Dined in the evening with M. Aristide Miltenberger, where I
met His Excellency Mr. Moore, the Governor of Louisiana, his military
secretary, and a small party.
It is a strange country, indeed; one of the evils which afflicts
the Louisianians, they say, is the preponderance and influence of South
Carolinian Jews, and Jews generally, such as Moise, Mordecai, Josephs, and
Judah Benjamin, and others. The subtlety and keenness of the Caucasian
intellect give men a high place among a people who admire ability and
dexterity, and are at the same time reckless of means and averse to labor. The
Governor is supposed to be somewhat under the influence of the Hebrews, but he
is a man quite competent to think and to act for himself, — a plain, sincere
ruler of a Slave State, and an upholder of the patriarchal institute. After
dinner we accompanied Madam Milten-berger (who affords in her own person a very
complete refutation of the dogma that American women furnish no examples of the
charms which surround their English sisters in the transit from the prime of
life towards middle age), in a drive along the shell road to the lake and
canal; the most remarkable object being a long wall lined with a glorious
growth of orange-trees: clouds of mosquitoes effectually interfered with an
enjoyment of the drive.
SOURCE: William Howard Russell, My Diary North and
South, p. 242
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