holding their little
heads above their nests, would these sweet little children ask us,
"Have you any candy for me?"

CHAPTER VI.

THE UNITED STATES BRANCH MINT.--THE WATER WORKS.--MARKETS, ETC.

The stranger should never leave the Crescent City without seeing the
Mint, where money is made as if by magic. It is situated in the old
Jackson square, between Barrack and Esplanade streets. It is a fine
edifice, having a projecting centre building with two exterior
wings. The walls are strong and thick, plastered in good imitation of
granite; the length, 282 by 108 deep. This mint was commenced in 1835,
and the whole cost of building, fencing, machinery, and furniture,
was $300,000. The yard is handsomely enclosed with iron railing on a
granite basement. You enter at a fine gate, and passing through the
first court over a block wood pavement, you ascend a flight of
granite steps, and enter in a large passage where sets a pleasant old
gentleman, who requires you to register your name and residence. This
being done, he leads the visitor among the furnaces where the smelting
is performed; then in a large room where the metal is formed into bars
of various sizes by running it through powerful iron rollers. These
bars are then cut out into coins from the size of half a dime to a
doubloon, by means of a machine something like a punch, but which
moves with great regularity, and power, and despatch. The polite old
gentleman then leads you down below, and in a remote wing stands a
man solitary and alone by the side of the most splendid and beautiful
machinery which ever was made, who puts the cut pieces of coin by
twenties into a tube which fits them exactly, and the machinery stamps
them one by one, with an eagle on one side, and the Goddess of Liberty
on the other. The untiring machinery goes up and down, and stamps
according to different sizes, from eighty to one hundred and fifty to
the minute! and they are received into a beautiful silver vase
below. Before the coin is brought into this finishing room, it is
not counted, but weighed; and after it is here impressed, it is then
weighed again. In 1838, the mint coined only the amount $40,243; 1839,
$263,650; 1840, $915,600; 1841, $642,200; 1842, $1,275,750; 1843,
$4,568,000; 1844, $4,208,500; 1845, $1,473,000. The falling off during
the last year mentioned, has been owing to the state of our foreign
exchanges being against the interests of the mint.

The chief work has