Arkansas True Democrat [Little Rock], September 19
They have a free market at New Orleans–free for the families of those who have volunteered in the war. Contrast it with the miserable soup houses of the North, where the starving wives and children of their soldiers draw an allowance of thin soup made of dead horses and a modicum of stale bread.
“The Free Market–The free market was opened yesterday, and 1160 families of volunteers derived from it their provisions for the three following days. The managers had not an easy task; for they had to distribute in the course of the morning 30 barrels of meal, 10 of rice, 10 of sugar, 1 of peas, 9 of beef, 3 of beans, and 5 of molasses; 30 hams, 21 sacks of sweet potatoes, 10 barrels of onions, 5 of dried apples and peaches, and 5 of flour baked into bread, besides a great variety of vegetables.”–N. O. Picayune.
There may be a great deal of wickedness in the Crescent city, but such things as these go far to redeem it. We doubt much if any city, in either confederacy can show greater or nobler charities. Their hospitals, free markets, asylums and relief associations are all on a large scale, denoting a big hearted, generous people.