The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-12-17

How beautiful is Canal street OF course,
when the above expression is used, II is under
stood that il refers to Canal street under certain
circumstances. For, we blush for our city's
honor to own it, Canal street is not always what
it was yesterday about o'clock. For, sometimes,
when the deity who has the control of the rain
gets on a spree and deluges this innocent earth.
as if lie was trying in one vast baptism to wash
away all the multform sins of its inhabitants, and
when he holds his pitchers so very loosely that an
enormous amount of fluid is split, then Canal
street presents a sorry scene. From end to end
when we say from end TO end we mean from
Charities to Burgundy, for that is all that is dis
tnctively Canal street-it ia almost desolste; some
three or four exceedingly venturesome ladies'
manage to pick their way daintily between the
puddles, stopping now and then to dart into
store, where they are overwhelmed with the at
tentons of twenty clerks all anxious to wait upon
the solitary customer of the day the clerks,
themselves, instead of jumping frantically over
counters and rushing desperately hither and
thither to find the exact shade of sewing
silk desired By the fair dsmsel who sits Ian.
guidly at the counter eagerly biting the tips of her
pretty little gloves and thinking of that last deux
temps last night and wondering if she will meet
young Fitz Doodle, who has such whiskers and
dances so divinely, at the soiree tonight. The
clerks instead of taking their usual series of gym
nastic exercises stand behind the counters with
folded arms and bite the ends of their cravats
and match niekels for the drinks and then make
rush around the corner, through the rain, to get
them, and come back invigoratsd and match
nickles again, and so pass away the day rather
agreeably than otherwise. Moody's and Bean.
gers corners are desolste. The gorgeously at.
tired youths who usually decorate those localities
are not rain proof and are therefore not on hand.
Where they are is q mystery beyond mortal ken.
The whole street is sloppy and sloshy and dis
agreeable. Everything looks tswdry and ''varie.
tas varieiatum " seems an inscription it for each
doorway. Canal street, under such circumstances,
it is needless to remark, is not a spot to be
sought, but rather, from q remembrance
of its former glories. to be avoided.
The boulevard has another aspect, which is pecu.
lsrly its own. and which makes it one Of the re.
nowned streets of the world. 1t is in the winter
time, when the city is full of people, on clear,
fair day, when the suns rays are just sufficient
TO temper the GOODNESS of the atmosphere, when
the air is so bslmy SO soft, so invigorating that
not to breathe all of % -ouc-csu seems positive
crime-it is on such day as this that Canal street
is itself. Yesterday was just such day as this,
and Canal street was radiant. 1t was thronged.
Ladies out shopping for themselves, or rather out
airing their new clothes on a slender pretext of
buying three yards and quarter of blue ribbon
at ten cents yard, filed the dewslks-Grecian
bends - small ones were present in any
number, and a few idiotie attempts were
made upon the Asistic wriggle recently
described at length In our columns. Young ladies
were there dressed in gay colors, radiant with
health. their eyes sparkling in the clear sunshine
and their cheeks assuming more soft blush in the
balmy air, who, in their youthful beauty, were
pictures long to be gazed upon. Nor did they
lack admirers. Crowds OF magnifcently gotten
up specimens of the rising generation of New Or
leans, to many of whom solomon, in all his glory,
wasn't the beginning of q circumstance, sauntered
leisurely along the banquette, elegantly swinging
their canes and stopping now and then to take Q
good, long look at some more attractive fair
one. But it was on the corner of Royal that
the headquarters Of these superb individuals was
located. There they mustered in force, and there
intrenched behind the lamp posts they poured
deadly fire Of sdmiring glances through their eye
glasses upon Whatever female craft hove in sight.
Nor were there lacking other gentlemen on the
street; clerks who were sent on message, and
who found it convenient, 80 two squares out Of
their way for the sake Of walking one square on
Canal street; old gentlemen, On the street 10 bay
Christmas presents, and younger gentlemen gath
ered thara IN view The Ch~f~eraaa urnnenka dfa.