The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-04-17
Our New Orleans Correspondence.
NEW ORLEANS, April Z, 1873.

= 1 shall not undertake to give description
of the Crescent City that would take great
deal of time, q more observant eye, and a
reader pen than I can command; but the first
impression of an ordinarily intelligent person
in strange city sometimes interest others who
may not have visited it. The first thought
that strikes stranger on leaving the cars at
Canal street is that, by some hocus-pocus, he
has been jerked, as it were, out of the United
States and landed somewhere-exactly where
is not SC easily described; it might be Africa,
from the crowds of idle, ragged, and apparent
-ly worthless negroes, that lean against anything
strong enough to hold them up, but for the fact
that such pleasing vision is painfully frequent
in every city in the South since the "best gov
ernment," &C., hss been running the machine
in its own paternal way. The population seems
a conglomerate, composed very largely of for
eigners of every cline and nation, from the
moustached Frenchman to the pigtailed Chi
pese. On Canal street, noticed very -four
ishing looking tea store, where all were Chinese,
clerks ard proprietors-the latter bearing the
peculiarly euphonious name of Yut, Sing q
Co. As passed and stopped to wonder and
admire, some six of them were jabbering in
their frightful language at once, and the effect
was tremendous; it was calculated to make
colander out of white mans ears in two min
utes. A walk of half an hour on Canal street
will probably show native of every nation
ever discovered, and plenty that never ought
to have been discovered. Stand on street
corner, and one might as we'll be deaf, for he
cannot possibly understand the many foreign
tongues that go in one ear and out the other
as the people pass. Some of them can only be
guessed at. heard party of negroes talking
what presumed was French on the levee this
morning, and its melody, when worked out by
pair of heavy sole leather lips, must be heard
to be appreciated.
Great attention has been paid to the con-
struction and repairs of the drains and sewers,
and the streets are kept very clean; but the
mass of decayed vegetables and spoiled meat
around the market places, the accumulation of
filth in the cutters from the want of free use
of water, and the presence of large uncovered
drains, form a star,ding invitation to Yellow
Jack to come in ard make himself at home,
which he accepts too often,
Most of the streets are wide and we'll paved,
and the houses neas and comfortable, with an
eruption of porches, verandas, &C., that is
truly astonishing, but no doubt very pleasant
where people live 80 much in the open air as
they do here. At night the streets are crowded
with walkers, and around the monuments and
squares thousands of people sit and lie, to get
cool after the hest of the day. Every one
seems to be striving to take things as easily as
possible, and they saunter along at pace of
about mile an hour, and seem bored at having
to make that; which is very funny to one ac-
customed to the quick pace and internal hurry
of New York and Philadelphia. Indeed, / do
not blame them, for any one that can move
fast in such q temperature as this need have no
fear of hereafter" even if the fire is kept up
with fat pine and bacon-sides. All the rain
water cisterns are above ground, instead of un-
derground; something new to me, but l should
say an admirable plan, in some respects; as
being tanks raised, in some cases, two stories
from the round, it enables citizens to have
hydrants throug ut least two floors fed by
these tanks, and thus avoids pumps and much
labor The Mississippi water, which is gener-
ally used, is said to be very healthy; which,
no doubt, it is, but it is disgusting looking
worse than any ever saw, not excepting that
of the James River at Richmond, after two
weeks rain. 1t is about the color of railroad
coffee, and tumbles full has perceptible de-
post almost before you can drink it, while the
pitchers in the chambers of this hotel have a
rich, alluvial soil at the bottom permanent, it
would seem,) that should think might be
proftably farmed.
The young ladies of New Orleans are, in my
opinion, the handsoraest in the United States,
and I have seen every large city east of the
Mississippi. A walk on Canal street, on hot
afternoon, (called pheasant" here,) develops
more types of female beauty, from the almost
bronze brunette to the lily blonde, than ever
saw anywhere before, except on small scale
in Baltimore. They seem to be prettiest from
Is to 20, after the latter age they fail rapidly.
Their taste in dress is exquisite, which, of
course, adds still further to their general ap-
pearance. They are at present, however, en-
deavoring land succeeding, too,) to spoil the
effect with an abominable French roof sort Of
hair arrangement, which is atrocious. A very
pretty girl passed ME this morning, with a
coiffure that estimated, it being impossible to
see the top, was ten inches high from her fore
head. 1t must have been arranged on oyster
cans or powder kegs, or even well bucket
may have been pressed into service. She sailed
along with six-inch straw bonnet perched on
top of the monument which threatened de-
struction to all the awning rods and sign boards