The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-05-11
A HELEAGUERED CITY.

NhS ever GOEDOIHbiUH VI Auui
80 harrassed. hampered and bedeviled
by law suits, claims, doubtful titles ana
every other form Of vexation to when
our complicated legal and political sYs-
TEN exposes every member OF our soole-
ty, as this corporation OF New orleans
now is?
Pandora has emptied her box oil
plap,,es and calamities upon the devoted
heads of the present city Adminlstra-
tors. The sins OF their municipal ia
theirs have been visited upon them to
the third, fourth and twentieth Official
generations, and there liz scarcely ray
of hope at the bottom of all these ca
lamities, Unless it be the CLEAN re-
Elected from Mayor Pilsbury's premium
bond plan.
The present Administrators are the
innocent inheritors from their prede-
cessors OF all these troubles and vexa-
tions. Even II 80 disposed, they have
never had the power or the opportunity
Of adding to this load, "Pelion upon
Ossa Piled" OF municipal indiscretions.
defaults, omissions and commissions
They all come down to them from their
antecessors, who, In nearly every era OF
our city administration for the last forty
years, appear to have been controlled
by a virulent and insatiate hostility to
their Successors and malignant pur-
pose to impose upon them the inevlta-
BILE consequences Of their own profit
gacy and misfeasances.
Saturn devouripg his offspring is a
faint NEUROLOGICAL symbol of the policy
of the ancient fathers Of this corpora
ton. If the legitimate results Of their
various misdeeds had full scope, the
corporation would disappear entirely
from the reach or gaze Of creditors and
eager pursuera.
There has at least been some ingenui-
ty and care In the recent legislation sur
rounding the corporation with bull
warks and iron chains and fastenings.
which must render 1t rather impracti-
cable and Improbable to assail and
board her, and thus keep off her most
enterprising and vigorous foes. Like an
up-river raft, she floats majestically and
rapidly down the current, and all other
craft get out of the way and leave her a
free course.
What Ia to be made by ramming or
boarding her but damages, costs OF law
suits and other exhausting vexations
Nothing certainly for the present, or for
some time to come. It is a loss of good
ammunition and wear and tear Of ma
terial and physical forces to batter and
ram so imposing and intractable an
iron clad. by and by, however. she
may run on a torpedo, which will fetch
her and blow her into atoms like Ora
ven's monitor at Fort Gaines In 1864. To
escape this sorrowful fate, it would be
wise for those charged with her naviga-
ton and defense to make any judieious
arrangements which may conduct her
into safe port and relieve her Of the
many perils that now environ her.
Here are some Of the troubles which
the sins Of their forefathers have trans
mitted to the present City Administra-
tors. Every one OF these Is due to some
gross delinquency, or to rash and i'm
petuous disregard Of wise counsels,
sound judgment and ordinary prudence.
Mrs. Gaines recent judgment Is the
most notable example of this bad ad-
ministration. When it was proposed, In
1894, in the Council Of the First NUM-
cipality, to buy the property known as
the Blanc tract, on Bayou st. John, the
city was blessed with firm, wise and
honest Mayor, DENIS Prieur, who was
for a long time Democratic chief in
this city and filled the highest offices in
the corporation, always worthily and
efficiently. Mayor Prieur vetoed this
proposition on the ground OF the de-
fective title. But the unwise and reck-
less Aldermen said. "We will buy the
property at a low rate, guarantee the
title and then sell it ut a great profit, =
and 30 they did, In spite Of the protest
of the Mayor, who called attention to
the claim of Daniel Clark's heirs.
And now comes the Carrollton Rail-
road Company, with its claims to prop
erty on which Poydras Market stands
and to other property adjacent thereto.
and to certain portion of st. Charles
street. to which, it is averred, the cor
poration has good legal and equitable
title. This tangle is also traceable to
the failure Of the city, thirty or forty
years ago, to execute in a perfectly
clear and proper manner the contract
with the company.
This Is only one Of half dozen other
similar scrapes in which the corporation
involved itself through the reoklessness.
negligence and mal-administration Of
Its public authorities. Other notable
examples are the loss by the city of
Annunciation Square, Coliseum Place
and Dryades Market, each OF which
properties was recovered by the origi-