The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1886-08-07
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
Our Associate writes from vieksburg-
Points Of Interest Concerning the
Famous Hin City.


Famous Hin City.
VIcKsBUG, MISS, Aug. 3, 1886.
DEAR CHIEF:
Don't think I am going to treat you as un
kindly as on my Cincinnati trip, ignoring
your very existence. But really there wal
some excuse then. Jack Frost had lain !;
too familiar grasp upon me; my eyes achet
With locking on whitewaste of snow, an6
I was capable of doing nothing but watcf
4 the thermometer fall and fall, and wonder
why erer left the sunny South. Then w
! we're caught in one of the coolest snaps Of
the season, and it was very interesting tt
see the pretty feathery particles of snow
drifting softly down, enveloping the grim
/ old hills in sheets Of bridal purity. Now
the burning rays Of The August sun causes
me to look upon that experience as the
/ "baseless fabric of a dream"
We arrived here Sunday morning, and
climbed steep hill to our hotel, ali breath
less, tired and dusty. We've got bit used
to this now Notwithstanding hills, I mean
tile whole place being built on SUCCESS
ion of them, steep or shelving, until one
gets lost in labrynth of heights. The
! court house, handsome, solid-looking
stone structure, crowns one Of Thorn, and
the Veranda Hotel, another
The principal object of interest to visitors
il the National Cemetery, where SEVENTEEN
thousand slumbering heroes keep the
"bivouac of the dead" awaiting the final
reveille which shall arouse them to eternal
peace. Only four thousand of these are
known. the rest having no other record on
the walls Of time than simple number.
This is beautiful park, ornamented with
flowers and shrubbery, filed with echoing
music of silver-throated songsters and era
died in the arms of the mighty Mississippi
whose bosom once rocked the argosies of
war and whose now placid waters we're
plOnghed by kissing shell and ball. It has
a strangely subdued and melancholy look
here, this river, Us if it were bidding last
touching farewell to these everlasting hills
it has laved so long.
Seven years since the changing waters cut
through peninsula at the foot of the city
They ave taken the new channel, which will
soon leave this place inland, to all intents
and purposes.
Away at the other end Of the city is stu
ated what during the war was the Marine
Hospital, now subverted into pauper ten
ement house, and the bitter wall of power
ty resonnds where stricken warriors in fe-
vered deliriun dreamed Of home.
st. Paul's church, Catholic, is pretty
gothic building erected on an eminence,
approached by flight of stone steps, and
beautifully decorated interiorily. The win
dows are all stained glass, memorial ones,
and back of the altar an immense cross
rears its pathetic front with the figure of
the Man of Sorrows, life size.
The presbytery is in the midst of a
quaint garden, gay with old-fashined flow
ers, and all around the church great Grape
myrtles shower from their pink petals
fragrant benson Oh the nasser-by.
The streets are lined with tall, wide
spreading trees whose branches touch and
lnterinlngle, and are 50 steep in some pLa--
ces s-i that one can look down into The first
story Of the houses, while walking OIL a lev
el with the second.
The places of business are not over at
tractive. Cheap ready made clothing is
strung across tho sidewalks and swarms Of
children i'll various stages of nudity play
beside the doorway. In fact the whole
city has quaint, sleepy look, lis if it had
outllved its youth and usefulness and was
mpcrcoptibly gliding to oblivion.
We leave for Monroe tomorrow morn
ing, to attend tho Press Convention and 90
thence to Chicago and I shall probably
write You from both these places.
Until then, d bien tot Z.