The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-02-28
THE FRENCH MARKET AT
NEW ORLEANS.

some portions OF which will doubtless b
read with pleasure by our town-folk.
One hears but doleful accounts nova
days Of New Orleans Her glory has de
parted. On her once bold and brilliant broy
is written Ichabod
What with the disastrous results Of til.
American civil war, tie damage to commerce
the misrule Of ignorant negroes, the ravage
OF carpet-ba9ger3, crevasses, and latterl,
downright blooashed and temporary reyolu
ton, only stamped out by the heel Of military
authority, the once proud and prosperous
Crescent City is at o deplorable discount
Excepting hapless Charleston her pioneer il
secession, no southern metropolis has sui
fered SO much.
The whilom opulent and prodigal cotton
and sugar planters, whose business and expen-
diture constituted two-thirds Of the business
of the place, are ruined, or struggling inef-
fectually to accommodate themselves to an
entirely new and half-chaotic state of things
the brokers and merchants are impoverished
the people generally discouraged, and all but
despairing.
But how great was the prosperity of New
Orleans in the old anti-secession times What
a wonderful sight was its levee correctly
described by an American writer as "a spec
tacle without parallel on the face Of the globe
because presenting the whole scene Of the
city's industry in one view" What miles Of
steamboats, there We're ; what acres of cotton
bales and sugar hogsheads, and how various,
how picturesque, how busy were its popula-
ton Besides the diverslties Of native growth
and color in themselves contnental-there
you beheld miscellaneous concourse Of Eng
lish, French, Germans, Italians, Spanish,
Portuguese, Greeks and Sicilians, exhibiting
quite a Kaleidoscope medley OF the human
family.
How brilliant, too, was Canal street with its
beautiful Creole bellies of American descent
faultlessly attired Transatlantic French women
and dafk-eyed representatives Of the Spanish
Inhabitants of the city What monuments of
garish prosperity and semi-tropical bright
ness, luxury and profusion, were its vast no.
tells, where the planters wives and daughters
Haunted in morning silks and satins, and low
necked dresses, and sparkling jewelry and
innumerable rings over their kid gloved fin
gers, while their husbands and fathers would
"knock down few bales before breakfast, |
in treating friends to champagne cock tails;
or, congregate in tie far-tamed rotunda OF the |
St Charles.
Perhaps there was no more chara cteriStic |
locality within its precincts than the famous |
French Market situate on lie downward mar
gin of the ievee, adjacent to Jackson Square.
1t comprised three separate divisions, devoted
10 the sale OF meat, vegetables
and seeds. There Was nothing remarkable
about these erectors. wlicn
shops Or stalls; but their s&leslnen and ire
quenters the scenein general formed one OF
the acknoW lodged lions u the city.
To see the French Market to advantage
it was necessary 70 get up pretty early, most
business being transacted Ill New Orleans, as
in other scmI-tr0pcal or tropical localities,
before the heat OF the DAY. Accordingly We
will cross the square named aftlr the hero Of
,he city al A. NJ, at which time the sun,
whose good example we have initiated, is
making a long and fantastic shadow Of the
equestrian statue in the center, and throws
t slanting athwart the shelly paths !
Plunging incontine nifty into the meat mar |
let, great clatter OF coflee-cups, CHEEKY 3
as OF chopping meat, various cries
md polyglot invitations to buy, an omni- t
present hum and hustle, with other sights !
cents and sounds of tratlie-all these await
Is. The butchers are naturally lords para '
Mount Of the scene. Here are butchers ro- 1
und sturdy and civil, the Anglicism of their a
eatures Americanized by three generations /
escent; butchers OF the old French type, SO t
,.1o nd nj, hat Il.
yould not be surprised at pig tail beng a
yhisked into your face during their brisk ges- a
EQUATIONS; butchers akin to the modern q
'arisian, with the closest cropped heads
utchers more or less remarkable, but all u
usy, and All more or less animated. Here, /
lso, are som, negro butchers, but generally p
a subordinate capacity. 4
The demeanOr Of all present, whether buy ?
rs or sellers, white, back or rarti-colored, a
less brusque and practically democratic than e
lat observable at similtr scene at the North. il
here is, indeed, mutual simple courtesy, &
cry pleasing to contemplate. It contrasts il
,markably with what one sees at some of the
inor markets OF New \ ork city say jefferson 81
arket, with its horrid avenues OF bleeding n
al greasy carcasses; its bawlng butchers, its tc
pushing, crowd!ng and ios.ling st
lrchasers; its noisome and rat-haunted floors. te
butcher from such locality would be out ii
place in the French Market OF New Orleans, pt
roaring phenomenon, frightening away in m
cad of attracting customers. ct
Let us stand aside from the throng and e
rutinize some Of the most characteristic
,rsonages of the scene. There is one, an of
d lady, quietly dressed, perhaps in mourn IA
G, attended by her one negro, dutfully ra
frying her market basket, 70 convey home re
II humble purchases. Observe that shrewd be
oking business-like man, dressed in a suit rie
black alpaca, resembling broadcloth, at
lose appearance butcher-the one pos NJ
,sing the best furnished stall in the market WI
omptly abandons two or three less impor OF
ut customers, turning them over to the at Oh
,tons Of his less popular assistant. Sharply III
gances over the goodly joints of in
sat on the waiter, or dependent from the
" of hooks decisively he gives his orders, at
spectfully are they listened to and promptly WI
eyed. With the air of man whose time
., L., I,c of 70 tho nnulfarpr =