National Republican., 1883-04-23
uNAMER1cAN NEW ORLEANS.
Sunny and Muddy-Cable, the Novelist,
Hauled Over the Goals For His Satire
Amuscments and Graveyards-"R Rcstau-
ronUs sD--Summer Abscnteeism.


Amuscments and Graveyards-" Rcstau-
ngs"--summer Absontccism.
Special Letter.
NEW ORLEANS, La, April 16.-According
to the romancers this is the land Of the sunny
south, where magnolias, mocking birds, and
all that sort of thing combine to render the
Crescent City magnificent. But judging the
town from the Washington standard, it is
nothing but q mud hole. True, flowers are
magnolias, and lots of mocking birds, and
there has never been any serious difference Of
opinion as to its sunniness, but to one familiar
with the Washington avenues and her parks
and public buildings this place sustains about
the same relation to tho capital that the Po-
tomac flats do to the white house grounds.
1t is positively the dirtiest city in the coun.
try. If there was market for mud every
property owner would be millionaire. The
streets are paved with square stone blocks
and next the curb is slow flowing stream OF
mud and water that ENTHUSIASTICALLY has to
be shoveled into piles Of about CARLOAD each,
and as / look out of the window / SEQ that
these heaps of mud are about ten feet apart.
The city seems to rather like IL that way. AT
all events it is allowed to remain until IL is
washed back into the gutter, to be reshoveled
out into the street again. When the Massa-
chusetts man was in command here he made
the convicts clean tho streets and kept away
the yellow fever. don't believe they have
forgiven him yet for it, If Benjamin's chance
for the white house depends ON New Orleans
nobody need be disturbed on that account.
Municipal government is a science that the
Crescent City has not taken any special in
terest in. The hoodlum element is strong,
numerically and politically, and local politics
sa..fa .a aN.s IL. a 80
smells to heaven. Yesterdays papers had
tho prospectus Of q new party, designed To
purify local democratic politics, with the hope
that the effort might grow into something
general. Tho paper was numerously signed,
but when the herculean task is considered
the outcome isa very doubtful matter.
Cable, the Century magazine man, is catch
ing IL red hot from some of the people he re-
fers to in his writings and speeches. In q
card to the public one of his critics starts out
thus: "In pandering to the tastes of his
northern patrons and admirers, Mr.. George
Cable has thought proper to infuse into his
works Of fiction a spirit of satire and ridicule
against southern civilization" and so on for
two columns and half.
Across the Potomac the +, +. VS.. (begad
sir live. Down here il is the 80 and b. the
"oldest and best (begad sir), and if George
Cable wants to escape what the man and
brother calls "bulldoozin," he will come out
strong on chivalry and tone down the rest
The fact Is Mr.. Cable has been rOmancing lie
hasn't told half. Financially New Orleans
believes in cotton and sugar, and politically
it holds to the old flag and an appropria.
tion for tho Mississippi river i'm Improvement
The Mississippi has been on the rampage
again, and a serious danger is threatened In
that there is prospect of the rivers seeking
a new channel TO the gulf, and leaving the
city an inland towns. without the river New
Orleans would be mate to Washington with.
out the government work going on there
Tremendous interests are at stake, but the
river has a will of its own, and when 1t wants
way will find one or make it altogether in.
dependent of an appropriation. There il
nothing doing in social way, and the legiti.
mate amusements are summed up in the Hess
operatic troupe running "Iolanthe" at Bid
wells for one week. just now the papers
are agitating the question of first class
hotel for the city, In every northern city
there is any number of hotels Of various and
varying degrees of vastness, but down here
there Is not one first class hotel, and abso.
lutely none of the smaller fry of hostelries
Three or four hotels do the business, and
the bulk Of people-that is, people
who know what they are doing-go Ia
the restaurants from rented rooms. There
are restaurants enough TO choose from. There
are restaurongs where they speak nothing
but pollywog and others are kept by John
Chinanan, aud there are all the intervening