1835 L'ANE RARE FRENCH LANGUAGE PERIODICAL NEW ORLEANS AMERICANA POLITICAL NOLA

Description

"In the United States, for the past few months, certain towns have presented very lively pictures. In New York, partial brawls, popular uprisings; in Philadelphia, cries and threats...in Vicksburg, assassinations by armed force: what to think of so many calamities!!! In the midst of all these upheavals, our city always maintains itself peaceful and calm. However, there are some areas of discontent which we will not mention, that seem to threaten the union of the upper quarter and that of the center."
[AMERICANA] [SATIRICAL POLITICAL REVIEW]
L'ANE,
THURSDAY, July 16, 1835, NUMBER 3.
Nouvelle-Orléans:
MAITRE ALIBORON,
[Printing House of G. F. Duclere, No. 53 Ste. Anne, between Royale and Condé],
1835
.
"WEEKLY, NON-POLITICAL AND ILLITERATE SHEET."
Single leaf, [2] pages; newsprint, measuring 16 1/2" x 10 1/4", featuring wood engraved illustration of the publication's namesake and quote by Boileau. Exhibits toning, edgewear, with slight loss of text at extremities, several pinholes, creasing. Recent expert conservation: paper deacidified, couple small archival repairs. Zero institutional copies currently noted.
One of the earliest French language periodical published in New Orleans, the short-lived L'Ane (The Donkey), listed as a weekly by Edward Laroque Tinker, who in his prologue to his
Bibliography
of French Newspapers and Periodicals of Louisiana
, remarks that French language newspapers and magazines "sprang up in Louisiana like mushrooms and died like flies" during the 19th century, but that for years, they were "the only cultural influence to reach a large part of the state's population isolated by its ignorance of English."  Rare opinionated editorial of political events of the day, in which the author calls out the fake news of the period. "Newspapers, instead of aggravating these petty hatreds, should instead try to calm them; this is what many of our colleagues do not do. If they were acting like true journalists, we would not need to remind them here of the sacred duty of a writer. Whoever wants to guide public opinion, must want harmony, peace, and the union of the masses...The editor of a newspaper, an advanced sentinel, must undoubtedly raise the alarm when the country is in danger; but by the very fact that he can strongly stir the passions, he must be aware of exaggeration and still more of error; he must speak to the people with dignity, calm and conviction." He goes on to blast criminality in the city "with a tip that I give to police chiefs or commissioners. I urge them to visit Rue Girod and to make these scandals, the turpitudes which are committed there publicly known. I know it as a place that has been abandoned to debauchery, but it seems to me that being so close to the railroad, one should not suffer from this filth. In one of the houses adjoining this path, the walls are lined with obnoxious graffiti, and women lost by vice and drink utter the foulest and most disgusting words. For the modesty of the ladies who might find themselves in the carriages, for the sake of morality, in my opinion, we should move away from these places of prostitution and shame of civilization." Includes several other articles, including one regarding the Murrell Excitement, when a mob from Vicksburg attempted to expel the criminal element from the city, capturing and hanging five gamblers who had shot and killed a local doctor.