The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1886-07-11


1898.
Nowhere in the whole South does the negro
show so markedly his DISTINCTIVE traits Ms
in this French Market. Scarce in any other
plaae can you see the peculiar turban of
the woman, souvenir of the old days of
slavery and discarded by the younger
growth of the fifteenth amendment. Nearly
the whole of the old levee is devoted to
market uses, crowded with booths and the
small carts of hucksters. generally mulat-
toes, filed with knots of varied nationah
ties clud in as varied attire. Two things
strike the stranger particularly in walk
through this institution of the city. One
is the Jolly unctuous aspect of the negroes,
especially the women, for they seem tolive
habitually on the 'spossum fat of song,
and display their rounded figures in scant
drapery topped by the unique turban. The
other noticeable feature is the peculiar
voices of the people of the lower orders.
Sharp, high or loud as they may speak, the
voice is seldon an unmusleal one and never
nasal, and the laughter that seems second
nature to them is delightful to hear.
Doubtless, the climate causes the change,
for we can note il i'll those who have lived
for long time away from their native
North or West.
Emerging into Canal street, We change
at step into the full moving life of an
American city. The street itself is a beau
tifnl one, splendidly built up with modern
shores, and having With that is unknown
in this country outside of the National
Capital. This street is TO the Crescent City
what Broadway is to New York, OF Penn
sylvania avenue is to Washington. Here
the languid Creole beauty, the bashful
country girl from the provinces, e con
fdent belle of uptown and the hotel stran-
ger meet on neutral ground for that great
purpose which makes every female heart
throb the faster-shopping, and that otner
more far-reaching and powerfui-showing
their toilets. Every bright day the broad
street is thronged with ladies and men of
every age and color. No women in Amer
lea dress better than the Creoles, and all
New Orleans dress like the Creoles. In
other cities there are perhaps greater riches,
but the great majority OF ladies wear what
they do because some one else wears It.,
while the Creole, knowing that what would
look well on other people does not suit
them, uses that careful and perfect adapt
ability of color and cut to compile xion and
to form that alone insures perfect efsen-
bic. at night this throng goes drifting to
the theatres, which are of the very highest
class. You find them everywhere jammed
against-churches, in the midst of the fash
ionable quarter, in the poorest of the poor
quarter. The population are much like
That OF Paris in this respect. Every one
goes to the opera, and every one can talk
intelligently about the play. They look
upon the bright side continually, and there
is nothing gloomy about this insoucient,
elastic city. The stranger is apt to catch
this infection, and look only at the gayer
pictures and the picturesque and unique
points of the venerable and varied old
town. When he stats to investigate the
business of the city he will find it much
like those around it.
The oft-quoted ante bellum phrase,
sCotton is king" is as true, and truer,
to-day than it was before the war. You see
it everywhere pilea in great stacks on the
wharf, in the huge warehouses, and In the
busy, rattling mills. The trade furnishes
to the town a large share of Its picturesque
vivacity and the sinews of its business life.
II stamps town that would otherwise
resemble some decayed but still lux ,rious
European centre with d commercial aspect.
The drift of the Mississippi Aourishes the
community. Each ripple of the current
brings money to the banker and merchant.
Americ. ms, Creoles and Frencnmen are
alike interested in the growth of the crop
throughout all the great section drained by
the Mississippi and its tributaries All
rush eagerly every day to the Exchange, to
read the statements of sales, aud rates, and
bales on hand; and every one is intensely
excited when there is d large arrival of