The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1914-03-12
Memories of New Orleans.

i nave Deen very mucn interested Ill DoOA
recently added to the public library, Social
Life in Old New Orleans, by Eliza Ripley.
While the authors "reminiscences began in
1910 and did not visit New Orleans until fif-
teen years later there had been no change in
manners and customs, or in other respects.
during that time.
Mrs. Ripley was born in Lexington, Ken
tn ky in 1922 and three years later her father
moved his family to New Orleans, where he
practced law until his death in 1s47. She was
educated in a northern school, making the trip
from New Orleans to New York in a sailing
vessel. In 1862 she was married in Lexington,
Ky to Alexander Mediation and for ten years
thereafter lived on Arlington plantation on
the Mississippi river few miles below Baton
Rouge, leaving hastily in 1862 upon the appear
ances of Federal gunboats at their levee. Dur
ing the remainder of the war Mr.. and Mrs.
Mediation lived almost continually in army
ambulances conveying cotton from Louisiana
across Texas to Mexico. In February, 1865.
they went to Cuba, where Mr.. Mediation owned
and operated sugar plantation until his
death. Mrs. Mediation then returned to the
United States, and July 9. 1873, she was mar
ried to Dwight Ripley and her home thereafter
was in the north. She died July 10. 1912, in her
81st year. The book was written at the age
of 7G-a fact to which she frequently refers.
Prominent in the social life of New Orleans
e.befo de war;" beginning with the early for
ties, the author tells of the old picayune
days, of the shops, the schools, the social func-
lions, the bellies and the beaux of domestic
science as it was seventy years ago. of steam
boat and stage life. etc. In the chapters on
"The Old Plantation Life" "Peopie l have
Entertained" "a Monument to Mamies.
s'Mary Ann and Martha Ann" the reader is
sriyen accurate idea of the relations between
the whites and blacks in the days of slavery,
and of southern hospitality; and the story told
in the last named chapter brings out character
5stics of the colored folks that corid not be
more faithfully depicted in any other way.
These chapters are really of historic value, as
they tell of by-gone days, of customs and
institutions no longer existant. The present
writer, familiar with conditions as they existed
IN the South before and after the war, agrees
with Mrs. Ripley that slavery was greater
evil TO the whites than to the blacks. While
there were cases of cruelty to slaves they were
no greater in proportion than cruelty among
white people in other sections of the country
Mrs. Ripleys first hone in New Orleans
was on Canal street, and it so happens that on
my FIRST visit to the Crescent City in May,
18J7, my home with my uncle on the same
street, and if not in the same block the two
houses were not far apart. She says of Canal
street: THE neutral g~ound. now center for
nnumerable lines of street cars, was at that
time (lS40( an open, unguarded, untrimmed,
unattended strip of waste land. An Italian
banana and orange man cleared space among
she bushes and rank weeds and erected rude
fruit stall where later Clay's statue stood
Canal street, nearly 200 feet wide, with
grass plot % feet wide in the center. was the
dividing line between the French and the
American sections of the city, and in 1857
there was row of trees on each side of this
center strip, and wrote of it at that time: "if
properly taken care of it might be made an
ornament to the city" | think the Clay statue
must have been there then; and if not at that
time few years later track was laid
through this strip on which street cars drawn
oy single mule were run. 1t an
unc ertain mode Of transportation, as the mules
were occasionally balky and seriously inter-
rupted traffic.
There were few paiatial residences in those
days, certainly none in the French section of
the gitg that could be so-caHed. The home of
my uncle was in a block OF two-story brick
houses, the front doors few steps above and
opening directly upon the sidewalk. Along
@ne front, on q level with the French windows
~ jhe second story, was an iron balcony, with
board partitions between the different resi-
dences, where the families would sit in the
evening, weather and mosquitoes permitting.
n the rear was two story l., on the ground
aoor Of which was tt kitchen. etc, with ser
wants rooms above. There was a paved court
E the back Of the house al here was faucet
from which the water supply was drawn
Mississippi river water, about the color and
nearly the consistency OF pea soup. Nearby
vas an earthern jar large enough to hold one
. the forty thieves told of in the Arabian
Nights, in which the water was left to deposit
its sediments of yellow mud. Other domestic |
arrangements will be spoken of later
In the French section, that is below Canal
street. the houses were built flush with the
..idaUaIks-or banouettes as they were called
and the entrance was through passage way
at one side wide enough to admit carriage
and closed by two large wooden doors or gates
with smaller door in one. This led into an
%ooen court from which there was an entrance
TO the main house. Sometimes there would be
a shop or office the ground floor in front,
with the family apartments in the second
story. and iron instead of wooden gates at the
entrance thus giving passers-by glimpses OF
zhe interior, often made attractive by shrubs
and plants, with occasionally fountain. The
servants quarters were at the rear and opened
a1ron this court. The roofs were of red tiles
The streets between Canal street and Esplanda
street.-the latter broad avenue parallel with
canal street and extending from the river to
the Bavou-were narrow, and with the many
buildings of Spanish architecture this section
was as foreign looking as anything In the Old