The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1886-03-27
AN OLD NEWSPAPER.
Its Perusal Causes a Comparison to be
Made Between our Past and Present
Transportation Facilities.

p~uoiICdtiohS tclilhS tHc S'o's VI
things long gone bye
Like .uprrstitious thieves who think the
light
From dc,i mems marrow guides them best
at might
fell in with that ancient and honor
able ex Alderman, VIM. Conway,
and, after Gliding him about bis ne
glect of public duties in refusing TO
serve his fellow citizens in distress,
aud telling him that he did not
know much about the interests of
new Orleans, or its history, either,
that gentleman stepped aside Tor a
few minutes and returning, handed
the reporter Il copy o! the Ncn Or
leans Commercial Bulletin, publish
ed Jan. IL, 1860, saying J.: IL was,
at the date of the publication OF
this paper, Il stevedore and worked
on the levee many d day. Now look
for yourself and see the change in
the condition of commercial aud
the difference between the methods
of then and now
Al examination of the twenty six
year old paper showed change
that is really wonderful, and PER
haps without a parallel in the his
tory of any city, ancient or modern.
On the first page no less than POI
sailing vessels are advertised as be
ing loaded and to be ready for de
parture in d few days. On the last
page are advertised fifty seven
steamboats, for departure within
from a few hours to three days.
Eleven steamships are adver
tised tor regular departure, but
they, compared with the steamships
of to day, were small concerns in
indeed. There is however, but one
railroad advertised, and that is the
''New Orleans, OpelOusas and
Great Western to BerwIck's Bay,H
a distance OF eighty four miles.
But what do we see to day . There
is scarcely ever more than IL dozen
steamboats, i'll port, and scarcely
more than that number of sailing
vessels. Now it Is all great mon
ster steamships some even 500 feet
in length. The steamships have
driven the sailing vessels almost en-
tilely from the ocean and the rail
roads have almost annihilated the
steamboats, and steamboat business,
and the locomotives come putting,
snorting and ringing into New Or
leans from every direction and
every State ia the Union, and will
doubtless ere lOug be whirling
freight and passengers to Mexico,
the Central American States, and
even to and from Brazil.
FIFTY YEARS AGO
the weary horses dragged the stage
coaches over the Allegheny noun
tains, but 10Y we see the mighty
locomotive engines starting from
New York, pulling palatiaI sleeping
cars behind them, loaded with hu
man beings, and leaping with al
most lightning speed over the ALE
gheny mountains, flying away
across the great Mississippi Valley,
bounding over the Rocky Noun
tains aud plunging down to the
shores of the Pacific Ocean, and in
their flight sending off cars on
branch,roads that reach from the
frozen regions of the North to the
Gulf OF Mexico, and all brought
about by a MAI having, some hun
dred years ago, noticed the tremb
ling lid of a teapot. When one con
siders the tremendous changes that
steam has wrought in the affairs ,ot
the world during the past half cen
tury, it; is impossible to foretell
what may b.. in the near future
Y n Nfnfoe