The Washington herald., 1917-01-25
Interesting Chats
From Hotel Lobbies


Theodore Brent. Of New Orleans. a
member Of the new Federal Shipping
Board, and z. c. Roberts, his secretary,
are stopping at the Ebbitt- New Orleans
Is making a start of cleaning itself up. -
said Mr.. Roberts yesterday In the past
week the cabarets. of which there were
about 100 In town, were closed by the
police commissioner. The city is gov
erned by a commission OF fve and the
police commissioner got busy last week
when Police Chief Reynolds became in
disposed. The cabarets of New orleans
were bars which kept some women about
the place. They were mostly in the re-
stricted section and they ran until early
In the morning. The restricted district
itself has not been attacked by the police
yet, but this Is coming. The reason for
closing the cabarets, everyone believes, Is
that the good hotels protested in order
that they themselves would get more
business.
New Orleans is getting ready TO be
one OF the largest wheat shipping centers
In the world. Heretofore all Western
wheat has gone to the Eastern seaboa rd
because the ocean rate to Europe from
New Orleans was cents higher than
from New York and nearby ports. River
transportation companies in st. Loui.
and New Orleans are now having i'm.
mense steel barges built for river trsfic
which Will practically be incollapsible
Most of the wheat coming through St
Louis will be detected to the river and
New Orleans and the river rate will bt
so cheap that wheat from the Middl,
West can be delivered in Europe for ol
| 6 cents less a bushel. when shipped by
New Orleans than from the Eastern sea
board. To care for this wheat traffic tn,
largest grain elevator in the world hai
been built at New Orleans. It has tube
which can be lowered into the whes
barges and which will suck up the whea
far faster and far more economically thai
can be done by any other method. Th'
elevator can load 5000 bushels of whea
an hour into ocean freighters-
Frank Johnstoi, a prominent Iawye
from Pittsburgh, was at the Ebbitt yes
terday, and talked about the immens
growth OF Pittsburgh to a Herald re
porter.
"You know that Cleveland and Bait
| more claim 10 be as large as Pittsburgh
but in reality thsy are not nearly a
large" he said. Some years ago man
Pittsburgh people moved to suburbs o.
account OF the smoke. and because tn
suburbs were highly attractive. Now tn
smoke nuisance is far less in Pittsburg
than in cities like Chicago and Cincin
matt, bVt the Pittsburghers still live 4
these suburbs. These suburbs have neve
| been taken into the city, but when the
are Pittsburgh will have a population o
more than a million. Cleveland an
| Baltimore have scarcely any suburba
population. They have taken in every
thing in sight
| We have had more building construc
ton In Pittsburgh the past several year
than in any other city. Henry C Eric
has Just completed an immense new al
| cade, which has stores on ten floor.
| There are thousands Of these small shop
in the one building. This arcade, an
| the Jenkins Arcade, are without peers /
! the entire country. The Jenkins Arcad,
| which is smaller than the Frick Arcad.
cost 100000. Two immense new dep ri
ment stores have just been completed
Pittsburgh has never been so prosperous
and this is indicated by the election q
two Democratic Congressman from ALE
| gheny County. the heart OF the protec
| ton country. The defeat OF Represent
ative Barchfeld was due partly, though
TO his German leanings. as he was in
strong English, Welsh and Irish distric
and upheld the German cause at ever
| opportunity