Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/537

NEW ORLEANS. to Mardi Gras, or Shrove Tuesday. When the morning of Ash Wednesday dawns every vestige of this prolonged revelry has vanished. The subjects represented in the parades are drawn from mythology, romance, and history. The floats are designed by artists of established reputation, who, with their assistants, spend many months in elaborating them. The expense of these parades is about $200,000 a year. Nowhere else in the world are similar pageants to be seen.

The principal social clubs of New Orleans are the Boston, the Pickwick, the Chess, Checkers and Whist, the Harmony, the Louisiana, the Era (a women's club), the Round Table, the Variété, and the Southern Yacht Club. The Louisiana Historical Society devotes itself to the investigation and preservation of the history of the State, while the Athénée Louisianais was founded for the study and preservation of the French language.

The surface of the city being entirely flat, with the exception of Metairie Ridge, which has an elevation of about two feet, the problem of drainage and sewerage has been a perplexing one ever since the founding of New Orleans. The average rainfall being 58 inches, tropical downpours are not infrequent, and they sometimes flood the principal streets to the depth of several feet. To this inconvenience is added the fact that strong winds often force the waters of Lake Pontchartrain over the rear of the city, and keep it submerged for several days. Various plans for draining the city were tried, but they all failed. Finally the city appropriated for this purpose a large amount of money derived from the sale of street railway franchises, and under a drainage board appointed in 1896 the immense work of digging canals and establishing pumping stations was begun. Much yet remains to be done, but the system as far as completed was put into practical operation in March, 1900. Meanwhile (1899), the property owners of the city voted a special tax of two mills to run forty-two years to provide the necessary funds for “sewerage, drainage, and municipal water-works.” A new board was then appointed, but a troublesome litigation in the courts tied its hands for many months. Recent decisions of the courts, however, in favor of the city give promise of speedy and successful execution of this great work. At present New Orleans is insufficiently supplied with river water, and a large majority of the inhabitants depend upon rain water, collected in great wooden vats or cisterns, which, rising nearly as high as the houses, form a unique feature of the city.

New Orleans has always been subject, at intervals, to visitations of yellow fever, and its sanitary reputation has been thereby seriously impaired. Before the Civil War the worst epidemics were those of 1832, when more than 8000, out of a population of about 55,000, died of yellow fever and cholera; of 1847, when nearly 2500 died of yellow fever alone; and of 1853—the ‘Great Epidemic’—when fully 16,000 died from yellow fever and other causes. In 1878 there was one which carried off 4000 persons in Louisiana. In 1882, however, a thorough system of disinfecting vessels was established at the mouth of the Mississippi, and for fifteen years the fever was kept outside the boundaries of the State. In 1897 it was again introduced from a town in a neighboring State, where the disease had prevailed for some time without being recognized. In that year, according to the official report, there were in Louisiana 1935 cases, most of them in New Orleans, but the total number of deaths was only 306. In the two subsequent years the disease appeared again, but still in a very mild form and with a low rate of mortality. In 1853 the death rate per 1000 of the population from yellow fever alone was 50.9; in 1854 it was 15.4; in 1878, 19.20; in 1897, 1.90; in 1898, .20; and in 1899, only .07. Hence the city board of health has declared that “this once dreaded disease is no longer worthy of a place of dignity in our statistics as a life destroyer.” It may be added that the general cleaning up that has been given by the United States to the city of Havana is regarded as an important protective measure for New Orleans. Finally, the mildness of the climate of New Orleans, and the outdoor life which such a climate renders possible, preserve the inhabitants to a large extent from many of the terrible diseases common in other cities. The mortality among the colored population, which is generally improvident and careless of sanitation, is much higher than among the whites.

As a manufacturing centre New Orleans has many advantages, among which may be mentioned the following: The climate is moist enough for cotton manufacture and favorable for continuous labor throughout the year; the raw materials need but short transportation; the laboring class is numerous and contented; fuel is brought cheaply by water; and the exporting facilities are excellent. It is estimated that in the last twenty-five years the value of the products of factories in the city has increased six fold. The chief industries are rice cleaning and sugar refining, and the manufacturing of boots and shoes, furniture, men's clothing, cotton goods, tobacco, cigars, and cigarettes, cottonseed oil, and planing-mill products. The last census (1900) gives the number of wage-earners in all industries as 19,435; the total wages paid as $7,645,167; and the value of the total output as $63,514,505. The value of all products in 1890 was only $48,234,924. There are in the city 1624 manufacturing enterprises, devoted to 150 different industries, with a total capital of $52,000,000. The United States Government recently constructed at New Orleans one of the largest floating dry docks in the world. This has shown its ability to lift and sustain the largest ship in the American Navy. New Orleans is the second export city in the Union, being excelled only by New York. Six great railroad lines, with a total mileage of 26,881, have their terminus here. These are the Southern Pacific, Illinois Central, Louisville and Nashville, Texas and Pacific, Southern, and the Queen and Crescent. The last two enter New Orleans over the tracks of another line. There are six great grain elevators along the docks. The docks, which are for the most part uncovered, extend for six miles along the left bank. As the gateway of the Mississippi Valley the city is well situated for foreign commerce. The jetties at the mouth of the river give a channel of about thirty feet, and the depth of the river in front of the city is ample for the largest vessels. Direct lines of steamships connect with New York, the West Indies, Central America, and Europe, and there is even a direct line via the Suez Canal to Japanese ports,