The daily sentinel., 1909-03-05
MRS. SULLIVAN TELLS OF
SCENES ON WHARVES
Another Delightful and Instructive
Letter From n Well Known
Grand Junction Woman Now
in the South.
New orleans. March |

New Orleans, March l.
| have spent many hours at the
wharves watching the loading and
unloading of the large ships.
l saw a cargo of fifteen thousand
lunches of bananas being transfer
red by means of an endless carrier,
each carrier holding two punches of
bananas, which were thrown on in
the hold of the ship, brought up to
the wharf where they were quickly
taken off and thrown on long table,
by dozen men. the green punches
were taken to Ilnnois Central refrig-
orator cars, Cracks laid onto the
wharf not twenty-five feet from the
ship, and packed with straw and
heavy paper. other men took the
ripper punches for immediate sale,
and put them in pile by themselves
Bananas are very cheap selling for
fifteen large bananas for nickle
and twenty cents for a large bunch
by hucksters on the street.
/ had my kodak with me and as |
was preparing to take a snap, the
machinery stopped, then | took one
from another point; the machinery
stopped again. | glanced up and then
saw that it had been done in cour-
tesy to me by the foreman. He and
the men were smiling and several
i
more bananas than l could carry.
expressed my thanks and enjoyed
the bananas as l walked along for
while and then perched myself on
pile of lumber and watched the
loading of an English vessel.
They We're taking on cotton, great
timbers, fourteen and sixteen inches
| square and sixty feet long, logs,
slaves. and square bundles of scrap
| I lIrtt rfaI
| to go on board, everything was neat,
the decks had been freshly scrubbed
and secured.
New Orleans has fifteen miles of
wharfage and terminals on the oppo-
site side of the river at Gretna and
Aleiers.
| saw a large vessel discharging
cargo of $4,000 bags of coffee from
Brazil. A man had a short-handled
| instrument with which he was jab-
bing into each bag of coffee bringing
out a few grains of coffee at a time.
! He was inspecting il to see If it was
as billed. There were numbers of
little flags of different colors, and
com binations of colors stuck on the
top of coffee piled separately.
found out by asking, that each mer-
chants consignment was marked by
| his individual flag.
| ask many questions and am al
ways answered politely and informa-
tion given cheerfully for which | am
| grateful.
The big steamship Creole" was
unloading all kinds of freight from
New York Boxes of canned goods,
| soap, axle grease, great piles of bas-
| kets, more than | had ever seen at
one time, sewing machines, pianos
and a hundred other different things.
| The Creole belongs to the Southern
Pacific and is one of the largest
steamers running between New York
and New Orleans.
More than one visit to the market
is necessary to see 1t as il should be
seen Early morning is the time,
when the stock of fruit, vegetables
and fish is complete. The display of
crabs, Holsters, shrimp and fish was
wonderful. So many different kinds
of fish. pompans, Spanish mackerel,
trout, red fish, red snapper, and
many others the names of which |
have forgotten. | saw row of red
snappers hanging in a fish stall, a
dozen of uniform size each one
Weighing perhaps seven pounds. To
| matoes, new peas, beans, egg plant.
| radishes. lettuce. and all the summer
| vegetables we have were on sale and
at a very reasonable price. Great
! strings of garlic were sold at all
vegetable stalls. This is the place to
buy fruit,=bananas oranges, grape
fruit, tamarinds, lemons, and cocoa
nuts make very pretty sight.
The market is very near the river,
only the wharf and levee between. l
saw tons of oyster shells in front of
IAN oyster depot near the market and
| a dozen oyster shelters at work. One
of them offered me very large oys-
ter which he had just opened. l
accepted it with thanks and ate it. the
flavor was delicious, but it must have
been alive for | was informed later
that the oysters brought in fresh
every day are alive till they are
opened.
Think of eating something alive,
and the cruelty of it.
I | saw the oyster luggers bringing
in their loads of oysters and secured
a very good picture. They are
brought in from the bayous, Bayou
Cook oysters are advertised more
than any other. but they are all the
finest. most delicious and largest l
have ever seen, some of them as
large as my hand, and unusually fat
this year. My landlady who does her
marketing at the Pryades market,