New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-07-26
The Environs Of New Orleans.
NUMBER TWENTY-FIVE.

When the Spanish Governor Miro, in 1856
took command Of the colony of Louisiana, he
published, as his predecessors had done, sort
of public manifesto or governmental message,
called I'm Band0 de talen GobiermO, that is, a
proclamation of good government In this
document various rules and obseryances were
published for the conduct of the inhabitants of
the province. Among others it was declared
that people would be visited with the greatest
severity of the law who were found living in
a state of eonoubinage, or outside of the lawful
connections OF matrimonial bonds and that par
ticularly persons of color of the fair sex We're
henceforth to be visited with extreme rigor of
the law should they not quit their former
mode of living in idleness and laXity. Nay
this governor, who had been represented Of a
mild and tolerant disposition in after-time
went SO far, in this, his first announcement of
a good government, as to forbid this class of
females to wear any jewels or ornaments OF
value, or to dress themselves up with feathers
| in their head-gears, Use Golfer auec des phane),
and in fact that he ordered them to wear for
| head-dresses a handkerchief tied around the
head. Now, our readers may not be aware
that this custom Of wearing handkerchief
around the head, was nearly universal one
with all the laboring classes in olden times
in lower Louisiana.
White people as well as black and colored,
wore what was called in French the " tignon, -
that is a handkerchief around ones head :
often country people, farmers or planters
Beuld cover these same head dresses moreover
with large straw hat in summer, Or felt one
in the winter season. But the several classes
would distinguish themselves by the different
colors and the nature or value of the head
handkerchiefs, that served them as sort of
turban, and the elegant females of the colored
population in particular, would be very select
in the choice of the color as well as the ma
terials of their head ornaments. We have had
occasion to notice their extreme delicacy in
making selections for their toilets, whilst being
engaged in some Of the first importing firms
Of dry goods in our city at that remote time.
High flaming colors, such as scarlet and
orange, mixed with dark chestnut brown, were
the favorite nuanceS, tints or colorings, because
these tingings, according to these peoples no.
TONS would set their own hue in favorable relief
But besides the choice Of colors, the female
beauties of that period, belonging to the mixed
races, possessed an art of arranging their head
dresses around their heads in such q manner
as to give them standing up posture, so as
apparently to heighten the size of the wearer
When we arrived in 1916, these customs were
still in existence, but we have observed that
gradually all the new generations have more
and more assimilated to the general fashion,
so that at the present day it can hardly be
said that dress distinguishes any class or di-
vision OF society in our midst It would
therefore, be a work Of supererogation if our
Legislature, or any other authority, should un-
dertake to pass acts or prohibitions against the
use of luxurious apparel or other expensive
ornaments. Sumptuary laws may well be con
sidered as altogether obsolete in our times :;
still do We hear now and then that our reli-
gious teachers, our ecclesiastical guardians
neglect not to admonish their hearers against
the expensive ways of dress and living in gen
eral Leaving this subject for moment and
casting our glance into the future of Louisiana
will it be too much to foresee that time may
come when, under an altered regime, such
rules for dress and living might again be in
troduced by authority.
This certainly does appear strange at this
present moment; but is there anything that
can now really surprise us after the great
social revolution which we ourselves have wit
messed? Nay, when we sometimes reflect
upon the nature of our society-the real
ground work underlying in our country the
social structure of our masses-it seems to us
that it is not the military spirit, nor the real
constitutional representative power, which
constitutes the motive agency that carries on
the popular movement; but that besides
both these ostensible motors, there is the
unseen, but all-pervading spirit of great re-
fgious communionism, as formed in the
masses of the people, by the constant reading
of the bible-the ancient as we'll as the new
actually shapes the ideas of
our people, and even leaders, and that these
ideas ARE constantly carried out in all the |
State Legislative as well as the national con
action. This spirit, moreover |
manifests itself by the SO numerous religious |
all over the country, of all de-
nominations-P Protestant and Catholic as well |
as others. Now we have merely glanced at
this, cur perception but, by pursuing this
subject, our readers would find key to
great many social phenomena which almost
seem inexphcable without this secret i'm
pulse ISL. |
How little have our great philosophers Of the
century understood human nature,
if they thought that by leaving the masses
free to seek their own form of government,
they would be guided by mere rational ideas
Nay, such governments never yet have been
and never will be. The reason is, that man is
not a mere being of nationality The head
should only enlighten, not govern the heart
IL sentiment is the great guide for the masses
IF mankind, and that is much more infalli-
Die conductor, than all mere intellectual de-
AUCTIONS What wonder then, that society,
rs with us, when left free, will have its own
way by forming, what we see all around us,
groups or crystalizations of other small reli-
5ious or other sentimental corporations. And
+ we continue undisturbed in this course, we
nay be sure that we are upon the high road
o grand communal system, which will re-