New Orleans daily crescent., 1866-11-10
GROWTH Of NEw ORLEANS.

d noticeable feature Of New Or cans is the
Of its shape It ha none Of the
of European citir s, and none Of
the general symmetry which claracterizes the
form even OF American C ties. 1t covers,
perhaps, twice as much g round as any other
city Of its population in this country, but in
occupying this area itt8 growth has been al
most abnormally IN aqual, Most cities ez-
pand in all direction IS, when locality permits
such extensions but New Orleans drags its
length, like wou1 AIDED and attenuated snake,
along the bank Of the great river from which
it derives its life. and nourishment It seems
as if the people were possessed of a sort of
hydrophihsm, and were afraid to get out of
sight of the waters of the Mississippi. So
they have built along the eriver until
mile after mIle of length has been added to
the original square, and city has tat last
grown up which, whilst It's not much more
than mile. wide, is at least FIVE miles long.
Of course aSime must come when eyolu-
ton solely at the eztremities will reach its
mailman. We cannot go on forever adding
| to the ends and making no additions to the
center. II the course of time physical rea-
sons viii. compel people to settle upon and
| improvethe vacant lands which lie SO invi-
| tingly open to the enterprise Of the capital
list in che rear of the city. If we continue to
go upiand down for the next ten years, as We
have for the last twenty years. it will take us
| almost days journey to get to the business
| pert,of thetown. Even street railroads would
atlast find it Improbable to extend them
| selves to distances SO extraordinary. It is,
therefore by no means surprising that we
already see signs Of a reaction. The causes
to which We have referred are beginning to
Y tell upon the development of New Orleans
Y There is an obvious tendency to expansion in
the central portions Of the city, and lots be-
/ yond Claiborne street are coming into market
for building purposes. As soon as, this
tendency has developed itself into an indis-
putable system Of growth, we shall see that
the city will extend towards the lake even
more rapidly than it has hitherto grown
Ita7ards Carrollton. Between the vanishing
Ipoint of improvement on the streets running
lakeward and the high ground Of the Metairie
Ridge, there is room for a much greater popu-
lation than that now contained within the
limits Of the city.
In few years much of this land will be
cleared Of the cypress forests, and the debris
Of stunps and knees which now cucumber it;
and it will be thoroughly drained and trans
formed into eligible building sites This pro-
cess Will be accelerated by the attractions Of
the City Park if that long neglected evidence
of municipal inertia be ever rescued from the
A disheveled condition ii which it now exists
and converted into that charming g9is III urbe
Of which it has SO long offered us the
fruitless promise. We are sure that no enter
| prise that could be undertaken by our city
government would be more popular than the
improving Of these grounds. 1t is true that
the city treasury is not replete with superfu-
GUS revenues; but something could be DONE
even in the present condition of our finances
to make the City Park at least resem-
blanee of the great pleasure ground which
a great city ought to possess. We do
not, of course, expect that Hyde Park,
or Prater, or a Bois de Boulogne is to
grow into being in month OF year,
or decade. Parks are not made in day
any more than cities. But when we consider
that in eight years from the time when its
surface was covered with refractory rocks and
tangled weeds and briers the Central Park of
New York has been made the pride and boast
Of that metropolis; and that it is really one Of
the most beautiful places Of the kind to be
found in the world, we feel ashamed that our
Park has been suffered TO remain for years
and years under the dominion of nature, while
not an effort has been used to beautify and
improve it.
We hope soon to hear that something is to
be done to repair this great oversight. AS We
have already remarked, the Park would vastly
increase the value Of property in the rear of
the city, and thus aid the process Of develop
ment in that direction, So likewise will the
new Asylum which is to be constructed out of
the Girod fund, and which we understand is
to be built on the Ridge 1t has been
proposed too, that the Parish Prison. and
the Workhouse and other similar insti-
tutions be removed to that locality.
All these facts indicate that the process of
urban evolution is taking new direction in
New Orleans, and we are not sorry for it.
The growth Of the city lakeward will open
large tract Of land 70 population which Will
become sadly pressed for room in the com
paratiyely marrow line of existing improve
ment along the river bank. Tt will thus afford
accommodation to the great population which
we hope will fowinto the city within the next
few years, and will reduce the average of
rents to- point that viii make New Orleans
desirable place Of residence; and, besides this,
twill impart to our city the compactness Of
figure and symmetry Of form in which it is
now so sadly lacking
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GImPsE BEHIND THE MAsK.-The North
Carolina Presbyterian says;
colored Baptist minister at Beaufort, South
Carolina, writes to the Christian Record Some
OF our white ministerial friends are more in the
way of procuring farms and keeping our poor race
IN ignorance than anything else. They pretend. I
when they are North, that they would come down
here and do anything for our race in the way of
them; but instead Of this, when they
see the cotton bag, they forget all about Christ
and Him crUcihed, and the saving of souls" Of |
certain Northern merchants he saws: H All thev |