Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1905-03-17
CE[EBRANON|N THE SOUTH
EnOs n. KimmeI Writes a Newsy
Letter From New Orleans
to the Record.
CITY HAS DISASTROUS FIRE
The Msrdi Gras Festivities Are Now
On and City is Decorated With
Flags and Bunting.
New ORLEANS, MARCH ,, 1906

NEW ORLEANS, MARCH ,, 1900.
EDITOR OF ALMA RECORD:
If you will allow me space will write
short letter On the 26th of February
New Orleans was visited by the most
disastrous fire it ever had. The loss
was over five million dollars with four
million insurance.
The fire started at the Illinois Central
railroad docks, four miles up the river
| from Canal street, and burned "A half
! mile of docks, 800 freight cars, the great
grain elevators containing five hundred
thousand bushels of wheat and corn and
| five thousand bales of cotton, beside rice,
| sugar and molasses that will amount to
a half million dollars. The fire burned
| four blocks back from the river, and a
length of half mile, the burned district
covering seventy acres. All this terri
| tory was covered by store houses. The
docks Were lined with vessels when the
| fire started and two that were not
steamed up suffered heavy loss. One
large Italian ship had all her masts and
| life boats burned off and her steel plat
| ings warped. A tug came TO her rescue
and took her away under sheath of
were burned-this was at the south
western limits of the city where they
are all wooden buildings The wind
famed the flames toward the river which
is all that saved this city from a fatal a
fire as that of Chicago or Baltimore.
Owing TO the narrow streets the intense
heat ignited buildings thirty feet away
contrary TO the wind.
Canal ctraat now rpcpmh hlQS "a grand
stand at a race track. The city is lined
with bunting and flags and the streets
are jammed with mass of humanity.
Mardi Gras is on now but the principle
day is Shrove Tuesday, March Z. Mardi
Gras is Catholic festivity of French
origin and comes on the last Tuesday
before Lent. "Mardi" is meat "Gras"
| is fat, so we say fat meat, or pork.
After this the Catholics eat no pork for a
certain length of time. The front of the
Royal Hotel has twenty-nine arched
double doors with transoms and eighty
windows ATTENDED Catholic services i'll
| the old Cathedral but was sadly disap-
pointed because the priest preached i'll
French and the beautiful singing was i'll
French, so / didn't get much out Of the
services.
The Cruiser Brooklyn is now anchored
| in the river. This is her first trip up
the Mississippi. She is an ugly looking
dog, but was Admiral Schley's flag ship
during the Spanish American war. In
lS49 this city secured an appropria-
| ton of three million dollars for custom
house. In those days the South con-
trolled the United States and could get
any amount they asked for. But for
| forty years past the tables have changed,
and they feel il as did the North when
| they had the Fugitive Slave Law passed
in 1854, compelling the North to be
servants for slave holders in catching
| their slaves. Now the North gets the
cream and the South the skinned milk.
The contract for building this custom
house was let TO General Buregard, the
man who fired the first canon in the
Civil War. The building covers a whole
square and is three stories high, built
of well dressed grey granite blocks, some
three feet square, and sixteen feet long.
On the second floor is a marble hall that
runs to the::roof which is fiowered glass.
| There are fourteen corrugated marble
pillars twenty-four feet long and four
feet in diameter. All floors are marble
and the lower floor is the postoffic5 and
vaults.
| They claim six million bales of cotton
have been marketed here this season.
| To day mercury is 5S.
ENOS III. KIMMEL.