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NEW See also: Gretna, the seat of See also:Jefferson parish, McDonoghville. in Jefferson parish,
See also:series, of the Papers of the Archaeological See also:Institute of See also:America (See also:Cambridge, 189o) ; See also:George P. Winship, " The See also:Coronado Expedition," in the Fourteenth See also:Annual See also:Report of the See also:Bureau of See also:Ethnology (See also:Washington, 1896) ; W. H. H. See also:Davis, The See also:Spanish See also:Conquest of New See also:Mexico (Doylestown, Pa., 1869) ; P. St G. See also:Cooke, The Conquest of New Mexico and See also:California (New See also:York, 1878) ; See also: Little of history or tradition is associated with the See also:American See also:Quarter, with the exception of the former site (before 1900) of the See also:Clay statue in See also:Canal See also:Street where Royal Street and St See also: Both buildings are to-See also:day used as See also:law courts. The Cabildo is a dignified two-See also:storey structure of See also:adobe and See also:shell-See also:lime, built in 1795; an incongruous mansard roof was added in 1850. On the 3oth of See also:November 1803, in the council See also: The 18th-See also:century fortifications about the old city were destroyed about 1804. The United States See also:Branch See also:Mint (1838) occupies the site of Fort St Charles (destroyed 1826), where Jackson reviewed his troops as they marched to Chalmette. Just outside the Vieux See also:Caere is See also:Beauregard Square, formerly known as See also:Congo Square, because in early days the slaves were wont to gather here for their barbaric dances. The Hotel .St Louis (1836), rebuilt in 1884 as the Hotel Royal, was the seat of the Republican reconstruction governments of governors See also:Kellogg and Packard, and the See also:prison fortress of both, respectively in 1874 and 1877, when the whites See also:rose against Republican rule; its rotunda was also once a famous slave mart. Many other spots in the Latin Quarter are of scarcely less See also:interest than those mentioned, not excluding those which were made famous by the romances of G. W. See also:Cable, and whose only See also:title to historic See also:consideration is that which his See also:imagination has given them. City See also:Park (216.6 acres, partly See also:water), lying between the city and the lake, is notable in the See also:local duelling See also:annals of earlier days. See also:Audubon Park (249 acres) was once the sugar See also:plantation of See also:Etienne de See also:Bore, who first successfully made granulated sugar in 1795–1796; earlier experiments had been made in 1791 by See also:Antonio Mendes, from whom de Bore, who established the sugar See also:industry, bought a plantation in St See also:Bernard Parish. The park was bought by the city for $18o,000 in 1871, but was little improved until 1884, when the See also:Cotton Centennial Exposition was held here. It contains to-day a state Sugar Experiment Station, in which a part of their See also:work in course is done by the students in the Audubon Sugar School of the State University at See also:Baton See also:Rouge, and Horticultural Hall, the only one of the Exposition buildings now See also:standing, with a display of tropical trees and See also:plants; opposite Audubon Park is the campus of Tulane University. West End is a suburban resort and residential district on Lake Pontchartrain. A noted feature of New Orleans is its cemeteries. Owing to the undrained See also:condition of the subsoil, burials are made entirely above ground, in tombs of stuccoed brick and of granite and marble. Some of these are very elegant and costly, and many of the See also:burial-grounds, with their long alleys of these tombs of diverse designs, deeply shaded by avenues of cedars and magnolias, possess a severe but emphatic beauty. See also:Jews and the poor See also:bury their dead underground in shallow See also:graves. The oldest See also:cemetery, St Louis No. 1, contains the graves of many persons notable in history. St See also:Roch's Campo Santo has a wonder-working See also:shrine, and is the most picturesque of the old burying-grounds. Metairie, on the site of an old See also:race track, is the finest of the new. It contains a monument' to the See also:Army of the See also:Tennessee and its See also:commander, See also:Albert See also:Sidney See also:Johnston, with an equestrian statue of Johnston by See also: At Chalmette (on the Mississippi, about 5 M. E. of Canal Street), where the battle of New Orleans was fought in 1815, there is a National Cemetery, in which some 12,000 See also:Union soldiers in the See also:Civil See also:War are buried. See also:Population.—The population in 19002 was 287,104, New ' In the burial vault of this See also:tomb, with the bodies of many other soldiers, are the remains of General P. G. T. Beauregard, who was See also:born near New Orleans. 2 At the earlier censuses the population of the city was as follows: 17,242 in 1810 (when it was the See also:sixth city in population in the United States) ; 27,176 in 1820 (when, as in 1830 and 1850, it was the fifth city); 46,082 in 1830; not reported separately in 1840; 116,375 in 1850; 168,675 in 1860; 191,418 in 1870; 216,090 in 1880; and 242,039 in 1890. Orleans ranking twelfth among the cities of the United States; in 1910 it was 339,075. Of the 1900 total, 256,779 were native-born, and 30,325 were foreign-born, including 8733 Germans, 5866 Italians, 5398 Irish, 4428 French and 1262 See also:English; and there were 77,714 negroes. In 1900 the population of foreign parentage was ro8,olo, of whom 78,269 had foreign fathers and foreign mothers, 27,259 being of See also:German, 15,465 of Irish, 10,694 of Italian, 9317 of French and 1882 of English parentage. The Latin See also:element that came in colonial times included Frenchmen, French-Canadians, colonists from the French and Spanish West Indies, See also:Canary Islanders (whose descendants are still known as Islenos), and French refugees from Acadia in 1765 and the years following, and from Santo Domingo at the end of the 18th century. The earliest French immigrants were largely Bretons and See also:Normans, and various See also:creole words in common use (such as banquette for " side-walk ") still recall these racial beginnings. The creoles of New Orleans and the surrounding delta are a handsome, graceful, intelligent race, of a decidedly Gallic type, though softened in features, speech and See also:carriage. Their See also:dialect has been formed from the French entirely by See also:sound, has no established See also:orthography, and is of much philological interest. Until very See also:recent years the Latin races, though fusing somewhat among themselves, mixed little in See also:blood with the Anglo-American. The Spaniards when in See also:power at the end of the 18th century were notably different from the French in their liberalism in this respect. In social See also:life and See also:standards the French creoles were very conservative; the old styles of See also:dress, e.g. of the See also:late 18th century—wigs, See also:silk stockings and See also:knee-breeches—lingered later among them, probably, than in any other part of the See also:country. But before the pressure of Anglo-American See also:immigration, See also:capital, enterprise and See also:education, this creole See also:civilization has slowly yielded ground, at last fairly beginning to amalgamate with the social See also:system of the American nation. But the creole has stamped his See also:influence upon wellnigh every aspect in the life of the city that has broadened out so widely on every side of his See also:antique town. Its cuisine, its speech, its " See also:continental " Latin Sundays, its opera, its carnival, its general fashions and See also:manners, its intolerance of all sorts of rigour, its whole outward See also:tone and bearing, testify to this patent Latin impress. A comparatively recent addition to the Latin element in the city has been through Italian immigration. The coloured population, notwithstanding the presence among it of that noted quadroon class which enjoyed a certain legal freedom for generations before the Civil War, has not greatly improved since the date of emancipation. Catholicism is naturally extremely strong in New Orleans. So also are the Baptist and Methodist churches. Carnivals.—The famous carnival displays of New Orleans are participated in very largely by the " Americain," i.e. the Anglo-American; but they See also:mark one of the victories of the Latin-American over North-American tastes, and probably owe mainly to the " Americain " their pretentious dignity and to the creole their more legitimate See also:harlequin frivolity. Out of the See also:simple See also:idea of masked revelry in the open streets, as borrowed from Italian cities, the American See also:bent for organization appears to have See also:developed, by a natural growth, the costly See also:fashion of gorgeous See also:torch-lighted processions of elaborately equipped masques in tableaux See also:drawn on immense cars by teams of caparisoned mules, and combining to illustrate in a symmetrical whole some theme chosen from the See also:great faiths or literatures or from history. Legends, See also:fairy-tales, mythologies and theologies, literature from See also:Homer to See also:Shakespeare, See also:science and pure fantasy are drawn upon for these ornate representations, which are accompanied by all the picturesque See also:licence of street life characteristic of carnival times in other cities. They have no See also:rival in America, and for glitter, See also:colour and elaborateness are by many esteemed the most splendid carnival celebrations of the See also:world. The first carnival parade (as distinguished from the Mardi Gras celebration) was held in 1827 by masked students recently returned from See also:Paris. In 1837 and 1839 the first processions with " floats " were held in New Orleans. The See also:regular annual pageants, almost uninterrupted See also:save during the Civil War, datefrom 1857, when the " Mystic Krewe of See also:Comus," the oldest of the carnival organizations, was formed; similar organizations, See also:secret See also:societies or clubs are the " Twelfth See also:Knight Revelers " (187o), " Rex " and " Knights of See also:Momus " (both 1872, when the carnival was reviewed by the See also:Grand See also:Duke See also:Alexis of See also:Russia), the " Krewe of See also:Proteus " (1882), and the " Krewe of See also:Nereus " (1895). Balls, processions and other festivities are now spread over a considerable See also:period, culminating in those of Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras). During this See also:time the festivities quite engross public See also:attention, and many thousands of visitors from all parts of America are yearly attracted to the city. Charitable Institutions. The large Charity See also:Hospital (1786) and the See also:Richard Milliken Memorial Hospital for See also:Children are supported by the State. The Touro Infirmary (1854; controlled by the See also:Hebrew Benevolent Association; founded by See also:Judah Touro (1775–1854; a See also:Jew of Dutch descent, son of See also:Isaac Touro of See also:Newport, Rhode See also:Island), Includes a See also:free clinic open to the needy of all faiths. Other hospitals are: the U.S. Marine Hospital (1885); the Hotel Dieu (1859) and the St See also:Joseph's Maternity Hospital (1863), both under the Sisters of Charity; the Sarah See also:Goodrich Hospital (1896; Methodist Episcopal) ; and the See also:Eye, See also:Ear, See also:Nose and See also:Throat Hospital (1889; private). The Poydras See also:Asylum, on See also:Magazine Street, was founded in 1817 by See also:Julien Poydras (1746–1824), a successful trader and delegate from Orleans Territory to the Federal See also:Congress in 1809–1811 ; the present building was erected in 1836; the asylum, which is for orphans, is controlled by Presbyterian trustees, although it was, during Poydras's life, under the See also:charge of Sisters of Charity. St See also:Vincent's See also:Infant Asylum (1858), or " See also:Margaret's Baby House," is in charge of Sisters of Charity. Other orphanages and children's homes are: the New Orleans See also:Female See also:Orphan Asylum (1849) and St See also: Education.—The public See also:schools give equal opportunities to whites and blacks, but the whites take decidedly greater See also:advantage of them; a large number even of the whites still make practically no use of either public or parochial schools. The races are kept See also:separate: the See also:attempt was made to mix attendance in 1870, but the whites compelled its See also:abandonment. To a See also:bequest of See also: The last is supported by the state.
See also:Libraries.—The public, society and school libraries in the city in 1909, many being very small, aggregated 301,000 volumes, 227,000 being in five collections. A central library building and three branch buildings, costing $275,000, were presented to the city by Andrew See also:Carnegie. The See also:Howard Memorial Library (1887) is an important reference library, peculiarly See also:rich in books on the history of Louisiana. The Louisiana Historical Society (1836) and the Athenee Louisiannaise (1876) may also be mentioned; the latter has for its purpose the conservation and cultivation of the French See also:language. The Union Franchaise (1872) supplements with educational and charitable activities the general See also:bond of fraternity offered by it to the French population. In New Orleans there is a State Museum, devoted to the history, institutions and resources of the state.
See also:Newspapers.—Among the older newspapers are L'Abeille (1827) and the Picayune (1837), which is one of the most famous and influential papers of the South, and was founded by George See also:Wilkins See also:Kendall (1809-1867), a native of New See also:Hampshire, who organized a See also:special military See also:correspondence for his See also:paper during the Mexican War, probably the earliest instance of such service in the United States. The Times-Democrat (1863) is counted among the ablest and most energetic papers of the South. De See also:Bow's Commercial See also:Review (published in New Orleans 1846-1864), founded and edited by See also: See also:Commerce.—It was its potential commercial value, as indicated by its See also:geographical position, that in 1803, when New Orleans was only a small, poor and remote Franco-Spanish-American See also:port, led to its See also:purchase by the United States. But various causes operated to impede the city's growth: the invention of railway transit, the development of the carrying See also:trade on the Great Lakes, the bars at the mouth of the Mississippi, over which few large See also:ships could pass, the See also:scourge of yellow See also:fever, the provincialism and the lethargy of an isolated and indolent civilization. See also:Slavery kept away free labour, and the plantation system fostered that " improvidence and that feudal self-complacency which looked with indolent contempt upon public co-operative See also:measures" (G. W. Cable). However, in 186o the exports, imports and domestic receipts of New Orleans aggregated $324,000,000. As a result of the Civil War the commerce of New Orleans experienced an early See also:paralysis; the port was soon blockaded by the United States See also:navy; the city See also:fell into the hands of the Federal forces (1st May 1862); its commerce with the interior was practically annihilated until after 1865, and from the depression of the years following the war the city did not fully recover for a quarter of a century. Only after 188o did its total commerce again equal that of 186o. It was almost solely as the dispenser of the products of the greatest agricultural valley in the world that New Orleans See also:grew from a little frontier town to the dimensions of a great city. This trade is still dominant in the city's commerce. In the season that follows the See also:harvest of the South and West, the See also:levee, the wharves and the contiguous streets are gorged with the raw staples of the regions that See also:lie about the Mississippi and its greater and lesser tributaries—sugar, See also:molasses, rice, See also:tobacco, See also:Indian See also:corn, pork, staves, See also:wheat, oats, See also:flour and, above all else, from one-See also:fourth to one-third the country's entire See also:supply of cotton. All other See also:movement is subsidiary or insignificant. By 'goo the drawbacks which have been enumerated had been practically eliminated, and uncertainty as to the investment of capital had been removed. The southward tendency in railway traffic favours the city. Deep water to the ocean was secured by a system of jetties at the South Pass mouth of the Mississippi, built by James B. See also:Eads in 1875–1879; but in time this ceased to maintain an adequate depth of water, and (after the report in 1900 of a board of See also:engineers) in 1902 Congress began appropriations for an improvement of the South-west Pass r by opening a channel r000 ft. wide and at least 35 ft. deep. Many lines of steamers give See also:direct connexion with the West Indies, Central America, See also:Europe, New York and also with See also:Japan (for the shipment of raw cotton via See also:Suez). Ocean steamers, loaded in large part by See also:elevators, now See also:bear away the exports for which a swarm of sailing-ships of much lighter draft and See also:average See also:freight-room once made long stays at the city's wharves. Passenger traffic on the See also:rivers has practically vanished, and the shrunken See also:fleet of river steamers (only 15 in 1907) are devoted to the carrying of slow freights and the towing of See also:barges on the rivers and bayous of the See also:lower Mississippi Valley .2 The total value of all merchandise exported in the six customs years 1902–1903 to 1907–1908 averaged $154,757,110 yearly, and the imports $37,319,254. For the ten years 1890–1899 the corresponding averages were $95,956,618 and $15,924,594. Bank clearings increased in the ten customs years preceding 1906–1907 from $447,673,946 to $1,027,798,476 (bank clearings were $956,154,504 and $786,067,353 respectively for the See also:calendar years 1907 and 1908). There has been an extraordinary increase of exports since 1900, and imports from Central America have similarly increased. Cotton represents roughly two-thirds of the value of all exports. As a cotton port New Orleans in 1908 was second only to See also:Galveston, which had only recently surpassed it; and more than half of the raw cotton exports of the country passed through these two ports. The Board of Trade has maintained a cotton-inspection department since 1884, and its See also:statistics are See also:standard on the cotton See also:crop. Cotton exports in the four seasons 1903–1904 to 1906–1907 averaged 1,001,199,468 lb, valued at $104,108,824. Wheat and flour, Indian corn, See also:lumber and tobacco are especially noteworthy articles of the export, and bananas and See also:coffee of the import, trade. Importations of coffee have more than quintupled since 1900; the coffee comes for the most part from See also:Brazil and See also:grain wholly from American See also:fields. The imports of bananas, for which New Orleans is the leading port of the country, more than doubled in the same period, and increased more than eight-See also:fold in the twenty-five years following 1882 (1,200,000 to 10,200,000 bunches). Railway traffic has grown immensely, and port facilities have been vastly improved in recent years. A See also:belt railway owned by the city (built 1905–1907) connects all railway terminals, public wharves and many manufactories and warehouses. Public ownership protects the city's interest in the harbour front, while at the same time all See also:railways are equally and cheaply served; and new railways, which could not enter the city or have See also:access to the water front because of the impossibility of securing individual trackage, can now enter on the municipal belt. Of privately owned railway terminals in 1908 those of the See also:Illinois Central system had nearly 200 M. of track; the See also:Stuyvesant Docks of the railway have 15 M. Of track, a See also:wharf almost 1 m. long, immense warehouses and grain elevators. The New Orleans Terminal See also:Company constructed at Chalmette 1 The South-west Pass, originally the usual entrance, could not be entered by vessels See also:drawing more than 16 ft.; the Eads jetties, aided by dredging, provided through the South Pass (5oo ft. broad) a channel 18o ft. wide and 25 to 28 ft. deep. South-west Pass has always been the primary outlet of the river, venting half or more of its See also:volume. Active work on its improvement was begun in 1903 and practically completed in 1909. Including the jetties, this Pass is nearly 20 m. long and has an average width of about 2150 ft.; the deep channel through it is more than t000 ft. wide. The jetties, 4 M. long on one side and 3 M. on the other, are 6000 ft. apart at their See also:head and 3600 ft. at the See also:sea line. They are built on See also:willow mats (See also:foundation mats 200X150X2 ft.) in wooden frames, sunk with stone and surmounted above the water by a See also:concrete wall. 2 The value of the river commerce was about $8,000,000 in 1816 and $82,000,000 in 1849. The first steamboat descended the Mississippi to New Orleans (from See also:Pittsburg) in 1811, and the first See also:steam-See also:boat trip up the river was made in 1817. The halcyon period of river steamer traffic was from 184o to 186o. The luxury of the passenger boats then on the Mississippi and the immense volume of the freighting traffic are things of the past since the See also:advent of the railway era. The best time ever made (187o) from New Orleans to St Louis (1278 m.) was 3 days, 21 See also:hours and 25 minutes. The races of these river boats were prominent See also:news items in the papers of America and even in those of Europe, and they have been recorded in more than one See also:page of literature. Steam packets replaced sailing vessels in the ocean trade about 1845. (2908) splendid terminals, including an immense slip in the river (1500X300 ft., excavated to give 30 ft. of water below zero See also:gauge) capable of accommodating nine vessels at See also:dock simultaneously, and arranged with remarkable conveniences for the loading of grain. See also:Steel-concrete warehouses and elevators surround the slip. The greater industrial establishments of the city cluster about the terminals. New Orleans is served by eleven railways, including the Illinois Central, Southern Pacific, See also:Texas & Pacific and See also:Louisville & See also:Nashville systems. The New Orleans & North-eastern crosses Lake Pontchartrain over a trestle See also:bridge 7 in. long (originally 25 m. before end filling).
Within the city are two canals, now of little importance, because too shallow except for local trade: the Carondelet or Old See also:Basin canal, built in 1798, is 2.5 m. long, 55–65 ft. wide and 7 ft. deep, and goes via See also:Bayou St John to Lake Pontchartrain; and the New Basin Canal, built in 1837 by the New Orleans Canal & Banking Company, and state property since 1866, is 6.7 m. long, too ft. wide and 8 ft. deep, and also connects with Lake Pontchartrain. Neither of these canals connects with the Mississippi river as do the following privately owned canals: the Lake Borgne Canal, from a point so m. below the city to Lake Borgne, 7 M. long, 8o ft. wide, 7 ft. deep, shortening the water distance between See also:Mobile and New Orleans by 6o m.; and the Barataria & Lafourche Company Canal (7 m. long, 45 ft. wide and 6 ft. deep) and See also:Harvey's Canal (5.35 m. long, 70 ft. wide and 6 ft. deep), both connecting with the Bayou Teche region.
Manufactures.—Manufacturing has greatly developed since 1890. The value of products increased 146.7% from 188o to 189o, and in the following See also:decade the increase of See also:wages paid, cost of materials used and value of product were respectively 7.6, 53.3 and 31.5%. In 1905 the value of the factory product was $84,604,006, 45.4% of the value of the total factory product of the state, and an increase of 47.3% since 1900; during this same period capital increased 36.6 %, the average number of wage-earners 8.9 %, the amount of wages 20.5% and the cost of materials used 53.3%. The sugar and molasses industry is the most important, with a product value of $34,908,614 in 1905; New Orleans ranked second to See also:Philadelphia among the cities of the country in the value of this product, that of New Orleans being 12.6 % of the total value of the country's product. At New Orleans is a sugar refinery said to be the largest in the world. Of the manufactures from products of the state the most noteworthy are rice (value of product cleaned and polished in 1905, $4,881,954), bags other than paper ($4,076,226), cotton-See also:seed oil and cake ($3,698,509), See also:malt liquors ($2,170,714), tobacco ($1,408,883), lumber and See also:timber products ($1,644,329) and planing See also: Other important manufactures are foundry and See also:machine-See also:shop products ($2,085,327), men's clothing ($1,979,308), coffee and spice roasted and ground ($1,638,263) and steam railway cars constructed and repaired ($1,627,435). New Orleans is the See also:chief centre of the country for the manufacture of cotton-seed products and for rice milling. See also:Oyster See also:canning is a recent and rapidly growing industry. There are also See also:furniture establishments, paper mills and cotton See also:cloth mills. Government.—Municipal government is organized under a See also:charter framed by the state legislature in 1896, and amended by acts of 1898 and 1900. The seven municipal districts correspond to seven See also:independent faubourgs successively annexed. A See also:mayor and various other executive See also:officers and a legislative unicameral council are elected for four years. The mayor and the heads of departments consult as a " See also:cabinet." Various boards—of civil service, public See also:debt, education, See also:health, See also:police, See also:fire, drainage, water and See also:sewerage and state commissioners of the port—control many of the most important interests of the city. The mayor, through his office and his appointive See also:powers, exercises great influence in a number of these. In 1896 New Orleans followed the example of New York and Chicago in subjecting its civil service to a competitive merit system and to rules of a civil service board. The police board is non-See also:partisan. The board of education is composed of seventeen members, each elected by one of the seventeen wards of the city. In addition to the city board of health, a state board acts with municipal authority, and (since See also:April 1907) the United States government maintains the maritime See also:quarantine of the Mississippi. The commissioners of the port are officials of the state. Owing to the See also:complete dominance of the Democratic party, all reform movements in politics must come from within that organization. Reform organizations have been intermittently powerful since 1888, and among their achievements for good were the beginning of the great drainage and sewerage improvements and the See also:adoption of the charter of 1896. The present government of the city compares very favourably with systems tried in the past.' ' The charter of 18o5 organized the old. cite (the Vieux Caere) and the faubourgs as distinct municipalities with almost wholly In 1909 the total assessed valuation of property was $221,373,362, of which $154,604,325 was realty and the See also:remainder personalty. The bonded debt on the 3oth of See also:June 1909 was $32,521,040 and the floating debt at the end of 1908 was $1,264,030. From 1890 to 1900 the expenditures for permanent See also:works (including sewerage, See also:lighting, paving, levees, improvements in connexion with street and steam railways, docks, &c.) aggregated $30,000,000. Almost all the public services, nevertheless, were in 1909 in private hands. Electric See also:traction was introduced in 1891–1895, and the street railways were consolidated in 1902 under one management. In 1869 the city bought, and nine years later sold again, the water-works; municipal ownership and control, under a sewerage and water board, was again undertaken in 1900. In 1900 arrangements were made to See also:transfer the extensive markets from private lessees to direct municipal control, and in May 1901 the wharves of the city passed from private to municipal control' The municipal belt railway was constructed in 1905–1907. Until 1900 there were no sewers, open gutters serving their purpose. It is remarkable that the city twice granted franchises to private parties for the construction of a sewerage system, but without result. The low and extremely level See also:character of the city site, of which nearly one-third is at or below the level of the Gulf, the recurrence of back-water floods from Lake Pontchartrain and the tremendous rains of the region have made the See also:engineering problems involved very difficult. In 1896 a Drainage See also:Commission (merged in 1900 in a Sewerage arid Water Board) devised a See also:plan involving the See also:sale of street railway franchises to pay for the See also:installation of drainage canals and pumps, and in 1899 the people voted a 2-mill tax over 42 years assuring a bond issue of $12,000,000 to pay for sewerage, drainage and water works to be owned by the See also:municipality and to be controlled by a Sewerage and Water Board. Work was begun on the sewerage system in 1903 and on the water works in 1905. In 1906 the legislature authorized the issue of municipal bonds for $8,000,000 to be expended on this work. Up to 1909 the drainage system had cost about $6,000,000 and the sewerage system about $5,000,000; and 310 M. of sewers and nine sewerage pumping stations discharged sewage into the Mississippi below the centre of the city. Garbage is used to fill in swamps and abandoned canals. The new water-supply is secured from the river and is filtered by See also:mechanical precipitation and other means. By 1909 about 500 m. of water-mains had been laid, $7,000,000 had been expended for the water-system, and filtering plants had been established with a capacity of 50,000,000 gallons a day. In See also:August 1905 a city See also:ordinance required the screening of aerial cisterns, formerly characteristic of the city, which were breeding-places of the yellow fever Stegomyia, and soon afterwards the state legislature authorized the Sewerage and Water Board to require the removal of all such cisterns. About two-thirds of the street See also:surface in 1899 was still unpaved; the first improvements in paving began in 189o. As regards hygienic conditions much too has been done in recent years. New Orleans was long notorious for unhealthiness. Yellow fever first appeared in 1769, and there were about thirty epidemics from 1769 to 1878. Though the first board of health and first quarantine system date back to 1821, from 1787 to 1853 the average See also:death-See also:rate was 59.63 per t000; never did it fall below 25.00, which was the rate in 1827. In 1832, a See also:cholera See also:year, it rose to 148; in 1853–1854–1855, the great yellow-fever years, complicated in 1854–1855 by cholera, it was 102, 72 and 73. During these three years there were more than 25,000 deaths. The millesimal mortality in 1851–1855 and succeeding quinquennial periods to 188o was as follows: 70, 45, 40, 39, 34.5 and 33.5. The rate reported by the national See also:census of 1900 was 28.9, the highest of any of the large separate governments: they issued paper See also:money independently, for example. The charter of 1836 was also an extreme statement of local self-government; the municipalities were practically independent, although there was a common mayor and a general council of the entire city See also:meeting once annually. This organization was in large part due to the hostility of the creoles to the Americans. The charter of 1852 formed a consolidated city. That of 1856 added to and amended its predecessor. That of 1870 was very notable as an attempt to secure a business-like and simplified See also:administration. A mayor and seven " administrators," elected on a general See also:ticket and constituting individually the different administrative departments, formed collectively a council with legislative powers. All sessions of the council were public, and liberties of See also:suggestion were freely accorded to the citizens. Tried in better times, and as a movement for reform sprung from the people and not due primarily to an See also:external impulse, this system might have been permanent and might have exercised great influence on other cities. The early 'seventies were marked by a great widening of the city's corporate limits. In 1882 another charter went back to the See also:ordinary American plan of elective district councillors chosen for the legislative branch, and executive officers chosen on a general ticket. The latter held seats in the council and could debate but not See also:vote. This is the present system. 2 They were leased to a private company in 1891–1901, but the See also:lease was unprofitable and was disadvantageous to trade. From 1901 to 1908 wharfage and harbour dues were reduced 25 to 85 %u cities of the United States.' This high death-rate is often attributed in great part to the large negro population, among whom the mortality in 1900 was 42.1 per 1000; but the negro population largely comprises that labouring element whose faulty See also:provision for health and sickness in every large city swells the death-rate. A See also:light yellow-fever epidemic occurred in 1897-1898-1899, after nine-teen years of See also:immunity, and a more serious one in 1905, when the United States Marine Hospital Service for a time took control of the city's sanitation and attempted to exterminate the Stegomyia See also:mosquito. The city Board of Health has done much to secure pure See also:food for the people, and has exercised efficient oversight of communicable diseases, including yellow fever. In movements for the See also:betterment of the city—in commerce, sanitation, public works and general enterprise—a leading part has been taken by an organization of citizens known as the New Orleans Progressive Union, whose charter and by-See also:laws prohibit its participation in See also:political and religious issues. History.—New Orleans was founded in 1718 by See also:Jean See also:Baptiste See also:Lemoyne, Sieur de Bienville,.and was named in See also:honour of the then See also:Regent of See also:France .2 The See also:priest-chronicler See also:Charlevoix described it in 1721 as a place of a See also:hundred wretched hovels in a malarious wet thicket of willows and See also:dwarf palmettos, infested by serpents and alligators; he seems to have been the first, however, to predict for it an imperial future. In 1722 New Orleans was made the capital of the vast See also:province of Louisiana (q.v.). Much of the population in early days was of the wildest and, in part, of the most undesirable character—deported See also:galley-slaves, trappers, See also:gold-hunters and city scourings; and the governors' letters are full of complaints regarding the riffraff sent as soldiers as late as Kerlerec's administration (1753-1763). In 1788 a fire destroyed a large part of the city. In 1795-1796 the sugar industry was first put upon a See also:firm basis. The last twenty years of the 18th century were especially characterized by the growth of commerce on the Mississippi, and the development of those See also:international interests, commercial and political, of which New Orleans was the centre. The year 1803 is.memorable for the actual transfer (at New Orleans) of Louisiana to France, and the See also:establishment of American dominion. At this time the city had about 1o,000 inhabitants, mostly French creoles and their slaves. The next dozen years were marked by the beginnings of self-government in city and state; by the excitement attending the See also:Aaron See also:Burr See also:conspiracy (in the course of which, in 1806-1807, General James See also:Wilkinson practically put New Orleans under See also:martial law); by the immigration from See also:Cuba of French planters; and by the American War of 1812. In 1815 New Orleans was attacked by a conjunct expedition of See also:British See also:naval and military forces from See also:Halifax, N.S., and other points. The American government managed to obtain early information of the enterprise and prepared to meet it with forces (regular and See also:militia) under Maj.-Gen. Andrew Jackson. The British advance was made by way of Lake Borgne, and the troops landed at a fisherman's See also:village on the 23rd of See also:December 1814, See also:Major-General See also:Sir E. Pakenham taking command there on the 25th. An immediate advance on the still insufficiently prepared defences of the Americans might have led to the See also:capture of the city, but this was not attempted, and both sides remained inactive for some time awaiting reinforcements. At last in the early See also:morning of the 8th of See also:January 1815 (after the Treaty of See also:Ghent had been signed) a direct attack was made on the now strongly entrenched line of the defenders at Chalmette, near the Mississippi river. It failed disastrously with a loss of 2000 out of 9000 British troops engaged, among the dead being Pakenham and Major-General See also:Gibbs. The expedition was soon afterwards abandoned and the troops embarked for See also:England. From this time to the outbreak of the American Civil War the city annals are almost wholly commercial. Hopeful activity ' But the death-rate of New Orleans was not so high as that of some smaller Southern cities, See also:Richmond (29.7), See also:Savannah (34.3) or See also:Charleston (37.5), for example. According to Mortality Statistics, 1905 (Washington, 1907), the death-rate in New Orleans in 1905 was 23.7, and the annual average between 1900 and 1904 was 23.1. 1 Two of the lakes in the vicinity commemorate respectively Louis See also:Phelypeaux, See also:Count Pontchartrain, See also:minister and See also:chancellor of France, and Jean See also:Frederic Phelypeaux, Count See also:Maurepas, minister and secretary of state; a third is really a landlocked inlet of the sea, and its name (Lake Borgne) has reference to its " incomplete " or " defective " character.and great development characterized especially the decade 183o-184o. The introduction of See also:gas (about 183o); the building of the New Orleans and Pontchartrain railway (1820-183o), one of the earliest in the United States; the introduction of the first steam cotton See also:press (1832), and the beginning of the public school system (184o) marked these years; foreign exports more than doubled in the period 1831-1833. Travellers in this decade have left pictures of the animation of the river trade—more congested in those days of river boats and steamers and ocean-sailing See also:craft than to-day; of the institution of slavery, the quadroon balls, the medley of Latin tongues, the disorder and carousals of the river-men and adventurers that filled the city. Altogether there was much of the wildness of a frontier town, and a seemingly boundless promise of prosperity. The crisis of 1837, indeed, was severely See also:felt, but did not greatly retard the city's See also:advancement, which continued unchecked until the Civil War. In 1849 Baton Rouge replaced New Orleans as the capital of the state. In 185o telegraphic communication was established with St Louis and New York; in 1851 the New Orleans & Jackson railway, the first railway outlet northward, now part of the Illinois Central, and in 1854 the western outlet, now the Southern Pacific, were begun.
The political and commercial importance of New Orleans, as well as its strategic position, marked it out as the See also:objective of a Union expedition soon after the opening of the Civil War. See also:Captain D. G. See also:Farragut (q.v.) was selected by the Union government for the command of the Western Gulf See also:squadron in January 1862. The four heavy ships of the squadron (none of them armoured) were with many difficulties brought up to the head of the passes, and around them assembled nineteen smaller vessels (mostly gunboats) and a flotilla of twenty See also:mortar-boats under Commander D. D. See also:Porter (q.v.). The See also:main defences of the Mississippi consisted of the two permanent forts Jackson and St See also: These were of See also:masonry and brick construction, armed with heavy rifled guns as well as smooth-bores, and placed on either bank so as to command long reaches of the river and the surrounding flats. In addition, the Confederates had some improvised ironclads and gunboats, large and small. On the 16th of April, after elaborate reconnaissances, the Union fleet steamed up into position below the forts, and on the 18th the mortar-boats opened fire. Their shells fell with great accuracy, and although one of the boats was sunk and two disabled, fort Jackson was seriously damaged. But the defences were by no means crippled even after a second See also:bombardment on the 19th, and a formidable obstacle to the advance of the Union main fleet was a See also:boom between the forts designed to detain the ships under See also:close fire should they attempt to run past. At that time the eternal See also:duel of See also:ship versus fort seemed to have been settled in favour of the latter, and it was well for the Union government that it had placed its ablest and most resolute officer at the head of the squadron. Gunboats were repeatedly sent up at night to endeavour to destroy the boom, and the bombardment went on, disabling only a few guns but keeping the gunners of fort Jackson under See also:cover. At last the gunboats " Pinola " and " Itasca " ran in and See also:broke a See also:gap in the boom, and at 2 A.M. on the 24th the fleet weighed, Farragut in the corvette " See also:Hartford " leading. After a severe conflict at close quarters, with the forts and with the ironclads and fire rafts of the See also:defence, almost all the Union fleet (except the mortar-boats) forced its way past. At See also:noon on the 25th Farragut anchored in front of New Orleans; forts Jackson and St Philip, isolated and continuously bombarded by the mortar-boats, surrendered on the 28th; and soon afterwards the military portion of the expedition occupied the city. The commander, General B. F. See also: The lynching of Italian subjects by a See also:mob in 18911 caused serious international complications. Among the many floods from which the city has suffered those of 1849 and 1882 were the most destructive. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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