Stopping on one occasion in
front of what is Lafayette Square, at the time the bill was pending
for the division of the city into municipalities, he said: "Here must
be the City of New Orleans. You can pass the bill, now before the
Legislature; and if you will, I promise you I will make the Faubourg
St. Mary the City of New Orleans." Only a few months before his death,
we stood again upon the same spot, surrounded by magnificent
buildings--Odd-Fellows' Hall, the First Presbyterian Church, the great
City Hall, and grand and beautiful buildings of every character. "Do
you remember my promise made here?" he said. "Have I fulfilled it?
Many days of arduous labor and nights of anxious thought that promise
cost me. You did your part well, and when I thought it impossible.
Have I done mine?" I could but answer: "Well, and worthily!" I never
saw him after--but I shall never cease to remember him as a great,
true man.
James H. Caldwell was an Englishman, and by profession a comedian. It
was he who first brought a theatrical company to the West. He had
built the first theatres in Cincinnati, St.
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