USA > Louisiana > Orleans Parish > New Orleans > Creole families of New Orleans > Part 7
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"16th June .- . Your son will imbibe such principles from you that it gives me pleasure to think that he will have a sensitive heart. That would be the handsomest present that his good Maman and his excellent Marraine could make him. Never miss an occasion
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of rewarding him for any trait he shows of sensibility, kindness and benevolence. At his age we receive the impressions that remain engraved in us. Accustom him early to know the price of the true pleasures of doing good. If during the Winter he meets some poor little boy of his own age, ill clad, encourage him to ask you for enough to buy him a little coat. Let him give it himself, let him believe that the little creature he has clothed would have died of cold. Let him take some poor little boy under his protection and try to find a pleasure in being good to him. Let him see from time to time the picture of suffering; make him know that he might some day be in the same condition. What delicious joy, mon amie, if I could see my son sacrifice his playthings for actions of charity and humanity! Such impressions are, in my belief, easy to make upon children, particularly when they are, like your son, of a good disposition. What is neglected in education is the heart, which is just where we ought to begin it.
"16th June .- . Inspire him above all with the strongest hatred of lying and deceit, being very careful yourself to be always truthful with him. I have often seen people deceive little children to spare them some little disappointment-conduct as detestable as it is dangerous. More children have been ruined in this way than in any other. Never make a promise to your son that you do not mean to keep; never bind a promise with assurances and never let him do so, or he will not look upon a simple promise, a simple yes or no, as a certainty. Tell him not to talk "nigger" (Creole), but to learn Spanish.
" . . This is your feast day, mon amie, the day that usually dawned for me more beautiful than any other seems very sad to-day and it seems to me emptier than any other. My little love must have given you his good wishes, his Marraine would not have let him forget that little duty. May Heaven, mon amie, reunite us soon! That is the most ardent prayer inspired by the wish that I cherish with my life to see you happy; I could not be so myself unless it be granted. Good night. . .
" Chalmette arrived two days ago with his family; all of them very well. He is the one of all my relations to whom I am the most attached and I am delighted to have a little time with him before his departure. His family is very interesting. His daughters have grown a great deal; Victoire is very pretty and gay; she has natural wit and great sprightliness, and she has developed
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much since you last saw her. The elder is serious; speaks little, but to the point. Nothing to be said as to her figure but all praise her character. The youngest will be the prettiest of all; the mother, who worships them and with reason, congratulates herself upon getting back from the Post so that she can give them what teachers we have here for music and drawing.
"Chalmette tells me that his little fortune amounts to forty thousand dollars. He would like to get a little establishment outside the city so as to live more economically. I suggested to him two pieces of land next to d'Aunoy that Martin, the tailor, wishes to resell: one hundred and twenty feet front by two hundred and twenty depth. I could get them for him for eight hundred dollars on a long term. He went to see the property and charged me to close the sale, congratulating himself, with cause, on his luck. One hour afterwards he writes me that Marigny, whom he had told of his acquisition, did not think it an advantageous one, and that above all he drew his attention to the danger he would run in case of a siege and he begged me, therefore, not to close the bargain.
"Poor Chalmette: He has the greatest confidence in Marigny. It needed only one word from him to turn him against the acquisition of the piece of property and make him renounce it at once. Very well! But would you believe it? He did it to unload upon Chalmette his own plantation below the city! I do not believe he will succeed in this. I do not believe that Chalmette will decide to put so much capital in such a piece of property, two leagues below the city. It would absorb his entire fortune before he had provided himself with negroes, animals, and implements, etc., etc., which he would need. On the property I proposed to him he would find all these things, with all the resources besides for his table: garden, dairy, etc., and he would be in easier reach to get his daugh- ters established as they would be where they could cultivate society. His wood would cost him nothing and, like others, particularly Mademoiselle Macarty, he could get a return from his dairy, and even his garden could add to his daily revenue. I made him sec all these advantages, which he appreciates as much as I do, and he renounces them! I am sure he will repent, but then it will be too late. I am so sorry that I have decided to buy the property If Chalmette repents I will cede it to him. . myself. I was invited to another bathing party to-day at Madame Macarty's. She gives these parties very often. Madame
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la Baronne, her daughter, and Rivière are at the head of them. Madame Andry and her sister are always among them, and Pey- tavain never misses one. The ladies go at eleven o'clock in the morning and pass two hours in the water, going under head and all. I make the great heat my excuse and always get out of the parties, and as it is not long since I have had the fever I have not the appearance of ill-will. The truth is, I am absolutely out of place in such parties; they bore me as much as I bore others in them. Always absorbed in sad reflections, the amusements of others sadden instead of enlivening me. If you were here with our son, if your absence did not render me insensible to everything else, perhaps I could amuse myself. . . . I forget myself, mon amie, in talking to you. It is very late; a terrible storm is raging outside. I paid no attention to it until a violent clap of thunder awoke me from the dreaming that I would have given myself up to for still another hour. Good night.
. I cannot see this fifth month pass away with calm, mon amie. It is about time that I was hearing something from you and my son; I fear as much as I long for a vessel from Bordeaux. The most distressing thoughts pursue me incessantly. My God! . . Perhaps at the end of this uncertainty I am to hear of the greatest, the most terrible of misfortunes that could be! With what ardor would I make the sacrifice of my life if I am not destined to pass it with you and with my son.
. This morning at four o'clock I went below to Marigny's to settle my account with him; I passed an hour there and we talked of Chalmette and his fortune. He told me it would be better for Chalmette to have a plantation than the small property next to d'Aunoy, and he gave me all the details of his affairs, which he took charge of during the six years of Chalmette's absence.
All this confirms me in my decision not to leave my business to him, as I once had the intention of doing; although we had agreed formerly that he should take charge of it. I shall not speak to him any more about it, and I shall try to find someone who will not mix my affairs with his, for such a business always turns against the one for whom it is made. Very surely had I been in the place of Marigny I should have invested Chalmette's funds in such a manner that, on his return, he might have been sure of getting them back when they fell due in case he wanted to turn them into something else ..
"Two days before the arrival of the courier, Madame Andry
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told me at the Government House that she would give up her lôge, if any one wished to buy her share of stock. As the letter of your aunt announced to me that it might happen that you might soon return, I took her share, because her lôge is the best in the opera. She asked me two hundred and thirty dollars for it. Madame Almonaster proposes to me now to change the box with her; if so, she will return to me sixty dollars. I ask her one hundred in order to pass the box and my share on to Chalmette for one hundred and thirty-two dollars, and so make a gain of one hundred dollars to him at the expense of Louison (Madame Almonaster). I will arrange that with Chalmette.
"8th July .- Captain Robin (just arrived from Philadelphia) has brought back the son of Marigny and of Madame Dreux. They are returning, having made only a short trial of the educational facilities there. . .
17th July .- There was another large bathing party to-day at Madame Macarty's-the closing one, for it will be the last. The water has gone down so low that the ladies must have bathed in the mud. It was more impossible than ever for me to go, though the ladies have such a scarcity of men that they press me to accom- pany them. . To-day they were reduced to Peytavin, their faithful, unshakable cavalier, Andry and the Chevalier (the master of the house), (Chevalier Macarty). These three champions had to hold their own against the ladies of the Government: Rivière, Maxent, Gauthier and Andry. Your aunt (Madame Macarty) renews these parties every week, but she will have to give another motive to them now, for the canal to the mill does not offer water for bathing any longer.
I am giving a contract for the houses I still have to build on the Grandpré lot. The workman pledges himself to finish them by the first of January. They are to be two little houses (34 feet by 28 feet each), with one little story and a kitchen. The two will come, I think, to eight thousand dollars. I have a contractor for the carpentering; and another for the masonry. I furnish all the materials. You see, I am getting everything ready so as not to retard my joining you and your aunt.
"21st July .- Marigny brought his son to see me this morning. I blamed him for recalling him so soon (from school), but it seems that at the North one receives a very poor education. He has brought back the vices of the country and the rough manners of
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the Americans. He holds himself excessively bent over, he chews (tobacco) continually, swears at everything, and looks bored by everything he sees as well as by everything he hears. He speaks English rather well and has learned it in a very short time, which proves that he does not lack intelligence and that he would have learned anything else had it been taught him. His father complains of his indifference. On his arrival he came up to his father very slowly and told him good day as if he had not been absent, and this after having embraced Bernard! Oh, mon amie, I should feel indeed that I was to be pitied if my dear little Tintin should ever become as indifferent to me! But no! He has your delicacy of feeling and will never give us cause for that fear. .
"23d July .- . . . Here I am with something more to do, all on account of taking that share of stock from Landry! I never thought of the bother it would give me. The management (of the theatre) is going very badly and now it is being robbed; the stock- holders govern, but none of those charged to supervise is doing his duty. If things go on this way we will be forced to give up the theatre. As soon as they saw that I was a stockholder, they all turned to me to straighten out their finances. There was a meeting of stockholders to-day in which I represented fourteen persons, some of them owning two shares of stock, who had asked me to act for them: Mmes. Maxent, Montaigut, Guillemard, Almonaster, Bouligny; Messrs. Marigny, Ramos, Lachaise, Fouvargeues, etc., with the result that all who were present at the meeting unani- mously made me manager. Although I was representing fourteen I got out of it and named Pedescaux in my place, but they all united to beg me to supervise the management. I could not refuse; but I am going to be the bête noir of the actors, for I saw myself forced at once to lay down some rules against which they at once protested. I shall neglect nothing to get out of cette galère.
. I passed by Madame de la Ronde's this morning on my way from my work; she was so insistent that I had to stay to breakfast with her. Madame Cespédez saw a ring on my finger. She said, 'What! A ring! And it seems to be a pretty one too. Let's see it. I declare I shall write to my cousin about it. What, made of hair!' And without ceremony she took it from my finger and put it on her bosom: 'In truth it seems to be made for me. How pretty it is. How new! What admirable work! Two hearts pierced; two doves tied by a ribbon that tightens as they separate,
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with the device that the further they go from one another the tighter it is drawn. How pretty the idea! How admirable! Oh, my cousin, I can never give it back to you. Do not expect it. It would be impossible.' You can imagine how miserable I was. 'But why should you prize it so? If it were from Madame Miro or your wife-well, of course! But surely my cousin could not have had the time to have had it made in Bordeaux! Besides, she would never think of it! Take care: if you care so much for it I shall write to my cousin!' And on the instant she flew away, to reappear without the ring. I said nothing, taking it all for play; but she had put it into her head very seriously to keep it and it went so far as to provoke me out of my good temper to get it back from her. She declares I am very unpleasant to refuse her a trifle that gave her pleasure.
"8th September .- . . . We went this evening to the reception of the famous Knight of Charles III! (Don cin dres almonaster.) That poor man is never satisfied. As soon as he gets one thing he strives for another! Now his mind is full of the title of Brigadier and he can talk of nothing else. Madame don Andres is pouting at me still, and for some time has been distant to me; although I went to the reception of her husband she showed no wish to be reconciled with me. I would not have believed that she could have kept up her spite against me so long for a little piece of society pleasantry in which I had no part.
"Some time ago she was playing cards at the Government House when I was there. Madame Rivière, who loves to amuse her- self with childish pranks, had tied a long hair to a coin with a hole pierced in it which she drew away slowly whenever Madame Almonaster tried to take it. This she repeated over and over again without our cousin seeing the joke and who was constantly trying to get hold of her picayune. Madame Rivière was choking with laughter as she whispered to me! Louison thought that we were making sport of her; she murmured, frowning, that if that sort of thing continued she would render tit for tat. Madame Rivière grew frightened, and I whispered to her that she was exposing herself to a scene. Then she stopped; but the other one remained con- vinced that she had been made the subject of a joke, and that I had started it, so she has never looked at me since except with eyes of indignation.
"The reception of her husband followed the usual custom. He was enveloped in the great mantle of the Order and his train was
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carried by three lackeys in red. An immense crowd followed him as he went in state from the Cathedral to his dwelling. He placed himself, in his mantle, at the door of his drawing-room, where he affectionately kissed on both cheeks all who approached to greet him, to the number of more than three hundred. About eight o'clock in the evening he sent up from the Place a balloon, accom- panied by a small display of fireworks at the end of a collation consisting entirely of sweetmeats, they played cards until ten o'clock. Folch, who stayed through all of it, told me all this, for I did not go up to greet the new Chevalier. He has not yet finished the balcony on the house of my aunt, there is still only one end of it laid, and as long as I have any business with him, I wish to see him only at a distance.
"18th September .- The deluge of rain continues; it has been so for three or four days without ceasing. I have never seen such a continuous rain here, above all in the middle of September. No matter how disagreeable the weather is, it pleases every one; all over the city people are terrorized by the fear of an epidemic- the women above all; they even went so far as to wear garlic on their bodies and carry hartshorn; everywhere tar is being burned. The doctors and priests concealed the number of deaths; now that there seems nothing more to fear, we learn that there were at least fifteen or seventeen deaths a day; but this did not last long. .
Mme. Le Blanc died this morning; her son, Terence, is dangerously ill. M. de Turpin will not last through the day. He is the grandson of the Maréchal de Lowendal and Chevalier of Malta; he is thirty years of age, and had a fine constitution. He is a connection of Baron de Carondelet. M. Lafargue, whom you must have met in Bordeaux, is also very low. Many English- men and Americans are dying. In burying a Protestant lately, five corpses were found in the back of the Protestant corner of the cemetery, apparently covered only with branches and leaves. They had not taken the time to bury them. Such negligence is enough to give us the plague. The greatest precautions are now being taken to put order into such things, and to discover the authors of the affair and to punish them.
"I repeat, mon amie, do not alarm yourself about me. I am well and am taking good care of myself. I go very seldom into the city, and I shall take care not to put this letter into the post until the epidemic is over.
"22d September .- More bad news! Turpin died yesterday after-
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noon, and his doctors ordered him to be buried at once. One hardly took the time to put him in a coffin. No one could be found to carry him. The whole city is in alarm. Many have gone away to the country. Every one you meet is asking news about some sick person. A Captain of the Mexican Regiment is very ill, and Madame Gauthier, wife of the Major, is in danger. In spite of it all, I think the panic very mal à propos. I remember that after the fire of 1788 there was a greater mortality than now.
"I am not satisfied with the condition of Polidore; his crisis of fever now is the worst he has had, and his illness is taking an alarm- ing character. Zerbin, going yesterday to see a workman of Mon- treuil who died to-day, was suffocated with the bad odor of his patient, and an instant after he was taken with the same fever. He is, they say, in the greatest danger. Madame Rivière and Mademoiselle Phelipa are frightened to death. Madame Macarty, who never comes into the city, has invited them to come over to her on the other bank of the river. The Baronne consents, but she does not wish to leave the Baron alone, and they are all begging him to go with them. He is firmly resolved not to do so. He thinks if he goes away it will increase the panic, which is only too general. It would only need for him to go out of the city for everyone to rush to the country.
"24th September .- The sickness does not cease, mon amie. Every- body is frightened, particularly the strangers. Besides the seven or eight who have died in the hospital, we counted up yesterday nine or ten more, so that to-day more than eighty left for the country. Those who have no friends there have gone to Barataria and to the other side of the lake. They will, of course, carry the sickness with them. We are all agreed that it is the Yellow Fever that rages nearly every year in Philadelphia, and that the Americans brought it in.
"25th September .- As for Annette, she is sold for the same price that you paid for her-nine hundred dollars. . . . If I cannot bring her to you I shall myself learn how to make Gombos and Calas, so as to be able to show some of your servants in Spain how to make them. I have already laid in a nice supply of excellent orange flower (water or syrup) for my good aunt, and I shall leave an order to send some every year to Barcelona.
". . . Every thing you tell me about my son, mon amie, gives me sweet satisfaction. Tell him that I have answered his little
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letter and have sent him some toys and pralines. Be at ease about my voyage. I have too much at stake not to take all the precau- tions you desire. I feel that I exist more for you than for myself; that I owe myself to you, to our son and to our aunt . . . I do not know what our political situation will be at the time of my departure, fixed for February. We may then be at war with the English and even with the Americans. M. le Baron is always expect- ing some rupture. On the other hand, rumors of the cession of the province to France are being confirmed. All here believe it. The Baron is the only one who is sure there is nothing in it and he must have some particular reason for his belief. At any rate, the situation we are in is very critical and my fate very uncertain. Good night, ma bonne amie, take care of yourself and of our good aunt and may I at least be able to provide for you both comfortably before we have here the scene of a revolution!
"30th September .-. .. The North wind is still continuing, although not so strong as it was. It has absolutely destroyed all contagion; we have no more epidemic. We are assured that all those who went to the country were not attacked and that very few of those who were acclimated died. It was the same with the sol- diers; the mortality was greatest with the newcomers, particularly among the English.
"2d October .- At last, mon amie, here is the month of October! Already a year since we sold our plantation! A year since you were to leave to join our good aunt! I have every reason to think that in four months I shall be on my way to you. The bad season is now over; I shall profit by every minute to finish my business. I think that by the end of October, there will no longer be any question of the sickness. A few who were attacked are still dying. Made- moiselle E., the one who wanted to marry de Coigne, has just died; and Miller, the artist, who lived at the Marigny's. Mademoiselle de la Chaise is, they say, beyond hope; the sacrament was adminis- tered to her last night. This morning I went to see Madame Dreux. She was in bed, and although I had not been to see her for a month she received me in a very friendly way. I like her very much; she is not sensitive and I think she is a good friend. . . . As I am certain she will finish by getting married again, I believe for her own sake it would be better for her to marry de Coigne than any one else. He is a man, refined and honest, and I am sure gratitude for her kindness will make him exert himself to the utmost to render her
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happy. She receives him with distinction and he goes there often. Yesterday he spent four hours there and I have no doubt that on her recovery the affair will be carried through at once.
"3d October .- I am putting the finishing touches to my houses on the corner near the Government House (Toulouse Street and the levee), and the two will be finished and ready to sell at the end of the week. I am sure I shall be able to sell them before my departure if they are finished.
"We have not seen anything of the Baron for five or six days. His family is with Madame Rivière, on the other side of the river, with Madame Macarty. I crossed over yesterday morning with la Baronne, who had come over to hear mass. She told me that the doctors did not understand anything about the Baron's pains in his jaws and ears and that he had decided to take the tisane of Dr. Ramos. Without doubt, it is not to interrupt the treatment that the ladies have decided to remain on the other side of the river. The Baronne complains continually of trouble with her breathing and heaviness in her head: Madame de Rivière, of general pains all over. She is totally changed; not only has she lost her color but she is distressingly thin. She is terribly afraid of dying and is getting ready to leave for Bordeaux, even at the risk of being a suspect.
"5th October .-. . . Marigny thinks that because I am going away I should let him have my slaves for nothing . . . For a long while he has been asking me for Baptiste; but at last, as he talked no more about it, I sold him to Sigu and then he reproached me. Sigu, seeing that I did not leave, asked me either to give him Baptiste at once or to break the trade. Thinking of Marigny I broke the trade; then Marigny offered me four hundred dollars, although I had broken a trade on his account by which I could have sold for five hundred. A few days ago Fortier offered me five hundred if I would deliver the slave at once, and I asked twenty-four hours to think about it. I did this on account of Bernard (de Marigny), who had begged me fifteen days ago to keep Baptiste for him. I asked Marigny in the evening if he had decided to take Baptiste; again he asked me the price. 'Five hundred.' 'Oh! that is too dear! I am buying him for Bernard with his own money, and you must be considerate.' 'I am giving you the preference: five hundred dollars are waiting for me elsewhere.' 'Oh well! Give me two days to think about it.' 'Willingly.' I went to see him this morning. 'Well, what have you decided?' 'Oh, Bernard cannot
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