New Orleans Republican

A communication, signed "Ladies of New Orleans," appeared in the Picayune yesterday evening, acknowledging obligations to the New Orleans Republican for a brief description of the dresses to be worn in Washington by Mrs. President Hayes, and concluding with the sentence:

"But as we ladies of New Orleans would rather wear a plain calico, honestly come by, than a silk or velvet obtained through fraud, the dress and fashion of Mrs. Hayes are matters of no interest to us."

This, coming from the "ladies of New Orleans," and appearing in a paper so well qualified to speak for them, must be considered now as exceedingly ill-timed. By the position to which her husband has been elevated, Mrs. Hayes is "the foremost lady in the land." She is of the best of wives and mothers, 'comely, accomplished and wealthy. To speak in a womanly way, it is not nice" that she should be met at the door of the White House with the feelings expressed in the Picayune letter, and it is particularly unfortunate that while good Bishop Wilmer is fresh from a pilgrimage to the home of Governor Hayes, making prayers and tears on behalf of his White League Absaloms; that while Cardinal Burke is in Washington representing and pleading for some of the oldest and best citizens of Louisiana: and that while Mr. Nicholls is at Odd Fellows' Hall, recognizing President Hayes, and recommending "the cultivation of good feeling and a spirit of harmony among all classes," it is a particularly infelicitous circumstance that such a communication as that referred to should appear in a journal of the kindly and charitable Crescent City.