The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-05-15
THE BLIGHT OF ABsENTEEISM.

We recently took a stroll in the Secon
District, or oldest built portion Of this city, i
: company with gentleman who, besides bein
one of the soldest inhabitants" is a rea
estate agent, and therefore thoroughly wei
posted as to the fluctuations in the value Q
that description of property. The numbe
of houses on which the ominous signs st
rent" and "for sale" were affixed, told at ono
the sad tale of business prostration ant
general misery. Many, too many of thes'
houses were in the last stages of crum
, bling and tottering decay description
which also applies to hundreds OF tenements
occupied by secondhand fruit dealers, ole
clio traders, vendors of dilapidated iron
and copper utensils which must date back al
least half century, and low rum shops, FIRE.
quented by the ragged females of all colors,
who squat around them, and by their equally
degraded male associates. stroll through
some portions Of Burgundy, Dauphine and
the adjacent cross streets running to the river
will satisfy every one that this is no fancy
picture, but literal transcription of what
may be seen any day of the year in these
favolite headquarters of the respectable and
staid residents of New Orleans fifty or sixty
years ago.
The causes Of this great change are, Of
course, various, and some of them could
scarcely be averted. As the tide of immigra-
ton poured into the Queen City of the South
west, the tendency of the new corners, who
were mostly engaged in the Western produce
business, was to pitch their tents up the
stream which brought to this market the mer-
chandise on whose brisk exchange for money
or other values they relied to live, and in
most cases then, to make Independent for
tunes. When what was once called the
"Suburb St. Mary" became body polite or
municipal corporation, endowed with CO.
equal rights with its antique and rather I'M
progressive rival, the shrewd. enterprising
men who managed the affairs Of this offshoot
from the old Hispano French city, offered |
substantial inducements to all who would |
come and settle therein, in the shape Of i'm
and secured ere long virtual |
of the steamboat. and barge and |
1atboat trade with the West. The efforts made
n the opposite direction, and which resulted
n the creation Of the Third District, did not
estore the advantage to the geographical and
historical center of the Crescent City, and
he upward movement still continued, until
9th Lafayette ana Carrollton were finally in
luded within the city limits.
Vet This unuard yooyovoopk -.xu
cached its extreme limits, there must sooner
r later be return wave of population and
usiness, from which the Second and Third | ,
'istricts-the first one acknowledgement
erive something like revival of their former
Canal street is now and will doubtless re- c
lain for generations to come the central ar
'ry of business, of amusements, and of fash
N, and if the old and dilapidated shanties
hich are permitted to stand in its immediate
cinity were pulled down and substantial
wellings erected in their place, thousands of
sople who now submit to the loss Of time
I'd the trouble expense and annoyance of
ding in overcrowded cars would find it
|
e neighborhood of their places of business.
1t, eye, there's the rub Most of these
antics and tumble-down houses are owned
people who reside abroad, and who, so
ng as they can find paying tenants among
Q degraded classes who alone will occupy
EN-, care nothing at all for the blight these
social ulcers have spread over
ce fourishing and well inhabited portion
New Orleans. In some instances these
wells are the property of residents who have
t the means of improving them, yet who
u not sell them to those who are able and
ling to do so. benevolent millionaire
g Peabody-if we had any such in New
leans-would long since have rendered
great service to his fellow.citizens, and 4,
improbably increased his own individual
alth by purchasing all these eye-sores, La
cling them to the ground, and building
vs. Of dwellings fitted for the occupancy of
'ent and civilized people What no indi-
ual can be found to do, may, at some w
ure time, be achieved by the associated
ital of many; and when that is done, our
in thoroughfare will not be disgraced by
immediate contact of a population some
at analogous to that which once congre- NO
ed in the Five Points Of New York.
his is from the pen of the wicked Henry
tterson, of the Louisville Coovier-Journai:: +
is said that Secretary Robson seriously
ks Of burning the half dozen or SO old
s that are left and of adopting Paul Boy
as the United States navy"
he Minnesota hen which is said to Law
$ without yolks Is evidently on the wrong
CA
LOUIS GRUNEWALD.