LOUISIANA. 



501 



fair to become at no far distant date subordi- 

 nate only to those of sugar and cotton in value, 

 and may possibly rival the latter, if the lands 

 which are particularly adapted to the culture 

 should be exclusively devoted to it. Few parts 

 of the world, it is stated, can produce a better 

 quality of this popular and wholesome fruit 

 than the southern parishes of Louisiana ; and 

 all that is needed to give the production the 

 rank it deserves in all the great commercial 

 centers of the country is an increase of it, and 

 more careful and skillful marketing and ship- 

 ping. 



The commercial year at New Orleans closed 

 in the midst of the yellow-fever epidemic, on 

 September 1st. The following table shows 

 the receipts from the interior of the leading 

 articles of trade, with the increase or decrease 

 compared with the previous years : 



For the details of the epidemic in New Or- 

 leans, see FEVEK, YELLOW. At a public meet- 

 ing held on December 6th in New Orleans on 

 the subject of the suffering caused by the yel- 

 low fever, and to give an expression of grati- 



tude for the aid contributed, an address was 

 made by Chief Justice Manning, and a series 

 of resolutions was adopted, of which the fol- 

 lowing is an extract : 



Resolved, by the people of New Orleans, in mass 

 meeting assembled, That the annals of human suffer- 

 ing and human sympathy show no parallel to the 

 active benevolence exhibited by all classes of fellow 

 countrymen toward the city of New Orleans in her 

 late affliction. Not merely were the naked clothed, 

 starving fed, and sick and dying ministered to, but 

 our darkness was chered and our sinking spirits 

 sustained by a charity which descended like some 

 heavenly messenger, bringing healing on its wings 

 to them that were ready to perish. 



The first wail of distress had hardly gone up from 

 our terror-stricken community before the agonizing 

 cry for help was answered across the broad expanse 

 of a vast continent, from north and south and east 

 and west. The tributary streams of beneficence 

 rallied in one unebbing tide of overflowing gener- 

 osity into the valley of the shadow of death, in which 

 we walked; it poured its life-giving waters fresh 

 from the gushing springs of human affection. Never 

 had any people before been recipients of such great 

 devotion and unsurpassing love, of whose depth and 

 sincerity they gave this highest proof, that they laid 

 down their lives for us. 



Resolved, That to those friends in foreign lands 

 whoso freely contributed to the. relief of our people, 

 whether of kindred or alien nationalities, our most 

 fervent thanks are due and are hereby tendered. 



Resolved, That to all societies, corporations, and 

 companies, as well as to communities and individ- 

 uals unnamed, who, in our great distress, aided us 

 by word or act, the people of New Orleans as with 

 one heart feel a gratitude unspeakable. 



During the year some disturbance both of a 

 civil and political character took place in the 

 State. In the summer three men charged with 

 crime, two of them with the murder of a white 

 man, and one convicted of the killing of a col- 

 ored man, were forcibly taken from the jail at 

 Monroe and killed. The men so killed were 

 colored men. The mob is supposed to have 

 been made up either entirely or mostly of white 

 men. Later, a man by the name of St. Martin, 

 confined in the parish jail of St. Charles Parish 

 on a charge of murder of a colored man, was 

 taken therefrom by a large number of men and 

 murdered. The mob in this instance were col- 

 ored men and the victim a white man. Both 

 of these cases received investigation from the 

 grand juries of the respective parishes, and 

 nothing has resulted from the investigation in 

 either case. In one instance the officials were 

 Republican, in the other Democratic. 



A disturbance of a more serious nature and 

 attended with unusual excitement occurred in 

 Tensas and Concordia parishes, and became 

 the subject of investigation by a committee of 

 Congress. It is asserted by Governor Nichols, 

 who also made an investigation of the affair, 

 that the proximate cause of that trouble was 

 the going at night of a party of men number- 

 ing from twenty to twenty-five to the house 

 of one Fairfax, a colored political leader in 

 Tensas Parish, which act resulted in the killing 

 of Peck (who seems to have been the leader of 

 the party), and the wounding by Peck's com- 

 panions of three colored men who were in 



