The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1868-06-03
LETTER FROM NEW ORLEANS.
[ Correspondence Of the Louisiana Democrat.
New ORLEANS, May 25, 1863.

New ORLEANS, May Is, 1868.
EDITOR DEMoCRAT:-The paragraph in
your paper, a week or two ago, announc-
ing the presence Of the cotton worm in
Rapides and the adjacent country, created
a good deal of CONSERVATION among the
merchants and steamboatmen in this city.
The general impression is that you were
misinformed OH the subject, as persons re-
Gently from the Red River region declare
that the first tidings they have received Of
chat baleful insect was on the " flags" OF
Carondelet street.
The coming Summer threatens to be the
dullest for New Orleans that was ever
known. There are now in port only thir-
teen square-rigged vessels, as many
schooners and sloops, and very few
steamers. There is no life on the levee
except what is communicated by the new
grain trade with st. Louis. That gives
promise of becoming exceedingly remu-
nerative and prosperous, and we have
some hope that it will in a measure make
up for the loss ofcotton, sugar and tobacco.
The whole extent Of the levee from the
Stock Landing down to the Government
Wharf, with the exception of the Harris
& Morgan Landing, and the landing for
the Grain Barges, isa scene of uninter.:
rupted desolation and quiet What a wo-
full change from eight or ten years ago,
when the whole ine-of the river for five
miles was teeming with animation and
business! Cotton bales in vast piles,
hogsheads of sugar and tobacco heaped
one npon another in tiers, cargoes of fine
wines and brandies, rail road iron and
Yankee notions, salt, crates and earthen-
ware and cutlery, in a word all the vast
variety Of foreign and domestic articles Of
commerce, used to cucumber the entire
front to such an extent that it was hardly
possible for a wayfarer to navigate through
them. If this vast space is occupied at
any time now, it is by boys playing at
base ball or marbles, or squalid negroes
stretched out in the evening sun rumina-
ting burglary or waiting for the shades
of night to creep into their noisome roost-
ing places and sleep away the time
To add still further to their blessings
upon our unfortunate city, there is bill
before Congress (Which is very likely to
pass into law which gives two certain
individuals the privilege of collecting
thirty cents ton on every vessel crossing
the bar that draws over stated number
of feet. No wonder Mobile and Baton
Rouge, st. Louis and Cincinnati are NOV
ing the enterprise Of cutting channel
through Pass Manchac to the sea! The
charges for towage to and from the bar
are already enormous. Thirty cents ton
in addition will make the expense of
bringing large vessels to this port so great
as to amount to a prohibition. Think OF
giving toll-rates to private persons for the
navigation of the great inland sea" just
as the town of Alexandria would give fer
ry rights to Pineville over Red River =
And all for the nominal condition that
there shall always be eighteen feet water
on the bar at Pass Loutre Perhaps you
may ask why such an outrageous proceed
ing should be countenanced and enforced
by Congress9 The answer is very plain
the interests Of New York and Philadel.
phia, Chicago, Cincinnati, and other cities
outside of the Southern States, require it.
They know that New Orleans is the natu.
raj emporium of the great Mississippi
Valley, and is the most advantageous
point in the world for the people ofthat
Valley and the people ofother regions both
domestic and foreign, to meet for barter
and sale.
But as / know that nothing is too un'
lawful or too base for Radical Congress
to shrink from, shall turn to lighter and
more agreeable matters. I dare say many
of your readers were down here, last Win.
ter, and frequented the Opera House on
Bourbon street. The musical season is
over, and the singers are abroad-some Oh
their way back to Paris, some in Boston
'delighting the classic tastes Of that favor
ed city with the execrable and immoral
5afo Operas Of Ofenbach. That is the
stuff the dillettanti of the Hub revel in
They find no melody in the strains of the
great masters, butthey glory in the doub
les-ententes and the breakdown Jim Grow
cav1inas of La Belle Helene and Orphet
aur Enters. You doubtless have all heard
of Damiani, LeChevalier, Audibert, Lam.
belle and Seguin-Prevost. They are all
artists Of merit, particularly the first nam.
ed, whose reputation as a premier tenor is
European. Though upwards of fifty, his
form and features are as elegant and hand.
some and his voice as fresh aid ringing as
any artists we have ever had here
Lechevalier is a Martiniquais by birth,
only S4.years old. and with natural and
acquired advantages that mark him as
predestined to be very great baritone
singer. Lambele is very beautiful young
woman, who outwarbles a mockingbird
when she plays as Rosina in the Barbie,
de Seville. In Offenbaeh's Operas she has
introduced new style Of costume which
is as original asst ispiquant. She assumes
the idea that young ladies Of noble fami.
~, in the days Of mythology, were not in
the habit of wearing linen OF cotton che.
misses: in fact, that their charms were
yelled from public curiosity by armor, by
immense necklaces of gold and pendants
of ;aua1rv or hx, n,,rnla mnnfiJIaa Tins