Part 22

Here too were many poor women with their husbands; and when I contemplated their wasted forms and haggard sickly looks, together with the close swamp whose stagnant air they were doomed to breathe, whose aspect changeless and deathlike alone met their eyes, and fancied them, in some hour of leisure, calling to memory the green valley and the pure river, or the rocky glen and sparkling brook of their distant home, with all the warmth of colouring the imaginative spirit of the Irish peasant can so well supply, my heart has swelled and my eyes have filled with tears.

I cannot hope to inspire the reader with my feelings upon a mere sketch like this; but if I could set the scene of these poor labourers' exile fairly forth, with all the sad accompaniments detailed; could I show the course of the hardy, healthy pair, just landed, to seek fortune on these long-sighed-for shores, with spirits newly lifted by hope and brighter prospects from the apathy into which compulsory idleness and consequent recklessness had reduced them at home; and then paint the spirit-sinking felt on a first view of the scene of their future labour,--paint the wild revel designed to drown remembrance, and give heart to the new-comers; describe the nature of the toil where exertion is taxed to the uttermost, and the weary frame stimulated by the worst alcohol, supplied by the contractor, at a cheap rate for the purpose of exciting a rivalry of exertion amongst these simple men.

Next comes disease, either a sweeping pestilence that deals wholesale on its victims, or else a gradual sinking of mind and body; finally, the abode in the hospital, if any comrade is interested enough for the sufferer to bear him to it; else, the solitary log-hut and quicker death. Could these things with their true colours be set forth in detail before the veriest grinder of the poor that ever drove the peasant to curse and quit the soil of his birth, he would cover his eyes from the light of heaven, and feel that he yet possessed a heart and human sympathy.

At such works all over this continent the Irish are the labourers chiefly employed, and the mortality amongst them is enormous,--a mortality I feel certain might be vastly lessened by a little consideration being given to their condition by those who employ them. At present they are, where I have seen them working here, worse lodged than the cattle of the field; in fact, the only thought bestowed upon them appears to be, by what expedient the greatest quantity of labour may be extracted from them at the cheapest rate to the contractor. I think, however, that a better spirit is in progress amongst the companies requiring this class of labourers; in fact it becomes necessary this should be so, since, prolific as is the country from whence they are drawn, the supply would in a little time cease to keep pace with the demand, and slave labour cannot be substituted to any extent, being much too expensive; a good slave costs at this time two hundred pounds sterling, and to have a thousand such swept off a line of canal in one season, would call for prompt consideration.

Independent of interest, Christian charity and justice should alike suggest that the labourers ought to be provided with decent quarters, that sufficient medical aid should always be at hand, and above all, that the brutalizing, accursed practice of extorting extra labour by the stimulus of corn spirit should be wholly forbidden.

Let it be remembered that, although rude and ignorant, these men are not insensible to good impressions, or incapable of distinguishing between a kindly and paternal care of their well-doing, and the mercenary cold-blooded bargain which exacts the last scruple of flesh it has paid for.

I have inquired much, and have heard many worthy, well-informed men comment upon this subject, and feelingly regret the existing system; but it is only by the close supervision of the Directors of Public Works that this crying evil can be effectively checked, and the condition and character of the labourer improved.

At present the priest is the only stay and comfort of these men; the occasional presence of the minister of God alone reminds them that they are not forgotten of their kind: and but for this interference, they would grow in a short time wholly abandoned and become uncontrollable; unfortunately of these men, who conscientiously fulfil their holy functions, there are but too few,--the climate, and fatigue soon incapacitates all but the very robust. Those who follow the ministry of God in the swamp and in the forest must have cast the pride of flesh indeed out from them, since they brave the martyr's fate without a martyr's triumph.

If a few of our goodly Cheltenham Parsons, the non-resident gentlemen, who so laudably desire to uphold their church, were to come here, they would find ample employment for their leisure, and might make hosts of converts; for courage and kindliness of heart are irresistible in appeal; and it is on these foundations, whether amongst the bogs and mountains of Ireland, or in the wilderness of America, that the Catholic priest of our days has built the unimpeachable influence he exercises over his people.

The gloomy picture of the labourer's condition, which my mention of this canal has drawn from me, may by some be considered overcharged; but I protest I have, on the contrary, withheld details of suffering from heat, and cold, and sickness, which my heart at this moment aches when I recall.

To return to the canal. It in all probability will never be used for the purpose designed, even when completed; it was, in fact, the bonus proffered to the legislature by a bank which required a certain charter; it will, at least, answer the purpose of a great drain, and so far must prove of infinite local importance, the more especially since it is in contemplation to redeem the whole of the surrounding swamp,--a measure that, if effectually carried out, will probably render New Orleans as healthy as any city south of the Potomac.

The police of this place I should imagine at present better than in the Northern cities, since noise or disturbance in the streets is a thing unknown, and after ten at night everything is usually still and quiet, excepting upon the Levee, where work at this season appears to go on by night as by day.

FOOTNOTES:

These ways oftimes, in continued wet weather, become impassable, to the great injury of business: but remedy there is none, save patience; for any animal under the size of an elephant would be lost in the mud, swallowed wholly up.

That this task would not be difficult I have the best authority for asserting,--the experience of one of the ablest and most honourable-minded men of this or any other country, Captain R. S----n. Finding on the great work, in the conducting of which he was a principal, the usual number of riots and disputes, he, with the practical good sense for which he is distinguished, applied himself to discover the cause: this he generally traced up to some real or fancied injustice complained of by the labourer, and quickly resented by outrage on his part. He next personally interfered, heard patiently, decided fairly, and in a kind manner made clear the ground of every decision for or against the labourers. In a short time he by this course completely won the confidence of these poor fellows, and not another riot occurred. In his absence even, however prolonged, any dispute growing to violence was quieted in a moment by one of the elders suggesting that they should wait quietly till the Captain came home.

No decision, however, against their views was ever objected to; and it was most gratifying to me to hear Captain S----n assert that he had never met with any class of men whose regard for even-handed justice appeared so strong as that of these poor Irish labourers.

THE LEVEE MARKET.

Viewed at an early hour, the large market-place on the Levee is a lounge of a most amusing kind, exhibiting at one glance a more striking picture of the variety of people to be found here than might be attained in any other place.

Here may be seen the Spanish creole, cloaked and capped, followed by a half-naked slave, making, with a grave quiet air, and in slow deliberate speech, his frugal market. Bustling along directly in his wake, but with frequent halts and crossings from side to side, comes a lively daughter of France, her market-slave leading a little boy fancifully dressed a la hussarde; with these she holds a running fire of chatter, only interrupted by salutations to passing friends, or nods and smiles to those more distant. Look yet a little longer, and, yawing along in squads of three and four abreast, you will see sailors of all kinds cheapening fruit and vegetables, together with cooks, stewards, and all their dingy subordinates. Here is the up-looking, dare-devil Jack of Old England; the clean, holiday-looking, well-dressed seaman of Marseilles, with large gold ear-rings twinkling beneath the rim of his high-crowned bright glazed hat. Next, moving stealthily by, with an uneasy, restless look, notice a couple of low-built, light-limbed, swarthy fellows, moustached and bearded, one wearing a red shirt and a broad-leafed Panama hat, the other clad in a white blouse with a scarlet worsted sash drawn about his hips, a Montero cap, naked legs, and white canvass slippers.

These fellows might, on the high seas, be easily mistaken for pirates; here they are understood to belong to some one of the many snaky schooners lying here, hailing from Havannah and the various ports along the Mexican Gulf, and whose calling may be honest enough, but which certainly look as though the necessity of stowing a cargo had been quite overlooked in their building.

Meantime, circling about the outside of the building, stroll a band of twenty or thirty Indians, dressed in all the picturesque, draggled finery it is their delight to exhibit; the men half drunk or wholly so, thrusting, as they pass, their filthy fingers into the negro girls' baskets, and hiccuping forth some inquiry, to be repulsed by a monosyllable or a look of contempt and anger, the sight of which excites sorrow that any creature wearing the form of humanity should be fallen so low as to be subject to it. The squaws are never seen in this brutal condition; they crawl about with a load of light wood at their backs, or, having disposed of their venture, may be seen seated on their heels, telling their beads, or pulling their fingers through their thick black hair, that, if kept clean, would be beautiful, or in some other way tricking forth their charms to all advantage; for, though generally as ugly as sin, they are as full of coquetry as any belle of May-fair, and as vain of admiration; of the which, to say truth, they appear to come in for more than a share from our tars, two or three of whom may usually be seen lounging alongside the youngest of the native group, looking things they know not how to utter.

In this market of the Levee there is also an abundant display of fish, flesh, and fowl, with as varied a store of earth's fruits as any one place can produce. In the month of February we had here peas, lettuces, beans of several kinds, kale, celery, pine-apples, bananas, oranges, limes, lemons, with sweet potatoes and edibles of various other kinds whose names were strange to me.

The beef here is, in appearance, inferior to that of the North, although fed on the finest pastures in nature,--those of the Ohio and Kentucky, but injured by the neglect and ill feeding consequent upon a voyage of ten or twelve hundred miles in a crowded steam-boat.

The creole mutton, I should say, is equal to the best in this country, being small-boned, sweet, and very fat. The great disadvantage the artiste labours under is the not being able to keep the meat long enough to become quite tender; such is this climate that decomposition follows quickly on death, and here the man is buried or the mutton eaten without waiting until either becomes cold.

The Place d'Armes, near this market, is a large square, having an area enclosed with rails in the centre: here the Indians usually congregate, and within this a curious-looking group or two may commonly be found. To see the tribe at toilet is not a little amusing: some hair-hunting, catching and cracking this game, with a keen sporting look and an obvious relish of the pursuit quite varmint; others mixing red or white paint for the adornment of the nose, cheek, or eye, as custom or taste may decide.

I could not rightly discover whether these marks were simply directed by caprice, and assumed or laid aside at pleasure, or whether they were worn in compliance with some imperative custom, and having a translatable meaning, as some historians assert. Certain is it that I have noticed a little Choctaw belle, with whom I had established a sort of eye-flirtation of many days' standing; on one morning appealing to my taste by an insinuating streak of white lead over each of her bright eyes; on the next, giving my heart a stab from under a crimson half-moon; and on the third, killing me quite by a broadside from each chubby cheek, the right having at me with a ball of fiery red, the left exhibiting one of jet black.

The costume of these people, when divested of the eternal filthy blanket, is showy, and at times even becoming, and pleasing; bright colours, fringes, tags, beads, and feathers of the ostrich, parroquet, and eagle, constituted the raw material which the taste natural to the sex, and the love of finery inherent in the squaw, has to work upon.

JOURNAL RESUMED.