Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/338

 326 NEW OKLEANS and 6 senatorial districts. The government of the city is administered by a mayor and seven administrators (of finance, commerce, accounts, water works and public buildings, assessments, improvements, and police, respectively) elected by the people for two years. The salary of the mayor is $7,000 a year, that of each of the administrators $6,000. Two coroners are elect- ed for the same period, one serving in the dis- tricts below Canal street, the other in those above it (Algiers, or the fifth district, being included in the upper), at a salary of $5,000 and $7,000 each, respectively. There is no city police proper, but a body called metropolitan police, which is virtually a state militia police or state police militia, under the command of the governor, includes in its duties those of policing the city. Its organization is control- led by a board of police commissioners, five in number, appointed by the governor, and having for its president ex officio the lieutenant gov- ernor, and the city administrator of police as a member ex officio. The board appoints a superintendent, who ordinarily commands the force. A portion of the body is regularly mounted on suburban duty, and another por- tion is devoted to harbor duty. The annual expenditure for the body is about $260,000. A fire alarm and police telegraph is under the control of the police board. All police expenses are paid by a city tax. There are ten police stations in which persons arrested are confined until examination. There are five municipal, police, or recorders' courts, in which minor offences are disposed of, and others sent before higher courts. Of the least grave of these the first district court has cognizance ; the superior criminal court of the more heinous ones. Mi- nor offenders are confined in the workhouse, others in the parish prison, and convicted fel- ons are sent to the state penitentiary in Baton Rouge. Capital punishments are carried out in the parish prison. The recorders are ap- pointed by the governor, are paid by the city $2,500 per annum each, and have to remit to the city all fines levied. The judges of the district courts receive a salary from the state each of $5,000 per annum, except the judge of the superior district court, who is paid $7,500. The civil administration of justice in cases in- volving less than $100 is effected through eight courts held by justices of the peace, two in the first district and one in each of the other districts of the city. For amounts above $100 there are six district courts, all sitting in the same building, adjacent to the St. Louis cathedral. The judges and clerks of these courts are elect- ed by the people for four years. The state supreme court sits in New Orleans from No- vember to May, in a building contiguous to the St. Louis cathedral. The United States district and circuit courts sit in the custom house. The fire department is an extensive and influential organization. The city con- ' tracts with it for the extinction of all fires, which costs about $160,000 a year. This is all devoted to the general expenses of the asso- ciation, the support of widows and orphans, the purchase of engines, horses, hose, carriages, and other apparatus, and the erection and re- pair of engine houses, &c. The members of the association, with the exception of the en- gineers, housekeepers, and hostlers, give their services voluntarily. There are 18 engine com- panies, all of whom have fine steam engines, besides four hook and ladder companies. Fire alarms, for which there are more than 100 sta- tions, indicate the precise locality of the station from which they are sent. The fire depart- ments in Jefferson, Algiers, and Carrollton are separate organizations, and have nine engines, several of which are hand machines. The water of the Mississippi was introduced into the city for domestic uses in 1836. In 1868 the city assumed its reserved right of purcha- sing the works, paying for them $1,300,000 in city bonds. They are situated a mile and a half above Canal street, about 200 yards from the river. About 11,000 hydrants and 12,000 fire plugs are attached to them ; but many of the former are cut off from supply in conse- quence of inability or unwillingness to pay the rates charged for water by the city. These are $12 per annum for each family of four, and $1 additional for each additional inmate. Most of the dwellings are also provided with large cisterns for rain water. According to the census of 1870, the assessed value of real and personal estate (which in 1860, before the recent additions to the city's jurisdiction, was computed at $125,284,305) was $146,718,- 888; its true value, $185,625,187. The to- tal taxation not national was $4,191,417, of which $3,050,000 was imposed by the parish, and $1,141,417 by the state. The public debt of the city was stated to be $26,500,000. The state assessment rolls for 1874 show a taxation of $1,986,082 52. Near Jackson square are the several buildings constituting the French market. Their extent and antique appearance, the abundance and varied character of their supplies, the number of various races seen, and the Babel of languages heard there, have given this market a world-wide fame, which it still deserves. There are 20 other mar- kets, several of which are noteworthy for their neatness, substantiality, and commodious- ness. They are farmed out by the year to the highest bidders, who reimburse themselves by the rents of stalls. For 1875 they yielded to the city about $260,000. Besides these public markets there were three wholesale and about 80 private ones, the latter of which a late act of the legislature prohibited. The former transact their business at the abattoir, con- structed by a corporate company styled " The Crescent City Live Stock Landing and Slaugh- ter-house Company," on a property 240 acres in extent. It is situated on the leit river bank adjacent to the lower line of the city. The establishment comprises two cattle-landing wharves ; 12 covered cattle pens, each having