98 GOODS AT NORTHERN PRICES. [CHAP. XXVII. 



sting you all day, and when they go in toward dusk, another 

 kind comes out and bites you all night.&quot; 



The desertion of the city for five months by so many of the 

 richer residents, causes the hotels, and the prices of almost every 

 article in shops, to be very dear during the remainder of the year. 

 &quot; Goods selling at northern prices&quot; is a common form of adver 

 tisement, showing how high is the usual cost of all things in this 

 city. The Irish servants in the hotel assure us that they can 

 not save, in spite of their high wages, for, whatever money they 

 put by soon goes to pay the doctor s bill, during attacks of chill 

 and fever. 



Hearing that a Guide-book of New Orleans had been publish 

 ed, we wished to purchase a copy, although it was of somewhat 

 ancient date for a city of rapid growth. The bookseller said that 

 we must wait till he received some more copies from New York, 

 for it appears that the printing even of books of local interest is 

 done by presses 2000 miles distant. Their law reports are not 

 printed here, and there is only one newspaper in the First Mu 

 nicipality, which I was told as very characteristic of the French 

 race ; for, in the Second Municipality, although so much newer, 

 the Anglo-Americans have, during the last ten years, started ten 

 newspapers. 



We were very fortunate in finding our old friend, Mr. Richard 

 Henry Wilde, residing in the same hotel, for he had lately estab 

 lished himself iri New Orleans, and was practicing in the courts 

 of civil law with success. The Roman law, originally introduced 

 into the courts here by the first settlers, was afterward modified 

 by the French, and assimilated to the Code Napoleon, and finally, 

 by modern innovations, brought more and more into accordance 

 with the common law of England. Texas, in her new constitu 

 tion, and even some of the older states, those of New England 

 not excepted, have borrowed several improvements from the Ro 

 man law. Among these is the securing to married women rights 

 in property, real and personal, so as to protect them from the 

 debts of their husbands, and enable them to dispose of their own 

 property. 



Mr. Wilde took me to the Houses of the Legislature, where a 



