The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-01-10

cause discomfort to pedestrians from any
possible direction. The front and also
the back windows of most private houses
have balconies at every story up to the
roof; and in the old French quarter
these are often multiplied and superim-
posed in the most picturesque way; you
see them right under the angle of gable
ends, jutting out from queer corners, in
fashion half medieval. They are often
hung with large pieces of cloth or carpet,
or stufs brightly dyed, especially above
the French dry goods stores; and thus
draped the effect is quite odd and pleas
ing. find much to crafty an artists
eye in this quaint, curious, crooked
French quarter, with its narrow streets
and its houses painted in light tints OF
yellow, green, and sometimes even in
blue. Neutral tints are common; but
there are great many buildings that
cannot have been painted for years, and
which look neglected and dilapidated as
| well as antiquated. Solid wooden shut
ters, painted bright grass-green, and
relieved by walls painted chocolate color,
or tinted yellow have pretty effect, and
suggest many memories of old France.
Few houses in tho quarter are without
them.
A stranger cannot avoid being also i'm
pressed with the solid character of the
streets here throughout the business por-
ton of the city. They are raised like
| causeways, and are usually either level
| with the sidewalks or above them, being
separated from the curb by cutters of
great depth and breadth. The street
pavement consists mostly of square
blocks of stone set diamond wise; and
this pavement is almost everlasting. 1t
is very handsome and clean looking, and
T am told that no other pavement can
resist the wear and tear of the cotton
traffic or the undermining effect of the
rains which loosen bowlders and roll
them from their beds.
Most of the finer public buildings must
have been erected at q time when ex-
pense was the least consideration in the
construction of an edifice. They are
generously and beautifully built; yet it
is sad to see that many of them are fall
ing into decay. Especially is this the
case in regard to the old St. Louis Hotel
now the State House-with its splen-
did dome, frescoed by Casanova, and its
grand halls. To repair it would now re-
quire an outlay of hundreds Of thousands.
It has been outraged in manner worthy
of Vandals; soldiers have been barrack-
ed in it; mold and damp have written
prophecies of ruin within it. Hither it
was that the great planters of the South
dwelt in the old days when they visited
New Orleans, and under their rich pat
ronage the hotel prospered well, till the
war swept away their wealth, and for
time at least ruined New Orleans. l
doubt if any of the great hotels here are
now doing we'll.
The st. Charles, with its noble Greek
facade, is the handsomest of these. From
the entrance of the rotunda looking out
ward and upward at the vast Corinthian
columns, With their snowy futed shafts
and rich capitals, their antique lines of
beauty, their harmonious relation to
each other, the sight is magnificent. 1
find number of noble Greek facades in
the city; the City Hall, the Methodist
Church, on Carondelet street, and other
structures might name, are beautiful,
and seem to illumine the streets with
their white splendor. This elegant, gra-
cious architecture appears adapted to
this sky and this sunny cline; and, in
deed it Was under almost such sky and
such a sun that the Greek architecture
was born.
But, after all, the glory of the city is
in her Southern homes and gardens. I
cannot do justice to their beauty. The
streets broaden there; the side-paths are
bordered with verdant sod as soft and
thick as velvet, and overshadowed with
magnolias; the horses, mostly built in
Renaissance style, are embowered in
fruit-bearing trees and evergreen gardens,
where statues and fountains CLEAN
through thick shrubbery, cunningly
trimmed into fantastic forms. Orange
and fig trees; bananas and palms; mag
nolias and myrtles; expresses and ce-
dars; broad leaved, notwithstanding
plants in antique urns; herbs with leaves
shaped like ancient Greek rd-blades,
and edged with yellow; shrubs exotically
luxuriant, bearing blossoms of curious
forms and equatorial brilliancy of color;
and flowers so rich of hue, so sweet, SO
fragrant, that they vary the varied green
with a thousand tints, and make the
tepid air odorous with drowsy perfume.
And you can walk through this paradise
hour after hour, mile after mile; and the
air only becomes yet more fragrant and
the orange trees more heavily freighted
with golden fruit, and the gardens more
and more beautiful as you proceed south
wardly.
Color and light and bright contrasts
those warmly picturesque effects which
artists seek to study in. tropical climes-
may be studied in perfection at the
French Market. The markets of London
are less brightly clean and neatly ar
ranged; the markets of Paris are less
picturesque. 1t consists of a succession
of huge buildings, e: ending for nearly
quarter of mile, and covering an erea Of
about four squares. Oh, the contrasts of
color, the tropical picturesqueness of
morning market scene here, the seduc-
tiveness of the succulent fruits, the bril-
liancy of the brightly dyed stufs in the
hosiery and notion bolths; the truly
French taste exhibited in the arrange
ments of vegetables and fowls and fruits
and fish; the costumes of the quadroon
girls; the Indian squaw selling droll
trinket,; the blue jackets from the ships
of all nations; the red-shirted fishermen
from the luggers; the Spaniards, Mexi-
cans, Italians, Englishmen, Portuguese,
Greeks, Frenchmen, Acadians, Creoles !
One may see almost everything, and buy
almost anything in the French market;
and he must have hard heart ora emp
ty pocket who can always withstand the
softly syllsbled request of some bright
eyed Creole girl to buy something that
he does not want.
You never smell an unpleasant ordor
in the French market; there is nothing
to offend the nostrils, nothing to displease
the eye. You inhale the fragrance of
c..t. - Qouo~ot uo,, hrooth tho odor