Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-03-04
THE SUNNY SOUTH.
New ORLEANS, Feb. 25, 1856.

SO, to remark about the weather as kind OF
opening to further conversation, is also con
sidered in order. will therefore commence
this letter by first speaking of it, until get a
start, aud then go on about other matters till
the motion to adjourn prevails, and then quit.
With put few exceptions every day has
been exceedingly fine ever since we came to
this ''land of sum-" A succession of mild and
sunny days and pleasant nights, without q
break-no rain by day or fog by night. The
mornings are so pleasant and balmy that they
tempt one out to enjoy them At home the
writer is rather inclined to be lazy about rising
early, and mostly INDUCES that inclination
to laziness in this respect. This assert withN
out fear of successful contradiction. But
here his reputation for early rising stands
much better. The reason is, that 1T is 30
delightful to rise with the sun and take turn
around square or two to breathe in the
balmy air; get morning paper and sit out on
the varanda OF in the park and read till break
fast time Toward noon, when it gets much
warmer, one can then get under the shade OF
q tree and enjoy being famed by the gulf
breeze; and should one get too warm, which
is very often the case when stirring around,
why all that needs to be done, to cool on, is to
think of that Saturday, when we had (at home
this winter that fearful blizzard, with mercury
down nearly out of sight. This will make
one enjoy the more the bright sun, whose
beams are Just warm enough 10 be delightful
Now, what do you think of this for winter,
We dwellers in the land up toward the north
pole? By the way, received letter few
days ago. dated the Goth inst, from friend,
an old inhabitsnt of that place, and which l
am proud to claim as my home, uotwithstand-
ing the severity of its winter, in which he
stated that ''the mercury was waltzing around
down about zero" Now, on that day here it
was 600 above, and it has been soaring from
that altitude to go ever since, with prospect
of higher flight very soon-no need OF zero
on thermometers here.
We took in the exposition again on last
Saturday; looked through the art hall, and re-
gard the collection of oil paintings, etc., fully
up to last year in point of excellence. Some OF
the paintings are very fine indeed, and also
costly (S5OOO}. Would like to have one or
two, notwithstanding the correspondent of the
Cincinnati Commercial &C. A. P. of JAM
said he looked through, but saw none that he
would give wall room Well, all have to say
to that, is that he must have been very scarce
of wall room or lacked proper appreciation Of
the fine art as eIemplifed in a>good painting.
He said another thing: that one must have a
passport, or needs the interposition of some
responsible business party to get to look thro'
the interior of the gorgeous cotton exchange
Now, have several times visited that build
ing and conducted ladies there, as l did few
DAYS ago, and at no time was any passport or
recommendation needed; were received courte-
ously; told to ''make ourselves at home in
looking around" politely waited on, and given
the use of the elevator to ascend to the top of
the building, where magnificent view of the
city is had.
Another thing this same correspondent said,
speaking of the awfully poor COWS he saw out
back of the city, standing in water knee deep,
and looking like they had got up from bed Of
fever, quotes: "No wonder milk is dear" and
adds, eyes, and poorer than it is dear" Now,
it may not be very generally known that there
are great many very fine dairies just back of
the city, on the thousands of acres of pasture
lands between the city and the swamps beyond,
which furnish to the city milk and butter of ex-
cellent quality, fully equal to that we get at
home, and at reasonable prices. Strictly pure
milk mot watered) is bought from wagons pass
ing the door at &c. per qualt-less to regular
customers. There are various grades of butter,
prices according to grades, from l5c. per pound
up to 35c.-the latter price for the very best
quality of creamery butter; 25c. will buy about
the quality we ordinarily get at home. There
is, however, a good deal of condensed milk
brought from the north, and oleomargarene and
other limitations of butter used here for econo-
mics sake-all of which are very poor stuff;
but there is abundance of good milk and
butter to be had here by paying the price to
obtain it, which, think, is really not unreas-
enable.
In nearly all the departments of the exposi-
ton, save the art hall, their exhibits do not at
all compare with last year. There are, though,
a few collective state exhibits which are very
fine, particularly that of Louisiana.
Added to the 'Last Days of POmpeii," which
was again witnessed on Saturday night, was a
representation of a naval combat, and also the
Fall of Niagara which last was so popular
last year.
But the great feature of the day was the
tournament which took place in front of the
grand stand, behind the race track, which has
seating capacity for about 1000 people.
Fully 5000 people must have witnessed the
performances of the Knights. Tho elite of the
city was there. The fairest faces and the
brightest of the city of fair women were there
in their thousands, rising tier upon tier to the
roof of the stand. In the front rank sat the
sixteen Sponsors-the choicest flowers of a
choice garden-scattering their glances and
smiles around and melting their knights to
victory. Just behind these sat little Bessie and
l, but our smiles and glances not being needed
nor expected, and l, having no good looks to
scatter, put in the time by taking note. of what
was going on in general, while Bessie feasted
her eyes on the fine equipage of the knights,
and the elegantly dressed ladies, acting as
sponsors to the knights.
At the call of the bugle the knights entered
the track, all mounted and spendidly costum-
ed, rode up to the stand to receive on their
lances the colOrs of the ladies whom they rep
resented. There were sixteen knights repre-
senting that many states, and one the "un-
known" the knight "Ivanho" representing no
state and claiming no sponsor. Judge Braughn,
prominent lawyer of the state, then said the
tournament would be conducted in accordance