The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-10-03
OUR GERMAN LETTER.
European Correspondence Of the Bulletin.]

European Correspondence VI LAe DuAoIAn'J
The Freisht Robberies in Europe-Consola- |
tion for Fruft.Stealing Expressmen-The |
Most Contemplate Species of Theft on
Record The Project 10 Inundate the
Great Sahara Desert of Afrtce-Why 1t Is
Considered of Questionable Benefit to the
WOrld-More absut The Enterprise of
Americans-The Neufeld Piano-Observa-
lions Of a New Orleanian Abroad.
BERLIN, September, 1875.
Dear Bulletin Before I came to Europe I
used to hear great deal of talk about the
e2ortive tricks of express and baggage men
on the different lines running into New Or
leans, and how these gay fellows used to levy
mites on passing loads Of peaches and other
Feight of similarly tempting nature, but
hough nearly everybody had heard of these
title violations of the great principle OF
mine and thine" and though great many
lain to have suffered, yet no one thought of
making a fuss about it, and dare say the
hing goes on to the present day.
Well, it would appear that our American
transportation companies are not the only
pnes whose employees help themselves to
tempting freight-provided they can get at
Il, Of course-from that which passes through
l6eir hands, for in the last few days there has
been a general commotion in relation to bag
page robberies between continental ports and
England. The first to complain was an
american, whose baggage, it seems, had been
Regularly sacked on the passage from Ham
burg to London, and, with the propensity of
bis nation to let the public know when the
servants Of the public fall short of their duty,
he at once rushed into print with the matter,
and following his complaint have come host
of others from travellers and merchants in
various parts Of the country.
1t seems that the plan, as rule, is to
break into packing-cases, as they are more
easily opened than trunks. 1t is done by
pricing open one end and making an opening
large enough to abstract any small articles
that may be accessible, such as bottles OF
wine, packages Of tobac,o, etc. One gentle
man, an English importer, reports that out of
eyery dozen cases of wine he receives at least
one, ss rule, has been so tempered with,
contents of case have been extracted and
the void filled with bricks. As these goods
pass through the hands of several companies
en- route from the interior continental towns
to the London warehouses, it is matter OF
great difficulty to locate the theft with any
thing like certainty; but the general belief is
that these goods are opened by the employees
of the dock companies after they have been
landed in England, as the chances are better
while the cases are lying there for delivery
than at any time on the way. In connection
with the subject one gentleman reports that
persons who send cases containing pictures
and other works of art out of Italy frequently
find that they have been tempered with by
those miserable Italian beggars, and all the
screws removed for the trifing value OF the
screws themselves, species OF paltry rob-
berry that the people of no country under the
sun except Italy would be mean enough to
commit.
So our jolly express men, baggage smash
ers. princely conductors and others who alb
stra It peaches from between the bars of
the reflection that there is much worse sort
of rascality carried on over here, where it is
claimed that all is so strictly managed. And
by the way, you know it has been proposed to
inundate the great Sahara Desert OF Africa,
for the benefit Of that country, on the prlncl-
Die that it was inquest nably once sea, and
that a sea of water in its place would be tar
more convenient for the travelling public that
the existing sea of sand. This reads finely,
and people seem to have been quite taken
with the idea, but now there comes long
headed engineer, o man who claims to look
beyond the end of his nose, and says that
they had better let it alone, and to support
his opinions he reasons as follows:
In ages gone by, when the Sahara might
have been supposed to be sea, and when, as
he claims it was, the snow line on the noun.
tains of Europe is known to have remained SO
low all the year round that vast numbers OF
mountain towns, now enjoying mild climate
during the summer, if in existence then,
would have remained surrounded by per.
petual snow: but that as the great inland sea
gradually dried up, and left in its place vast
expanse of sand glowing like furnace IN the
tropical sun, the hot winds from of its surface
were waited towards the Alps, the Apenines,
the Pyrenees, and over the frozen valleys Of
Europe, and that the snow was melted
and its boundary line receded far ul
from the valley, leaving the growing
nopulace in the different countries
more and more room for their fields and
PASTURES; and the same influence has con-
tinued to prevail ever since for the great
benefit of the civilized nations of Europe.
Now this deep-thinking man goes on to rea-
son that if we food the Sahara again with
water. we at once, and forever, cool down the
furnace that heats these Winds for us now,
and that the snow line will again desc nd