ON TOUR FOR THE CAUSE
a total of $540 for the co-operative movement and other "League
purposes." He was honor guest at a great "fraternal banquet and
ball," and he engaged in a public debate with a "Mr. X" on the
subject of land reform. He found working conditions and wages
better than in the North and East, and the cost of living lower.
At his boardinghouse, known as "Wolf's Tavern," he paid two
dollars a week for a good bed, and the board included meat three
times a day and fowl three times a week. Geese were selling in
Kentucky for twenty-five to forty cents apiece. The prevailing
minimum wage for workers was a dollar a day except for tailors,
who, according to Weitling, had fallen almost "wholly under the
slavery of Jews." He was surprised to find that the people toler
ated the wild speculation in land and city lots. The weather turned
out to be the most disagreeable feature of Louisville. In two days
it changed "from Siberia to Italy," and on that account Weitling
was forced to remain longer than he had anticipated and to aban
don his plans for a journey to Texas.
By the first of January, 1852, he was on his way from Louis
ville to New Orleans, another port town that managed to hold a
large number of the German immigrants who landed there. The
journey required sixteen days by boat, and on the way down, the
traveler witnessed one of the many steamboat explosions and fires
so common on the Mississippi at that time. The indifferent attitude
of the river men toward the loss of a few Irish and "damned
Dutch" made him furious, and he charged that the captain and
most of the crew belonged to "God's chosen people."
In New Orleans, Weitling stayed at the home of a carpenter
named Heer. A workers' movement already was in existence in
the city, a result of the organizing activity of W. Grosser, a Ger
man shoemaker who later became an agent for Weitling's Arbeiterbund. In 1850, Grosser had founded a "shoemaker's associa
tion" to establish a bank of exchange in New Orleans. Tailors
and carpenters had supported the venture, and together the three
groups had managed to raise a capital stock of more than $1,100.
From the proceeds of a ball, the members had acquired a hall for
barré
(Barré)
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