New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-07-16
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3 colrs.ponaenee d - So orlsan. cre.eent.l

spesisl Correspondents Of the New Orleans Creseentl
New YoRE, July o, 1866
The great FIRE at Portland absorbs t'ie attention
81 the public generally and relief is being for
vsrded to the sufferers very rapidly This oQuu.
Try has never seen fire so destructive in proper
ton to the inhabitants as this one, Ten millions
Of dollars has been swept away in twenty -four
hours, great portion Of it the accommodations Of
many years Of hard,working men. The closing
hours Of the Fourth Of July, 1865, will never be
forgotten by the residents Of Portland, and it
seems as though there was neglect on the part OF
somebody, to allow ooaHagrstion, kindled bya
FIRE cracker, to get such Roadway as to be unoon
trolable, destroying heildings which were cons
dered fire proof; but so it island the residents
are reporteG to be in good spirits and commencing
already to rebuild tie burnt district, some having
made Their contracts to be executed in sixty and
ninety days. Fires are getting now % be serious
thing all through the country every day we have
reports of fires from different sections, some-in
fact, Eost of tRenf-yery destruetiye. Last pear
was the most unfortunate one fer destruction of
property on record at ss close, the losses having
reached the sum of over s43 000900, but this year
viii run far ehead of It, the lesses from january
i to July SCOT up ever s44,e90 GOO, or $1,000,
GOO more for. the expired portion Of this
year then the whole &C last year The
insurance companies came out pretty well " blis-
tered last year, owing in measure TO the greet
competition between the companies, csusing tile
rates to fall so low as to hardly provide living,
even If the year had been a SUGGESTED one; but
the losses setting in so 'sli7ely" at the opening of
the present yeer, the companies forming the board
of fire insurance companies of New York, fixed a
r.
double what they previously had been, andtn con-
sequence they have stood the losses very much
better, although if the fires keep going it ID
quite certain that some companies mustgo under
The insurance department in this State is probably
better managed than that Of any other, rendering
it next to impossible for any company to be in IN
sound condition so as to be unable to meet losses
which msy occur ordinarily, unless there should
be fraud, which Of course cannot be guarded
/ against for the moment a company impairs iss
capital tile controller has the power to call upen
\ its stockholders to make the capital good-in de-
fault of which he can make them wind up and re-
insure their risks but if we are going to have a
succession Of such disastrous fires as the one at
Portland, ii will be hard work to tell who is good
and who is not.
The weather for the last TIRES days has beenthe
\
taken from Delatour's record. The mercury got
up to Oh yesterday, although atother places it was
/ much higher, and the city was almost empty Of
| people, Walking up Broadway towards evening,
| / would meet, here and there person or two,
where, in winter season. we are obliged to pass up
| and down in columns. Nearly everybody went to
the country, the shore, if they were fortunate
enough to get there, and those that staid in town
To, Ga4nr
open air concert. Really, New Yczk streets re-
minded one Of Sunday, asregards quietude, nearly
all the stores having closed at B. NJ, under late
regulation and agreement between the merchants,
which gives the poor overtazed clerks an oppor-
tunity to breathe little fresh air by daylight.
The cholera is as it has been, that is, single
case about once in two weeks. Every death that
occurs here now with ordinary summer complaint
is harped about as due to cholera. We have no
epidemic Of any kind, the city has not been so
healthy as it is now for many years. The quaran-
tine commissioners have had an injunction served
to prohibit them from using seguine's Point for
hospital purposes, and it would be matter Of no
surprise if we had epidemics and everything else
that ID bad, for every time we attempt to do any
/ thing for the public good, handful Of men who
think Of nothing but their own extreme impor-
lance APpy lOE juACblols 70 SOME OF our p0ntl-
cal Judges, who do not know what law and Justice
mean, and Of course they are granted at once.
This Internal system of electing the Judiciary is
the whole trouble with the execution Of good laws
which become almost obsolete, because the very
men who ought to protect their execution, lend
their official aid in opposition to them 50 thatthey
may not lose an election. 1tmay happen in one
Of the days to come that we shall see our city gov
4
rights. EYES AND EARS.