The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-12-24
r1CxpocKEn AND POLITICAL MIsRULE.


pockets now infesting the city. The presence
of these prehensile prestidigitators In unusual
number, and the extraordinary success and
IMMUNITY with which they ply their vocation,
admit of easy explanation. They have been
attracted to New Orleans by the report OF the |
fine crops and improved thrift Of Southern
planters and the consequent expectation that
there would be, this winter, an uncommon
balance of cash available for miscellaneous ex-
penditure in Southern cities. The unex-
ampled security and profit which have at
tended their operations thus far are due TO the
most defective and inefficient system OF
police, in respect to both law and admins
traiion, which the city has ever known
But the fever amounting almost to Juror OF
anxiety excited in the city by the skill and ac-
tiyity displayed by this industrious gentry,
is not, philosophically viewed, SO easily ex-
plicable. People could scarcely suffer keener
pangs of apprehension at the approach of
some yandal conqueror who threatened to
sweep away their;patrimonies and lay waste
their homes. Pockets shrink and keep as
close as misers. Portnonnaies ache with
fear. The hue and tremor of panic are
universal. Even the Grecian bend fails IN
the trying hour. Still more astounding, the
| golden youth and the silver gray exquisitlsm,
the cream and the pride of masculine
| la mode, do not, by long jump, come MP
| 10 the expectations which have been
| formed respecting the possible deyelopmentso f
| their Dundreary grace, assurance, and ln-
souciauce; showing tremulous feebleness IN
the Dubious knees of their attenuated legs,
and manifestipg weak concern for the con-
dition of things around them, that are posi-
lively scandalous Who would have thought
thst anything in this world short OF miracle
/ could have knocked them out of their sang
froid and a-plomb-them, to all appearance,
perennially as cool as the snow cap OF
the highest Alpine peak, and as firmly planted
in unbelievable dissatisfaction as heaven
unfolding Atlas on his base? And yet they
are unsettled by q fact whichis neithermiracu-
lous nor novel, but as natural as human de-
pravity, and as ancient as cupidity, rapacity
and Iroguery. The equanimity that might
have smiled to scorn the shock of an earth
quake. gives way before the mysterious
passes and m computations of light, furtige and
] Iu1hc1Oub Stnp AoyOo AZ OAAS VI VIZ ~"--
dinal industries of modern civilization.
Now, it must inevitably strike a reflective
mind that there is something ludicrously out
of proportion in the uneasiness, Impotence,
and indignation which may be created in this
or in any other American city, by lively
visitation Of the small thieyery confined to
the pocket-picking class of human vermin
and parasites, when the whole country is
comparatively quiet, resigned and placid
under grand larcenies practiced through in
Vulnerable devices and opportunities created
by political misrule. All the pickpocket petty
larcenies Jumped together are, in point
of magnitude, no more comparable to the
depredations inflicted upon the people at large
by the rapacity and profigacy which have been
organized by bad legislation, aggravated by
corrupt administration, than wart to Ossa.
The whisky rings and their official eonfeder-
ates steal more, indirectly, from the hard earn
ings of the people, in one month, than the
pickpockets are able TO flch from them in a
whole year. Every addition to the pro-
tective tariff is a robbery of millions
from the honest industry of the country
The horde of carpet-baggers who, under
political license, have been gratifying their
raptorial instincts in Louisiana and other
States, are as much worse in that way than an
equal number of pickpockets could be, as a
swarm of vampires is worse than swarm of
mosquitoes. The substance Of this commu-
nifty is devoured, under the cloak of pretended
State legislation and pretended State author
ity, to an extent that dwarfs into comparative
insignificance the operations of all the uncon-
ventional and outlawed thieves and robbers
that ever prowled about the city. the effect
of the Ubiquitous printing bill invented by
the Dryades street conspiracy to furnish
dainty morsels to the greed of some of its fol-
lowers, is a deeper gouge than the present
pickpocket invasion could make in twelve
months diligent use of their fingers with as
large rate of remuneration as has recently
attended their labors.
Is there not then, an aspect of laughable
incongruity about the anxious and indignant
feelings aroused by the performances of that
class of vagabonds known as pickpockets ?
Not that such feelings are not, abstractly con-
sidered, perfectly proper and rational Society
must protect itself against the aggressions of
verminal and parasitical enemies 1t must
resent and resist when assaulted by these, or
undergo, more or less rapidly, decay and dis
solution. It's yigor of resentment and resist
ance will be in proportion to its vitality. But,
assuredly, the selfpreservation of society is
not to be accomplished by directing the
honest rage of public opinion exclusively
against petty larceny depredations, while
grand larceny spoliations are submitted to
with fortitude more suicidal than heroic
Conventional crimes, among which we would
include crimes under political license and by
the operation, perversion or permission of
statutory law, may bring country to ruin;
unconventional crimes, alone, cannot. The
pickpocketsare pestiferous class. and should
be ferreted out and punished in the shortest
order. But they would be infinitely more
dangerous if they we're as "trooly loil, "
according to the conventional cant of the
dominant party, as they are truly dextrous in