NEW ORLEANS. 



31 



iiient is largely due to the establishment of an efficient 

 quarantine system, which has exploded the idea, 

 formerly entertained, that yellow fever originated here. 

 The annual death-rate is now 26.45 per thousand, but 

 very unequally distributed, being nearly twice as great 

 among the negroes (39.03 per thousand), who take no 

 sanitary precautions, as among the whites (21.89 per 

 thousand). The Auxiliary .Sanitary Association, sup- 

 ported by popular subscriptions, co-operates with the 

 city and health authorities in cleaning the streets and 

 gutters and in caring for the public health. 



The diseases carrying off the greatest number of 

 people are consumption, pneumonia, bronchitis, and 

 other diseases of the respiratory organs, which are 

 frequent in winter in consequence of the humidity of 

 the atino.-phere ; malarial fevers, which, however, pre- 

 vail mainly in the outskirts of the city, and diseases of 

 the stomach and bowels. On the other hand most 

 zymotii: diseases are generally rarer than in other 

 American cities, scarlet fever unfrequent, typhoid 

 fevers very rare, croup seldom, and cholera infantum 

 almost unknown. The summer has, for the past ten 

 years, been the healthiest season of the year, and the 

 worst the beginning of winter when rains are frequent. 

 The most agreeable weather is from the beginning of 

 February to June, when it is dry, clear, cool, and com- 

 fortable. 



The drainage of the city, which plays an important 

 part in determining its health, is defective, the original 

 plans never having been carried out to cornnletion. 

 Being without sewers, the drainage is all on the sur- 

 face, the rain water being carried off in open gutters 

 and canals to the rear of the city, where it is pumped 

 over a levee and thence carried to Lake Pontehartrain, 

 while the garbage and sewage are carried to the river 

 in carts and dumped into it. Steps are being taken to 

 improve the drainage by the construction of a new 

 canal running through the centre of the city, and ad- 

 ditional drainage machines. Since 1880 the system 

 of flushing the gutters by pumping water from the 

 Mi ksipjii into them has oeen practiced, and has 

 resulted in keeping them cleaner and improving the 

 public health. 



New Orleans, being spread over a large area of ter- 

 ritory, I J") square miles, with 4. 10 miles of streets, has 

 paved but a small proportion of them, the rest being 



dirt" streets, wnolly un paved. Since 1883 there 

 has been a decided improvement in this respect, 

 22 miles of pavement having been laid, of which 9 

 are in asphaltum, 5 in stone, mainly granite, and 8 in 

 iron gravel. 



No public buildings of any importance have been 

 Utterly erected in New Orleans. The Shakespeare 

 Almshouse, which accommodates 125 paupers, was 

 erected in 1880, on Carondelet street. Additions 

 have been made to the famous Charity Hospital, and 

 an ambulance service established in connection with it. 

 Other late additions to the already numerous charit- 

 able institutions of New Orleans are the Touro In- 

 firmary and Hospital and the Asylum of the Little 

 Sisters of the Poor (Catholic), on Prytania street, and 

 the Jewish Widows' and Orphans' Home on St. 

 Charles avenue. The latter institution is established 

 for the benefit of the Jews of all the Southern States. 



The educational advantages of New Orleans have 

 improved greatly since 1880. The donation by Mr. 

 Paul Tulane of $2,000,000 to the University of 

 Louisiana, the name of which was, in his honor, 

 changed to Tulane University, enabled that institution 

 to greatly extend its operations. An industrial school 

 was established in 1883, and a museum in 1885, and a 

 series of free lectures has been since delivered each 

 winter. Including the medical, law, academical, and in- 

 dustrial departments the college will now average 1200 

 students in attendance each year. The Sophie New- 

 combe College for Girls, a branch of Tulane College, 

 was established in 1 SSfi with a donation of $200,000 

 from a lady of Louisville. 



The colored people of New Orleans have the advan- 

 tage of four colleges : Straight University (Congrega- 

 tional), Leland University (Baptist), New Orleans 

 University (Methodist), and the Southern University, 

 undenominational and supported by the State. All 

 four are open to both sexes and have n average an- 

 nual attendance of 1250, about equally divided be- 

 tween males and females. The College of the Immacu- 

 late Conception (Catholic), with 450 students, is also 

 authorized to grant degrees. 



The Howard Memorial Library, with 125,000 vol- 

 umes, was erected in 1888 by Miss Annje Howard. 

 The only other public libraries are the Louisiana State 

 Library, 30,000 volumes, and the Fisk or Tulane Li- 

 brary, 12,000. 



The commerce of New Orleans has undergone im- 

 portant changes in the last ten years with the construc- 

 tion of railroads. Formerly the trade was almost 

 wholly done on the Mississippi, and "the levee," as 

 the river front of the city is called, became the most 

 active commercial point in the world. As late as 1882 

 the steamboats and barges handled the greater bulk 

 of the receipts from the interior, but since then the 

 railroads have surpassed them, as shown by the fol- 

 lowing table of value of receipts of produce : 



There were three trunk railroad lines reaching New 

 Orleans in 1882. _ A fourth was built that year, a fifth 

 in 1883, and a sixth in 1885. There are in addition 

 two local railroad lines, the New Orleans, Terre-aux- 

 Boeufs, and Gulf, and the New Orleans and East 

 Louisiana Railroad. 



The effect of railroads upon the river traffic is seen 

 in the arrival of steamboats and barges : 



While the commerce of New Orleans has changed 

 much in the last ten years, the volume has increased, 

 the loss in foreign imports and the coastwise trade 

 with the Gulf towns being more than compensated for 

 by the improved trade with New York- The following 



