New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-05-05
Communicated.
DRAIN A4 r.

| gard to the City Park question we hear the
notes of the old war cry indicating re-
vival of the long and bitter fight which has
| ragged among Us, with varying fortunes OF
either side, during the past fifty years sound
| ing family in the distance.
Both sides of this controversy have gained
occasional advantages, while New Orleans
has always lost and will continue to lose so
long as the contest lasts. Outside Of the
mysterious influences which always pro-
mote the growth of cities fixed upon the
banks Of rivers up stream, our defec-
tive drainage viii always give New
Orleans that tendency until more ex-
tended ana intelligent system is adopted
This tendency our down town property
owners have always resisted with a con-
stancy and energy worthy of less hopeless
cause, and yet they have displayed only a
misguided perseverance in their resistance,
destitute of that foresight and liberality
which would be likely to prove successful in
a trial Of strength against so formidable an
adversary.
We are no partisans against or for any
particular side OF this question, believing as
we DO. that growth in any direction increases
our strength and advantages for becoming
what we can not help being at some period
in the more or less distant future
one of the largest and most flour
fishing cities on this or any other
continent. If We could only be sufficiently
impressed with the grandeur of our future
destiny, we might adopt less narrow views
of the best means of Fastening its coming.
but as long as the little capita | we have is
contented with twelve per cent discount
upon mortgages on tumble down shanties,
surrounded with mud, there is little no pc
for US, and we remain prey to weak and
temporary schemes organized in the interest
of individuals for doing what is never DONE !
We are always fighting shadows instead of
graphing realities, and thus levy trf1ing
taxes for drainage purposes, dig few bitches |
on an almost level surface, and open our |
ignorant eyes because water won't trans
gresS natural laws and run up hill We |
propose the expenditure Of great sums OF |
money on city parks, to be located in the |
rear OF the city, surrounded by marshes, |
mud and slush, and. the other delightful &C
OF stagnant water and filth, |
anu Talk DIX SDOuL ClVcIiug the SeQlTdl fdfk
of New York.
Whenever old Boreas treats us to a stiff
breeze from the direction Of the lake, OR we
have sharp shower from overhead, the
whole OF the rear Of our city is one or two
feet under water, and our famous park is
surrounded by a lake composed of greatly /
mixed materials, in which filth and mud
reptiles predominant. We turn
over the remnants of the wasted drainage
,-.,1 70 hn 1cln |
which proposes, at some uncertain period in
he dim. distant future" to DO wonderful
.hings III the way of drainage, by digging a
itch fifty miles long, to reach the same
Joe level which we have already reached
n Lake Pontchartrain in a distance of five
niles. Prodigious and far reaching fore
sight, this! But tits onlv ''history repeat
ng ITSELF and, we suppose, will benefit the
private ends of somebody, however
Dur frequent and costly miscarriages,
which no place without our extraor.
iinary natural advantages could have
urvived teach us nothing. The old planta-
ion bitches of a century ago were fully up
o the highest standard of orr modern en-
,ineering. Holland, without any of the
improvements in machinery of which mod
IN times are so proud of boastiDg, taught
is half century or more ago how to drain !
reat inland seas, and plant smiling villages
q their very bottom, with green pastures
nd lowing herds where the monsters of ]
be deep once hoated in undisturbed do
Union; and yet we can not levee in lake
nd river, and drain a marsh foot deep.
-ble engineers recommend in vain the apph-
alton of modern power to throw our sur
lus water into the river and lake, and we i
ersist in improving parks in mud holes, {
nd digging bitches which have no outlet. Pc 1
odical epidemics, which are traceable di-
.ctly to faulty drainage, depopulate our city,
spiral and enterprise stand afrighted, and
ecline TO link their fortunes with people t
no have a climate and commercial adyan-
lges unsurpassed by any part of the known c
ORD, while we cling to our slush and talk il
bout ourgreat destiny content, and enjoy.
g our companionship with mud turtles il
I'd crawfsh. Viewed from a sanitary a
andpoint alone, and disconnected with all
her considerations, this subject Of drain 3