NEW ORLEANS AS IT IS. (continued 2)

CONCUBINAGE.

There is also another condition in the social relations, that but very few individuals could reconcile themselves to sustain. It is in supporting and having two families. There are a large number of business men from the North—captains and officers of Steam Boats, and captains of French, English, and American vessels—who spend more than half the time in this city, and many of them have families at home; yet here they have their mistresses and children, and are as much at home with them as with their lawful wives. The condition and connection of these persons together are perfectly understood, as is also the fact, with most of them, that they have another family. Yet these things are not often made a matter of others’ business, and consequently they are all “very respectable.” This class of females, to some extent, live as confidingly honest, and as strictly preserve the character of a wife, as if the man had no other attachments. And any act on her part of infidelity would be regarded as a sufficient cause of separation, and she would be discarded as readily as if they were lawfully married. Such separations often occur from jealousy, or from suspicion of attachment to another. And when a separation has actually been made, the parties appear more hostile, and manifest a more deadly hatred towards each other, than is ever witnessed in separations of those lawfully connected. And these quarrels are seldom if ever reconciled, but continue to increase with a savage hatred, that not unfrequently ends sadly to the one or the other, or to the individual who has seduced the woman from her alliance. These men who thus live in these connections are generally persons of ample means, and usually appear to be proud of the distinction of being able to support two families.

KEPT MISTRESSES.

There is another class of individuals here who have not the means to support two families. They are usually men engaged in the same business with the others, and required to be absent from the city nearly half of the time. These men have their mistresses, either white or colored, with whom they live as companions. And the regulations of these connections are that while the man is in the city, the house which the woman occupies is their home, jointly and as distinctly as if they were married; and when he is absent, the women seeks other companions, for the time being, and in doing this does not hazard the displeasure of “her husband,” as she calls him. By this liberty that she has of seeking promiscuous company, and the assistance she gets from “her man,” she is able to support herself in great style, and with as much ease and comfort around her as can be desired. They usually occupy a room, or suite of rooms, a parlor and bed room, that are furnished with as much elegance and splendor as money can purchase. Most of the females living in these connections have been flattered and seduced away from their homes, by glowing descriptions and representations of the pleasures and gaities and unceasing enjoyments which constitute a life in New Orleans. Connections of this character are as much a matter of contract, and the terms and conditions by which each shall be governed are as definite, as any other business transaction can be, and thus they live for years, and in many instances an attachment for each other is the result, and they finally settle down as man and wife, and often sooner or later are married, and become comparatively respectable.

EXTENT OF LICENTIOUSNESS.

The extent of licentiousness and prostitution in New Orleans is doubtless without a parallel, and probably is double that of any other place in the whole range of the civilized world. The indulgence and practice is so general and common that men do not seek to cover up their acts, or go in disguise; but in all these things, keeping their mistresses, or frequenting bed houses, and having women come to their rooms at night, they do it as openly, and as much before the eyes of the world, as any other act among the common civilities of the social circle. Some idea of the extent of prostitution and licentiousness which is exhibited on every side, can be formed from the fact that at least three-fifths of the dwellings and rooms in a large portion of the city are occupied by prostitutes, or by one or the other class of kept mistresses. Those women who are the companions of one man, and hold that position under a pledge of confidence not to seek intercourse with others, hold themselves very much above the character of prostitutes, and regard themselves as respectable; and as such many of them move in society with some degree of favor and consequence. But however true and devoted the men who keep them may think they are, not one-twentieth part of them but what have other favorites, with whom they meet, not only in their own rooms, but also at the houses of assignation. And in this same condition are living many men with their wives, in whom they have most implicit confidence; yet they have their chosen and confidential companions and friends with whom they meet, not only in their own houses, but at the rooms of assignation. Yet in doing this they are only indulging in the same course that their husbands are following, in meeting other companions in the same way and under the same circumstances. And with all these individuals, of every class, is carried out the wild rage of human passion, that is nursed and fostered by every association and connection in the social relations of New Orleans.

REGULAR PROSTITUTES.

The regular prostitutes come in at the opening of business in the fall, and return to the North in the spring as business closes, as regular as the merchant; many of them come out from New York and other northern cities under the protection of young men, a certain class of gamblers and black-legs who have long made this city their field of operation during the winter months. The prostitutes of this migratory class form the great mass of the inmates of the regular kept brothels, of which there is an immense number in the city. These houses are easily recognized, as the girls who occupy them are constantly to be seen at the doors or windows, inviting men as they pass by to come in. And in some of the principal streets in the city, just at evening, it is not unusual to see the windows and doors of almost every house as far as the eye can recognize them, filled with these girls. The municipal regulations are such that these creatures are prohibited from promenading the streets; hence they are obliged to resort to other measures to make themselves known. In view of all these abominations, doubtless the main cause of so much licentiousness, and the immense number of prostitutes, of every class and grade, is the large number of irresponsible men who frequent this place. Under such circumstances as men meet here, they almost lose their identity as responsible beings, and having no checks around them, and under no obligations to society, consequently no pride of character, they become as bold and reckless in licentiousness, as if the pall of night covered their deeds. And yet men, and some women too, will come in here, and mingle in the rounds of dissipation and pollution, who before and while at home and in other associations, would shudder at the sight, and even at the very thought of deeds which they have been engaged in. Another cause that aids in promoting these evils, is the small portion of men who have families there. Probably not one in twenty is married, and if so, leaves a family at the North, and while here, entirely forgets that he has left at home a wife, who is little dreaming of the rounds of licentiousness and dissipation, that is the almost daily track of her husband. To say that there is a righteous Lot among them—these husbands of confiding wives, would be hazarding too much more than I am willing to do, in view of what I have witnessed in the conduct of men of whom better things should be expected. And thus it is, from such men, together with the thousands of transient and floating population in this city, that makes it more than a Sodom, and causes the sins of licentiousness, adultery and prostitution, to be regarded as the proper elements of society, and perfectly consistent with a respectable and moral standing in community and with the character of a gentleman. And more than this is met with here, and withal, the most astonishing exhibition of degration “in high life” that was ever witnessed.

PROSTITUTION OF WIVES.

It is in the practice of a large number of men with their wives, who visit New Orleans and spend the winter, and who to support themselves, take the round of the gay and fashionable throng, and while moving here, the wife, with a perfect understanding of the matter with her husband, suffers herself to become seduced, and thus falls into the arms of some dashing wild young man, who is proud of his conquest. He lavishes upon her costly presents and money, and in fact will bestow upon her any thing that she may demand, within the compass of his purse. And when he ceases to give, not unfrequently will her husband make the accidental discovery of their intimacy, and in the fearless rage of an injured and outraged husband, threaten to come down upon him with all the vengeance of Southern chivalry. And to save himself he will pay almost any sum the husband may demand. Thus she will go on, for months, making conquest after conquest, and being seduced at least by half a dozen, and with all of them, practising the most cunning and deceptive arts, charging each one to be exceedingly circumspect and cautious, so as to avoid the least suspicion in the eyes of the world and her husband. And yet, during all this time, her hands are being filled with costly and magnificent presents and money, and in fact, any thing that she may desire, while each one regards himself as the sole possessor of the stolen fruit! She is enabled to pursue this course, and avoid suspicion among her favorites of being intimate with more than one, by meeting them at the houses of assignation. The regulations by which these houses are kept, throw around a female the most perfect security against detection that can be imagined. They usually go in disguise and often in mask, and very frequently are unknown to the men who see them there, and their name is never enquired for, as it is generally understood that none but respectable ladies, both married and unmarried, frequent these houses. And yet during all these love scenes, captivations and seductions, the lady and her husband are in the foremost rank of the fashionable circle, supporting a style and splendor of equipage that few can surpass or even imitate. Of those who possess this extraordinary faculty of adapting their sense of propriety to circumstances, there are many who come here as regular as the returning season, and have become so familiar and intimate with the routine of fashionable life, that they may be regarded as the principal “stars,” around which all others must circle to enable their lights to become visible to the world. These ladies are usually well educated, highly accomplished and intelligent, all of which give them a ready command of every thing that can be available in the scenes of dissipation which make up the holidays and sporting season of New Orleans. And in this round of enjoyment and gaiety, there is no place that can equal it in lowering the moral sense, and prostrating every virtuous impulse, and creating in the feelings of almost every person, male and female, a light estimate of a life of fidelity and chastity between the sexes, not only among the married but the unmarried. Thus it is, the moulding of all these things is done by those who, for their own gratification, arrange all the rules of social intercourse to favor their own seductive schemes and plots. Hence, the manner and style of dress are always of that character to present and expose the charms of the female form, and are in every respect calculated to present them to the consideration of the other sex, as not being very modest or reserved. Under such circumstances, a ready familiarity is produced, which is increased by her more familiar conversation and ready intimacy, and all designed and tending directly to the accomplishment of her purpose. And here it is, into this circle, are thrown the virtuous and unsuspecting visiters who come into this city for pleasure and pastime, and if they can pass through and come out unsullied, and as pure in mind and as chaste in their sense of propriety and as virtuous in feeling as when they entered, they will hereafter be perfectly secure against the vices and contaminations of the world. But those who do so are few indeed; for they must be more than “Cesar’s wife,” that can enter these enchanting scenes, where every thing they come in contact with is an appeal to the passions, and not a thought or an expression do they hear, but what is calculated to betray and seduce, and forever banish the purest impulses of the heart.

FASHIONABLE LADIES.

I come now to another singular demonstration, to be met with only in New Orleans. It is a circle of “fashionable ladies,” who occupy a position in society only a step below the leaders among the “upper ten thousand.” They are also girls of excellent education, of superior accomplishments, and of great personal beauty, and present a combination of all the charms that can make a female attractive. There are quite a large number of them here, and they occupy no mean position in point of influence and condition in the circle of society. By their course of life they have amassed large fortunes, and are living in a style that few can imitate. Their dwellings and every thing around them, are of the greatest comfort and ease; and every thing they can desire, in servants, horses and carriages, is at their command. They have brought themselves into this position by their superior charms and attractions, in being able to select their companions from among the rich and reckless young men, who annually come down here to learn the ways of the world. In their intercourse in society they claim to be entirely above the common herd of prostitutes, and regard themselves quite respectable. The reigning belle, at the present time, among them, is a girl from Louisville, Kentucky. And in all that can render a female beautiful, attractive and charming, she doubtless presents more in form and features that captivates the beholder, than was ever before met with in a human being. In addition to all these combinations, the splendor of her costume, when in full dress—the display of costly diamonds and jewels, together with her artful and winning smiles and transcendent beauty, strike the beholder with an awe that banishes from the mind every idea that he is in the presence of and looking upon a corrupt and vicious being, whose whole current of life has been one continued stream of pollution and death. It is so unnatural that a being of such mould, angelic in form and expression, and with a mind of superior caste flashing out from every glance, should stand before you with every impulse and every attribute of the soul prostrated to the most venal and debasing practices that sicken and disgust the moral sensibilities. And yet at her shrine, and in her wake, are found the rich and exalted in society, who are proud and even boast that they have been her companions, and being thus favored is a climax in “fashionable life,” which they regard as a distinguished honor. And here she moves, a being that attracts more attention, and is followed by more eyes, and with a longer gaze, when she walks or rides out, than any prince or princess that moves in royal sphere. It is said that her jewelry and diamonds, in finger-rings, ear-jewels, and breast pins, and wristlets, and gold chains, and watch, are worth upwards of thirty-five thousand dollars. And these have all been lavished upon her by those who have fallen within the circle of those seductive charms, that, serpent-like, never miss their victim.

AMALGAMATION.

I come now to another, and I believe the most extraordinary exhibition of degradation to which human nature can be reduced; and here I would gladly pass it by, and if it were possible, I would forever conceal from my countrymen, not only this complete annihilation from the human breast of every particle of self-respect that keeps man above the brute, but the most blighting and damning national disgrace that was ever exhibited. It is the connections that are formed between white men and colored women who are slaves. Individuals there are, of the first respectability, who take for their bed companions not only the Quadroon, but those of darker hue, and frequently those of the blackest shade, and live with them as with a wife, and by whom they have large families. As an instance of this kind, the late collector of the port of New Orleans, a man who was the recipient of government favor, and receiving a salary of six thousand dollars a year, has lived for years with a mulatto woman, by whom he has had six children; and finally becoming displeased with her in the fall of 1847, he discarded her, and since has taken for his companion one of his own slaves, who is as black as charcoal. Another instance: One of the first lawyers in the city, a man of transcendent powers of eloquence and ability, has had for his bed companion for the last four years a black woman, a slave that he hires, and pays her master fifteen dollars a month. Another lawyer, a native of New York, and brother of one of the most distinguished judges in the State, had for his bed companion a mulatto girl for seven years. During this time he was paying his addresses to a highly accomplished young lady in the city, and last winter was married to her. His new white companion of course required him to discard his black one. After he was married, the poor discarded slave who had been his devoted companion for years, and had watched and nursed him through long and dreary nights of sickness, and whose very soul was the living embodiment of woman’s pure affection, became a raving maniac. She rushed in all the horrors of her madness to the River, and attempted to drown herself, yet was saved by a flash of returning reason that came over her, and she was thus left another living monument of the deep and damning shame that should forever follow him, who has thus outraged every moral impulse of the human soul. And it will follow him, although not in pointing the finger of scorn at him as he walks the streets, for he has not violated any of the conventional rules of the moral sense of the community in which he lives. But in his own conscience and heart will he find an image, that when he calls it up before him, will change the warm current of his blood into a blush of remorse and shame upon his cheek. There are hundreds of instances of this kind, men of the first respectability, having for their bed companions slave women of every degree of color, from the darkest hue to the soft and mellow tinge of the beautiful Quadroon. Another exhibition in these alliances is, a man by the name of B——, a celebrated sportsman, and owner of the race course opposite the city, and known to all the gentlemen of the turf in this country. He is a man of great wealth, and is regarded as second on the list of horse racers and sportsmen in this country, Col. Johnson being at the head. He has had a mulatto woman for his bed companion for years, and has now living four children—one son and three daughters. A young man from the North, by the name of P——, who was engaged in training horses, and had charge of his stable, married one of his daughters, a beautiful Quadroon girl, well educated and highly accomplished. Her father hired him to marry her by giving him a large sum of money.

A MAN SELLING HIS OWN CHILDREN.

Another connection of this kind, was a man who bought a beautiful girl from Kentucky, for a bed companion, and paid for her eleven hundred dollars. He lived with her about sixteen years and had five children. In the fall of 1837 he determined to remove from the city, and take up his residence in the Island of Barbadoes. Before leaving he sold this woman and his five children for thirty-three hundred dollars. I was informed that this family was the most interesting and lovely group of children ever witnessed, and in only one of them could be traced the least shade of African blood. Instances of this kind often occur, and yet men who do it are regarded as human, and those who make laws to legalize such acts are christian in their tendencies and education, and those who support them are a proud and chivalrous people, and claim to be civilized!! Alliances of this nature have been continued so long between slave women and white men, that there are a great many slaves in whom cannot be traced the least shade, either in form or feature, of the Ethiopian; and they are also of all complexions, from the light flaxen hair and bright blue eye, and the sandy and freckled countenance, and the keen black piercing eye, and clear beautiful white skin with rosy cheeks, making the very perfection of loveliness and beauty. Yet they are forbidden by the rules of society to hold rank above the blackest slave, and the common civilities of the social circle are never extended to them. The life of a mulatto girl, or Quadroon, as they are called at the South, is as strictly marked out, and the path which she is to take has been so long beaten, that she is as much confined to it as if it was a fixed law in the slave code.

SLAVE GIRLS HIRED AS BED COMPANIONS.

And this class of girls also claim the privilege, as a matter of right, when one arrives at the age of puberty, from twelve to fourteen, if not previously engaged by the master, to look for a man such as she may fancy, and engage herself to be his bed companion. And in this relation she remains with him for a specified sum per month, which she pays to her master. The amount paid these girls is usually from twelve to twenty dollars a month. If they are genteel and beautiful, and combine all the perfections in form and features that can be presented in a female, they will command a price accordingly. And thus in proportion as their qualities and charms are regarded, will they be considered valuable, and their price in market is in that proportion. They have their points of ambition, and pride of situation, and assume an air of aristocracy according to the rank and station of the man with whom they live, as much as any other class in society. To be the paramour and bed companion of some man of great wealth, or lawyer, or professional man, or some popular and distinguished gentleman, gives them a condition and standing that is enviable indeed to those of the same class, who are living with men of less means and lower standing in society. And this makes a circle of the “upper ten thousand,” as clearly marked as among the white aristocracy. These girls are usually educated and instructed by their masters in a certain way, for the express purpose of producing all the attractions and charms that can be presented in a female, whose value is much increased by a greater combination of all that is beautiful and lovely in woman. It is very frequent that these girls are engaged while children for bed companions, as soon as they shall arrive at the age of puberty, by some wealthy man, and not unfrequently will some disgusting drunken old bloat meet with a beautiful Quadroon child, and engage her of her master for a bed companion, as soon as she becomes of proper age, and the price which he agrees to pay is of no consideration with him. Her loveliness and charms, even in the purity and simplicity of innocent childhood, have aroused the impulses of his beastly nature, and have her he will at any price. And this outrage is too horrid for contemplation, for they are thus forced into a situation where they pass their days in the greatest misery and grief that can be imagined. Girls of this class also are often purchased by men expressly for bed companions; not only when they are children, but when they are of mature age.

QUADROON GIRLS BOUGHT FOR BED COMPANIONS.

The price paid for a healthy Quadroon girl, from the age of twelve to fourteen, ranges from one thousand to two thousand dollars, according as the purchaser may fancy them, and as they are regarded to present the beauty and charms of a Quadroon. Connections of this kind, not only between those who purchase them, but those who hire them, often continue for years, and frequently become such, that an attachment and even an affection grows up, as strong and as enduring as was ever witnessed between man and wife. And many instances of these connections have been known, where a man, after living with a girl for a number of years, will turn her off for the purpose of being married; and yet when he is so, and has a family around him, his attachment still continues to the being in whom he has so long confided, and whose heart he knows to be as warm and as devoted to him as is her love of life. In view of this, he drags out a miserable and disconsolate existence; and the discarded and broken hearted Quadroon, on whose brow is a tinge of yellow shade that will forever doom her to unending disgrace, sinks away into a lone and premature grave, a poor forgotten and wretched slave, and never more to be remembered only by him whose heart has melted into hers, in the true spirit of unending affection. Not only such scenes as these are frequently witnessed, but instances often occur, when a man has discarded one of these girls and has been married, he is forced to purchase her for the purpose of selling her again, and binding the one to whom he sells her, that he will take her away from the city, so that he may never meet her and that she shall never return. He is obliged to do this, in consequence of her affection for him, and also his attachment to her. When these girls, while being kept as mistresses, have children, they are usually sent back to their master, who either hires them boarded with some negro woman, or “turns them into the yard” with his other slaves, until the child is old enough to be left from its mother. Thus the father of this child—the lawyer, the gentleman, or the merchant, or whatever he may be—has the pleasure as well as the gratifying reflection that his kindred will not become extinct, and that his blood will continue to course in the veins of another human being through the next generation, and also he can remember with the pride of a father, that when the mother of his child has lost her charms, there is another beautiful Quadroon girl to take her place who has been cast off as a worthless and useless thing. And this is, almost without exception, the course that is forced upon them by a long established custom. When they are of no account in this way, they usually hire their time, at a low rate, from three to five dollars a month, and resort to various means to support themselves. Some will keep houses of assignation, and others will rent a house, with rooms furnished, and rent them to men who keep a bed companion, and board them. While others will rent a house, and hire negro girls, slaves of the lowest class, who will steal away from their pens, and come in and spend the night. They will also agree with “negro traders” to send in a number of girls from their slave pens. These are the lowest grade of brothels in New Orleans, and there are hundreds of them scattered through every street and lane in the city. And yet with these women are a large number of men, boarding and lodging, who are seen in the morning, creeping out through some back lane or alley. And follow these same men, and you will meet them in the Saloon of the “St. Charles;” and in all the rounds of dissipation and pleasure, they appear as well dressed and as intelligent and accomplished in their manners and conversation, as any person you meet with in the city. Many, and doubtless most of these persons are here from necessity, in not being able to meet expenses that would accrue in any other boarding place; and also, a large portion of these men who are found in these dens are those who come in from the North to “seek their fortunes,” and as I have before said of them, when failing to obtain employment, join in some catch-penny concern, in the way of “Peter Funks,” or gambling on a small scale, and borrowing of some acquaintance on account of respectable connections, succeed in obtaining a small pittance to pay for board and accommodations at a negro brothel. And I repeat again, young man, keep away from this city. Banish every idea that may come up, of the great advantages and facilities that you may think are found here for making money and soon a fortune, for they are no part nor beginning of things in New Orleans.

DISREGARD OF THE SABBATH.

There is in this city so much to be met with of a demoralizing tendency, and the tone of moral sense is so clearly out-spoken, that a person is not aware of what surrounds him, until he pauses and contemplates the scene in which he is moving, and the complete prostration of any thing like a controlling influence of public opinion. And it is a truth recognized in every civilized country, that good order and even common decency cannot be promoted or maintained, unless it is by the concentrated force of the opinion of good men against the overt acts of the vicious. And when we see, as we do in this city, the best men, public officers, the mayor and common council, giving countenance and sanction to outrages and desecrations, it is evident that the most wholesome regulations cannot sustain a healthy tone of moral feeling. And there is also a total disregard of an institution, that all good men revere and respect, as of divine origin; and if not as such, hold it to be, in its observance, the great conservator of the best interests of society, and that no people or community can preserve its character for morality and good order, without a due observance in christian form of its requirements. But here the civil authorities, together with all good men, by official acts and personal example, desecrate this day to every purpose that the baser passions may demand. And these official acts are, in granting licenses for horse racing, bull fighting, theatres and exhibitions of all kinds, and even brothel balls, on the Sabbath. As evidence of the countenance given to these things, and of the state of public feeling, the following notices will give some evidence how the Sabbath is regarded by the mayor and common council, and the good people of New Orleans. These announcements are made in the city papers, and also in large attractive bills, put up in every part of the city.

“Washington Society Balls.

“At a meeting of the subscribers, the following gentlemen were elected managers:

A. D. Crossman, Mayor of the city, Joshua Baldwin, Recorder, I. E. Caldwell, W. P. Converse, A. B. Bien, H. G. Stetson, J. B. Byrn, Maj. Gen. J. L. Lewis, Col. J. B. Walton, Capt. Jordy, E. A. Tyler, J. W. Behan, Dr. Luzenberg, Wm. Emerson, Wm. Freret, J. Stroud, J. L. Poulk, W. F. Flowers, W. J. Earthman, A. H. Way, N. C. Judson, J. S. Wallis, R. C. Faulkner, H. S. Hatch.

“At the same time, it was Resolved, that the series should consist of ten Balls, which will be all MASKED.

“The managers will meet every Sunday! during the season, at 1 o’clock. Office hours, from 9 in the morning until 9 in the evening.”

Now here are the Mayor and Recorder, and twenty-two of the best citizens of a civilized and christian city of over one hundred thousand inhabitants, meeting every Sabbath to make arrangements for a Masked Ball! and in view of such examples from such men, what else but a perfect Sodom could be expected of New Orleans?

“Grand Balloon Ascension.

“The seventh ascension of Madame Emma V., of Bordeaux, will take place on Sunday next, between the hours of 1 and 2 o’clock, from the corner of St. Charles and Poydras streets. Madame E. V. returns her thanks to the public for the patronage bestowed upon her last Sunday, having proved to the citizens of New Orleans that nothing has been exaggerated in her previous advertisement. A special stand is reserved for the Ladies!”

This is done by permit of license from the Mayor.

“Pontchartrain Ball Room.

“The proprietors of this well known establishment respectfully inform their friends and the public generally, that it will be opened on Sunday next for the season, and that nothing on their part has been left undone to render this house one of the most agreeable in all respects. The dress and masked Balls will be given in the following order.

“For White persons—Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

“For Quadroons—Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

“The Orchestra is without doubt, the best in the city. The Bar is furnished with the choicest LIQUORS, and the tables supplied with every delicacy that the market affords.”

Now with such attractions, who could refuse to attend such a place even on the Sabbath!! provided that license is given by the authorities. And yet the attractions and entertainment are not all advertised in the bill.

But the matter of astonishment in these things is, that in this enlightened age, and in a civilized community, and in this country too, public officers in a city could be found, who would, under the sanction and seal of their office, grant a license for a regular brothel Ball Room. The assemblage of prostitutes and lewd women at these rooms, is without exception, taking all the circumstances into account under which they meet, the most wanton, debasing and licentious exhibition of human passion ever witnessed. There are three of these Ball Rooms licensed in the city, open every night and filled to overflowing. The prostitutes all appear with MASKS on their faces, and so well concealed that it is impossible to recognize them. The excessive drinking and carousing practiced at these places, enables the girls to induce men under such circumstances to accompany them home.

Women are admitted free of charge, and men pay one dollar for admission. The Bar and the eating tables are the principal sources of revenue, and that is immense. It is at these places where many rich scenes are exhibited in the detection by some confiding and much abused mistress, who has long been haunted by the green-eyed monster with visions of unfaithfulness on the part of her paramour. She becomes confirmed in the belief, that he is playing “fond dalliance” with some beautiful Quadroon, or some other bright-eyed “Donna,” and to be sure of a capture under circumstances that will allow of no escape, she goes in MASK to the Ball Room, and there she beholds all that her imagination has conceived of inconstancy, of treachery, of false hearts and love unrequited. And here she watches, with more than argus eyes, and follows their every step, and listens until she hears the outpourings of the soft words of honeyed love, and then, with more than a tiger’s rage, she rushes upon the unsuspecting girl with whom “her man” is so devotedly playing the agreeable, and with the jerk of a whirlwind, the mask is torn from her face, her dress flies in shreds, and what is left of the poor torn and tattered creature, is a miraculous escape from annihilation. After thus accomplishing all that she desires in making this public demonstration of their long continued intimacy, she leaves the room in triumph, and returns to her house and settles the affair with “her man,” by a course of “curtain lectures,” usually being satisfied in settling the play as an even game. And there too, in mask, will many a confiding and devoted wife look for her husband, and witness the realities of all the forebodings of her imagination, through long nights of lone watching. She has found him here, and follows his footsteps while, arm in arm, he joins in the whirl of the giddy dance, with the wild and polluted being who is holding her loved and cherished one by charms as fatal and deadly as the serpent’s steady gaze. It will be seen by the announcement in the bill that three nights in the week balls are given to Quadroons, or mulattoes; and on these evenings the attendance of men is nearly double that of the white balls. And this affords a confirmation of the truth of the old saying, “there is no accounting for tastes;” and also of the truth of what is asserted of the gentlemen of the South that they will seek for companions among the yellow and even black women, and discard the white ladies. Notwithstanding these things, Southern men regard the act of eating at the table with a colored person as a disgrace, and an outrage and an insult too great to be submitted to. And yet they will have colored girls and colored men for their bed companions, for body servants, for cooks; and in fact, every thing they eat, drink or wear, they will see pass through their hands without the least shudder or repugnance, or sickness of stomach.

The following notice presents still further the tone of moral sense of the authorities and the people of this city. It was displayed in large bills for twelve successive Sundays in the winter of 1847-8.

“Bull Fight.

“On Sunday, Dec. 12, on Washington Square, Third Municipality.”

“The proprietor respectfully begs to inform the public, that a splendid Bull Fight will take place as above. Four of the finest and largest Attakapas Bulls will be brought into the ring, two of which will be slain by the Matadores, and the other two teased by the Banderilleros and Capeadores.

“The company is composed of the following persons: Gregorio Camerenas, chief, and first swordman; Juan Gonzales, Lancer; Mondragon, Camerena and Jacome, Banderilleros, or arrowmen and M. Rocha, P. Gomes and A. Blancas, Capeadores or teasers. Performance to commence at 4 o’clock P. M. Admittance one dollar.”

This announcement gives the reader a programme of the interesting performance of bull fighting. Yet sports of this kind are very little understood in this country, and are not what it is generally supposed they are. The idea of them has arisen from the expression used when speaking of such scenes as bull fights, giving the same understanding as those of kindred performances, as “cock fights,” or “dog fights,” which every one knows to be contests between two animals, usually trained for the purpose, and the same impression prevails almost, universally in regard to “bull fights;” supposed to be a contest between two fierce bulls. But such is not this SPORT! and that the public may not be misled, and to correct a general false impression, such sports should be announced as “bull murdering.”

The arrangements for such displays are in a circular inclosure, about six rods in diameter, with a very strong fence. Around this circle are seats in amphitheatre form, capable of holding five or six thousand persons. Into this ring a single bull is admitted. At the same time in the ring are usually eight men, trained to the civilized and christian sport of bull-murdering. Those who performed in New Orleans were native Mexicans, and came from Matamoras for the express gratification of the Mayor, Common Council, and good people of the city. When they appear in the ring, they are dressed in fantastic style, and each one wearing a small crimson cloak. And this is his main protection, and used mostly, in “teasing” the bull; for when in the fierceness of his rage he fixes his eye upon his victim, and plunges at him with tremendous velocity, and death seems almost inevitable, the man adroitly slips the cloak from his shoulders and steps one side, and holds it precisely where he stood, and on this point the blow of the animal is sure to strike.—Hence the cloak receives the full force of the goad of the bull’s horns. It is evident from the actions of the animal, that the bright and dazzling color of the cloak charms his eye so that he is unable to turn his attention from it; for he will often strike the cloak down, and turn round and examine it with great minuteness in search of the man, and seems astonished that he has not caught him. When the bull is cut loose and passes into the ring, a man sits over the gate-way and drives into his back a barbed dart. It is prepared and put in a stick about eighteen inches long, and when driven into the animal it remains there to tear and lacerate the flesh, for the purpose of exciting his rage and making him more furious. And this it does, for when the dart strikes him, with a roar of vengeance, he rushes in with tremendous fury, and often clears the ring in a moment of every man in it. There appear to be paroxysms of terrible rage in the expression of the eyes of the animal, that strikes a fearful awe in the men; and they will throw themselves out of the ring in an instant, although the bull is standing perfectly still. The performers with the cloaks are Capeadores, or “teasers.” After this part of the “sport” has continued for a sufficient time, four other performers come in, each having four bearded darts, the body of which is a stick about six inches long, and beautifully trimmed with colored tissue paper representing rosettes. There are the Banderillas or arrow-men. The great feat and climax in this part of the “fight” is to fasten, by a stroke with the hand, one of these rosettes in the curl between the eyes of the bull, and escape the goad of his horns. To do this, is a triumph that is greeted with stamping and rounds of applause, which convinces the daring one that the audience is fully alive to the great feat that he has performed in decorating a bull’s face with a beautiful rosette! There are but few performers who have the courage to attempt this act, as a failure is always treated with hisses and cries of “turn him out”—“turn him out.”

The next great expert act with the darts is to fasten one in the centre between the horns, on the neck, and escape unhurt. This act also is greeted with rounds and shouts of applause, all of which excites the audience and arouses the fury of the bull. The darts being disposed of, and most of them sticking in the head and neck of the animal, the same men take each three bearded rockets, prepared on sticks about eighteen inches long, and so constructed that when they are driven into the bull they will ignite, and after burning and hissing for a time, will explode with as much force and noise as a heavily charged musket. These are alternately driven into the head and sides of the bull, and while they are burning, hissing, and tearing his flesh, a more wild and terrific scene can scarcely be imagined. He roars, plunges and lashes his sides, with the most intense writhings of maddening pain and fury that can be conceived. After the rockets are exhausted, the chief or swordsman comes in, with a straight sword two feet and a half long, for the purpose of ending the contest by taking the life of the bull. To perform this act, and strike the animal through the heart at the first blow, is the climax of all feats in the whole round of bull-fighting. The swordsman is obliged to do it according to prescribed rules in the science of the sport. He must strike his blow in a particular spot, and when it is done, must stand on the left side and drive the sword in just forward of the point of the right shoulder through the heart of his victim. And while this attempt is being made, and the swordsman is following the infuriate animal, it in turn rushes furiously after him, and seems fully conscious that the time has come for the exhibition of that part of the “sport,” as announced in the bill to be performed by the chief. During this struggle the audience becomes wrought up to the highest tone of excitement. The swordsman while seeking for an opportunity to strike the fatal blow, if successful in the first attempt, is greeted with shouts and rounds of the most frantic applause ever witnessed, and at the same time showers of money are poured in upon him from almost every hand in the audience, and often amounting to several hundred dollars. He is allowed to strike three times, and if he fails in giving a deadly thrust, the other extreme of disapprobation is meted out upon him in long continued hisses and cries of “take him out,” “take him out,” and thus the audience will magnanimously interfere and save the life of the unconquered bull, who has at least for an hour defied the power of eight men to destroy him; and yet here he is, foaming and lashing his sides, and writhing under the most intense agony, full of ghastly and bleeding wounds, and the tearing of dozens of darts and rockets that goad him at every step; while thousands of human beings are looking on with an intensity of feeling and exultation of pleasure, that is impossible to be expressed by language. Under these circumstances and cries of “take him out,” a man comes in on horse-back with a lasso, and catches the bull by the horns and drags him out. Another bull is then let in, and the same round of teasing and goading with darts and rockets is gone through with, and then he is dragged out with the lasso. The darts and goads are cut out, and the next Sabbath he is let in again, and goes through the same “fight,” with the addition of its being his turn to be killed. Thus as the bill announces, four bulls are let into the ring for the “sport” of one Sabbath, and two are teased, and two are slain. In witnessing scenes of this kind, there is exhibited throughout the whole assemblage, a blood thirsty and savage desperation, and withal, a strong desire that the bull may succeed in goading tearing out the very vitals of some one of the inhuman monsters against whom he is contending. It would seem that the “sports” could not be agreeable, and meet the expectations and desires of the audience, unless a scene of that kind could be exhibited; for when the bull makes a deadly and determined plunge, and his victim barely escapes as by a miracle, as will often occur, the spectators appear disappointed in not seeing the man gored through and through, and crushed into a mangled and bleeding corpse. And to see this done, it appears that every one would go away perfectly satisfied in having witnessed all that could be done in the “sport” of “bull-murdering.” Take it all in all, a more brutal and fiendish exhibition of cruelty cannot be conceived, and yet, on the Sabbath day, in this civilized land, will the good men of New Orleans legalize and sanction this horrid practice. But in this, no one will be disappointed, for it is in perfect harmony and character with other scenes in the great drama of human life in this city. The same kindred and brutal exhibitions are allowed, and usually come off on the Sabbath, in cock fighting and dog fights, with animals trained expressly for such “sports,” and they are often made up by bets of large sums. There are many who make these “sports” a matter of permanent business, and to which their whole time is devoted as a science. A fight of this kind was made up in the winter of 1837, in which a “ruling passion strong in death” was exhibited to an extent almost incredible. A gentleman who was in the last stages of consumption, had arranged a cock fight to come off in about six weeks, when the animals would be properly trained. The bet was $3,000 a side. It was evident, however, that he would not survive the time, either to witness his triumph or defeat, for he could scarcely be expected to live from one hour to another. Yet the excitement and struggle, and determination on his part was so great, to live until the day of the fight, that he was assured by his Physician for three weeks before the time, that were it not for his determination and anxiety, he would not live an hour. The day came, and the fight was made, and he was victorious. He immediately passed from the cock pit to his carriage, and on reaching the side walk, he sunk down and was a corpse in a moment.

DRINKING HOUSES.

Of the accumulation of the sources of evil and causes of contamination, there is none perhaps stands out so glaring as the immense number of drinking houses in every part of the city, sustained only in selling liquor by the dram. And of this practice, it may be asserted without dispute, it is the great propelling power that drives on the maddening car of human passion into every other scene of vice and pollution that is its proper element. This practice of almost constant drinking through the day, pervades all classes of society. Not only the male portion, with scarcely an exception, but the ladies, or a large majority of them, indulge in the daily use of intoxicating drinks. Under all circumstances, in the social relations, in the interchange of civilities, wines and liquors of all kinds constitute the principal offerings in the courtesies of every day life. And it is astonishing indeed, to see how perfectly hardened and proof against the intoxicating effects of Alcohol, the great mass of the people have become. But notwithstanding this constant steeping in liquor, and being able to keep up under it, more than three-fourths of the men who are moving about the streets, have become literally sots, and according to the northern standard of intoxication, are confirmed drunkards. And how can this be otherwise, for there are but few who take less than a dozen drams, and from that number up to twenty-five and thirty a day, and yet these are all high-minded, sober, and respectable gentlemen, full of Southern chivalry—incapable of brooking an insult, and ready to fight in defence of their honor and good name. It is under such circumstances, that we see men of the South so tenacious of their character, and manifest so much pride in having the world understand that they are gentlemen. But of this Southern chivalry, and those high-minded and noble traits of Southern men, of which we have heard so much boast, it is all gammon. It is not there, and the high-toned sense of propriety in observing the practice and rules of what constitute the true gentleman, does not prevail in society at the South, in as great a degree as it does in the more northern states. And certain it is, the standard of what constitutes a good and respectable man, is far, very far below the wholesome and elevated standard which prevails at the north. For no man here could live and sustain a common respectability, should he be guilty of the sayings and doings of a Southern gentleman.—And in all that is mean and low and contemptible in society, in backbiting, neighborhood scandal, and tea-table slander, there is as much, according to the population and facilities for such matters, as in any other section of the country. And in addition to this, there are among these high-toned and chivalrous bloods, more drunken brawls, and breaking canes over each others heads, and hair pulling, and cat fighting, than is met with in any other part of the world. As evidence of this, the scenes that are often witnessed in the popular resorts and drinking houses in New Orleans, will convince any one of the true nature of Southern chivalry. Seldom does a week pass without some of these magnanimous fights, of hair pulling, scratching, and the lowest kind of puppy squabbles, will be exhibited among the gentlemen, those of the first respectability in the city. And yet all these fights will occur, from a high sense of honor and self respect, prompted by an elevated tone of genuine Southern chivalry. The number of grog shops sustained by these gentlemen in New Orleans, is more than legion. They are found in whole blocks—on three of every four corners, where one street crosses another, and ranges of buildings from street to street, every door leading into a drinking house. The style and splendor in which some of these establishments are fitted up, surpasses the most costly and richly furnished parlor in the mansion of any millionaire in this country. At the head of these “enchanting resorts” may be regarded the “Gem,” opposite the Post Office on Royal street. The magnificence and rich display of furniture and fixtures in this grog-shop, shows at once to what extent dram drinking is practiced among the “upper ten thousand” in this city; for none other but a gentleman, with white kid gloves and burnished boots, would dare presume to enter within its brilliant and shining walls. The expense of fitting up this room in furniture and fixtures, simply for the purpose of a drinking house, was upwards of eight thousand dollars. The floor is covered with a beautiful Saxony carpet, costing three dollars and half a yard. Cast-iron settees and chairs, with rich crimson cushions. Two mirrors suspended back of the counter, costing seven hundred dollars each, together with beautiful landscape paintings from the pencils of the best artists in the country. Three massive chandeliers light the room, making it as light as the sun at midday. And thus, is carried out, in perfect order and taste, every article of fixture and furniture in this “Guillotine” for the legs of gentlemen in this city.

This “Gem” was opened in November, 1848, and the first day the receipts were three hundred and seven dollars for drams at ten cents a drink. There are a number of other houses of this character fitted up in the same costly style, and among them is the “Verandah,” the “Orleans House,” and “Phenix,” with many others, and all of which furnish their bars with the most costly wines, liquors and cordials, that can be obtained from all parts of the world. In this display of attraction, where gentlemen can become drunken, fight and quarrel, and pass it away without the event being noticed, except for a few days when the conqueror and his friends will exhibit their prowess in boasting and bragging of the “fine licks” and the “black eyes” given an antagonist, and who perhaps was twice his superior in force and strength, yet being a little more “tight” of the two, and perhaps having met with an unlucky blow from some side arm of a friend of his competitor, he came off second best. And here it is in these pot house brawls among the boasted chivalry of the South, originate nine-tenths of the duels and deadly combats which take place. From fights of this kind often originate hostile and angry feelings, that finally on the next occasion are followed by direct insult designed to provoke a challenge.

From these houses downwards there is every grade of grog shops, to the lowest sipping of whiskey from a tin cup in negro pens, where slaves steal away and imitate the example of their masters in taking a few social glasses in view of participating in the common civilities and courtesies of fashionable life. The practice of drinking so often during the day, with almost every one, is such that eating and sleeping is of small account, and they are indulged in with very little regard to regularity except the meal at dinner. The hour for dining is usually from three to four, and this is the feast for fat things, and the only time at which much food is taken. Breakfast is usually coffee in abundance, and generally is taken in bed before rising. And after rising coffee is taken again with some light article, and this is done from eight o’clock in the morning and at any other time as they may happen to get from their beds before the hour for dinner. Tea is usually taken from seven to eight in the evening, and usually amounts to nothing in the consideration of the good livers in New Orleans. The rounds and revels of dissipation are at their height from nine o’clock in the evening until two in the morning, by which time the devotees of pleasure and the great mass of the inhabitants have become fully surfeited with the things of this world, until they are overcome with the load that is upon them, and one by one they pass away from their labors and repose for a few hours, when they return on the morrow refreshed and invigorated, and repeat the same round in the drama of “life in New Orleans.” From the low dens and grog shops, the miserable victim who crawls away in his poverty and rags, is caught up at first sight by the minions of the law, and hurried before the Recorder’s Court on “suspicion” of being a vagrant, and unless he can find some one to vouch for him he is thrown into the work house for sixty or ninety days, while the proud and chivalrous southern gentleman who has been drinking, carousing, and fighting at the “Gem,” the “Verandah,” the “Orleans House,” or “Hewlett’s,” comes out next day as one of the bloods of the city. But follow for a short time these chivalrous knights, and you will see their steps as sure downwards as that hour succeeds hour, until they are found in the lowest “picayune groggery,” steeped in the very dregs of pollution and death. An illustration and graphic commentary upon a life in New Orleans, was exhibited before the Recorder’s Court in the fall of 1848, in the arrest under the vagrant law of “DANGEROUS and SUSPICIOUS,” in the person of one of those shocking and abandoned wrecks of the “noblest works of God,” a man of mind and genius who had fallen, and had become as he said of himself “like the gnarled oak shorn of its green boughs,” yet he had in his better days moved and revelled in the rounds of fashionable life, and having a ready and fluent speech, and flashings of caustic wit and good humor, it called around him warm and devoted friends, whose kindness was showered upon him in repeating glass after glass until he fell below the standard of a gentleman, and finally was cast off, and thus took a downward leap, and when he appears again it is as a “dangerous and suspicious person” before the bar of justice as a criminal. But the scene does not stop here, for that very authority before which he now stands arraigned on “suspicion,” sets the machinery in motion that takes the victim in at the “LICENSED PALACE,” and carries him along through every grade down to the lowest dens of degradation and misery, and finally brings him up before the same authority as the natural and legitimate fruit of that document to which its hand and seal is fixed as a license for these blighting and damning curses, these groggeries that fill up this city at every turn.

The following incident occurred before the Recorder, and is copied from a city paper.

“DANGEROUS AND SUSPICIOUS.”

“But where is the iron-bound prisoner? where?”—Campbell.

A very haughty and gloomy-looking individual might be seen passing upwards from Baronne street Watchhouse, towards the Recorder’s office, yesterday morning, about nine o’clock. He was one of the number who seemed to have undergone the Cæsarean operation at the hands of Madame Fortune, but who, more than any of the rest, seemed to have been ripped untimely from the womb of the circumstances by which he had been surrounded. There was a sullenness of manner about him, perfectly in keeping with the bitter sneer which sat enthroned on his cynical lip. His dark eye flashed indignation towards the officer in whose keeping he was, and every now and then, as he raised his iron-bound hands to heaven, he shut his teeth as though he could have crunched a bar of adamant into a pulp. Anon he shut his eyes, and opening them, there came the searching glance and the dark scowl, which seemed to ask, in the language of Shakspeare,

The garb of the outer man was indicative of the severe storms which had passed over it—its looped and windowed raggedness told a tale of misery and wretchedness too often repeated by the numerous children of misfortune.

As the officer unloosened the handcuffs, preparatory to the old man’s being placed in the dock, for examination before the Recorder, not a muscle of his face, nay, of his frame, but was in motion. Shortly after being placed there, he burst into a flood of tears, and, in a paroxysm of the extremest agony, swooned into the arms of a fellow prisoner. After a few moments, however, he recovered his consciousness, and staring wildly round the Court, (as though he were among a horde of savages in the wild desert,) he exclaimed, after a manner which showed him to be well conversant with the drama:

“Verulan Langdale!” said the crier of the court. The prisoner raised himself slowly up from his seat, and running his fingers through the grey and tangled locks, which fell scantily over a well formed forehead, bowed to the court, in token of his identity.

Recorder.—You are charged with being a dangerous and suspicious person, following no honest occupation or calling for a livelihood. Have you any good citizen to vouch for you?

Prisoner.—May it please the court, I know of none—the world knows me not—I am as you see me, the gnarled oak, shorn of its green boughs. I am like Othello—my occupation’s gone. I came here to look after a daughter, who eloped a long time ago with a merchant of this city who, dying, left her all his worldly effects, and she became rich. By chance, I heard she was in this city. She was—she is—but she is the occupant of the Lunatic Asylum, and she has rendered me well nigh fit to occupy the same cell. I have craved from those who have had charity—my wants were small and they were over supplied. I was going towards Ohio, where I have a son engaged in the profession of the law.

Recorder.—May I ask you if you yourself have any profession on hand, and if you are an American citizen?

Prisoner.—I recollect Wordsworth saying in one of his fine poems, when speaking of a foreigner in England—

I bear a “soldier’s name”—I have held a commission in the British service, under the last but one of the Georges’. I have fought, long before I became an American citizen, under the stars and stripes, and have been but lately mustered out of the American service—I have ever thought and do think with Chateaubriand that—“The fairest crown of an old man is his silver hair, and the recollection of an honorable life.” Pronounce your sentence, if you think me dangerous and suspicious.

As the old man repeated the last sentence in a firm and energetic tone, he drew back the folds of his old woolen vest with the hands which had lately been in fetters, and pointing to some half dozen scars, said—

I don’t know how suspicious you may think me, but the enemies of my adopted country always declared me dangerous.

As he gave utterance to these words, a thrill of sensation passed through the crowd, which the Recorder did not ask to check. He himself turned aside to—peruse some other charge entered on the watch sheet. After a short pause, the Recorder, addressing the prisoner, told him he was at liberty to seek his son, and he hoped his search in that quarter would be more successful than it had been on another occasion.

Prisoner.—I hope so.

It is unnecessary to say that the old veteran had funds liberally supplied him. A subscription was set on foot in court, to which the Recorder most liberally subscribed, and “words, cheery words,” fell upon his ear as he left the court, where, but a few moments before, he had stood, to all appearances, a vagrant of the worst class. He did not leave the dock without bowing to his fellow prisoners; then turning to the crowd who ushered him out, he looked again on those he left behind him, as though loth to leave his fellows in misfortune. It was a momentary gleam of commiseration, for it lit up the face with the sunshine of the soul, until the recollection of his past sufferings, awakening all the misanthropic feelings which lay lurking in his breast, found a vent in the language of the gifted Maturin:

Such oftentimes are the slender grounds on which our laws deprive men of one of the choicest blessings said to be ensured by our republican form of government—their liberty.

The life-drawn scene which is here presented in the person of the old man, is a sad tale of desolation and woe, with which the Recorder’s court and the work-house of this city is familiar; yet the subjects for such exhibitions are usually much younger, having been like the old man, “shorn of their green boughs” long before they could point to a head with “silver locks,” and claim for them the respect and reverence due to a ripe old age, even though clothed in rags.

VAGRANTS.

For a time, so great was the increase of the class of vagrants, that the common council was forced to pass a law requiring the police to arrest every such person on “suspicion” of having no regular calling, and if no one will vouch for his ability to gain an honest living, his doom is the work-house without further ceremony.

To be sick and die, and disposed of after death in New Orleans, is more than a fearful scene to be presented for the contemplation of any one away from his kindred, his home and friends; and there is not a place in the wide world where a man would have so many fearful forebodings in passing these ordeals, from the sick chamber to the tomb, as would come upon him while alone, and in the silent watchings of the night he could feel his strength gradually giving away as the hour of his dissolution drew nigh. And when he takes his sick bed, in almost every individual, the impression is almost certain to come upon him that recovery is very doubtful; and every thing by which he is surrounded, and all the circumstances under which he is placed, have a strong tendency to make the impression change to certain conviction; and the longer he is sick the more clearly can he anticipate the day of his death. These convictions come upon him more firmly, from the fact that if he has been long in the city, he learns that it is the most sickly and dying place on earth. Hence he looks forward with dread and fear to the approach of the morrow. And what renders the sick room more fearful and terrific in this city to the stranger—to the individual without a family—to one alone and without kindred and near friends, is all that he requires, all his wants, and all that is done for him, come from those who have an eye single to his purse, and upon that the nurse, the attendants, and physician lay hold, as if “to the victor belong the spoils.” The charge per day for nursing is usually from two to four dollars, attending physician from four to eight dollars, and prescriptions for medicine at apothecaries, from ten to twenty dollars a week. Cupping and bleeding and incidental expenses at least twenty dollars more; and thus, if he can get through a course of sickness for less than one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars a week, he may think he has had his day under a very lucky star indeed. And then if he should die, whatever amount of means he may have, it will all be consumed, for every bill will be made out with special reference to the amount which he may possess. Such is the fashion in this city, and few there are who do not follow it to the letter.

DEPOSITORIES OF THE DEAD.

The bodies of the dead are deposited in vaults or tombs, as they are called; yet all above ground, as it is impossible to dig a grave in consequence of meeting water within a few inches of the surface of the ground. There is, however, a ridge of land about three miles from the city which is occupied for a burial ground, where the poor and the slaves are put in holes about two feet deep, and this is called the “Potter’s Field.” The old French depository for the dead lies in rear of the centre of the city, on the skirt of the swamp, yet it is surrounded by dwellings, and may be considered as a part of the city. And a more gloomy, deathly, and pestiferous place cannot be found within the range of the civilized globe. And why such arrangements for disposing of the dead should be permitted, is a matter of great astonishment to any one who can reason from cause to effect. For there immediately within the heart and centre of that city, above ground, inclosed only in brick walls, lay thousands and tens of thousands of bodies in every possible stage of decomposition that can be presented. And the odor from these vaults in hot weather is perceptible a great distance, and near by is almost suffocating. And such is the stench within the inclosures that it brings on the most deathly and horrid sickness. And yet this is in New Orleans, and there it lies, and I know of no more proper place for such an arrangement, so “divil take the hindmost,” as that is the rule by which all are governed. Consequently no matter what exists around them. These grounds are about a mile in length and fifty or sixty rods wide. They are divided into three parts, all of which are enclosed in a solid wall of brick masonry about ten feet wide and nine feet high. In these long ranges of walls are holes resembling an oven, just large enough to slide in one coffin. When the coffin is put in, the opening is filled up with brick laid in mortar, and a small marble slab is also put in, cut on purpose to the shape of the opening, on which is the name and age of the deceased, and any other device the friends may think proper to add. From the bottom of the wall close to the ground is the first opening or vault, and upwards one directly over the other are four, and thus in the whole surface of the side and cross walls, as thick as can be allowed, are these “holes in the wall,” as they are usually jokingly spoken of, making graves for thousands and tens of thousands who are being constantly swept into them by the besom of destruction, made up from the malaria, the effluvia, from the swamps and city. And to render the dose complete, the exhalation from this great charnel house, this mass of corruption and death, is mingling with the sirocco that is pouring in upon them from every point, and is drank down by the living mass who tread those streets as greedily as though it was the vital principle of their existence. These receptacles for the dead belong to the city, and each vault is rented for the term of twenty-five years for fifty dollars. At the expiration of that time, if not re-rented by the friends of the deceased, it is opened, and all that remains of what was once life and animation, bearing the impress and image of its maker, is scraped out, thrown together with the remains of hundreds of others, and burned up. And thus in ashes lie mingled in one common mass the rich and the poor, the proud and haughty aristocrat, and the low and humble plebian—the hard and iron frame of the daring mariner, and the lovely and beautiful form of the bright eyed and laughing girl.

The ground inclosed within the several walls is more than one hundred acres, and is divided into small plots, generally about ten feet long and five wide. On these are built single vaults or those large enough for five or six persons. Those belonging to individuals or families are never disturbed. There are some receptacles of this kind built on a larger plan, from thirty to forty feet square, and twenty to thirty feet high, and large enough to contain upwards of an hundred vaults. These are built by societies or military companies, and some of them are beautiful splendid structures. There are also some elegant family tombs built of the finest Italian marble and costing an immense sum. The most perfect and beautiful one in architectural structure and design, is said to have cost upwards of forty thousand dollars. It contains six vaults, three on each side of a niche, which is open on the front, and the walls on each side contain the vaults or openings just large enough to slide in a coffin. In the niche are arranged some of the most perfect specimens of Italian sculpture from the hands of the best artists of the age, representing the Savior, the Virgin Mary, and several other symbols of the Romish church. As a receptacle for the dead it is without exception the most imposing and forcible appeal to the heart of the living that can be contemplated. And while standing before it in all the perfection of art and science and the genius of man, an awe of awful sublimity steals over the soul, hushes every earthly thought, while those “silent and impressive lecturers,” the image of our Savior, surrounded by types of the heavenly hosts, and though presented by the cold and speechless marble, yet tell us in language too plain to be misunderstood, that all the desires and anticipations of the heart will end as a weary care, and when summed up in the substance and riches of this world they can never enter the portals of the tomb.

SLAVERY.

I come now to the subject of slavery as exhibited in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mississippi. And as an American citizen, in view of the Declaration of Independence, and the boasted genius of the institutions of my country, I would gladly crush every thought and banish every feeling of shame and disgrace that comes over me, while contemplating this blighting and damning curse of humiliation to every man who feels a pride in the glory and prosperity of his country. But when in the spirit of pride for FREEDOM and EQUALITY, to contemplate the horrors, the miseries, the cold blooded murders, that are the accumulated wrongs of man upon his fellow man in this land of LIBERTY, it banishes every aspiration of the human soul. Every noble impulse of love of country is buried in shame and deep humiliation. I have seen too much, and I have learned what I know, not from the idle tales of the demagogue, nor the preaching of wild fanaticism, nor from what have been charged as the embellished stories of runaway slaves, but from having been an eye-witness, and having heard the groans and shrieks of the mangled and bleeding slave, while being murdered under the lash and blows of the most inhuman of all monsters, the drivers and traffickers in human flesh. That such things can be done and be tolerated in this enlightened age, and among a people claiming to be moral, civilized, and christian too, is a mystery that will remain unexplained until the attributes of the human heart shall change. That fathers and mothers in this christian land can look around them and know what is the conduct and character of their sons, (in almost every instance pursuing a life of indolence and licentiousness,) and witness growing up around them grand children, sons and daughters of their slave women, and then see those same children of their own kindred blood sold as slaves and chattels in the market. And there are fathers too who will take their own children bearing the impress of themselves, and throw them into market like beasts of the stall. I know it will be said that such are few and far between and isolated cases. But such are not the facts. They are the scenes of every-day life, and they are the sons and daughters, and grandsons and grand-daughters of your Governors, your Judges, your Senators, and members of Congress; and also men in every condition of life. Ah, and more too—your Presidents and Vice Presidents of this christian and civilized land, this land of FREEDOM. And yet these distinguished men are the recipients of the tolerance and favor of LIBERTY-loving men, and voted for to be the guardians of our institutions. They are held up as honest men, as patterns of piety, whose oblations are daily offered upon the altars of christianity!!

Of the impulses of such men I know nothing, and I cannot form any conception of the feelings of an American, of a Christian—of the one who gets his lessons from the Declaration of Independence, and of the other who learns his duty from him who taught the inspired precepts of the Gospel. That persons can thus act is an anomaly that cannot be explained by any principle that governs the human heart. But in this view, with the slaveholder, I know the force of habit—the influence of circumstances—the power of avarice—the desire of ease, all combined with custom, will sheath the heart in a bond harder and less impenetrable than the unyielding adamant. But while I know this I cannot offer an excuse for them; and there is no apology at this day and age which they can plead, that will screen an American citizen or a christian in sustaining these outrages upon the genius of our institutions—upon the spirit of the age—against morality, humanity, upon kindred ties, christianity and nature itself.

APOLOGIES FOR SLAVERY.

The assurance that is often given as an apology for slavery, that the slaves are contented and happy—that they are not abused, and are well provided for, is as basely false and untrue, as the system is infamous, horrid and cruel. For an individual to plead such an excuse for Southern Slavery, in view of occupying the place of a slave himself, even in its mildest form, I apprehend that such a man who knows any thing of slavery—of its abuses—its cruelties—its lashes and murders, his tongue would become palsied on his lips, and a shudder as stiffening as the chill of death would come over him at the prospect of a life of so much pleasure and happiness, as he boldly asserts is the enjoyment of the slave. Put him there, and let him feel for one short month what he knows the slave feels, and then let him come out with an apology for such bondage, and tell of its blessings, its beauties and happiness. And I ask him in all sincerity, if he does not think the slave feels, when he is brought out to be sold, somewhat as he would, if he was forced to stand upon the same block, and hear the Auctioneer tell of his good qualities, his strength, his ingenuity, his powers of endurance, his unblemished character, and “fully guarantied against all the vices and maladies prescribed by law.” Let the experiment be tried with some of these apologists, and take them into the Arcade in the city of New Orleans and sell them at auction, and then let them be taken on to a Sugar or Cotton plantation in the same fields to work with the other happy slaves, and go to his bed in the same long range of “beautiful white cottages,” that look so neat and inviting as you pass down the Mississippi River. After he has been here a few years, nay, only through one season of growing cane or cotton, living upon their good fare, their daily rations and doing their daily task, then let him come up, and tell how happy he has been, and what a curse liberty is, and how much better slavery is than freedom. And yet, the reply to all this is, “oh, the negroes don’t know enough to realize anything better, and they cannot take care of themselves.” Ah, and why are they thus brutalized, and how does it happen that they know so little? Any one who knows any thing of Southern slavery, can explain these things, for they know that every part and parcel of the system, in every particular, is framed with direct design to brutalize, degrade, and deprave the slave. And they know too, that when a slave aspires to be a man, that it is a crime, and the charge is brought up against him, “he is getting too damned smart,” and for which is meted out upon his naked back the severest punishment that can be given by the lash, for the express purpose of breaking him down, and make him cower before his master like a dog. They have seen men with a whiter skin than themselves, and mulattoes too, but a shade darker, who were sons and grandsons of the first men in Kentucky and Virginia, and men who would consecrate talent and powers of intellect, and serve even in Southern bondage, as long as the Patriarch of old did, for a wife, if they could possess one. And do you not think such men can feel, and will they hug their chains, and tell you, when they are not under the fear of the lash, that they are contented and happy? And these apologists know too, that with American Slavery, as a condition of human bondage, there has never been, in any age, nor with any people, whether barbarous or civilized, any thing to compare in point of brutality, cruelty and extreme suffering, resulting from a combination of causes, that destroy life and shorten the days of its victims to an extent that legalizes murder; for it is a fact, proven by the acknowledgment of slave owners themselves, that of an hundred young men, taken from Kentucky and Virginia, put on Plantations in Louisiana and Mississippi, seven years will be the average of their lives. And this is produced by a change of climate, unwholesome food, over-working, miserable and filthy lodgings, and a general want of cleanliness in clothing and every thing they have.

FARE OF SLAVES ON PLANTATIONS.

A more loathsome and disgusting place cannot be imagined, than the huts in a negro yard of a plantation. They are generally about twenty feet square, and the hands on a plantation are divided into families, each of which occupies one of these pens. These families number from five to twenty, and the arrangements for sleeping are miserable in the extreme, and what is used for their beds is seldom if ever washed, or cleansed in any manner, and is used until rotted or worn into shreds. The same practice is pursued with their clothing. It consists of a coarse wrought fabric, of cotton and wool, and also of linen. The men wear pantaloons, and a heavy stout frock. The women who work in the field, wear only a long frock, without under clothes of any kind. These are put on and never changed or cleansed, or taken off night or day, until they are worn out. The provision for clothing the slaves, is usually one suit a year to each negro, and they are generally obliged to make this last or go without. But many cannot, and you will often see negroes with only the tattered and torn rags remaining on them, as evidence of a slight degree of modesty and shame, that is manifest in keeping them around him. And thus they live in the most filthy, degraded and beastly condition that can be conceived, and there is not a single provision of any kind, either in food, clothing or cleanliness, or for beds, or dwellings, or labor, but what is calculated to debilitate, exhaust and destroy the physical powers, and produce disease and death; and I make the assurance without the fear of contradiction, that there is scarcely a plantation in the whole range of the Sugar and Cotton growing districts, if examined by a competent board of health, that would not excite their astonishment, that human beings could live, even an average of seven years. In the first place, it will be found that many herds of slaves are kept on short rations, having allowed to each one, from three to three and a half pounds of meat a week, with only corn meal, which they wet with water, and roast on the fire. This is their regular daily food, and the meat is often the most loathsome, disgusting, rotten mass that can be imagined. On this point, I am aware it will also be said, there are but few, very few indeed, of such cases. But it is not true, and every produce dealer in the city of New Orleans, if he has not the fear of the planter before his eyes, will bear testimony to this fact, for I have seen it myself, and know that they sell thousands of packages, weighing from eight to ten hundred each, of smoked hams and sides of pork, that were so rotten that the bones had become loose and separated from the meat, and when they were opened for the examination of the Planter, the maggots would roll over the side of the cask upon the floor.

An instance of this kind I saw in the store of a produce dealer in the winter of 1837. A planter from Mississippi bought eleven casks of smoked meat from a merchant in Lafayette street, which he had purchased the day before for one and a half cents per pound. He sold it to the planter for one and three fourth cents, and when the casks were opened they were literally alive with maggots. After the purchase was made, the clerk, a fine honest New Jersey-man, being astonished at what he had done in selling such stuff to be eaten by human beings, for he knew that a dog in New Jersey could not be found but what would turn from it, asked the planter why he bought such food for his negroes? The planter replied, that it was pretty hard times and cotton was low, and the boys do about as well on it as any. Now in view of this, I know it will be said again, that “such are rare cases;” but the reports of sales of meat in New Orleans tell a different account; for there are hundreds and thousands of such packages of rotten putrid meat sold to planters every year, and the negroes are obliged to eat it or starve, and at the same time the planters tell you “the boys do about as well on it.”

And yet in full knowledge of all these facts, we can find men who will speak of such things as trivial matters, and have some very cogent apology to offer as an excuse to justify the outrage. But with many who practice this treatment with their slaves there is some show for excuse, and that is in their extreme ignorance; for there are a large number of planters, overseers, and drivers, who know nothing of the influence and effect of such food on the system, and that it has a tendency to produce disease and death. Hence for the reason the planters do not know their own interest, the loss to them annually by death is ten fold greater than the expense would be to give the slaves good comfortable quarters, with good wholesome fare, and treat them as human beings. But there are plantations on which these worst features are not found; yet in almost every case the slaves are over-worked, at least one-third beyond what is possible for the physical powers of any human being to endure. They are usually driven out soon as daylight, and often before, and work from fourteen to eighteen hours a day, and in the other part of the time, they are obliged to prepare their food, eat and sleep. This time of excessive hard work is only about five months in the year, during the gathering of the crops. The other part of the season they are only worked from light in the morning until darkness at night. I know it is said they are obliged to work thus to save the crops from perishing. Very true. But why force such an immense crop into existence that will require so much labor to secure it? Cannot avarice be checked nor satisfied without working men and women into a premature grave? As well may it be said, that a farmer of the north is obliged to work night and day to tend his crop of corn, having planted with his cultivator twenty acres in four days; consequently he is obliged to work night and day for forty days to hoe and keep it in good condition that he may get a large yield. And in view of the condition of slaves on plantations generally, without taking into account the whipping, beating and cruelties that are imposed upon them, their treatment from beginning to end is an open violation and outrage upon the laws of animal life, and every thing by which they are surrounded is calculated directly to undermine the constitution and engender disease, and thus destroy them. And I make the assertion without the fear of contradiction from any apologist for slavery who knows any thing about it, from its great champion John C. Calhoun down to the most brutal driver that can be found, they cannot show one plantation in five hundred where the proper provisions necessary for the health and comfort of human beings are made. I know this to be a fact, and so does every man who has looked in upon a plantation in the sugar and cotton growing States of the South. And there is no excuse or apology with the planter for this, for he can do better if he would gamble less, drink and carouse less, and spend less money in sports and horse racing, and not trust these matters to overseers and drivers.

WHIPPING OF SLAVES.

Of the cruelties, in whipping, beating and murdering slaves, it has never been told nor described worse than is practised; and I have been told by overseers on plantations themselves, of what is necessary in the discipline of a set of hands, first to subdue them, and then to keep them in subjection. The first exhibition I had of slavery, was at Louisville in Kentucky, in the fall of 1837, and I shall never forget the nature of the scene before me; for it was the first time that this singular phenomenon was presented to my view, that in this land of freedom, where liberty was engraven upon the escutcheon of every shield, and yet, not a stone upon the earth, but what was pressed by the bondsman’s foot; nor an inch of soil, but what was watered by tears, and the sweat of his brow, and whose very flesh too was torn and reeking from the chains and lash of the inhuman task-master. And who is doing all this? was the enquiry. It is Kentucky—the noble, proud and chivalrous Kentucky; whose sires and sons, on the battle fields of the revolution, poured out their blood like water, and when expiring in their last struggle, while their voice ceased in whispers, would breathe out the magic words, “Liberty or Death.” And it was thus with Kentucky, on the bloody fields of the second revolution. And on that day, her sons were in arms, struggling for their country’s rights and the extension of American Freedom. And here was this singular phenomenon before me, of a proud and chivalrous people, offering up their oblations upon the altar of Freedom, and bearing in one hand the standard of Liberty, while in the other were forged chains for the bondman’s limbs, and the scourge for his back, and whose groans and shrieks were borne off upon the same breeze with their own shouts of Liberty or Death!! And this is no sketch of scenes drawn out with vivid colors of fancy; for it was stern living reality, and human language conveys no impressions and has not power to embellish them with ideal matter, for there was before me at almost every corner of the streets, that proud emblem of our nation’s greatness. It was the STARS and STRIPES calling upon the sons of Kentucky to again rally in defence of their country’s honor. And yet beneath the ample folds of this cherished emblem of Freedom were passing almost every moment the native born citizens of this proud State, driven to their daily task from the fear of the scourge and the lash. And more than that did I witness on a steamboat where was thrown out to the breeze our nation’s Flag, significant that the sons of Kentucky, her soldiers in arms, were there marching to and fro upon her deck and hurrying down to the plains of Mexico, to the field of battle and strife; while below them on the same boat, confined in chains like a pen of cattle, were their own brothers, upwards of an hundred citizens of this proud land, who were being dragged down to that bourne from whence none ever return—the great charnel house of American slavery, the low land and swamps of the Mississippi Valley. The next scene of interest that I saw was on a plantation a few miles above the city of New Orleans. I passed into the negro yard and the first slave I met was grinding corn with a double hand-mill like a common coffee-grinder. He was chained to a post and was literally naked. A plank lay within reach of his chain, the soft side of which was his bed. His punishment was for running away, and he had been confined there to his mill seven weeks. In passing along to a shop, I found two negroes working at blacksmithing. Both were chained to the block, and were hampered with rings and chains on their legs. One of these was a heavy stout mulatto man, and on his right ancle was a ring of iron weighing from six to eight pounds. On the same leg near the knee was another ring weighing from four to six pounds, and a chain fastened from one ring to the other, making at least on this leg sixteen pounds of iron. The rings had worn and irritated the leg, and they were almost completely imbedded in the swollen flesh. From the knee to the top of the foot was one continued putrid running sore; and without exception the most loathsome and forbidding exhibition I ever witnessed. And yet he was at work preparing the heavy irons for a sugar mill. I asked him what he had those chains on for? He replied; “I run away, and by G—d I will again when I get these off and am well.” He had worn them eight weeks. The rings and chain on the other negro were not as large, nor was he much mutilated by them. The first was a noble fine looking mulatto man, with large head and prominent reflective faculties, and evidently with much force of character—presenting nothing of the African blood, except in the shade of his skin. He informed me that he came from Kentucky, and had been on the plantation seven years, and in that time he had seen the drivers kill eighteen boys. All slave men are called boys. Whether this was true or not, I had no other testimony except the circumstantial evidence which was around me on all sides, and I am sure this was sufficient to convince any one that an effort was being made to kill at least four more. In passing towards the sugar field, I found a negro setting on a block. A physician from Mobile, who was with me, spoke to him, and as he raised his head a swarm of flies started off, and looking on the right side of his head above the ear, I discovered the hair full of maggots, and the whole side was one mass of putrid matter. The skull was evidently broken in, as the matter which was running out indicated diseased bone. How he came in this condition I know not, yet the same effect would be produced by striking him with a heavy bludgeon or club. He was perfectly unconscious, and did not answer a question intelligibly, as he was insane. After this scene I was perfectly convinced that the negro in the shop had told the truth, that “eighteen boys had been killed on that plantation within seven years.”