CORRESPONDENCE
A LETTER FROM NEW ORLEANS
[To the. Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—America's most astonishing city is marking time for itself. Travellers who left it in the beginning of the summer to seek cooler climes and the recreation of European travel, have returned to find that a modern Aladdin has rubbed a magic lamp, and almost in a night great sky-scrapers, -hotels, and other building ventures have sprung up. Even the his- toric Mississippi River, from whose waters De Soto drank, hoping to find eternal youth, has kept in the march of progress. Work has just been started on a fifteen-million-dollar bridge to carry rail and motor traffic over its two-mile width. This 'will connect the city with the West and eliminate the laborious ferry service which now is used for both trains and passengers, The bridge, with its approaches, will be nearly three and a-half miles in length ; a stupendous undertaking.
The traveller will also see, on his return to his city, civic de- velopments along the, picturesque Lake Ponchatrain, on the outskirts of the city. One of the municipal boards has taken over five miles of virgin soil, to improve and transform into a beach front and residential section a formerly mosquito-ridden tract that in the old New Orleans days was considered worth- less. About fifty million dollars is involved in these improve- ments, and would-be property owners are casting speculative eyes on what will be, when finished, one of the most beautiful parts of the city.
Another development is the opening of new concrete and gravel roads from all parts of the North and East. Motoring has become universal in the country, and whereas formerly access to the extreme South was almost impossible, except by wide detours, one can now take, with ease and comfort, a direct motor trip from New Orleans to Winnipeg, Canada, in about nine days, a distance of more than two thousand miles. So popular has motor traffic become that work has begun on a sixty-million-dollar bridge that will cross over the lower end of Lake Ponchatrain and will shorten the distance to the coast by almost a hundred miles.
Formerly New Orleans was almost the only large city where Mammoth, up-to-date apartment houses were not found.
The climate was Dot thought suitable for one-zeason. That theory has been exploded, however,' because, despite the balmy winter and absence of frost and snow, the summer is - no more sultry and warm than that of most other cities. Consequently, during the past year, many of the old Southern mansions have been converted into apartments, or else razed to make way for modern hotels. The growing servant problem may be contributory to the increase in the number of apart. ment dwellers, although with a coloured population of a hundred thousand servants are always available. However, many of them have been lured to the northern part of the country by promises of far larger wages than are paid in the South. In New York City cooks command twenty or twenty-five dollars a week, while the same service is obtained in the South for eight dollars—sometimes less. This is due to the fact that many of the " old-time " negroes, whose parents and grandparents were slaves, are loth to leave the mild climate and are content to work for less money here.
Forecasts are made that the new hotels recently erected will be taxed to their fullest capacity this winter. The races will bring an army of tourists into the city who will probably spend the entire winter. For a time, it was thought there would be some action taken against racing, in the summer session of the Louisiana legislature, but nothing was done, except to pass a small tax, and the result will be that New Orleans will probably have the biggest season in its history. For the third time, we shall have the New Orleans fifty. thousand-dollar handicap, which ranks with the Kentucky Derby. Announcement has been made by a foreign syndicate that visitors will get a new thrill by betting on Jai Aili, which will be played in a magnificent glass-enclosed pavilion on the outskirts of the city. The Pari-Mutuel betting machines will be used in connexion with the game, and it promises to be a close second in popularity to the horse-races. With yachting, sailing and swimming in beautiful Lake Ponchatrain ; with side trips to the resorts on the Gulf of Mexico, the tourist who played in Europe during the summer can continue his easy existence in Louisiana's playground.
The native Orleanian and the business men of the city leave these light amusements to the care-free visitors within its gates. Many of the residents have never attended the races or other attractions that are used as a lure by the railroads to bring the tourist south. When the average business man leaves his office, he finds his recreation on the golf course. A new club has just been opened on the Soniat estate, about fourteen miles from the city, a magnificent place, one of the old landmarks, and famous as one of the big sugar plantations of a decade ago. The mansion itself is used as the club-house, and- has been but slightly changed, and even the old slave quarters, now used as caddie houses, have been preserved as far as possible. New municipal courses have also been opened up during the last six months.
An old New Orleans and a new New Orleans seem to be fighting for supremacy to-day, and there is a sharp line even now drawn between the old and new parts of the city. In the Vieux Carre, old traditions are still" rigidly followed ; French is the language generally spoken ; even the neg,ro servants use a patois ; and strong efforts are being made to preserve the old landmarks and historic buildings in the quarter where the city was first laid out. On the upper side of Canal Street, the wide thoroughfare that divides the city, a never-ceasing army of workers throng the high modern buildings ; a constant clamour in the stock and cotton exchanges is heard throughout the day, and business is as hectic and progressive as in every other large American city.
Balancing the scale is the floating population which regularly drifts into the city as soon as the cold weather begins in the North—the wealthy class who are able to maintain a winter home in what they term the Monte Carlo of America, who erroneously believe that here they can better evade the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution than in North where Volstead laws are more rigidly enforced, who are welcomed to the city partly because they bring a brilliancy and gaiety with them, and partly because they help swell the municipal coffers by the generous distribution of their wealth. Many, too, observing the trend of business moving southward,
are investing in Southern interests, and will eventually become permanent residents here.—I am, Sir, &c., the
Yours NEW ORLEANS CoasEspormr.zrr.
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