New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-05-10
THB EXTENT OF DUB RUIN.


than at an enemy who inhicts upon hin
real injury. He wishes to be though;
very acute sufferer indeed, and does no
pate ntly hear his woes sighted, especially
those of the imagination. 1t is so will
some of our citizens in regard to the ILL
of the body polite. If a skillful politica
physici an comes along, examines the out
ward signs and says by way of encourage
ment that our case is not quite SO bad as
the fears of some of our citizens have pic.
tured it, they fly into a terrible passion
and declare the good natured persons who
vol unteer such unpalatable advice to be
qua cks or open enemies who want to ruin
New Orleans. Poor old TYPOS! There
is no relief for them in this world,
nor none that we know of in the next.
A case in point. An intelligent gentle.
ma of Pittsburg recently visited this city
with his eyes open and notebook in hand.
He is live, stirring, enterprising man,
with good capacity for inquiring into
questions and tracing effects to causes.
He wrote several letters to his home paper
which were, no doubt, read with good
deal of interest by the people of the
North, as the character of the writer is
such as to give much weight to his utter
ances. The tendency Of these articles is
to assure our Northern friends that we in
New Orleans are by no means ruined,
tn ough admittedly not quite SO prosper
GUS as We were before we invested in Ger
tain follies. The indigo trade nearly
swamped us, but it is possible to recover
from the losses in time. So evidently
thinks MIR. O'Neal, our Pittsburg visitor,
since he endeavored in all his letters to
put as good face on the matter as pos
sible. For this attempt at encouragement
he has somehow incurred the i'll will of
the Picayune, who is the self-constituted
chief mourner of New Orleans, and is
jealous of the loss of the least bit of woe,
lest perhaps it should impair the value of
its occupation. For instance, here is
what Mr.. O'Neal said:
You can not rent any sort of moderately
decent dwelling house under $1,000 year,
while houses that would rent with US at
from $500 to $3.50 bring here from $1,000 to
$4,000. First class houses rent anywhere
from $4,000 to $4,000 a year, according to
size and location, and for extra choice ones
higher figure. With business houses it is
the same. l had occasion to visit a hair
-doV vxhn $40,
the hotel that even upon Fifth avenue
would not command more than $4,000 a year,
yet he informed me that his rent was $4,000
and that he had been notified that it would
be $500 more next year.
Property owners are iaexorabla. The
taxes, they cay, have reached such figure,
five and half per cent, that they must
have a corresponding increase of rents or
lose their property, and as they are not the
kind of men to make any such sacrifice,
they stick it on to suit themselves, and ten. !.
ants have got to pay or quit. This appears
a hard state of affairs, yet l can not see
that it interferferes seriously with the rent
ing of the houses, as there are very few
buildings uuoccupied in the city, and dur
ing tide of some eighteen miles through
its streets, doubt if l saw altogether
of two things: either there is not house
room enough for the people, or the rents
demanded are, all things considered. not SO
Oppressively high as represented. We have
given the facts, and our readers can draw
their own conclusions.
Now. never having seen New Orleans
during the busy season, l have no idea
what the standard of activity or dizziness
in business is here, and can not, therefore.
say of a verify whether the dissatisfied ex-
rebel, or the "truly loil," comes in this mat
ter nearest the truth; but if were to Judge
from my own standpoint, and on the
strength of my own observations, l should
say that the city for tho time of year is
doing prosperous business, and that most
of the reports which 60 North to the con-
trary are gross fabrications, and utterly
unworthy of belief.
Of course we can detect several mac
curacies in the above statement, but
nothing that may be thought very import
ant. We felt grateful to the writer for
trying to encourage our citizens and assure
our friends abroad. His is evidently a
friendly hand, and we think that for a
stranger who made flying visit he did
remarkably well.
But here is the Picayu,e's translation:
The disagreement of the Picayune with |
the Dispatch related to the statement of |
the editor, in his correspondence in this !
city, tt at the commerce of New Orleans |
was never more prosperous; that in a ride |
of eighteen miles through our streets the |
writer scarcely saw house for rent, and |
that a hair dresser on Canal street paid |
$4,000 a year for a small store, and had been |
notified of large increase for the next |
year; that it was all bosh about the frauds, |
corrpptions and expressions of the State |
government, and that the only discouraging /
indication observed by him during his SO.
journ in this city was the cruel and brutal |
treatment of the negroes on the levee by |
the officers of boats and their employers.
1t would now appear that the Picdyune, |
in questioning the exact truthfulness of
these statements, placed itself in opposi
ton to all the other journals, among which
we presume the REPUBLICAN, by its quota
ton of the Dispatch, desires to be included
Though not ambitions of exclusiveness, we
curacy of the statements of the Dispatch,
to be regarded in that light by both jour
mails. II the Endorsement of the Dispatch's
view of our condition and affairs is neces-
sary to Justify and maintain claim to
truthfulness and honesty, we
frankly confess our inability to ill the bill,
and freely concede the sufficiency and
superiority of the REPUBLICAN and the
other sources and indorsers of the valuable
communicated to the editor of
the Dispatch.
It will. be observed the translation is
not faithful to the original. The Dispatch
does not any where say that the :'com-
merce of New Orleans was never more
but that "the city for the
season Of the year is doing prosperous
business" That is the patient is not told
that he was never better, but as well as
could be expected under the circumstan-