Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-12-24
A QUAINT OLD CITY.
AN Interesting Description of New
Orleans.

An Interesting Description of New
Orleans.
Charles Dudley Warner in January Rnrper's.
The first time L saw New Orleans was
On Sunday morning in the month of
March. We alighted from the train at
the foot of Esplanade street and walked
along through the French Market, and by
jackson square to the Hotel Royal. The
morning, after rain, was charming; there
was a fresh breeze from the river; the
foliage was tender green; in the
balconies and on the moulder-
ing window lodges flowers bloomed,
and In the decaying courts climbing
roses mingled their perfume with the
orange: the shops were opened; ladies
trIpped along from early mass or to early
market; there was twittering In the
square and in the sweet old gardens;
Gagged birds sang and screamed the songs
Of South America and the tropics; the
language heard on all sides was French,
or the degraded jargOn which the easy
going African has manufactured out of
the tongue Of Bienvile.
NOTHING COULD BE MORE SHABBY
than the streets, ill-paved, with undu-
[ating sidewalks, and open cutters green
with slime, aud both stealing and giving
hdor: little canals in which the cat be-
came the companion of the crawfish, and
Ehe vegetable ia decay sought In vain
current to oblivion; the streets with rows
Df one-story houses, wooden. with green
doors and batten window shutters, or
bricE, with the painted stuoco peelihg on,
the line broken often by an edi-
ice of two stories, with galleries
of
houses pink and yellow and brown ana
gray-colors all blending and harmonious
when we get long vista Of them. and
lose the details of view In the broad
artistic effect; nothing could be shab6ier
than the streets, unless 1t 10 the tumble
down picturesque old market, bright with
bowers and vegetables and many-hued
fish, and enlivened by the genial African,
who in the New World expert
ments In all oolors, from coal
black to the pale pink OF the sea-sheH,
10 find one that suits his mobile nature.
liked it all from the first; l fingered
long in that morning walk, liking 1t more
and more, in spite of its shabbiness, but
utterly unable to say then or ever since
wherein its charm lies. suppose we are
all wrongly made up and have fallen
nature; else why is it that while the most
thrifty and neat and orderly city only
wins our approval, and perhaps graunes
as intellectually, such thrlftless, bat
tered and stained, and lazy old place as
The French quarter of New Orleans takes
our hearts?
LARGER THAN PEKIN.
Although New Orleans has only about
D quarter Of million of inhabitants,
and so many only in the winter, 1t is
larger than Pekin, and i believe than
Philadelphia, having an area OF about
a05 square miles. From Carrollton TO
the barracks, which are not far from the
Battlefield, the distance by the river Is
some thirteen miles. From the river TO
the lake the least distance is four miles.
This vast territory is traversed by lines
Of horse cars, which all meet In Canal
street, the most important business
thorougbfare of the city, which runs
northeast from the river, and
divides the French from the Ameri-
can quarter. One taking horse car in
any part of the city will ultimately land,
having boxed the compass, in Canal
street. But 1t needs person OF vast local
erudition to tell in what part OF the city,
or in what section of the home OF the frog
and crawfish, he will land If he takes a
horse car in Canal street. The river being
higher than the city, there Is OF course no
drainage into 1t; but there is theory that
Tue WhJcT III Luo upon Ru1sSio uVOS hiV'S'
and that it moves in the direction OF the
Bayou st. John, and of the cypress swsmps
that drain into Lake P0ntchartrain. Tue
stranger who is accustomed to closed sew
brs, and TO get his malaria and typhoid
through pipes conducted into his house
by the most app owed methods OF plumb
ing, Is aghast at this spectacle OF slime
and filth In the streets, and wonders why
the city is not IN perennial epidemici out
the sun and the wind are great scaven-
gers, and the city is not nearly so IN
healthy as 1t ought TO be with such city
government as they say it endures.
ALTHOUGH ALL ON ONE LEVEL,
1t IL q town of contrasts. In no other city
Of tne United States or OF Mexico Is the
bid and romantic preserved in such integ-
riBy and brought into such sharp contrast
10 the modern. There are many hand
some public buildings, churobes, cluD
houses, elegant shops, and on the Amerl-
can side great area of well paved streets
Deiidly built up In business blocks. The
square of the original city, included be-
tween the river and canal, Rampant ana
Eaplxnade streets, which was once
surrswnded by a wall, Is as CLOSELY
kuj!t, but the streets are mar
row, the houses generally are smaller,
ard although it swarms with people, and
contains the Cathedral, the old spanish
buildings, jackson square, the French
market, the French opera house ana
other theatres. The mint, the custom
house, the old Ursuline Convent now the
residence OF the Archbishop( ola banks,
and scores OF houses Of historic celebrity,
IL is a city OF the past, and specially ln-
tsresting in it's picturesque decay. Be-
yord this. eastward and northward ex-
tand interminable streets OF small houses,
with now and than a noWery court or