Year: 1866

Fifty Hears in the New World
NUMBER TWO.


Let not our readers take umbrage at such
| expressions as those which we used in closing
our last article whilst speaking of the British
nationality. We must make allowances for
the respective stand points of the parties, and
whilst descendant of the ancient isle of
Iberia may well feel inclined to look upon the
hereditary domination of his country in such
manner the British to others may appear
in quite different light. This, for instance,
is the case with regard to the mercantile COM
munity of that free, Hanseatic city Of Hamburg,
from which had sprung the merchant adven-
turer Of whom we have been entertaining our
readers in the preceding numbers. The free
city of Hamburg having its essential being in
the great commerce, inland as well as mari
time, has always looked upon the British peo-
pie and even the British government, as their
most solid patrons and commercial friends.
Not only have these commercial relations been
of very great importance, but Hamburg was
always looked upon from the British shore as
one of the most useful commercial centers
for the great British colonial as well as manu-
featuring entrepots upon the European CONT
nent. Hence in all political or diplomatical
complications this free city, upon the shores
of the river Elbe, was sure to find in British
diplomacy most powerful ally and assist
ance, which again was fully acknowledged and
reciprocated by the people as well as the au-
thorities Of that German republic.


It would, therefore, sound strange if, from
the Hamburg standpoint, we should refer to
the British nationality. whilst from purely
Hibernian point of view such feeling would
be undeniably in its proper place. Will our
readers accord us this manner of looking upon
things? If SO, we shall now proceed undis-
turbedly in our narrative. We said that
when the news Of the defnitiYe treaty Of
peace between Great Britain and the United
States had arrived at New Orleans, about the
middle Of the month of February, 1916, the
Hamburg merchant made preparations to
ship his parcels of cotton, Of which we have
already made mention as being in the hands
of Messrs Montgomery for the continent Of
Europe-that is, for the port of Antwerp, one
of the great maritime centers in the kingdom
Of Belgium, but at that time lin 1870 still in
the domains adjudged to the kingdom of the
Netherlands. We might here also take note
that the then already very considerable com
mercial firm of Vincent, Nolte & Co., and the
equally substantial house of Rochelle & Shift,
made important shipments of cotton to that
port as well as to other European markets from
which the commercial community of New Or
leans has been shut out, in consequence of the
strict blockade of the Mississippi river kept
up by the British cruisers in the Gulf of Mex
ico and near the mouth of our great stream,
ever since the declaration of war, in the year
1872 so that there was an accumulation of
three successive crops of cotton within the
storehouses of our merchants, or upon the
cotton plantations in the country. One of the
Oldest inhabitants of Natchitoches, Mr.. Tau
gin, ex-mayor of that little country village, as
sured us, in 1926, that he himself, as well as
his neighbors, had suffered considerably from
his inability of realizing his stocks of pro-
duce, thus continuing from year to year to in
cumber his warehouses, whilst still the de-
mands of the planters had to be satisfied in
order to procure the plantation hands the in
dispensable necessaries. However, peace,
golden peace, restored the many wounds and
sufferings of the people in the United States
as well as in Europe, to which part of the
civilized world we now must follow our mer-
chant prince from the renowned city of Ham
burg. Having traversed the ocean, which
then would generally take from fifty to sixty
days to any harbor upon the western part Of
the European continent, Frederick William
Am Ende happened to arrive at the port of
Antwerp just day or two after the famous
battle of Waterloo, the 18th June, 1915, which
sealed the fate of the great modern French
empire.


We might here enlarge upon the conse-
quences of the fall of this gigantic structure,
but we have no time at present and shall re-
serve all such considerations for later
numbers. At present let us hasten on with
our hero or adventurer to his native place.


the city of Hamburg, then in its heyday of
! jubilation and triumph. For that devoted
maritime city had suffered more than almost
any other German city under the oppressive
rule of the French domination, and on account
of its well known and indomitable adherence
to the patriotic German spirit That city
never could be reeonciled to the imperial dom
nation, and although it was called the third
great city of the vast French empire, for the


sake of fattering or cajoling its population,
. yet did popular masses detest most cordially
the imperial administration; and when, in
/ 1873, upon the destruction of the great


French army in the ice fields of Russia the
dawn of Germany's delverance began to ap,
Z pear, the Hamburg burghers were the fore
Q most in hoisting the standard of freedom anc
+ Independence from the foreign yoke