The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-04-13
MORTON AT HOME.


back to indianapolis, and as matter o.
course was at once interviewed on the SUB
iect of bis late abortive attempt to invade
Mexico The enterprising reporter, who was
graciously admitted to the 'levee'
Of the Radical Emperor informs
the universe that this great and good
mans health was never better, "nor
is he alpays the sober, digniied Sen
ator when surrounded by his friends "a
pregnant sentence, suggestive Of habits en-.
gendercd by conyivial intercourse with bis
respected chief, Ulysses the First, and with
his late colleague and travelling companion,
FAC Chandler, Of whom DOM Piatt once re-
marked that whenever he saw him in his seat
in the Senate the impression was always Gre
ated in his mind that one-half OF Michigan
was gloriously drunk.
Talking about his late failure to 60 to
Mexico, Morton says ne gave UP the ldea
wholly on account Of the presence OF yellow
FEVER at Vera Cruz and adds, that no counter
orders for the government steamer placed a.
the disposal of himself and party have been
issued by Secretary Robson. Growing
confidential inter poctAa, tho Plachbaek bot
tle-hoder remarked thai. although they had
no official mission to perform, ''the govern
ment thought it would be for its interest If
IRE Morton 4 Co.. went there on SEMI
pleasure trip, as it would show the people OF
Mexico that we regarded them kindly
This last bit of sentiment, by TIE way,
ty,n anti
prising interviewer himself there being
nothing Mortonish about it Perhaps our sly
brother Of the pencil intended j. as piece
of quiet irony the idea that the Mexican
people would look upon Cameron, Morton
and Zach Chandler as q fascinating trio OF
angel visitors and animated olive branches
being one Of those daring fights Of fancy
altogether foreign to the unpoetical lndi-
ana statesman, and which only a Radical cor
respondent of the Inter- f'cean pattern, or
Truthful Phil himself, could possibly have
originated.
Following in the wake of the last named
worthy and Of his great exemplar. Baron
Munchausen, o. P. then branched off into an
account o. his Southern trip which is not far
beneath the happiest efforts of these Illus
trious travellers. latter leaving Richmond,
says the Indiana Mendez Pinto and Alexandra
Dumas melted into one, g did not see one
single farm house one half Us pretentious as
the average farm houses in Indiana. There
was no evidence Of taste thrift or prosperity"
This opening appears to us decidedly cool,
in view of the fact that most farm houses "of
any pretensions in this region were laid in
ashes by Morton's own people, and that since
the country was "pacifed" oil his personal
and political il iluence has been eXeried with
fatal effect to prevent the return Of "thrift
and prosperity in the plundered and bayonet
ruled South But this is nothing in compare
son to what follows: "During ride of two
hundred and ten miles through Mississippi,
saw only one white man at work. Hundreds
Of thousands of negroes were p!owing and
otherwise engaged, but tho white men were
not to be seen outside of tho cities and the
larger towns"
There being in Mississippi, according to the
last census, 49,, 800 whites and al, POI blacks,
and d" hundreds Of Thousands OF the latter
and "ouiy one OF the former having been
seen at work by Morton along the 210 miles
OF railroad he went over, the following obvious
questions should also be answered by the In
diana traveller, namely: 1st-How do the
remaining $50, S95 whites in Mississippi man
age to live? and "a, by whom is the "plow-
ing done in that much more extensive
region OF the State which had not the
benefit of coming within the range of that
exact observers vision The white men being
all congregated 'in the cities and larger
towns" and all the negroes not acting as
Radical sherifs or tax-collectors being at
work along the line of the jackson Railroad,
it follows with mathematical certainty that
scarcely more than one-tenth part of the
arabic land Of Mississippi must be under cul-
ture, and that the Scriptural miracles. of the
multiplication of loaves and fishes are of
daily occurrence in ali "the cities and larger
towns OF that thrce-bessed State, which en-
joys the privilege OF having u negro Senator
in Congress, a son-in-law of Ben Butler tor
Governor, and set Of colored legislators
which can only be matched by the Louisiana
body Of the same personal and political
hue, popularity known as the Sheridan
Legislature.
Having "done Mississippi, Morton then
pays his respects to US in the following words
and sentences, to wit
New Orleans was the deadest city of its size
he was ever in. Not q new building is being
erected. and many OF those already built are
crumbling to pieces tor want of repairs. The
streets IRE also SO badly out Of repair that il
is sometimes dangerous to attempt to drive
through them. The levees are crowded with
shipping, steamers and ships from all parts OF
the country and world, but they seem to bring
with them no prosperity for New Orleans.
lie thought peace alone would not etfsct a
cure, for the city had lost the greater part of
of its former tEade.
While its citizens had been cutting each
others Threats, st. Louis Galveston, and
other cities had been building railroads and