Morning journal and courier., 1881-05-17
Price Four Cents.
CORRESPONDENCE
New OrieanS-A Retrospective View Pleasure ResortE-The River Streets The Cemeteries-RaiirOad Enterprtses Real Estate and Business-Houston,

Real Estate and Business-Houston.
 HOUSTON, Texas, May To- | To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER
 Now that the Mississippi has been crossed
 and we are in Algiers, having been trans
 ported by the Morgan ferry, we can look
 about and pity the entirely blind woman who
 looks as if all she had could be purchased for
 dollar. We can from ocular observation
 make up our minds what kind of emigrants | are to people Texas, as representatives are
 not few. An elegantly dressed lady offers to l see the blind woman provided for as far as 1 she goes, which she did faithfully for seven. | ty miles. We take retrospective view of
 the past three weeks in New Orleans. and comparing what we have seen with the many previous visits. not at all regretting that we have sold entirely out of business in the city; that the old firm of I. A. Lum and Henry Hooker & Co.,, after having been associated | for over thirty years, hereafter have 10 inter- l est there. We can look over what we have seen and what there is attractive in New Or
 leans. what are the prospects for the future. I Weeks of negotiating have given time to see l all the places of resort-Mt. End Spanish l Fort and the old resort at the Lake Poncl sr
 train, all of which would be of great attrac- tion to any city in the Union. All are visited 1 by thousands during the warm days and
 especially evenings. Sundays they are I thronged These places, eight miles '
 from the center of the city at 15 cents the
 round trip Dummy engines running through Canal and Bayou street draw in the after ! noon SIX passenger cars at time. They are 1 as easily governed a mule Street cars are l passing there all the time up and down, the l mules being within three to five feet of the 1 engines Also from the business part of Canal street mule cars ply in every direction 1 to all parts of the city. There are delightful rides in the cars in New Orleans The route l to Carrollton is one of nearly six miles, The street, is like Canal, Rampant, Claiborne, Fs- planade and many others) in width nearly two hundred feet; is lined with palatial resi- dences and elegant gardens, filled with all varieties of flowers; as also are many of the lateral streets, and those that are not quite as wlde-Magazine, Camp and others. The river streets have also their points of inter
 est scores of steamers loading and unload ing, the largest foreign vessels slowing away cotton, the multitudes of black laborers do- Ing their work and never so tired but they will make fun among themselves the thou sands Of French residences fifteen feet wide,
 one story high, with closed blinds and doors
 but at twilight the stoops are alive with the
 occupants.
 The twenty or more cemeteries are not the
 least in interest to the visitor. The new
 ones are in admirable order and so are some
 of the old ones. The original ones, those in
 Claiborne street, occupying three blocks, and
 one two blocks below, are surrounded by
 brick walls eight to ten feet in height, each
 wall having tiers of vaults above ground
 opening in the yard like an oven door, roof ed over with brick arches and fag-stone tops not few are with the tops of. Now and then piece of the wall is ten feet lower than the rest and monuments rise high above all. What would you think of being told that the bodies deposited in these vaults begin to decay immediately, that in few lor ~Tlsl twelve months the law allows the opening to be renewed for another body, if one of the same family happens to die? What do you do with the body deposited a year ago?'' I've push it back: it has all decayed." "Oh, the vault would hold fifty, if so many of one family should require it. :" 'Look in there. You can see nothing. That vault is forty There is the one containing the remains of Judge Hill. He imprisoned General Jackson for declaring martial law in New Orleans" ''Oh, he has no friends to care for him. He IS about level with the ground" Such and more were the answers received from our guide. The parties owning vaults are gener- ally very strict in keeping them in order and ornamented with flowers and other emblems of affection. Only those whose friends are gone too are left to neglect. I should think the city would at least order the outside and top walks repaired I have read some un-
 
 the old cemeteries I don't see why rapid decay to dust is not perhaps as well as any way. It is to the dead but not quite so in teresting thought to the survivors. Gre nation after all may be preferable to either. Another peculiarity of the city is the galler- ies over the sidewalks, and to me it is not bad idea They are one, and sometimes three stories high, the width of the walks; the lower story generally being high to ad,> init light into the stores. The city to-day is ', perfectly healthy, but warm. The heat somehow does not enervate as the same de- gree does with you ''We Creoles," says a lady, ''do not or did not suppose could have the fever till 1878, but now we don't know. We fear scarlet fever more."
 New Orleans has the railroad fever just now. New roads have been opened via the Morgan, New Orleans & Houston road, over which we shall start in a few minutes for 36O mile ride. passing rich sugar plantations oy the miles, the fourishing tow!s of Morgan City, Berwick. Franklin, New Iberia, and Vermillionville where the Morgan com oany have built an attractive station for eat ng, and give satisfactory breakfast or sup per. You arrive in Houston at Q. m. after eaving Algiers at 12 the previous day. The lepots in the southern States generally are not attractive, especially in New Orleans, where agitation has commenced for a union lepot Another road is in progress of finish ng, which think was commenced by c. $. Bushnell, Esq, and Doctor White, running rom New Orleans to Shreveport, which if he originators could have carried through would have done much towards immortaliz- ng their names. Still another is now agita- ed to Meridian and is talked of as crossing lake Ponchartrain on piles which will re- Iuire a twenty mile ride over the lake.
 Real estate is sold weekly in the great room lnder the St. Charles Hotel. How long, I wonder, will such sales be continued at prices ,,rl,S oh, <I,a ,fo1, ,,xri1l ent. New Orleans is looking up, and it will ook up. The road just completed, which think has been done by the influence of he Townsend bank receivers, mostly.-from be Mississippi to Little Rock, has been 'pened with great enthusiasm large dele ,ation from Little Rock have been enter aimed the present week by the citizens of New Orleans in preparation for opening or enewlng trade with each other Such en- erprise cannot fail of early results. Four or i've million bales of cotton handled in New Orleans market certain to leave four or i've times as many dollars in somebody's lands No one can imagine, unless they lave seen it, the immense importance of such n extended business. The railroads or teamers get first their freights; the carman lis carriage; the negroes their handling the empress companies their 75 cents for each ale compressed, tof which process you are ware each moment by the peculiar pressing f steam bale passes under the pressure). The sugar trade is also immense, but is at his present season dormant.
 Some grumbling is heard from business nen that the city should be quarantined 7hen as yet there has been no appearance of ever. They contend that it works against usiness interests. I talked with few men cclimated and some ''Creoles,' ,'' one of whom old me that during the epidemic of 1878 the fast horses and the drinking men made he usual visits to the lake, passing funerals n the way, as the route is through Canal treet for three miles, without the least con- ern as drunk as ever" I thought how &C., ustomed one might become to any and verything
 Having finished my reflections it is an- ounced that we are within one hour of Hous- on, Texas. By this new Morgan route of 60 miles we have been safely and expedi- iously transported in a manner preferable to he former mode across the gulf by steamers. Ve find in Houston business for two days, nd in the meantime walk and ride to see 7hat improvements have taken place. ,uilding has greatly augmented within two ears past. Many are the new houses, which ave the appearance of New England, in orthern styles of architecture. Passing by