| From the Algerine Newsboy (New Orleans,
La.) |
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| December 14, 1861 |
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| One Street Needed in Algeriers |
| An officer of the Opelousas
Railroad Company {New Orleans, Opelousas & Great
Western RR} in commanding position, told us the other day that
never before was so much freight brought upon its track to the river
bank, or sent from the city to be carried westward, and that it is with
difficulty that they meet the demand, which causes unwonted labor and
cost to fall on the company. |
| We "improved the occasion" to
ask why it was that a railroad undertook to do the business of a ferry,
and suggested that this was a good time to abandon an amphibious life.
The reply was prompt and a silencing one. So long as there is no paved
street in Algiers on which the heavy goods carried on the road can be
cheaply and safely sent to the ferries, the company cannot entertain the
subject of abandoning its transportation of them over the river. |
| There is little doubt but that
when an avenue is prepared for it, all the business of transportation
upon the river will be left to private competition, and such as choose
to do so can leave their goods in warehouses on the right bank: There
will be many such when goods are brought for sale and are unsold.
Persons having such will wish to put the cost of drayage and ferriage
upon the purchaser, while such as are destined to go up the river in
quantities will be taken by steamboats direct from the warehouses here.
Goods, also, destined for Texas and the Attakapas, will frequently be
brought over and stored on this side to await the further movements of
their owners, who may be detained on business, or for other reasons
desire them to remain on storage. |
| We can see no good reason why
our leading people are so supine and indifferent to the improvement of
our streets; even poor ones are not readily to be discerned. For twenty
years this place has been looked upon as fit in all respects for great
enterprises, and some have been attempted within its precincts, which
have either failed or had a sickly existence. Even ship building seems
now in danger of being carried to other places, "worse by nature but
better by practice," than Algiers. Why is this? Is it possible that our
property holders and influential men are waiting for some genii to come
from fairy land and build up warehouses and stores and pave their
streets for them? Or do they expect some one to buy them all out at
stupendous prices and to do the work for them? If so, they have wasted
twenty years of their lives in vain expectations, and will waste more in
the same way unless they determine to change their course and act
liberally, zealously and practically in improving their own property. |
| Hard as the times are they
will make money by putting a substantial pavement between the depot and
the foot of Villere street. |
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