New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-05-17

chiefly at the East, increased. Then there
came new trouble. The emissary of the
great ring, whose members were railroads
canals and even cities, had built those
subfuvian streets thus: The diagram il
omitted.I The width of the channel select
Ell was half a mile. Its depth shoaled from
sixty feet to the depth on the bar dredged
out to eighteen feet This extraordinary
structure was OF beton coignee, a cement Of
sand lime and shells. and of Golfers known
as caissons of iron, latticed, filled with sand
and clay, and sunk in parallel lines on each
side of the channel.
| If the waters had been withdrawn these
walls would have represented the two sides
of one of those principal streets in the city
of Chicago. This concrete street was pros
pected to converge gradually for five miles
on each side Of this channel to a space OF
about 600 feet. The impossibility of find.
ing sufficient foundation for any perma-
nent structure on the surface of the ground
near this river had been demonstrated by
the emssary. What, then, was the posi-
blity Of erecting such structure upon the
shifting mud of the channel. As had been
predicted by men skilled in the alluvial
stratification of the delta, as it was called,
the stream speedily undermined the street
OF concrete. 1t cut through. under and
| around it. 1t was as if Napoleon or Lord
| Nelson had br oke u the line and animation
| OF an enemy. The concrete street was broken,
twisted, tumbled into and across the chan
| mel. Mud accumulated around it's broken
masses. The drift wood. INSTRUCTED by the
narrowed outlet, and beaten back by the
ocean tide and wind, accumulated damned
up and made what was at that day termed
a raft. Year after year these distinctions
accumulated. The charts become uncer-
tain, the pilots were bewildered, insurance
was raised to absurd rates. ship owners di-
rected their vessels to go to various East
ern ports and receive cotton. corn and flour
by rail across the Mississippi. Suddenly
serious storm arose. The river was, in the
slang of that day. blooming A strong
wind set into the channel. The drift wood
wac piled higher than a mast. Large Sec
lions of the concrete street were tumbled
in and across the channel. while the river
cut III back Of, and between, the street and
the mud bank A city meeting was called
to demand relief
committee of conference with the great
Jetlander was appointed. lie was not to
be found. Rumor had it that he was at
New York, Liverpool, in London-in his ma
tive Scotland or Jetland. 1t subsequently
appeared that he had received ovations at
the hands OF the great ring cities and rail
roads named, and that his rewards were
of even more substantial character He
dwelt in distinguished retirement, and the
honor Was even accorded him of having
closed the port of New Orleans, and con.
centrated the whole interior trade of the
and of the Eastern Atlantic
There was fonnd in crypt, with many
fragments of glassware, chiefly demijohns
and bottles, much mildewed file OF an
antediluvian journal called the Picoyu,e.
from which the following explanatory par
agraph was exhumed:
We deeply regret to learn that the dis
tlngulshed engineer who has for 80 MANY
years been engaged in constructing that
great work of the century. the subfiuvian
walls OF betON cOignee, near the bars of the
Mississippi, has suddenly left upon call
OF superior emergency which requires his
presence elsewhere. Sub rosa. We learn it
is the work OF the British government to
close out Russia from any possible access
to the Mediterranean. 1t has, therefore,
employed our distinguished submarine
architect to Improve the port and channel
of the Golden Horn and BOsphOrus The
sudden departure of the distinguished sub
Ject OF this notice is the more to be regret |
ted that we learn the late storm has broken |
down an aggregate of about a mile ot con-
crete at different places. Pilotage is, we |
are concerned to learn, lust about equal to |
salvage. The return of the distinguished |
is anxiously looked for. |
Later Our sensation heading patented:I |
Astounding RepOrt-Fa allure of the Grand
Sub Aqueous AquavatOr. Concentrated Cur
rent and Wingdam Erodent Company,
Work Irreparably Injured
and Abandoned-The River Not Navigable
for an Oyster Boat--The President En-
Route for lspahau via Constantinople."
1t is with inexpressible Indignation that
we learn the terrible facts obtained by
special intelligence from authentic sources,
'nly accessible to this paper. Can it be
possible A company SO stiong, an ad-
so able, stock in such de-
nand. We advise our fellow citizens to
prepare tor the worst. There are as we
earn, considerable sums due for materials
mi services, professional and otherwise.
If our citizens. We esteem as nothing
he few insignificant thousands which may
'e due ourselves, for stock which we have
armed by the sweat of our brains. The
ills of advertisements for contracts and
+ official stationery due us we would
heerfully give for authority to contradict
his deplorable tale of ruin. In the mean.
lme, who is to take these masses of ma
onry. clamped and latticed together I'M
er the unhappy patent of Manico! We
rust an infamous and oppressive govern
cent will pity US.
We hope the stupid bureau of hydro
raphy may have sense enough left to |
ispatch Immediately the saphead, who dis
pproved of the subaquean concrete street,
ands of rock at He'll Gate. Let him be sent
to do what he can to blast out |
hesc impediments. In the meantime let
he oppressive and rapacious aGministra-
on supply ratiOns for our people until our
shall have been restored to the
Dndition in which it was found by the ras-
ally radicals. Would that we were at
'cneu TO some paternal ana conservative |
overnment of Europe.
Some weeks after follows the maledictory
the journal to the pubic, in which it an
ounces the total closure of the port. the H.
essation of trade, the distribution of ra-
ons by an ''imbeciie and wicked admins
alton and the departure OF an expedi-
on, by which the government of the
nited States removes the surviving inhab.
ants. without regard to past color or con-
ltion. into the newly annexed and admit
ID State of Guajalahara. late in the repub-
9 OF Me yicn