New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-11-28
HARD ON THE LOAFERS.

The weather is rather cold to make it
comfortable to lounge in the public
squares, sit on the steps Of Clay Statue OF
the City Hall, or even stand on the street
corners staring at the female population
as they file past. The barkeepers look
with eyes of finty GOODNESS upon the non
paying free luncher. Joe Walker de-
mands an admission fee to see Sexton,
and. in a word, all the warm and COM
Portable loafng places in town are placed
behind distractions in some manner.
There is no work to be done until the re-
suit of the election is made known, and the
result is that thousands of our able bodied
male population are put into a most un-
comfortable position of anxiety and con-
Germ. There is in consequence great
pressure brought to bear upon the Re-
turning Board to give the army of loafers
an asylum in the room where they are
now trying their best to find out how the
people voted twenty days ago.
Those twin discontinued papers, the
State Register and the Times, are particu-
larly snappish because the unwashed mob
is not let in to jostle Messrs. Wells, An
derson, Casanave and Kenner while they
are at work. It would be fine thing for
the idle, curious, impertinent, meddle-
some idlers to lean affectionately over the
chairs of the members, as they pass upon
the returns. The fumes Of poor whisky;
the odious smell of onions and garlic, the
sitting smoke of cigars and cigarettes,
the pools of tobacco juice, and the inter-
minable bable of voices, set in polyglot,
would just about finish what little pa
thence yet remains to the board.
As everything that is done by the
board is promptly given to the public
next morning, there is neither necessity
no propriety in having the officers
crowded out of their chairs nor talked to
death by lawyers. 1t is, therefore, a mat
ter Of surprise to US that they should al
low even SO many oficious persons as they
have to bully, browbeat, interrupt and
tumble over the papers. If the time ex-
pires before the work of counting is done,
it will be the fault of those who have been
sent there to confuse them with their ir-
terminable gable. We regard the pa
tience of Governor Wells and his col
leagues as something to be wondered at.
They patiently listen to everything offered
by the Democratic attorneys, and permit
about four-ffths of the time to be taken
up every day with protests, catechisms
and the most trifing and dilatory proceed
ings. And yet others are dissatisfied be-
cause they are not permitted to come in
to aid in the confusion. A jury, body of
judges; legislative committee or any other
body Of representative men, charged with
the discharge of grave duties, would find
some means to protect themselves from
impairment intrusion while at work.
And it would be an act purely of self-de-
tense if our Returning Board should lock
their doors upon all and singular every
body. except their clerks and such gentle
men as they might ask to be present to
give them advice. If ever this question
were to come before Congress or the Su-
preme Court at Washington, we would
see no such jostling as our Returning
Board submits to, and which makes every
idler in town feel aggrieved because he
can not get inside and increase it, by his
peculiar talents.