly, it is $25 fine to throw slop-water
into the street. and S25 fine for throwing it into the
back yard; yet there is no provision whatever for
otherwise disposing of it, Those whose cess pools
or Ja+ hove ~ r;-
ana throw them into their back yards
The streets of Matamoros have other peculiari-
ties. There are no shade trees, the corporation
not allowing them. The tops of trees enough are
visible but they are all in gardens or interior lots
No projecting signs over foot long, or awnings,
or posts Of any kind are allowed, except the rows
Of short three-feet posts that mark the line be-
tween street and sidewalk, and keep wagons and
carts from running against and into the houses.
You may walk all over Matamoros and not find a
doorstep to sit down upon. The houses are all
built on the same general plan the doors are fiat
with the outer surface of the WALL and open out
wards. When all the houses on a streetare closed
the street looks as if some giant carpenter with
his jack-plane had shaved it down So flat and
smooth is everything.
I forgot There is one doorstep 1t is that Of
a two-story frame warehouse, with zinc root
and some ornanentation, every plank and splinter
OF which was finished and fitted together away in
the interior Of France and had to pass over seven
railroads before reaching the Atlantic for trans.
shipment to this city. There are other portable
houses around in spots, owing to- the great
scarcity of lumber The misunderstanding house
in Brownsville just finished, is an imported one.
It is two stories high, with broad gallery around
the second story. All the framework is iron of
the sIenderest and the roof and all the filing in
are Of corrugated zinc.
There are never any fires in Matamoros mean
fremens fires, or houses burnt down. The
small quantity of fire used by the people, and the
thoroughly brick constitution of the houses would
seem to account for this. But there are those
who insist that it is because there are no insurance
companies or agencies in the city. These ironical
people say that as soon as an insurance agency
is established in Matamoros, fires will begin to
blaze up in all quarters! The flames would spread
unobsuucted, too, for there are neither water
works, cisterns, fire engines, OF fire department
Matamoros was apparently laid out for a right
angled city, agreeable to the points Of the com
pass. Yet all the points were missed By about a
degree and what is still more odd, there is not
square with four rightangled corners in the whole
city. How place of the size could have been
laid out in such a manner, rather surpasses my
poor comprehension.
In my first letter about this place, spoke of
the shabby old plaza, or public square. 1t begins
to look better It seems the square belongs nomin-
ally to the people living around it, 1t has four cor
ners and four side gates with eight straight walks
at the center. This divides the square
into eight lots Of irregular shape. One belongs to
the church, another to Gen. Meiia, and the other
six to six wealthy persons residing around the
square,
The corporation began by putting up a neat pal
ing fence around each of the lots. The several
propretors were then required to pillow up or dig
up, each his own lot, and then plant garden Of
flowers and shrubs, each at his own expense and
after his own taste. This has been done and the
result is, eight young gardens of different styles
and patterns, coming up, within the limits Of the
" Plaza de Hidalgo.n When the gardens become
mature the corporation will take away
the fences and then, the parties who made and
own the gardens, will have no more
right to pluck flower than anybody else-will
not be allowed to compensate themselves in the
slightest degree for all their labor and expense.
This Is what call a Mexican wrinkle.
For all the rest in this square-the broad and
well paved walk around its four Sides the rows of
shina trees that shade it, the shaded mound in the
center, and the circle of seats around 1.-THE Mat
lmorians are indebted to an American gentleman
1y the name of Zachary Taylor, who with party
# his friends sojourned here for while some
equal taste and public spirit; and had not impera,
ca11 Ia