The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-04-04
''MY DOWN SOUTH IN DIXIE. .
Tie Old French Market, jackson
Square, the Cemeteries, Lake
ponchartrain and Other In.
teresting and Curious
Features Of the
Crescent City.

New Orleans is a city of contrasts
Walk up Canal street a bright after.
noon, past splendid stores, past statues
and fountains, past troops Of hand
some and fashionably dressed women,
and you could imagine yourself in
Washington on "The Avenue" Turn
to your right and walk down Chartres
street three minutes, past narrow, tor.
tuous, cobble paved croes streets, past
old plastered houses with iron-guard.
ed windows, past dark passage ways
leading to inner courts that you just
catch glimpse of,past sIouching dark
skinned, men and women babbling in
a strange tongue, and you have to
pinch yourself to be sure you are not
dreaming of the City of Mexico. A
wonderful city, this, which brings the
antipodes aud sets them down facing
one another, with only the width of a
street between. South Of Canal street
is America and the Nineteenth GEN.
tury,-great business blocks, like
Chicago, splendid hotels, electric street
railways, asphalt pavements, palatial
residences. North of Canal street is
France and the Eighteenth century,
massive, gloomy business houses, mar.
row, cobble-paved streets, dark door.
ways from which issue more odors than
Cologne could boast of, queer old resi-.
dences with their succeed walls and
their high.peaked gables, and their
barricaded doors and windows. One
could tramp about such city long
time and not weary Of its sights and
sounds:
All American cities are pretty much
alike, go We did not put in much time
on the south side of Canal street. An
electric car ride up st. Charles street
the natives call it st. Chawles, with
the accent on the Chdw-showed US all
we wanted to zee. There was the City
Hail, with its columned portico. mod
eled, with vaulting ambition, after the
Temple of Minerva and therefore re.
ferred to by the admiring citizens as
noble and imposing structure. There
was the Lee monument, figure of the
commander perched on the top of q
column hundred feet high in what
has always seemed to me to be most
ridiculous manner. There were miles
Of beautiful residences, nearly all of
them frame and gaudily PARTED, yet
of tasteful modern architecture and fit.
ting admirablytheir tropical surround
ings. And finally there was the Elk.
position Park, used now as the State
Sugar Experimental Farm.
~.
But the time saved on the south side
was well expended on the north. just
to walk along the narrow little streets
was entertainment enough. Such
queer little shops, and such queer
things for sale and such queer people
selling them. On the other side of
town We had seen Smith aud johnson
and Richards on the signs. Here we
saw Sotero, Sahnque, Relievre, Bussiere
and Scaglione. But the center of it
all is reached when we get into the
old French market. Not attractive in
appearance, certainly, this broad, low.
massive weather stained building, for
it is unspeakably dirty, and can prob.
ably furnish greater variety of vile
smells on a moments notice than any
other place on earth. But fortifv your
self against the filth and the odors,
and have eyes and ears only for the
flood of humanity that flows in and
out of these alcoves, and you will not
lack for entertainment. Creoles, near
lv all of these people, with the olive
skin and the luminous black eyes, and
the soft voice that Cable has taught US
toknow 90 we'll. Most of them are old
women, but here and there are fresh
young girls. all with big baskets on
their arms and all chattering like
magpies, joking one another, haggling
good naturally with the shop keeper
over the price of his wares. Few of
them seem in any hurry to get away,
and the big baskets are slow filling.
By nine o'clock, though, the place is
not go noisy or go crowded as it was,
and by eleven o'clock it is silent and
deserted. The Creole has departed,
the stalls are closed, the babble of
voices has ceased and the French mar
ket, SO gay and fascinating few
hours ago, is now dreary and monoto-
nous enough. But you go away, con-
graduating yourself that you
have seen the most picturesque,
the most unique feature of New
Orleans. q picture that no other city
IN the Union can show.
~.
A few block from the French mark
is Jackson Square ,ornamented % with
another one of those impossible eques-
TRAN statues, wherein every canon Of
good taste and good art is violated for
the sake Of showing that by a judicious
weighing of the tail q bronze borse
may be kept standing forever on his
hind legs. There are three of these
statues, one in Washington, one in
Nashville and one in New Orleans. 1t
has now been my bad fortune to have
seen all Of them, and I am truly