The Republican journal., 1910-12-15
Up the Mississippi and Ohio.
NEW ORLEANS IN 1859.

where the winter of 1859 was spent
Then in the spring of 1859, it was north
ward again, up the Mississippi and Ohio
to Cincinnati and thence across country
bv rail. do not recall that the trip was
noteworthy in any way except IN escap-
ing a blow-up, which was not uncommon
in those days. We took passage on the
steamboat Princess, crack Louisville
packet, with reputation for speed to
maintain, and as rival boat started at
the same time it meant race all the
wav up the river. As my stateroom was
directly over the boilers I did not know
when ''turned in'' at night whether
would be there in the morning, or food
orfishes, or scattered over the landscape;
but consoled myself with the thought
that my sister whose stateroom was
we'll aft, might escape in the event OF an
explosion. But in fact those who are
not killed at once face death by burning
or drowning and there are few survivors.
Aside from the possible danger tie boat
was uncomfortable from the intense heat
and when the wind was aft it was almost
unsupportable, and the deck was hot to
the feet.
The river was low and we were landed
below the city of Louisville and from
there took a steamer, Telegraph End,
stern wheel craft, to Cincinnati. That
makes rather short story and it may
be Of interest to supplement it with some
recollections of the New Orleans OF fifty
years ago.
New Orleans was then a French city,
as French as Paris, and like that city it
had it's American quarter, which was
above Canal street. All below that was
French. so far as the people and customs
were concerned, while the architecture
was mainly Of the Spanish type. This
was the New Orleans so admirably de-
picted in George W. Cables "Creole
DAYS." and it was in striking contrast
to the stirring American city of today.
The change was inaugurated by the Civil
War The fortunes and families of many
of the dominant race were wiped out IN
that great conflict and of those who sur
vived and retained their property num-
her went to France to spend the remain
der of their days. But it is rather OF the
DAVIS anterior to the Civil War that I'M
dertook to write, and what follows is
complied from letters written and pub
lished at the time and from personal rec
objection.
Of course everything was new and
strange to the visitors from the north,
guests in a typical southern household in
typical southern home well out on Es-
planade street, the house surrounded by
orange, fig and other trees and shrubs of
that latitude, and in the garden roses
bloomed every month in the year. This
was in the days Of slavery, and OF many
servants, men and women, the latter
wearing gay colored turbans. The old
"Mammv' was much in evidence and
an autocrat in the household. She had
cared for the mistress in infancy and in
childhood, was now caring for her chill
dren, and was always privileged char
acter.
In the morning the mistress went to
the French market to get the supplies
for the day, attended by two or more
servants with baskets to bring home the
purchases. The French market was then,
as now, one of the sights of the city,
and you could buy there not only fish,
flesh and fowl, but boots and shoes, cloth
ing of all kinds; in fact, pretty much
of everything from hair pin to piano.
Poultry was bought alive and taken home
to be killed and dressed. Crabs, which
in the south take the place OF Holsters,
We're also bought alive. l do not remem-
Der to have seen a refrigerator, but IN
the paved court at the rear OF the house
was a movable closet, the legs of which
stood in cans of oil as protection against
the small red ants which are an even
worse plague than the numerous cock
reaches. | have seen bottle of syrup
filled with these ants that had eaten
their way through the cork and some
times they found their way into the
sugar and you would have to skim them
off your cup of coffee. And speaking of
coffee, nowhere else have l seen such
coffee. The berries were roasted each
morning and then pulverized in mortar,
not ground, and the decoction was so
strong that one or two teaspoonfuls in
a cup of boiling milk made the beverage
as strong as most people would care to
drink.
New Orleans was then the negro para
disc. There were many free, well-to-do
negroes, with others from the plantation
still held in bondage but who were hired
out in the city. Wages were from $40
to SIS month, cooks getting from $50
month up. On Sundays the colored peo-
pie turned out in force, the men in
broadcloth suits, silk hats, and carrying
canes; the women in silks and satins,
many of both sexes wearing diamonds.
Sunday was the day for their funerals,
and the professions were most imposing.