Year: 1871

circumstance 10 near OF some Ilcu l"IA


in Louisiana going into strange hands al


from five to ten dollars per acre. The


cl7 c5,ks were so easily depressed thai


they yganted to sell out and leave the


ST. at once. They hardly hesitated


about the price, provided it was paid in


gold, the proposed vendors desiring to


take specie with them in their fight.


The night was on them, and they did not


have sufficient faith to trust themselves,


nor vision strong enough to penetrate to


the stars that glittered behind the drifting


clouds. Fortunately for them there was


but little money in the hands of faithful


men, and still more fortunately for them,


but not so for the State, the spirit of


doubt was abroad in the country, and
they did not find purchasers. Being thus


constrained to hold on to their property,


they are now better off, places selling to-


day for eight and ten times what they


were offered for in 1866. Improved es-
tates in Louisiana have advanced in price
from three hundred to a thousand per
cent since the war closed, and they would


have advanced still more if it were not


that the Democratic papers, for their own


miserably selfish purposes, are constantly


decrying the South as ruined and demor-


allied past all hope. We can not pick up


Northern paper Of Democratic Or inde-


pendent rroclivities but what faces US


down that the South lis going to the dogs


under the weight of taxation which the


Radicals have placed upon the people.


And these attacks are copied from South


ern papers and fortified by Southern


statements. All of which is false, as
these very papers testify in a thou
sand ways when referring to their
local interests There is not section of
the State of Louisiana that is not improv-
ing if the local papers are to be believed
The crops are good, the people are pros
porous and happy, schools are spreading,
railroads are being projected and built
factories are growing up, stores are open
ing, colleges are being founded. new
churches are being erected, crowds go
North on summer EXCLUSIONS, watering
places have paid we'll; in word, the sun
has shone all over the South, fructifying
and increasing both the people and their
substance. And yet, in the face of this
plenty and abundance, these blessings,
the Democratic press is dreaming away,
and snorting out its horrid nightmare of
ruin and desolation. And this miserable
twaddle is repeated from mouth to mouth |
by the very men who know that it is un-
and who are themselves to blame
for what trouble and m;Sgovernment there
is in the land


Take stupid bennett for an example.
He is prophet of misfortune. He can
not give the country cheerful word, be-
cause there is not room in his jaundiced
mind for good round musical note.
He is one of the sort that bade Job curse
God and die. His voice is pitched on
'uncral Grafton all the while, which is
most distressing annihilator of peace and
comfort. And yet be fills his newspaper
With advertisements of beautiful farms for
ale at prices four hundred per cent above
What the same places could have been
bought for when it was first thought that
INDY johnson was about to surrender
he country into the hands Of the De-
nocracy. And this oyergrown country
ditor, with the wall of despair in his
nouth, and the evidences of plenty in his
ands, is the chosen oracle Of the
Property Owners Association of New
'rleans." The blind leading the blind.
What else are we to think of men who
ave goods to SELL and yet are being the
oudest depreciators of their property to
II higher elevation? If Dennett's
istressful sermons can do evil from their
iding place in Iberia, what additional
eight Of injury might he inflict if he
as installed as an editor in New Orleans,
ith the "Real Estate Association" to
ack him? Good Lord, deliver us. {
1t is well enough to discuss in tenn
crate way the evils of our society and to
ropose reforms. We admit that evils
Iist, and we have done more to arrest
lem than thousand such men as Den
1T might hope to do in a thousand
,ars. We do not 60 rough shod at a
after and say that all who differ with us
e scoundrels, but we do go at piece of +
work and display its mischief,
lich is the way to defeat that specific
il. bennett and his sort slobber over
iitics, bestowing their abuse on the p
cd and bad alike, because they are in u
pable of reasoning out the innate de- II
avity of the wrongs which they resent. u
I'd in doing this they SANDER the entire 81
ate and blacken her interests in all un- It
ejudiced eyes. If we say that We are IL
lned, what inducement do We offer to d.
npt strangers to become part Of our =, v.
;ial compact? And if we do this with "
= evidences before us to contradict our :"
'ertions, what is the measure of Our ~ ~
lit? Is it knavery or madness? u