Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1878-04-04
THE CRESCENT CITY.
4 letter 10 the Chicago INTERIOR"
From New Orleans.
BY REV. GEORGE C. MOVES, ID.

| 10 the Clty OF the GulT, from Chicago
to New Orleans, is to exchange q
rough and unfriendly climate for a
most delightful one, if the passage be
made in the month of March. The
journey can be performed with great
comfort and speed. The traveller who
leaves Chicago at nine o'clock in the
evening by the Chicago and Alton
road, will wake up from a comfort
able nights sleep for an early break
fast in st. Louis. Leaving that city
the same evening in Pullman Sleep
er, by the Iron Mountain and South
ern, the Mobile and Ohio, and the
New Orleans and Mobile roads, line
admirably equipped and managed,
and running through country rich
in scenery, in agricultural resources
and in scenes of great historic inter-
est, he will be safely landed in the
Crescent City the second morning af-
ter leaving st. Louis. In forty eight
hours, we passed from a land OF snow
drifts and chilling winds to a land OF
flowers. blooming everywhere in the
open air. 1t was a grand transforma-
ton scenel To one who has never
before visited tropical cline (and
this may properly be so calleO the
scene is enchanting. If, as Longfel-
low sings, the flowers are earth's
@"stars wherein we read our history.
As sstrololers aad seecs OF DID,"
one is here abundantly supplied with
the materials for reading his history.
Roses of many and the finest varieties
Chamber in rich profussion over house
fronts, over verandahs and fences.
Besides these, verbenas, japonicas.
Towering shrubs and blossoming
fruit trees; orange trees, laden now
with :heir golden fruit; fig trees,
(though "the time OF figs is not YETI
banana trees, aud many other trees
and shrubs Of unfamiliar appearance,
fairly bewilder stranger from Dorth-
ern latitudes, by their floral and leafy
beauty.
This city, more than a hundred
years older than Chicago. Git was
founded by De la Tour, in 1717,) is
yet not half so large. Its business
streets are narrow, like those of lower
New York. Its dwelling houses are
mostly wooden structures. though all
OF them, from the finest palace to the
poorest hovel, are covered with slate
roofs. Its French and Spanish quar-
ters east OF Canal street, which is the
great thoroughfare, is quaint Old
World city, planted in the soil OF the
New World. Among its manifold OBJ
jects of interest to the traveller, may
be mentioned the cemeteries, which
are filled with small vaults above
ground, as the wet soil does not ad-
nit or burial in graves; the many
elegant private residences, set in
spacious and beautiful grounds; the
plains Of Chalmette, four miles from
the city. on which General Jackson
fought and won the battle of New
Orleans; the equestrian statue OF Old
Hickory, in Jackson Square, on
whose granite pedestal Gen. Butler,
when he was in command here, did
well in causing to be inscribed the
famous words OF the old hero, "The
Union must and shall be preserved"
the levee, which is busy bazaar Of
the nations; the champion cotton
press, which applies a pressue OF
1000 tons, or 100000 pounds to a
bale Of cotton, giving IL such tre-
mendous squeeze that. when still un-
der the press, it becomes as solid as
lignum vitae, and will weigh eighty
five pounds to the cubic foot; the
gardens of the jockey club, which
(the gardens, not the club are, and
deserve to be greatly admired; the
mandatory where water is convert
ed into ice. polar regions being thus
brought into the very midst OF tropi-
cal fervors, and the carnival.
The carnival, which presents the
best specimen OF European folly on
g.and scale, to be found in the coun-
try, is entitled to separate men,
ton. The carnival last Tuesday was
celebrated on a scale OF magnificent
folly and splendid burlesque. never
before equalled. The Homeric diver
stiles and heroes were charioted
through the streets by day. making
an appearance which,. though suffic-
iently stunning. did not exactly fill
out the conceptions OF Homer; and
the metamorphoses OF Ovid were
magnificently displayed and illumin-
ated by night. Both exhibitions, it
is said, cost not less than fifty thou
sand dollars. Considered as spectac-
ular displays, they could not well be
more imposing. They were elabor-
ate, fantastical, beautiful, coarse, hor-
rible, absurd, amusing-the incon-
gruities Of the description filling well
the incongruities of the carnival it
self. 1t is easy to moralize upon the
influence OF such costly spectacles !;
but this letter is chronicle, and not
homily.
But was to speak OF the religious
forces OF the city. DR.. Palmer's
church is one of the chief Of these.
with its membership Of between five
and six hundred. Professionalism has
had really noteworthy growth in
this stronghold Of Roman Catholic