The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-10-13
A City of Contrasts.

of life and incidents as New Orleans-Q Ieer
City of the South. A few months ego, and
people from every part of the Republic were
hocking here by thousands. Not Only were
| hotels and boarding houses full of guests, bu
every private residence as well was open tc
distant friends and relatives. 1t the
month of the Carnival, and New Orleans was
q city of joy and festivity, of pomp and plea
sure of delight and weird enchantmept. Her
days were bat a series of changing yet ever
new enjoyment; ber nights were scenes o.
| light and love and luxury. Her streets were
| thronged by pleasure. seekers, her wharves re-
| splendent with the flags of many nations,
| while her natural charms of birds and fruits
and flowers added to the gorgeous revel pro
duced by AIT, made the place as bright and
beautiful as the fabled cities of ancient east
ern days.
Only six months pass away, and what q
change. Not only do thousands of her own
people desert her; but there is not q stranger
within her gate except the few devoted priests
and physicians who have cast their lot with
hers. Her public houses are unoccupied, while
almost every private residence bears marks of
grief desolation. Her days are calm with
q strange calmness, and her nights are quiet
with a hush of fear ard expectancy. Her
streets re echo to the m easured sound of heavy
s:ers slowly rolling vehicles, as the dead
are being carried away from among the living.
The very air seems no longer genial, while her
empty wharves and silent stores give testi-
mopy of the unemployed and ufferipg poor.
few months ago and generous friends came
from abroad to spend their wealth like water
here in our midst. Bat then it was to purchase
erjoyment to procure luxuries crafty
vanity and pride. Now another stream of
wealth is pouring in from the same generous
hearts ; but it comes to feed the poor, to nurse
the sick, to bury the dead, to assist the living
The Howard Association is the sntithesis of
the Mystic Krewe of Comus. Each springs
into existence in season peculiarly its own;
both born of noblest impulses and sctuated by
the purest love of human kind. One comes to
give pleasure, the other to take away pain.
One dispenses j ~ and mirth the ether light
ems care and soothes the pangs OF grief. One
is the channel Of peoples smiles; the other,
of peoples tears. One is the bright persona
tion of city's joy; the other, of city's woe.
Oue springs from the brain of fancy the
other from the heart of sympathy and love-
One may be called the offspring of the gods
the other is angel sert by heaven. But the
work of each illustrates most forcbly the con-
trasts of which we speak.
Who that knew New Orleans as the city of
the carnival would ever have dreamed of her
becoming the city of sorrow and death! Who
that counted her maskers on last March would
have thought they could be to day outnum-
bered by her graves Who that watched her
regal procession of gorgeous chariots on last
Shrove Tuesday night could have realized
that there would be a longer one Of hearses
only few months later!
And let US also we'll for q moment upon the
difference in the occupation of our people-of
our young men aod women in particular
during the seasons that are in euch contrast to
one another. Then the fancy dress, the paint
ed mask aod the volu Ptuous dance were themes
for every tongue AID objects of interest to
every mind. Now the winding sheet, the pal
lid corpse and the I'D funeral service, furnish
food for thought and prayer. Then the bright
est and loveliest of our youth spent their nights
within the ballroom, whirling through the
mszss of the dance; now they are seen beside
the bedside of the sick and dying, or going,
with un carried feet, from one scene of glad
ness to another, minstering help and comfort
aud carrying food to the poor and suffering.
Then our men were bent on acquiring wealth,
| and our women wrapped mp in dreams of
| folly now these have become humble imita.
tors of tie Sisters of Mercy, and those are fol-
lowing in the footsteps of the great English
philanthropist, Howard.
The watches of the night, the occupations of
the day, how they have changed! How is the
city altered and yet how fair she is in her
robes of mourning and beneath her pail of
grief How beautiful is the charity, heaven
inspired, which animates her heart; and If, in
the past, she was vain and proud and foolish,
low in her present atonement she is grand
and patient and heroic.
Bu. if New Orleans is thus selected by Divine
Wis iom as spectacle to the world, at one
time, of tie very height of folly, and at an
other of tie very depth of sorrow, is it not for
some salatary purpose, for wisdom is justified
| By all her childreui"
TAose days OF the past, these seasons of
folly, those pights CT dissipation, were they