The Democratic advocate., 1883-09-01
Queer, QUAINT New Orleans.
II. Quad in Detroit Free Press.

A correspondent who remarks that New
Orleans is queer city is telling his readers
nothing new 1t is queer, but why no one
can exactly make out 1t is a great
metropolis, and yet it lacks the wickedness
of third-rate city. 1t is cosmopolitan and
vet all elements are harmonious and each
class bears with the idioms and legends and
customs of the other without complaint
1t has the best street car service and the
poorest pavements. 1t has the poorest
hotels and the best restaurants. 1t has the
incest suburban resorts and the dirtiest
back streets 1t is an American city in
which the American can step aside to find
himself in Italy or France. 1t has the
poorest groceries and the best markets.
1t has fair health and the poorest drainage
on earth. Instead of being ON the Missis-
sippi the city is below it. The dives of
New York and Chicago are all down
stairs, Those of New Orleans are all up
stairs These are not all the queer things
about the queer city. 1t is metropolis
without dark side. Its wickedness has
no brutality, its poverty no misery, and its
charity is an overhowing heart.
Broadway is grand thoroughfare be-
cause there are no parallel streets to ac-
commodate part of the traffic passing up
and down New York. Canal street, New
Orleans, is grand street because laid ou4
as wide again as Broadway, kept in far
better shape, and accommodating three
times the tide of traffic and yet without
crowding or confusion. The center of the
street is raised above the side, and down
along this earthen platform, as it were, run
all the street car tracks. There may be a
long line or two in the city which does not
send its cars up and down Canal, but every
important line centres here. At one point
on Canal one can strike the cars of all
lines the same as at the postofice in New
York. He can do more He can take
the steam cars on the narrow guage road
for two of the prettiest suburban resorts
in the world The street would not fit
any other city. Such thoroughfare in
Chicago or Cincinnati, or Brooklyn would
make stranger wonder whether he was
among Moors or Americans, but Canal
street is New Orleans and New Orleans is
Canal street. They are part and parcel of
each other.
Speak of New Orleans and one calls up
the legend: "Louisiana State Lottery
NJ. A. Dauphin." New Orleans and the
lottery business are joined in wedlock
Buying and selling tickets are part of the
daily business. Tobacco stores are opened
and maintained, apparently, less for the
solo off fohooan opl ,iCr +ho,, L.
of lottery tickets. They hang on strings
in, the windows, are scattered on the show
cases and pinned on the walls, and people
walk in and purchase as openly as a
Detroiter buys groceries
One of the handsomest buildings in
America is the new cotton exchange.
The ceiling of the assembly room is dec
grated with paintings and frescoing costing
in the aggregate over $4,000, and the
finish of the entire building is at once rich
and substantial
In years gone by much annoyance was
caused by claims for damages on cotton
shipped from New Orleans. The shipper
was docked on weight or damaged condi-
ton, and the foreign buyer demanded a
rebate for this or that reason. At the
present time the system of receiving and
shipping is perfection. The exchange
keeps a record wherein is shown the con-
dition of the cotton when it reached the
city, where stored, how protected, by what
vessel shipped, and the state of the
weather, day and night. The highest
damage to any lot is recorded, and can be
traced right back.
The military company which recently
made such triumphal tour of the north
ern cities has public attraction in its
armory. The men have gathered together
many interesting relics of war, including
battle flags, documents and photographs,
and one can fill in a long hour without
exhausting the museum. During the war,
and while large number of Confederate
officers were confined at Johnson's island
a ''reb'' Whitfield out wooden musket, got
possession of a blue overcoat, and one night
when the guard came along he fell in and
marched along with the squad, intending
to make a break when chance offered
The opportunity did not come, and when
the corporal found he had one man too
many his suspicious were aroused and the
trick discovered. The bogus musket used
upon that occasion is one of the relies to
be found in the museum.
The pleasure resorts known as West
End and Spanish Fort are situated six or
seven miles from the heart of the city on
the shore of Lake Ponchartrain. They
are about three miles apart and both reach
ed by the same narrow-guage railroad. OF
the two, West End is the more beautiful
place, and is the aristocratic resort. There
is good bathing, good restaurants, splendid
grounds and rational entertainments The
grounds at West End are level, laid out
with smooth walks, beautiful hedges,
sparkling fountains, costly statuary and
rustic designs, both novel and pleasing.
In front of the main hotel is a platform
on which several thousand people can be
comfortably seated in chairs placed at
small tables. While they enjoy the breeze
and sip their beer, coffee or wine, first
class band discourses excellent music, and,
upon extra occasions, an excellent theatri-
cal performance is given without cost
One can go from the city to the lake and
return in comfortable cars, enjoying the
cool breezes, music and drama for the
trifing sum of fifteen cents The same
thing at the north would be placed at fifty
cents, and patrons would find themselves
bled at every turn.
While portion of the citizens of New
Orleans come north or flee to the gulf
places during the hottest weeks,
the great majority remain at home and
patronize home institution which cannot
be equaled for beauty Of surrounding nor
matched for the good order and low prices
always maintained.
IF you want to accomplish anything as
it should be done, you must go about it
IL l.. IL Il IL