The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-02-17
NEW ORLEANS THROUGH CHI
CAGO SPECTACLES.
Our Population as Fiery and Furi-
Gus as the Paris Commune.
Bad Places for Capitals.

Il is matter for serious regret that the Chi
cago Tribune should have passed from tn,
hands of honest and conscientious journalist
into the clutches Of men who 90 not hesitate
to WELD the powerful lever they control fol
the injury of whole communities, and fol
the dissemination Of stories SO grossly improb
able and absurd as to carry evidence of theil
falsity on their faces.
Every fair-minded journalist will ADM,
that the basest and most unholy use to which
a newspaper can be put, is to make it the
vehicle of lies-not mere ,chie lies, that are,
| perhaps, more the result Of a too redundant
| fancy than the emanation of malice-but lies
that blast the reputation of human beings,
and fall like blight upon innocent people
lies told SO ingeniously that there is just a
skeleton of truth lies that are doubly damn
ing, because Of the slight basis of truth upon
which they are deity builded, SO as to OBJ
scure the foundation altogether.
The Chicago Tribune, printed in wealthy
city, having large circulation and neces-
sarily welding vast influence, we regret to
see, stoops to the infinite littleness, the in
conceivable meanness, Of maligning the peo-
pie of New Orleans a community which has
suffered more from the thousand ills that
spring from bad government than any other
within the limits of our common country-a
community which has been ground down to
abject poverty, which has endured insult and
rnhh nl MI al wit
lime courage and patience, has borne it.
self grandly in the face of such indignities
and dangers as would have made the people
of Chicago blaze into revolution and hurl
their oppressors from power. 1t is absolutely
false that our people are rash, exci.able and
mercurial. Ten years of constant suffering,
following close upon the hardships and severi-
ties of the war, have made the people of New
Orleans Thoughtful and calm, very slow to
anger and more difficult to arouse to high
pitch of excitement than the inhabitants Of
any other city on the globe.
Poor in everything save manhood and
honor, they have never forgotten that they
once were free, and it is only when some new
they, forgetting their misery and their poverty, |
give voice to their indignation, and dure to |
exercise the right to meet peaceably to pro-
test against the wrong We cant fight, we are
by no means dangerous, we are only nomi-
nally citizens of a republic, and can only talk,
md yet the editor Of the Chicago Tribune anda
'ew other blind and savage fanatics like him
ire offended that we have the effrontery to
,rate about our rights and to protest against
he Entertainments of the military power. We
English that he is q prating fool, or a canting
lypocrite, or possibly both. He stops to
wear and rail at us when the very govern
nent itself is tottering to its fall, and
when the next fire that Eliminates
chicago will be that which procaims civil
var in which he may have to drop his quill for
sword, that is if a fellow who will lie SO pro-
ligiously will fight in any cause.
Here's what this Chicago sage has to say .
bout New Orleans, or a portion of his twad- !
lie rather tor some Of it is too vile to print: s
All large cities contain mass of turbu- :
emit partisans who live upon politics, and !.
his crowd, with the exception of the leaders
Tho control it, is usually made up of loafers,
agabonds, blacklegs and vagrants-men who {
re ready to commit any corrupt or even des-
crate act at the beck of those who have Off q
es or money to give them. New Orleans is
He'd with this class, and in addition to
hem has the White League, which was Or :
anized and armed for purposes of intimida-
on and violence, and mercurial ex-
table population continually running from
ne sensation to another and incapable of :
idging any question in calm, grave or con- !, !"
,ryatiye spirit If the occasion offered, the y
opulace Of New Olleans would show itself !,
! fiery, as furious, and even as brutal as the :,
arts Commune. In States or countries where =
le people of great cities are Of grave.
date temperament, and not liable to be in y
1enced by sensational demagogues or to be !
:iven to and fro by every gust Of PASSION, ~
gisation may be safe from the influences OF =
@ mob as in London, Berlin or Vienna II
In Paris, on the other hand, legislation has :,
ways been influenced by the mob. The ~
'ench authorities recognized this danger ''
rec years ago when they wisely removed the
lrliament from Paris to Versailles, and there q,
escaped the perils which constantly threat tn
ed legislation, not only from the Commune ba
EN- organization, but from the gangs of h
icmplONeu ana ulSSOlute WOrkne0, the dis an
ntented socialists, and the vicious classes W;
The population of New Orleans closely re-. an
mbles that of Paris. The people of the two
les are rash, exc1table and mercurial cts
ley run after sensations. The barricade, ar,
Q comp dddt, the revolution, are the means mr.
an end with these people. The rotunda of f,r
3 st. Charles Hotel dictates legislation Just M
the cafes did when Paris was the capital. 81
long, therefore, as the capital re- hi,
inns in New Orleans. confusion and disorder sai
~ be anticipated. Sensations will be made
stexts for mob manifestations Intrigues
u be successfully manipulated because they ba
! be covered up. Corruption will flourish bo
cause it will never encounter an atmos- be,
ere preiudicial to it. Disorder will pre- wa
| because the material for producing dis fro
Ter is ready at hand for designing bal
iticians The danger of centralizing rec
Legislative power in a great city may in
best appreciated by considering what the as
ults would be if the capital Of Illinois were bic
ated at Chicago. with such an organization the