St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-03-18
IN THE CRESCENT CITY.
A Glimpse at Many Quaint Scenes in the
French Quarter.
Relies Handed Down by Creole Families
Bankrupt Planters.
New Orleans Correspondence.

love for the sawdust) and listened to the
same antediuvian jokes with which he
amused audiences more than third of
century ago. He spoke of the good old days
when his Floating Palace was the reigning
sensation on the Father of Waters, and
thousands upon thousands of people
swarmed from far and near to see
the great Dan Rice" but when he gave
IN entertainment a few nights ago not 800
people were present, and about one-third OF
those were professionals and other dead
heads In the ''early days he was foreman
Of fire company No. s, but when that COM
pany passed in grand parade last week
sUnele Daniel" stood on 4 crowded corner
TO see the children and grandchildren of his
comrades. He built the Academy of Music
in this city, and gave its present manager
his first financial baom. He aided III build
ing several other places of amusement in this
city and gave a small fortune away to friends
and various charitable institutions. But now
he returns to his own, impaired in health
and shattered in fortune, and his own re-
ceiVe him not.
CREOLE RELICS.
''There is no antique furniture in this part
OF town anv more,'' said a furniture dealer
IL the ''French Quarter to the correspond
ent Until shortly after the close Of the Re-
bellion there was any quantity of ancient
ebony and furniture of curious designs, valued
both for its antiquity and intrinsic worth.
The furniture was brought over by the first
settlers, Chalmette, Bienville aud the
royal emigres. This furniture was handed
down from generation TO generation. Di
rectiy after the war great many of our
wealthy creole families returned to France,
and, OF course, sold their furniture, or gave
1t to friends, who, perhaps, not knowing its
value, sold it. Others were so impoverished
that they were compelled to sell everything,
even their immediate family relics. Ebony
is valuable, YOU know, and it was sold by the
pound, because, in many instances, there
were only few pieces remaining of an arti-
cIe Of furniture. Relic hunters would ran
sack the secondhand furniture stores for the
fauteul OF the French fathers, or the leg of a
round table of the days Of the grand Mon
argue. These valuable relics were mainly
purchased by Eastern people and taken away,
SO that very little remans.n
BANKRUPT PLANTERS.
These descendants Of ancient families
have also in many instances disposed of
their French libraries and paintings to East
ern visitors in search of the works Of old
masters and authors. These people suffered
during the war, as there were many coufsca-
tons by the soldiery on private account
which were not reported to the outside world
Then after the war came successive over
flows, drougnts and yellow fever epdemics
-calamites enough to discourage not only
the French element, but also the more en-
terprising Americans of this proverbialy
slow country. They have had enough dis
tress and political trouble to make them
SLOW" said an explanter, who once owned
600 slaves, and whose great am bition it was
TO own an even thousand. Directly after
the war, so impoverished was this once
wealthy man that he and his family drew
their daily rations from the govern
ment in common with their former
slaves. They, too, had become wards Of the
nation. The saddest phase of life in the
South, perhaps, is that of a bankrupt planter.
He seldom rem0unts the wave of pros perity.
With his fortune, he loses energy, hope, am
biton-everything; and becomes almost as
helpless as a child. These men were brought
up in aiiluence, and even Incidence by their
slaye-holdinC ancestors, and they knew only
how to SOW and reap, and as their fortunes
came so were they spent.
QUEER OLD HOUSES.
Travelling through the notwithstanding
''French quarter" picturesque in its an
tiquity, your correspondent saw several city
residences of these typical Southern planters
These houses have large verandas and many
windows. They are constructed on the
political platform style to catch every
breeze and the oldest are of adobe:
others of brick, and all are painted
pink, which seems to be the prevail
ING color of those days. OF course,
there is Il court in every house,
with cistern in the middle of the court
and bathhouse near These quaint-looking
houses are still occupied, and from the street.
when the old, battered front door is open,
which is very seldom, the passer-by can see
several huge earthen jars. These family Jars
arc full of water, which, in the cool court, is
kept icy cold. a small, soGt-shell turtle or :;
Young alligator eats all of the ''wiggle -tails''
and other impurities natural to water When
he turtle outgrows his field of usefulness he
is supplanted by a smaller one and is con-
vcrted into turtle soup for the family. The
alligator is sold to some curiosity hunter as
pet" or perhaps it is traded off in the
French market where everything known to
the world Of traffic is bought and sold.
NIGHT SCENES.
At night a stroll through this quaint quar-
Ter would be even more interesting were it
Tot so dark. Few gaslights are burning and
tnose give only dim light. The cafes alone
lave the enterprise to have extra lights. The
amps are red and green and the stranger is
N doubt whether he is approaching a hoSpi-
tal or . police station; but the noise
of the little Italian band inside
gives him a correct idea. In these
cafes oysters are open at one end of the
counter No well-regulated young man will
retire without eating oysters at night;
dozen raw naturally follows the last drink
before going home. In the corner of the sa-
loon sits an ancient dame with her charcoal
furnace in which she makes red-hot drip
coffee; three little ''sweet cakes" go with a
cup Of delicious, genuine Java or Mocha, and
all for cents, or ''picayune." Then sud-
denly the stranger is startled by wall out
eide, and nearer it sounds like an iucanta-
zion to some NEUROLOGICAL deity or medieval
devil Suddenly it stops and something en-
tiers the door which looks weird enough to
belong to another world. The lettering,
gray-haired, tan-cOlored, hollow-chested old
man with the sQueaking voice carries little
cdSV-Fou furnace with Kitchen compartment,
from which issues small blazes and fumes of
smoke. He deposits his peram buIatiug res
taurant on the floor, and you learn that he
was making ali that noise because he had
tomales to sell.
When the strutter reaches Canal street,
the division line Of the French quarter, an
other portable kitchen is seen, and the man
who has it walks as If he feared someone
would oyertake him, and is making even q
greater noise, not one word of which can be
understood. Hail him, and he puts down
lis restaurant, dives fork into the oven and