re to be found among blacks as among
whites. There are Africans in this city who have really handsome features,
and whose proportions are just, with strong and finely rounded limbs. On
becoming more intimate with the general character of the Africans, I like
it better: I find they steal, cheat, and hate their masters; and if they
were to do otherwise I should think them unworthy of liberty--they justly
consider whatever they take to be but a portion of their own. The policy
is to keep them as much as possible in utter ignorance--that their
indignation should therefore develope itself in the most degrading manner,
is not surprising.
There are two public schools established at New Orleans, which are
supported out of the fund arising from five gaming-houses, they paying a
tax of 25,000 dollars per annum. These schools are conducted on the
Lancastrian system, each having a Principal and a Professor, and the
studies are divided into daily sessions. The morning session is devoted to
reading, spelling, arithmetic, and English grammar; commences at nine
A.M., and closes at one P.M. The evening session commences at three, and
ends at five o'clock; and is devoted to penmanship, geography, and the
French language. This is the arrangement of the English primary school,
which is kept in the Old Poydras House, Poydras-street, in the upper part
of the city; and is called the Upper Primary School, to distinguish it
from the French establishment, which is kept in the lower part of the
city. The English school has an English principal, and a French professor;
and the French school, a French principal and an English professor. Dr.
Kinnicutt, the principal of the Upper Primary School, is a gentleman of
considerable ability, and to his friendly politeness I am indebted for the
above information.
The ravages of the yellow fever in New Orleans are immense; but I am
credibly informed that many deaths occur here from neglect after the fever
has subsided, when the patient is in a totally debilitated condition,
incapable of affording himself the slightest assistance. Orleans is
generally crowded with strangers, who are most susceptible to the
epidemic; and it is decidedly the interest of persons keeping hotels and
boarding-houses that such guests should give up the ghost, for in that
case their loose cash falls into the hands of the proprietor. I do not
mean to insinuate that a knife is passed across the throat of the
patient; but merely that
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