Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-03-17
NEWER NEW ORLEANS
Surprising Recent Changes in
the Crescent City.
FAST BECOMING MODERN
Wealth and Business Taking Place
of the Picturesque.
SEWER AND WATER SYSTEM
Vast Improvement to Convenience
and Health of Inhabitants.
Passing of the Cistern.
SEWER AND WATER SYSTEM


Special Correspondence of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald
BY WILLIAM +. CURTIS
NEW ORLEANS, March Is, 1909.
New Orleans is gradually becoming a
modern city. less picturesque and more
practical. with more wealth and business
and less romance and superstition. The
water has been turned on from the f1ltra-
ton works beside the bank of the Mis-
sissippi, and the cistern of ancient DAYS
has been condemned. Half the houses
and business blocks are now connected
with underground sewers: the swamps
that inclose the city are being drained,
and the mosquitoes which have been the
principal promoters of yellow fever cpl
denies are being eXterminated. New
pavements are being laid, and the old ones
are carefully kept in order the cutters
are no longer the dumping ground for
filth and garbage, and the only stagnant
water to be seen is on few of the back
streets. The old-fashioned buildings with
iron galleries, secluded gardens and ro-
mantle memories are being torn down and
replaced by skyscrapers The quaint, old
fashioned French restaurants, with sand
ed floors and coarse, homemade table
cloths. have vanished with one or two ex-
ceptions. and have given way to million
dollar modern hotels. The railway sta
tions are no longer inconvenient ruins,
but are neat and artistic structures. with
long train sheds. and the various trans
portatiOn lines are talking of a union
depot to cost several million dollars.
Gambling has been abolished by law.
and the police authorities insist that 1t
has been abolished in fact, speculation in
cotton futures has been stopped by the
legislature: betting is crime. horse rae
ing is obsolete, and what is most extraor-
binary, prohibition agitation has arisen
here which threatens to close all the
saloons and abolish all the wine cellars.
private and public. New Orleans and
Charleston have had the reputation of the
finest wines in the country and the most
accomplished connoisseurs, but wave OF
temperance reform has already swept
over a part of the state and seems likely
to overwhelm this city, where half the
population drink wine with their dinners
and their lunches. and are certain they
could not live without it,
To Abandon Old Cisterns.
Since the Spaniards settled in the cres--
cent of the great river the people have
had to depend upon rain water. which
has been carried from their roofs through
cave troughs into cisterns in the rear of
their houses. This is because the soil
upon which the city stands Is swampy
muck. composed chiefly of decaying veg
citation. A considerable portion of New
Orleans is below the level of the river
in some places much as four feet
and is protected from overflow by heavy
bikes or levees, as they call them. The
houses have no cellars. and the founda-
tons of the large buildings are laid on
piles Their dead are buried In brick
vaults above the surface of the ground.
There is an artesian basin 600 or 500 feet
beneath the surface which, can be tarped
by boring, and affords an abundant sup
ply of soft. sweet water OF the color OF
strong black tea, which makes it OBJ
jectionable. and at the the same time 1t
is expensive. Hence in the back yard of
every dwelling in New Orleans Is a cone
shaped structure ten or twelve feet high,
made of wood. lined with tin or sheet
lead, usually painted green, into which
the rainfall has been stored to furnish the
domestic supply of water.
For many conservative generations that
system has been satisfactory, but it is
munity. Therefore several years ago the
citizens of New Orleans, inspired by the
Women'S Club and an organization of en-
terprising and patriotic men known as
the progressive Union," undertook to
secure a modern water supply. The Mis-
sissippi river was tapped about seven
miles above the city limits. and suf-
ficient quantity of water is now passing
chemical treatment, and distributed
through Pipes to the business blocks and
residences as in other cities.
Separate Fire Mains.
supplemental system, without the
been provided for the use of the. fire
department. and was turned on a couple
of months ago. The pressure is very
<a -$r1
hose pipe to the top Of an ordinary
building. The saving in insurance pre-
miums will pay interest on more than
the investment. There is a committee
here now from the National Board of
Fire Underwriters revising the rates.
AS the water pipes can be laid
throughout the city the ancient cisterns
will be abolished as a public nuisance
and danger to health. The new do
nestle water supply was turned on only
March l in the residence portion Of the
town. 1t is still novelty, and welcome
one in most families, but it is perfectly
natural that the old-fashioned people pre-
fer the soft water which falls in frequent
showers from the clouds in this climate,
and they regard the new-fangled n.y.
drart as an evil rather than an ad-
vantage. But the board of health has
pronounced the doom of the cistern be-
cause 1t is the home and the breeding
place of the yellow fever mosquito and
spreading the plague. Thousands Of lives
have been sacrificed in this city to the
cistern system, and it will always be a
terrible menace to the public health.
The latest epidemic of yellow fever &C.
Cured in 1905, and nobody has yet been
able to determine definitely where it came
from. Some of the authorities believe 1t
was brought from Tampico: others think
1t came from Central America or Panama
and 1t is quite probable it might have
been brought from Cuba by some wretched
creature who escaped the vigilance of
the sanitary inspectors and crawled into
some hole to die.
Breeding Place of Pests.
But, whoever brought the infection,
there is no doubt that the mosquitoes
distributed it over the city. and that those
tiny assassns were born and bred in the
cisterns. The mosquito theory was set
tied by the late epidemic and is not the
DRY any more. Archbishop Chappelle of
the Roman Catholic Church died from
mosquito bite. AS soon as the mosuui-
toes were exterminated the epidemic was
over.
And they were exterminated by cover
ing the water in the cisterns with crude
nptrolpun1 which only hills ha in,