New Orleans daily crescent., 1866-10-19
VOLUME XVI.
Eotat SntelIiaenGe.
Something About Our Co1feehOuses-An Old
Building OF Shis City.


Building OF Ikis City.
Distinguished travellers, and correspondents
who are not distinguished, have compIimented US
on the number and elegance of our coffeehouses.
In truth their name is legion; we have seen them
estimated as high as 700 and if the number was
somewhat reduced, and the quality of the liquors
improved, it would perhaps be beneficial.
But merely stating facts, and not dreaming of
an Utopia where stimuants are unknown, it may
be stated in general way that cofeehouses, bar
| rooms, estaminets, or whatever may be the proper
name, abound in the city, are of high and low de-
| grees, and rank from those whose stage-proper-
ties consist of few bottles tumblers and spoons,
up to those adorned with gilt and fresco, hung
with mirrors and sparkling chandeliers, and whose
cut-glass and drinking vessels might have been
served at the feast of Belshazzar himself.
| Ornament, which is said to be a necessity of
mans nature, is a special necessity of coffee
houses, and almost the first observation made is
| the number of pictures the latter contain. You
hear songs of the Fatherland, see within the
never-ending game of dominoes, or the noisy
brawls of some of our native blackguards and
rowdes. But whatever be the castes of the
thirsty assemblage, whether polite and refined or
coarse and brutal, pictures Of some sort are very
| apt to look down from the surrounding walls and
| lend an heightened interest to the scene.
| city ordinance Furnishes a visit from the other
sex with hard labor at the Workhouse, and, per
haps, in revenge for this deprivation most of the
| pictures are illustrative of the charms of the
other sex. Singularly enough, however, portraits
of Mrs. Hemans, Florence Nightingale or of
heroines nearer at home, are omitted from the
collection.
| Their places are supplied by fancy designs with
| such names as the " Morning. and g Evening -
Stars Of Beauty" and which from their express
sions might more appropriately be styled the sun
rises and sunsets of modesty. There for instance
| is Innocence (so-called) about to take bath,
and who seems needIessy alarmed about the
waters reaching to her skirts. About them all
| there is that depth Of cooring and freedom from
restraint which might lead one to regard them as
| the work of some Artist Turk who has temporar,
lily laid aside his pipe for his pallet and drawn
| his subjects from aaurrounding harem. But the
quatfer does not desire inspiration from the
designs of beauty alone, however paridaisically
attired, and the pictures of heroes statesmen and
soldiers hang odly by the side of the Camilles
Phrynes and de coN6 heroines. Next Ito Love
| racing and hunting seemthe most popular themes.
| A few represent fires, and we remember one
or two by selftaught artists descriptive Of steam.
boat explosions upon the Mississippi. Pictures of
| the first NapOeon--of the retreat from Moscow
of the grand honenle-of Spanish generals, Of
| Gambrinus, Gen. Jackson, Gen. Lee, Mr.. Davis
President Lincoln, all abound to show the age OF
nationality of the codeehouses or the politics and
tastes of the keepers and their clients.
But the bar-room, which made more of an i'm
preston upon us that is, regarding itexternally,
than any we have yet seen, is an old building
| constructed of stone at the lower end of Levee
street, and which no other building in the city il
any way resembles. 1t was built many years ago
we learned-perhaps before the introduction O.
steam, when, on account of the current ana the
tortuous course of the Mississippi, goods were no
conveyed through that channel to the West Al
there was, therefore, not much market for i'm
ported goods vessel that traded between this
port and city of Italy, came laden with ballast
What was employed for the latter purpose were
the stones of the building in question. They were
taken, it is said, from old castle in ruins at the
port from which the vessel sailed and brought fol
that purpose and none other, to this city. The
captain was at length ordered to dispose of then
in some way as they obstructed the levee ant
this he did at cheap rate, to the man who after
wards built the house in question. AS the latter
was constructed by plantation hands, at timt
when there was little demand for field labor, the
building really ost less in spite of the scarcity o
its material, than many which have long since de
cayed. We give the facts as we heard them, ant
believe them to be correct But it forms a curl
GUS contrast this coffee house of the Crescent City
with the medieval, feudal castle from which tn
material of the former is said to have bee