The New Orleans Democrat. (New Orleans, La.) 1875-1876, 1876-07-02
LOOK on This SCENE.
The spectacle which has been Do

presented To the public In this city
during the past week. first NJ the
st, Louis Hotel. then at Mechanics
Institute. and finally at the ut. Charles
Theatre. has certainly been q disgrace
10 our state. No such exhibitions MS
those which daily transpire In what is
called the Republican State Convention.
we venture to say. have ever before as
toniehed civilized community. The
negro legislatures and conventions
which governed the State and pretty
much controlled It's politics In the hrst
wears of reconstruction were bad enough.
but they are not to be compared 20 the
present convention.
The scene In the 81. Charles Theatre
Yesterday was hideous and disgusting
The dress circle and the galleries. to the
ceiling. were crowded with negroes
men. women and children interspersed
here and there with white men, scarcely
distingnishable from the black and
surging mass. The pit was occupied by
tho delegates, and the stage by tho off
GERS of the convention, reporters, and.
we presume. candidates and their lobby.
lists.
The banauettes IN the vicinity OF the
theatre and the entrances to the building
were crowded with half drunken. swear
ing. staggering negroes and white men,
mingling together upon terms OF per-
feet equality, with their arms thrown
over each others shoulders, BUTTON
boling each other. drinking ana hob
nobbing together The scene on the
street was vile enough. yet 1t gave no
idea Of that within the building. The
interior Of tho theatre was gloomy
almost to darkness. aud the spectacle
which met the eye on entering impressed
the beholder with the idea that by some
evil spell he had been transported into
n world of hideous shadows.
The atmosphere was hot almost to
suirocaton. The weird and shadowy
forms ii the pit sprang zip and down In
the gloom, waving innumerable palm
| leaf fans. swung their arms to and
fro In threatening or defiant gestures.
seeming like crawling brutes who had
|
men IN which to serve tho devil. The
roar of angry aud excited voices. the
wells. tho cries and shrieks from the pit
crowded with dark and undistinguish.
able shapes; the fierce responses
from the stage the shrieks Of applause
and Misses Of contempt from the surg
ing galleries, occasionally partially
drowned by the thunders Of the band,
which. hidden by some invisible power,
ever and anon broke In upon the tu-
multi. all combined TO intensity the
fancy of supernatural and diabolical
transformation.
/ A spectator observed that the scene
reminded him Of Millions description Of
Pandemonium.' 1t left no such i'm
preston upon our mind. Milton g
Pandemonium" Is q terrible picture,
but II is full of grandeur; the spirits
there are fallen spirits, but they are
heroic spirits STILL The glory of their
wings IL faded, but they still wave
majestically in the lurid glare Of the
unholy fires. There Is 1.-THE beach
of sulphur. the ocean Of fire
and the palaces Of the fallen
nominations glimmering through the
everlasting shades The spectacle al
the st. Charles Theatre rather re-
minded us of some of the most hideous
scenes In the Inferno Of Dante. II was
more like the dance In the witches cave
In Faust than the Pandemonium
As we watched the surginp
and wrigling mass Of hideous forms In
the pit, and the hot waves of air laden
with a revolving stencil swept through
the building, we should scarcely have
been startled had we seen serpents
crawling In the gloom and rearing theil
Kissing heads in the throng. A band o
bowling dervishes, O Voudou dance, are
probably the only mortal things which
could compare to the Radical Conven
ton yesterday. One figure In the rou
alone seemed to riselhbove the level o
the british mass. But even that figure
only had the dignity Of superior brute
It was the snake charmer, with blacl
and yellow and scaly reptiles wrigglint
and crawling and Kissing around him
but daring not to strike. That figure
was Pinchback. He stood solid anc
unmoved; he could not guide the mob
but he held them down to their wrig
Cling and crawling and bowling ant
kissing, and they could do no more. HI
could not tame them, but he was all the
time superior to them.
And these are the sort OF creatures
who for eight years have been electine
Governors and other officials, and max
ing laws for the enlightened people o.
) louisiana Is 1t wonderful tina,
, we have been discouraged; that We
have grown FESTIVE: that poverty has in
I vaded the country, and decay smitter
, the city? Is it surprising thai
ON, HEARTS ara full Of hittarnesc