The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1873-07-27

produce, "a she made 10 1860, with the ex,
ception of rice aicne. The herds anu
h"cks of the State, cattle, horses, swine,
sheep. and all domestic animals, except
dOgs and cats, have decreased more tnan
one-third since 1860. The food supplies
which feed our people, are mostly made on
the farms OF the Ohio and upper M's"is-ip
pi Rivers and their branches. III the Wesc
and North were to withhold from us three
months the products of their farms, or II
We were eff.ctually blockaded, and com
PEELED to rely solely upon Louisiana home
made provisions for substance, ha'i
of our people would starve to death. Ano
yet, there is no State or Territory on this
continent Of the same area, capable OF
supplying 30 great an abundance, not only
of the necessaries, but the luxuries OF life,
as Lenisiana.
CONSUMPTION OF wHIsKET.
In the production Of bat two articles OF
commerce of any considerable Importance
has this State increased since 1860 these
articles are Louisiana rice aud New Or.
leans whiskey the increase being Al .oOo
barrels OFFICE and 65. 900 barrels OF whiskey;
The Inhabitants of Louisiana, white and
black, consume about 10000 barrels OF
whisky yearly, besides immense Quantities
| Of wine, brandy, rum, gin, aud numerous
milder beverages down to lager beer: l
have authentic statistics of four parishes,
whose yearly supplies are on the records OF
These four parishes contain $4,000 lnhaoi-
tants, of all coloTs, ages, and sexes. They
consume more than 5000 barrels of " hisky
yearly, besides other liquors. If we reckon
up the cost of 20 600 barrels of whisky to
the consumer, at fifteen cents drink. and
and throw in all other liquors consumed
in the State to make up for short reckoning
} where drinks do not cost fifteen cents. we
! will find that it foots mp forty-t1o mtt!.o"
eight hundred and forty thousand dollars:
according to barkeepers' reckoning, 10
> drinks to q gallon, and 424 gallons to bar
rel. This amounts co more than the value
of the sugar, cotton. rice and tobacco crops
of Louisiana in 1870. The value of all the
, crops made by the planters and farmers OF
THE State in 1870. including 160OO,ooo
, potatoes, and other crops is estimated at
$52, DOG ,622.
, POPULATION, CITY AND COUNTRY,
One-third of the inhabis ants of Louisiana
reside in New Orleans and 10 other tow q ;
and, with the exception of q few gardeners,
they are non producers. Louisiana sup
ports more people who produce nothing
, than any other Southern State. The white
population of this State has decreased more
! since last fall that it increased in twelve
years, from 1860 to 1872. The black popu-
iation has become greatly demOralized by
whisky and politics since emancipation,
i and their numbers in the State would have
. W
t immigrant colored laborers brought from
other States since 1865. The white people
? of Louisiana, as a general thing, have be-
come disheal tened, and mnltitudes have
e resorted to strong drinks, to cards and
lotteries, to smother, for season, the hor
rors born of eleven years of war and recon
} struction. Notwithstanding the wonder
e full resources of this State, second to none
bet ween the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans,
3 intelligent white men, 10 city and country
0 daily repeat the Responding phrase, 81
would leave Louisiana at once if had
f money enough to pay my way out of it,"
\ 1t is stated that Sc yeral thousand III achanics,
= builders and artizaus have left New Or
4 leans for Texas and other States since last
o fall, and great numbers have left the rura
@ districts.
u A COMPLICATION OF EVILS.
u With decreasing white population, and
= multtudes of the industrial classes de
, mOralized by strong drinks and other ia
- huences; with great plumbers who were
formerly wealthy now impoverished, and
# the people discouraged; with the colored
n field labor of the State yearly becoming
j less efficient aud less reliable, and decreas-
D ing in numbers; with no efforts to increase
our white rural population, or to bring new
! men to occupy and cultivate these eighteen
2 million acres of idle lands; with old fields,
= tosthe extent of a million acres. that once
D yielded golden harvests, now growing up
0 in weeds and bushes, and young forest
f trees and wild vines with crops of staple
3 products and breadstutfs, and the number
K of our domestic animals yearly decreasing
{ our tables, and portion of the cribs of our
D horses and mules, supplied by Western
o farmers at an immense expense; the brains
g of large numbers of our people of all classes
o and colors embalmed in strong drink, their
8 means wasted and their bodies and mind
: wrecked !; a third of the population of the
e State shut up in New Orleand and in other
: towns, as consumers, and not q seventh of
= our people following the pillow and working
the hoe with ia xes 80 enormous that they
I are deemed but yearly installments on con
fscated property; with these, and other
self evident but untold facts equally APP
palling, like ghosts and collins rising up to
! meet us in our business paths from day to
day, who so blind as not to be able to see,
or comprehend the character of the mala
dies that are consuming New Orleans, and
the State, and the people7
TIE REMEDY.
Aud what is the remedy for the worst of
these evils What have the friends of the