Morning journal and courier., 1885-03-04
IN The SOUTH,

From Atlanta to the Crescent City
, Long and Crowded Trafns-In New
Orleans Very Dirty City-mard
Gras-Three Great Proeessions-A
NEW ORLEANS, Feb "a.
10 the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
Dis am what calls a sof' snap fo' de DO,
tah! DE trains is all SO crowded that W.
even sells our own hunks, an makes many 8
little tip by means O. special favors. Wese
got six sleepahs on, an dey'se all SO crowded
dat people is a settin' round on de odd pieces
O. furniture. An it's gwine to be wuss to-
morrow an Sunday an Monday
1 embarked in the fifteen hour limited
| s.. A.,., :" over the Atlanta and
Wsss Point and Louisville spa ''Sn'iiie
railroad SYSTEM, Bound fol the Crescent 6ttty
In starting four days aneaa 6f the Mardi
| Gras festival, had thought to escape IN
some measure the rush of tourist travel New
Orleansward I found from four to eight
special trains day passing over the line, all
crowded to such degrees that it was neess-
sary to lock passengers out at certain sta
tons Of course, despite all the efforts
made to secure the comfort Of passengers, it
was sorry work travelling undec such cfreum-
stances. Not a few ladies stood up all night
on the train. No smoking could be pro-
vided owing to the length of the trains sim
ply in ordinary coaches and palace cars. The
water kept giving out IN the tanks and the
slippery nature of thS raetafs made it hard
for the locomotive, SO heavily burdened; to
get on its feet after having once stopped.
It is marvel to my mind that some ap
palling railway aceident has not already oc-
Cured on the railroads Leading into New Or
leans. The crowds are handled with ease,
and were at the time when from fifteen
to twenty thousand Mardi Gras excursionists
were being landed daily in the city; but the
burden Of traffic THUS suddenly thrust upon
these one-troGk southern railroads has been
extraordinarily heavy for tftEn1; and when so
many extras were being run, and all the reg
ular trains were from three to six hours late,
the time schedules were complicated indeed.
Leaving anxious, disappointed throngs at
Montgomery and Mobile, our train began toi
follow the contour of the Mexican gulf in
let's as it rushed Hestward toward the Creole
city For hours there was ein15 q succession
of solemn pine groves garlanded with the
funereal Spanish moss, illimitable swamps,
fringed here and there with leaves of the
glofiors wster-lly and the stately golden 10
tus and melancholy Gang brakes. Now the
train stopped in one of the ISgSosns IN order
to side-track for north-bound train; and
the passengers alighted to cut stalks of the
cane fifteen or twenty feet long. Large
quantities Of wild duck, snipe, eurlew and
white crane stafked OF waddled lazily along
on either side: tinfrightefed by railway pa
geantry. At the Pascagodlasj Biloxi, Pass
Christian and Bay, st. Louis views of the
rich ultra aalrine Mexican seas were afforded
on the left, Wife Che train, g1ided over i'm
Io1, &1a.t G. yyfJ
''Noo Aw1eansl" at length shouted the
dusky brakeman and I disembarked at the
foot of Canal street, the Broadway OF the
Crescent city. As passed up the crowded
thoroughfars my first all dominating impres
sion was, "Whau ditap7dsted old town I've
sequently intensified 1 got back from the
chief highway and prowled around amidst
the decaying vegetable and animal matter
that Uttered the side streets. Surely even
those who try to romance over this Creole
city, ana Who nIetamorphose clumsy un-
painted piles into picturesque antiquities,
must acknowledge that it is purchasing the
picturesque at pretty dear price if you have
to take along with it streams of liquid death
that coarse down the sidewalks and empty
into pools covered with green scum that
picturesquely stngnate in the cutters and
streets piled high with rubbish of every de-
scription. In my foreign travels I have
VI NeN~
would make such an unfa7ofabls Sanitary
showing as New Orleans. In this country
know of no Sity whatever that can rival the \
Louisianian metropolis in general untidiness.
The contrast is especially great to one coming
hither from Atlanta, the Athens of the !
South, where is found, the highest realization |
of cleanliness and imposing modern aroal- !
lecture. Such a traveller has no eyes at first
but for the huge piles of debris scattered I
along the streets The only public seayen- |
gers are apparently the dogs and fowls, and |
goats and pigs. and COWS and ducks, and
geese, which wander everywhere uneareo
for The goats afo the most reliable of these |
as they will eat Up oyster cans,
cast-off boots and shoes and miscellaneous
garments. But ever as industrious and con-
scientious as the goats in this regard, |
they cannot take care of all the rubbish, es- |
pecially odd pieces of stove-pipe and the |
larger articles of hodseirold furniture as fast |
as they accumulate It has Way of raining |
often here just now, which further inconven-
fences them, as they have to stop SO often |
and run for the shelter of some friendly /
doorstep or bulletin board.
Dogs, although not as common as those in |
the streets of Gonstantinople, Cairo, Smyrna, |
jerusalem; Beyfoiit aild other Levantine cit |
les, are still a numerous fraternity. Unlike |
many southern people, they have been /
prompt to recognize and properly appreciate |
northern philanthropy They accumulate in |
the vicinity of our mission schools and CRATE |
fully accept any bones which may lind their |
way into the tgalleys.'; In some places the |
owners of dogs tie club to one of the ami |
mails hind legs; and thus sleepless nights |
often fall to the lot of our teachers, for the |
dog is sure to gravitate toward the college |
premises during the night, get caught in the |
barbed wire fencing OF the bushes, and then |
pour forth his distress in plaintive, long-con- |
tinued wai1ings.
But nearly everything is dilapidated in |
New Orleans. The one-horse, conductorless |
street cars need paint sadly; the suburban |
dummy lines need everything but patronage; |
the city needs waterworks, sewers and pave
ments; some of the main streets are as wide |
as French boulevards, but they all need the |
muck rake, the ''orderly" boy and the rub |
bish cart. |
After these impressions regarding things
permanently belonging to the city was next |
most interested in the immediate prepara- |
tions for Mardi Gras. On the porch roofs in |
front of the buildings all along Canal, Camp,
st. Charles and the other principal streets |
constituting the professional routes, amphi- |
theatrical tiers of seats were being erected |
for the benefit of spectators. In order to |
render the verandas equal to the extra bur
den to be thus imposed upon them, numer
ous supports were being adjusted in place
underneath. Every inch of space along the |
edges of the sidewalks and in the recesses of |
store fronts was utilized by booths or stands |
for divers catch-penny enterprises. Dime
museums, shooting galleries and side shows |
ad ibitum occupied the spare store room on
either side of Canal street. Importunate |
peddlers hawked exposition souvenirs on the |
streets at every corner.
The Mardi Gras preparations increased in
quiet way till Monday, when the first fes-
tivities came off. Bankrupt New Orleans a.
ways finds plenty of money for the celebra-
ton of this favorite anniversary; and tn .
being Exposition year, the city effected the
celebration scale of magnifcence hith-
erto unprecedented. On Monday morning
that legendary nonentity, "Rex," who has
been supposed to preside over New Orleans
earnivals since 1879, made his formal entry
into the city. Of course Rex is always some
wealthy citizen of New Orleans, who yearns |
for the notoriety of the street parade to such
an extent that he is willing to chip in cool
one thousand dollars or SO toward the carni-
val expenses for the sake of posing before
the world as the anonymous 'sking' of Mardi
Gras. There differences of opinion to
the tax levied upon his majesty, but the pre-
vsiling idea is that not less than one thou
sand dollars is expected from the king OF
course, also, the. entry of Rex is nominal, for
all know that he is somebody living in the
city and nobody asks where he is presumed |