New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-01-06
lFor the Crescent
T,he Enyir0ns Of New Orleans.
NUMBER THREE.

draw his own inferences from the actual state OF
affairs. Hence il is equally clear that if, in ma
terial point Of view, the changes have been sub
stantially advantageous there is still often left
matter Of regret for the altered condition with re-
gard to immaterial interests, or the moral allera
TONS which the population enliyening our envi
rons have undergone in many respects, and which
alterations furnish food for deep and melancholy
reflection.
To advert but to one Of these altered relations:
,easit not obvious that in former years, under the
-aicient regime, our environs were blessed with
contentcd and active population, notw outstanding
the now abolished institution of domestic servi-
tuee, very wrongfully denominated African sia-
veryW Whoever has known the mild and, as it
were, patriarchal system of husbandry all around
our city; whoever has attended the easy labors of
our gardeners, our milkmen, our cattle and poultry
raisers. in the vicinity of great metropolis be-
fore the black race had been supplanted in their
breaches Of rural industry by the more active,
more eager, nay, more rapaciousrace ofwhite new
comers from all the points of the compass, cannot
help regretting for the sake Of that sable race,
much falsely bepitied, their lost happy condition,
under the protection of5their indulgent masters
and mistresses.
But this state of things will hardly be believed or
credited by those that, unlike ourselves, have not
been eye witnesses to the facts Aye, the enyirons
of our city at the era that we aude to-that is to
say several decades after the transfer of the country
to the United States-presented the very picture
of an Ell Dorado, where the milk and honey were
actually overaowing our plains when the golden
apples of Hesperides might be seen, in the shape
of golden oranges, in all the bowers, all the
hedges with which these our rural domains were
enclosed. Nay, the views of the country seats up
and down the coast, above and below the CITY,
were actually enchanting to the newly arrived
stranger. He could no. satisfy the feastng of his
eyes upon the beautiful spectacle which he would
behold in a quiet walk or other excursion
through these gardens and rural retreats, along
the Bayou Road and to the then fashionable water
ing place, the Bayou st. John.
Wherever one would cast his glance, the ever
green verdure, even in the midst of winter, of the
orange enclosures surrounding all the ancient hab
itations, would meet his eye; the live oak groves,
the tall magnolia and other evergreen trees adding
to the majestic appearance Of the forest sur-
roundinga.
Then, too, there still lovely songsters in the
woods. An unmerciful spirit of persecution in our
youth had not sworn determination as it were, to
these innocent little WARRIORS who, unfit for food
have indeed been cruelty driven away from ali
our city parks and farming establishments, where
their presence would have contributed in clearing
the orchards and gardens of insects and worms
Could not police ordinance forbid the wanton
destruction of these useful feathered songsters ?
Also the poor carrion crows, which--under pain of
heavy peouniary fac in olden times, it was for
bidden to kill, for their usefulness as public scav-
engers-haye been entirely exterminated or exiled
from our city surroundings.
Hence there is now q monotoDy, silence pre-.
vailing in most of public walks around the
city, no voice of either man or bird being heard
even the lowing Of the kline seems to have ceased
and the only sound is an occasional grunt from the
, wandering or vagrant porker digging and worry
ing for roots in the ground. 9. ias7'.
How different in ancient time, when the lusty
voice of the harvesting black might be heard
or the chanting Of the African Congoes when
padding, in cadence, their '' grand embarkation y
down the bayou to the lake. for fishing or bathing
excursions, aT.lg.. s.i.tg vi
In those times, when steam and steamers were
unknown, navigation upon the river was carried
on in certain long fiat bottomcd, but covered boats
called keelboats or barges, and the crew, when
not black, consisted mostly of Canadians, a very
hardy set Of men brought up to this branch Of
living, who would spend almost their whole lives
in going up and down the Mississippi. These men
were a peculiar race of French, mostly of Breton
origin, very lively and exceedingly fond of song
and amusements. You could hear their measured
songs, just as those of the African crews but in
quite different style, when boating up and down
the stream There was, indeed, in both of theil
choruses--the national songs of the African sable
hands, and the French Canadian descendants
something electric, something so fascinating il
4lal laa cila ,f fl,n
would involuntarily stop and listen to the voices
as they were growing fainter and fainter in the
distance.
All this has been altered, and instead We
are now admonished by the deep groaning ant
putting of the Mississippi steamers, the steam .3w
boats of the pilots, and the shrill whs,le
the locomotive, that a new era has entered
upon the worlds spectacle, and that the old re
membranes of former times live only in the few
survivors of past generations, who, too, will bt
gathered like the rest in that storehouse from
which new creations, new formations shall arise
according to NATURES law and the great promls,
of revealed divination.
We have stated already that the watering sta
tion, at that time, in the summer months, wa
located at the bayou St. John. There, not owe
the lake or the Gulf as in these latter days
would the elite Of New Orleans society spend thei
leisure hours, taking baths in the then clear ant
limpid waters of the bayou, often refreshed by tn
influx of the lakes swelling tide. There were
however, many sailing and rowing boats for anna
= teur societies for a sailing excursion down tn
bayou to the fort and lake, and for swimming anna
teurs round and about helighthouse in deep water
Only much later, the present shellroad was lai
out and people thereby enabled to reach by te,r
fhaa the small fisher village at the entrance of tn
bayou st. John in lake Pontcharrain.
+ From thence, now, a road leads along the lax
shore TO the establishment at the railroad static
of the Pontchartrain company. This road ha
only been finished a couple of years, befor
which time the pedestrian had the greatest diff
Guilty in reaching one place from the other
T If any of our readers wish for beautiful sc
! or mirror sight one of the fair, breezy morns q
autumn days, let them go down to the shore:
4 and their expectations will assuredly not be dsat
pointed.
+ Many morning have we spent in our time
ERusng upon these enchanting sea views under a
Italian sky and the inVigoratng northeast winds
Il The Knights of the WATERFALL new insttr
ftion. a Ia Cowbellions, paraded in Montgomery
|. New Years day, in masquerade.
Fl The younu 1odjou in oh oturn rann,,;o,7 ,rr