NEW ORLEANS 



NEWPORT 



469 



now the shape of the letter S. The river is from 600 

 to 1000 yards wide, and GO to 240 feet deep. The 

 bar at its mouth was removed in 1874-79 by the 

 Eails jetties in South Psiss, .anil vessels of 30 feet 

 now easily reach New Orleans. The commerce of 

 the city is large ($550,403,319 in 1890), and it is 

 second" in the United States in exports. New 

 Orleans in the terminus of three canals, and of 

 sit large railroads (total mileage, 17,842) and three 

 local lines, while twenty lines of steamships connect 

 it with other American and foreign ports. Since 

 1875 it has made great progress in manufactures, 

 particularly in cotton goods, cotton-seed oil, 

 machinery, lumber, furniture, fertilisers, sngar- 

 retiniiig, rice-milling, beer, cigars, &c. Its factories 

 increased from 5.">4 in 1870 to 898 in 1880, and 

 2100 in 1890; and their product from 8,450,439 

 to $44,500,000. 



The site of New Orleans is perfectly flat, and lies 

 from 3 to feet below the high-water level of the 

 Mi.-*is.-ippi ; it is protected from overflow by levees 



or dykes of earth. Similar levees in the rear keep 

 out the waters of Lake Pontchartrain. The soil is 

 saturated with water, and cellars are impossible ; 

 and the dead of the better classes are usually placed 

 in tombs of brick or marble above ground. The 

 climate is warm and damp, the annual mean tem- 

 perature being 69 !'. ; but the summer is tempered 

 by winds from the Gulf, and is not oppressively 

 warm. On account of its situation, the city is 

 badly drained. It has no sewers, and the open 

 gutters which carry the rain-water into canals, and 

 thence into Lake Pontchartrain, are insufficient. 

 But recent years have seen a great improvement in 

 tin- public health, the death-rate having been re- 

 duced from 59 i*r 1000 in 1860 to 24-80 in 1890. 



While it possesses few imposing buildings, 

 New Orleans w a picturesque city. There are 

 several parks little improved, but with handsome 

 monuments or statues of Jackson, Lee, Franklin, 



(and others. The custom-house of granite cost 

 $4,500,000, and is the largest and most imposing 

 building in the city. The cathedral of St Louis, 

 a Gothic church erected in 1794, is a good sample 

 of the Creole-Spanish architecture. The arelii- 

 episcopal palace (1737) is the oldest building in 

 the city. Other noteworthy structures are the 

 cotton exchange, United States mint, St Charles 

 Hotel, and Christ and St Patrick's churches. 

 There are 188 churches, and 78 public schools, 

 with 430 teachers and 21,136 pupils enrolled. 

 Tulane University (known as the University of 

 Louisiana from 1834 to 1883) has 59 professors 

 and 683 students. Under its control is the 

 Sophie Newcomb Memorial College ( 1887), for the 

 higher education of girls. The College of the Im- 

 maculate Conception ( under the Jesuits ) has 228 

 students. There are 4 colleges for negroes, males 

 and females, with I860 students. The Howard 

 Memorial (1888), Tulane, and Louisiana state 

 libraries, all free, contain together 120,000 volumes. 

 The Charity Hospital (1784) is the largest institu- 

 tion of its kind in the United States, with accom- 

 modation for 800 to 1000 persons ; and there are 

 54 other hospitals, asylums, &c. 



The site of New Orleans was first visited in 1699 

 by Bienville, who in 1718 laid the foundations 

 of the city, and in 1726 made it the capital. In 

 1763 it was ceded to Spain by France, with the 

 rest of Louisiana; but when in 1765 the Spanish 

 governor, Ulloa, attempted to take possession, he 

 was driven out, and the people established a govern- 

 ment of their own. In 1769 New Orleans was 

 occupied by the Spanish, and the leaders in the 

 late movement were shot. It was ceded to France 

 in 1802, and transferred to the United States a few 

 davs later. Incorporated as a city in 1804, it was 

 divided in 1836 into three separate municipalities, 



in consequence of the jealousies between the Creoles 

 and the Americans ; but the three were again 

 consolidated into one in 1852. Since then New 

 Orleans has annexed the neighbouring towns of 

 Lafayette, Jefferson, Carrollton, and Algiers. 

 Other outstanding events in the history of the city 

 have been the battle of New Orleans (see JACKSON ) 

 in 1815 ; its capture in 1862 by the Federal fleet 

 under Admiral Karragitt (q. v. ); serious political 

 troubles in 1874 and 1877, resulting in 1874 in a 

 battle on the levee between the citizens and the 

 police and militia, in which 40 persons were killed 

 and '216 wounded; and the lynching in 1891 of 11 

 Italian majfiosi. In 1880 the capital of Louisiana 

 was removed from New Orleans to Baton Kouge. 



Pop. (1769, when it was transferred to Spain) 

 3190; (1802, when it became American) 10,508; 

 (1840) 102,193; (1880) 216,190; (1890) 242,039, 

 only 19 per cent, of whom were of American or 

 English descent, 17 Creole or French, 14 German, 

 12 Irish, 8 Italian, 5 Spanish, Scandinavian, Jewish, 

 &c. , 16 negroes, and 9 of mixed races, Indians, 

 Chinese, and Malays, a population truly cosmo- 

 politan in race and language ; (1900) 287,104. 



New Plymouth, the chief town of the pro- 

 vincial district of Taranaki, New Zealand, 220 

 miles NW. of Wellington by rail. Two miles 

 from the town extensive harbour-works are in 

 progress. Pop. (1886) 3093 ; ( 1891 ) 7932. 



Newport, since 1891 a county borough of Mon- 

 mouthshire, a municipal borough, and, with Mon- 

 niouthand Usk, a parliamentary liorough, is seated 

 on the river Usk, about 4 miles from its mouth, 24 

 miles SSW. of Monmouth and 145 W. of London, 

 .ind it is one of the principal outlets for the produce 

 of the extensive collieries and iron and steel works 

 in the vicinity. Its shipping trade has greatly in- 

 creased, and with it its dock accommodation, which 

 now covers more than 80 acres. New|>ort is the 

 largest iron-exporting port in the kingdom, and 

 ranks third amongst the coal-exporting ]>orts. In 

 some years 3,000,000 tons of coal are exported, 

 and 30,000 tons of iron pyrites and manganese im- 

 ported. The town has many fine public buildings, 

 prominent amongst them being the town-hall 

 ( 1885), erected atacost of 30,000, and St Woollos' 

 Church, occupying an elevated site, and in style 

 partly Norman and partly Perpendicular. Besides 

 its siiipiiiiig trade, Newport has manufactures of 

 india-rubber, gutta-[>ercha, and railway and tele- 

 graph plant and wagons, whilst several important 

 brass and iron foundries are in operation, as well 

 as breweries and pottery-works. On 4th November 

 1839 the town was the centre of a Chartist out- 

 break, which resulted in the death of ten persons, 

 and the wounding of many more. Pop. ( 1801 ) 

 1087; (1881) 38,427; and in 1891, when it was 

 created a county Iwrongli, 54,707. 



Newport, a market-town of Shropshire, on the 

 Shrewsbury Canal, 11 miles WSW. of Stafford. 

 Chartered by Henry I., ami burned in 1665, it has a 

 15th-century church, a grammar-school (1656), and 

 manufactures of machinery and agricultural imple- 

 ments. Pop. of parish, 2675. 



Newport, the capital of the Isle of Wight, on 

 the navigable Medina, near the centre of the 

 island, 4J miles S. of Cowes and 10 SW. of Ryde. 

 The church, rebuilt in 1854-56 on the site of one 

 nearly 700 years old, is a fine Decorated edifice, 

 anil contains Marochetti's beautiful monument, 

 erected by Queen Victoria in memory of the Princess 

 Elizalieth, who died at Carisbrooke Castle (q.v.) 

 on 8th September 1650. Newport besides has a 

 town-hall (1810); a free grammar-school (1612), the 

 scene in 1648 of the protracted but fruitless negoti- 

 ations between the parliamentary commissioners 

 and Charles I., to whose secret 'engagement' 9 



