The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-09-28

were arranging and tying up little punches
of flowers, horses and carts were backing
and starting, drivers were showering pro-
miscuous benedictions, and baskets were
everywhere. So were flies.
This is the city Of eternal sun, steady.
penetrating heat and quick burial after
death. 4 body is kept in the house no
longer than % hours. Notices of death
are posted on telegraph poles. If the de
ceased he French or of French extraction,
a flying tricOlor and band playing mar
tial airs form part OF the escort which sees
them 10 their last resting place. To use
an Irishism, they are buried above the
ground This is because of the fact that
New Orleans is built upon a swamp. Tho
burying places are huge stone buildings,
where the bodies are laid into sort of
shelf, which is afterward walled up. On
looking at one of the shelves was remind
ed of Poe's weird tale 1.-The Cask of
Amontillado, wherein Montresor re-
venges himself upon his enemy by walling
him up alive.
To my mind Canal street at night pre-
sents one of the most beautiful city sights
in the world 1t is very wide and is lit up
by electric lights, which blaze from the
tops of high columns. These columns
stand in the center of the street and ex-
tend along for miles. The effect of the
lights piercing in a straight line through
the distance is a fine one.
On Royal street are the great gambling
houses. They are fitted up after taste
full and luxurious fashion and are open
day and night, workday and holiday.
Wheels whir, balls roll and cards shuttle
on forever. The voice of the croupier as
he rakes in or pays out is as never ending
and monotonous as the murmur of the sea.
There is at least one thing that may be
said in favor of these gambling hells. They
are truly democratic institutions. All
may enter, it matters not how shabby
the attire, how disreputaDle and low down
the appearance. If man has no money
to get himself place TO sleep at night,
be may go in and sit down. He is well
come to share the light and warmth. The
tramp may jostle elbows with the rich,
well groomed blood, and there is no one
either to censure or to eject. He need not
be ashamed because of his meanness of
dress, for no one notices or criticises-
The police here look small and insignif-
cant when one begins TO compare them
with the well fed, intellectual looking
giants who are at once the rulers and orna-
ments of Broadway, in New York. The
day before yesterday l saw one of them ar
rest man for playing craps upon the
sidewalk. A few hours afterward / went
up to this prop of civilization as he was
marching grandly along his beat and
asked him in a civil awed sort Of way
why people were arrested for gambling
when gambling was the most cherished in
stitution of the state. The digniffed cop
per slid down from the starry realm of his
dignity and stad long enough on the solid
earth to inform me CURLY that if people
wished to gamble they should go to the
places that the state had licensed for that
purpose Then he resumed his noble stride
and moved onward.
On the levee at night the negro roust-
abouts collect together and sing part songs.
Some of them have fine voices, and the
harmonic effects produced are often very
peculiar and beautiful. They are happy
go lucky lot of fellows, who work like dogs
during the day-for roustabOuting on a
Mississippi freightboat is the hardest work
Northumberland forget about it at night
| over their songs. On their faces is the
| Jolly, contented expression belonging to a
| race untouched by the scar of intrOspec-
! ton. A long time will elapse before their
! head will be bothered by economic prob
| lens. So let the capitalist rejoice.
| 1t is odd to think of Uncle Sam having
! citizens that cannot speak English, but it
! is fact nevertheless There are people
| born and bred in Louisiana who are as
| ignorant of the language current in the
| United States as in all probability were
| BicnviIle, Carondelet and the other ad-
| YCnturerS who sailed over from France In
| the days of Louis NV.
l. 7
! place about 60 miles from New Orleans.
| Before the war twas called the Versailles
of Louisiana. Around about it is the
| country that LongfelIow immortalizd III
his poem, 'Evangeline," which 1 read
while reclining luXuriously in hammock,
smoking cigarettes. l was charmed with
the poem, but discovered that Longfellow
had that ethereal disregard for sober, solid
fact peculiar TO the sober, poetic soul.
Readers of ''Evangeline" may remember
this line:
''On the banks of the Teche lie the
towns of st. Maur and st. Martin"
Now, rs a matter of fact, there is no
such town as St Maur anywhere in or
near the vicinity, never was such town
and in all likelihood never will be. SO
the oldest inhabitant around-a man with
lengthy, white Observation-Disclosures me.
st Maur" is a dream-an airy, fairy
thing. Longfellow worked it in to round
out the rhyme. / noticed some other
poetic licenses but Just now / forget
what they We're. Poets will be poets.
The Acad.ans-or Cajons, - as they are
now called-are n set of people principal
/ ly given TO the bringing into the world of
/ large families. Their language is the
French of POO wears ago Corrupted and
twisted ont of all likeness TO the French of
+ today. They are small and underfed look
/ ing. Their faces are of pale yellow color,
/ because the swampiands in which they
+ live are full of malaria.
None of them can read or write, and
/ they are looked down upon by every one.
/ Even the long heeled chicken stealing
negro thinks that he is pegs and pegs
above dem white trash Fishing, hunt
/ ing. the raising of little corn and the
/ paying of no rent are the methods by
/ which they live. Their intelligence is of
/ too low a Caliber To allow of their working
/ themselves TO death for other people, as 90
/ their brainy white brethren who enjoy
F life in great cities.
! In New O-ieanS the fremen. after the
( putting out of a fire In the nighttime. 90
along the streets singing II struck me ;.s
being an odd and picturesque custom.
/ But l must close, for the dinner bell is
ringing in the little French restaurant
where | am stopping. Outside i the gar
/ den, where there are beautiful orange
trr.s. New Orleans is a gay city. An
revoirl BART KENNEDY.
fine Paris Flat ,Ianitor