The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1868-09-23

hour, brave in their white caps, and the re.
verse of flesh colored gloves. They fitted
about in rapid, determined style, drag.
ging skirts through the mud in the most
careless manner, and exhibiting ebony pc.
destals with q recklessness calculated to
awaken the most pastoral passions in the
bosoms of the bronze torch-bearers. After
due preparations. the principal feature OF
which seemed to be madly dashing horse.
nocephalus, the fixing rockets went tn
with sneeze and choke, and the torches
blazed along the line Of preparations; then
amid chorus of bowls, such as usually at
tends the opening Of q menagerie, more
rockets spit out their fiery serpents in the
sky, o rolling sound of drum swept along
the line like the hum Of the cotton GIN, and
the procession commenced to move. The
marshals who led off were gorgeous We
doubt if Solomon in all his glory was ever
arrayed like one Of these. The dignity Of
Soulouque and the trappings of Abyssinian
Theodore seemed to have lent their aid to
produce these dusky demigods. Then came
the procession itself, with the usual display
of flags, banners, transparencies, black
spirits and white, red spirits and gray.
Whatever can be said of the duskier
portion, the in6nitessimal fraction made
up of white men was certainly as dilapida-
ted an assembly as ever congregated. Tile
former, by long association even in their
inferior capacity, with gentlemen, had
CLEANED many ideas which were made good
use of; the latter, deserters from their ma.
tive CLINE from . patriotic regard for its
purity, exhibited conscious inferiority in
every line of their woe-begone connte.
nances. In the darkies there was Ger.
tain blind idea OF their own grandeur, and
an innate love of ostentation that buoyed
them up. The whites knew it was dirty
piece Of business; they walked as people
attending to dirty piece of business
with hang-dog air about them, and every
spectator, both white and black, seemed
fully to concur with their own estimate OF
themselves. We have q shrewd suspicion
a majority of the musicians are not alto
gether acquainted with the auction bust.
ness. There was peculiar thug in the
drums strikingly suggestive of III A. M
Saturdays (opening of the opera Of Shersf
fni,) instead of II P. NJ. The crowd that
stepped to the stirring rub-duhs seemed to
appreciate this. They hudd1ed around
them in an inquiring way, and the caday.
erous horses wore the resigned, selfdepre.
eating look that horses knocked down I'M.
der the hammer seemed instinctiyely to
know when to assume.
The Pioneer GRANT Club had borrowed
from some misguided hardware man lot
of pickaxes and shovels. They were evi.
IDENTIFY suggested by the carpet-baggers to
represent the lOng-prOmised agricultural
improvements, but as none of the utensils
ever had OF ever could be used on any 9th.
or soil of Louisiana, save that which col:
lects to the detriment of health in the
streets of its cities, one can form an idea of
their knowledge of the country: Much of
the negro enthusiasm seemed to eliminate
in the words "Red hot" Whether, nauti.
sion to the present condition of their can
didate "coppers," or q foreboding of the ul-
innate fate Of the Radical party, we are at
a loss to determine. The delegations from
the Parishes were badly treated. Two OF
three weary looking bodies we're only al
lowed lamp to twelve men, and one col
lection, Of probably two hundred, marched
along minus q solitary CLEAN. We may
venture the opinion this is their. last polit-
ical visit to New Orleans. If darkey
would condescend to "slosh through the
streetss a second time, under circumstan-
ces SO unfavorable, we are much mistaken
in the darkey nature. The poverty which
suggested q postp0nement, cropped out
from the head of the column to The rear
guard. 1t blo0med id The sickly little
the Republican office, it sprouted in the d.
miputive thyee-for-a-penny flags that deco
rated one Of che white Gibbs; il bloomAd in
the faded, superannuated banners borne
by some of the others. The carpet-baggers
may sacrifice self-respect for Radfcalisnl-
they will live in wellmerited contumely !;
they may hug the popular scorn, but when
it comes to spending a dollar, that is alto
gether different affair. gA.;I
There are chords in the 'uman art" one
nItlst not touch. There is too much to en-
joy "te hum iifb
By p careful count the, numbers were
found to be five thousand Ave hundred and
fifty-five. Three hundred and fifty we're
white men. It was taken by several gen.
tlemen. all Of whom feel confident it could
not have varied two hundred from these
figures. One who counted the line twice
made it 4267. This inCludesnegroes Of all
ages, sizes and shades of complexion, prob
ably not half of whom have vet been in
vested by the paternal government with
the title of sovereign
What struck every one about the process
sion, was the number of colored on}ookers.
who gazed ,curiously at what was going on.
but who displayed no political interest in
the movement, by holiday dress, look or
cheer: They simply regarded in most cases
IN SileDee, ana t0o COmmentS bney made
showed that the movement had had no
other effect than that of cheap show,
which, in fact, cost nothing but . great
deal Of patient waiting.
The whole procession, in fact. had a ear
nival air, and regarded as to the fanciful.
grotesqae, motley, barbaric, and sometimes
conceived costumes, the affair
was perhaps worth regarding. 1t showed,
what we have frequently said, that the
,olored population Of New Orleans, what
aver their politics. have by far better ideas
IS to effects in costume than their carpet
bag allies. Regarded as a MardiSgras affair,
what it really amounted to, it was not
equal to some of the fantastic professions
which our city has witnessed hut still was
worth seeing.
The principal procession adornment was
IN immense caFpet-bag, emblematic of the
eaders who had obtained power, and who
riumphantiy showed their supremacy by
having it borne upon the compliant shout
Iers of the men and brothers. One would
lot have been astonished to see some Of
he carpet-baggers borne upon the necks
III ~ =