The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-04-29
A Dying City.

Senator Morton is reported as saying to the
reporter of a Western newpaper that New Or
leans is dead city; that it has lost its oppor-
tunity that St. Louis, Galveston and even
Chicago have reached out and robbed it of its
former trade privileges, and that no amount of
good government can restore it. We have had
many stories of this kind from the Crescent
City," and we confess that nothing since the
war has distressed us more than the blight that
seems to have fallen upon New Orleans. 1t is
one of the most interesting of our cities. 1t
has continental quality that none of the 9th
ers possess. Its roots extend into other soils
than the Cavalier or the Puritan. New Or
leans, French in its origin, and at one time
under the control of the Spaniard, has always
shown the influence of France and Spain.
There is something of Paris in the sprightli-
ness and taste of the people in the chivalry,
which does not even now disdan the duello i;
in the merriment, which makes Sunday feast
day and not a day of fasting; in the Carnival
and Mardi Gras. Every street in the old city
recalls the glory of the Bourbon or the ambi-
ton of the Bonaparte. Before the war it was
prodgal, luxurious metropolis. The planters
looked upon winter visit to New Orleans as a
recompense for hard seasons work in the
cotton field and sugar house. The Mississippi
poured its treasures into its lap. 1t was the
interpot of Mexico and Cuba and Texas. There
was no city to challenge its dominion but Mo-
bile, for Galveston was a little seacoast town
that was scarcely known in the family of cities.
Alone, therefore, far distant from the other
ruling cities, mistress of the Gulf of Mexico
and the Mississippi, New Orleans rapidly strobe
along, and before the war had perhaps as much
wealth for her population as any city In the
Republic.
Even now New Orleans is ninth in the list
Of cities, if we may take the figures OF the
census of 1870. It then reported Isl 900 pop
ulation and 1856 dwellings-something more
than San Francisco and less than Cincinnati.
The latest authority as to its commerce, Edward
King, in his valuable and interesting work on
"The Great South" shows still many signs of
prosperity The last reported cotton crop,
1928, was hundred thousand bales larger
than the year before the war. The total value
of the imports in New Orleans for the same
year was more than ore hundred millions, and
the exports over six hundred millions. More
than one third of the cotton passed through
New Orleans. This is source of enormous
wealth alone 1t is hard to think that city
should be dead, or in any apprehensions of
death, that sends out from its ports more than
six hundred millions of dollars year.
There are, of course, many reasons that at
feet the growth of a seaboard town. The rail-
roads have diverted much of the Mississippi
trade. The sugar crop in Louisiana has fallen
away. The Western produce, THAT in past
times was foated down to New Orleans in rude
fatboats, now seeks New York and Baltimore.
Texas has been growing since the war into i'm
perial prominence and naturally seeks port
at Galveston. The railroad has shown its SUI
premacy over the river. In the olden times
A.. oc fha
channel of trade. But now the railroad has
usurped that function We defend our rail
roads in war and depend upon them as the
arteries of commercial life in peace There
fore the growth of the great railway systems of
the West and partly of the South have injured
New Orleans. The Federal government by
the subsidies it granted to the Pacific Railways
and other lines in the Northwest, has thrown
its influence against the South and largely
against New Orleans. So far as the account OF
the General Government with the South Is
concerned, it has not only taken millions from
the Southern States in the process of war, but
given millions to the Western States in the
way of railway endowments. Is it any wonder,
then, that with all these causes in operation,
An indulgent government strengthening the
West and neglecting, nay, trampling the South.
there should be signs of paralysis in the great
metropolis of the Southwest?
Senator Morton is an eminent statesman of
the Republican party. He has been the apos-
tie of repression and revenge He has cham
pioned every infamy or usurpation in the South
that called itself government. Therefore,
when he pronounces New Orleans dead city
he speaks his own condemnation and that OF
his party. Dying New Orleans represents the
ignorance, the cupidity, the folly and the
crimes of Mr.. Morton's party. But we are
confident that he has passed too harsh judg-
ment. New Orleans may suffer temporary
depression, cyncope from war and recon
struction," but there are elements of strength
and glory about the old town which even the
war and republcanism cannot destroy.-New
York Herald.
A Milwaukee lady who paid $50 to have