New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-07-23
I'ns I.nv,,oa. OF NV Orleans.
NUMBER NINETY FOUR.

mostly engaged in active business pursuits in
our city ii that time, that is, Immediately
after the resumption of trade and industry in /
1916, We, as Of g sudden in our recital made
a transition to the long past epoch Of 1770 |
when, under the government of O'Reilly, a |
number of French inhabitants were then ex-
lied to the near island of Havana, from which
several of these same exiled patriots afterwards
sought refuge and a homestead in Hispaniola |
or st. Domingo. This passing from the then
present period of 1916 to the long past ante
rior times of ITO, was brought about in our
mind when rejecting that among the same
mass of active members Of society there beheld
by us, and who we're then pursuing the iden-
teal career of their former commercial COM
patriots we often were reminded by their APP
pellations, their names, manners and physiog-
Monies, Of those former Frenchmen, the first
colonists, who had given the starting impulse to
New Orleans commerce and enterprise. Ayein
| those times it was not the North American adj
venturers that served as pioneers in the com
mercial establishments throughout our State,
but this was the especial branch OF foreign
French immigrants, who were indeed mostinde-
fatigable in forming mercantile posts and
agencies over all the rural campaigns Of lower
Louisiana, in the hooks and corners Of the
most inland bayous and far away stretching
pine-wood ridges Much later, when steam
power had opened a way for more active oper-
atoms on the inland water courses and the
great tributary streams Of the Mississippi,
North American traders and merchants began
to establish their branches and agencies
throughout the country. But, at the time
i nentioned-in 1816-the country trade, with
= few exceptions, was mostly in the hands Of an
active class of European French for the ma
tives Of the country had addicted themselves
I. almost exclusively to the culture Of the soil,
and on large or small farms, or plantations,
would occupy themselves with these branches
of social industry, leaving commerce and trade
mostly in the hands of the new-ceming immi-
grants, often sportively called g les nouveaux
deballes - that is, g the newly unbaled
: ones, or those Just taken out Of the imported
bales and boxes. This class of active traders
might be recognized by certain habits Of \
givacity, an air of supreme country indie
pendenee- to them, the manners Of the
country people were at once an ex-
ample and a pleasant model for adop-
these country traders, coming to town, by
their initiating the country habiliments, add
ing these to a dash Of city manners. Hence,
if IN the parishes, or in the posts, large straw
hats would be worn by the planters you would
be sure to find our country traders improving
upon this fashion, by wearing enormous Pan
anna coverings, almost as broad as an ordinary
cotton umbrella Did he perceive that the
planters delighted in loose pantaloons, and
blouses, Or hunting shirts, you could see that
the traders did not want to be behind in this
wearing apparel, but sported gigantic nankeen
OF other light summer trousers, almost as wide
as those of the Fleming or Dutch fishermen on
the coast of the German ocean; and for coates
/ they would throw over their shoulders light
seersueker ''ehemise, that is to say, these same
kind of blouses, but almost flying, and open
bosomed without buttons OF fastenings. Aye,
at that time, our home tailors and searnstresses
had indeed wide and profitable field for their
profession, for few or none of the outlandish
fashioned clothing were then offered in our
market everything in the clothing line was
manufactured at home, that is in New Orleans
by the numerous tailoring establishments, and
hence, our city had country fashion of its
own. The navigation and trade with the par
ishes and interior posts, we have already stated
in former numbers, at that time was carriedon
upon the Mississippi river mostly in what
more distant regions, for the posts
l Of Natchitoehes, the Opelousas, and Ouachita
stations, barges which had been constructed
in the upper Mississippi, or the Wabash, Ohio
or Illinois rivers, and brought down with
their Canadian crews, were the most usual
conveyances. These fat-bottomed boats or
: barges, very long, but little broad, were best
calculated to enter into the often very narrow
y and very crooked rivers and bayous such as
4 were then the Red river branches, and the
}. numerous and intricate water courses which
lead in the season of high floods from the
Mississippi to the Atchafalaya and Opelousas
and Attakapas settlements. The barges or
! long keel-boats, were partly covered with raw
OK or oowhides, wound or bent in form Of a
tunnel, over wooden frame work, so as to
| shelter the freight or cargo, which often would
reach far above the board, and under these
coverings passengers, as well as the crews,
would take their meals and rest. This was
the primitive water conveyance in which the
long up and down river travelling would be
! performed on the Mississippi, from our city
8 as high as Pittsburg and one Of our own
7 employers, the already named merchant
Z Frederick William Am Eude, had thus
/ come down from above Cincinnati in the
!. fall Of the year 1914, in one of these keel
boats with a cargo of western provisions
-four, pork, bacon, etc. This prin-
J cipal of ours, who afterwards as Prussian
u consul established commercial firm in our
! city, had proceeded from Philadelphia over
j. the Allegheny mountains, by way of the Cum
berland road as far as Wheeling, ana from
. thence following the river route, continued
his way, as stated, in covered keel-boat
: from some village above Cincinnati This
: voyage then lasted generally some forty o.
! fifty days coming down with the current O
4 the Mississippi, and at the season of low
]. water, there was then considerable danger
from sawvers. stumps and snags. because the