There are buildings still standing which are unchanged parts of the
earlier French town--for instance, the government house, the barracks, the
hospital, and the convent of the Ursulines. We notice that the walls and
fortifications, built partly by the French and partly by the Spaniards,
are but a mere ring of grass-grown ruins about the city.
[Illustration: A Public Building in New Orleans Built in 1794.]
But the city is very picturesque with its tropical vegetation, always
green, and its quaint houses, many of them raised several feet above the
ground on pillars. The more pretentious mansions are surrounded by broad
verandas and fine gardens, and scattered here and there among the houses
of the better class are those of the poor people.
The streets are straight and fairly wide, but dirty and ill-kept. The
sidewalks are of wood, and at night we need to take our steps carefully,
for only a few dim lights break the darkness. Beyond the walls of the city
we see suburbs already springing up.
Three-fourths of the inhabitants are creoles--that is, natives of French
and Spanish descent, who speak in the French tongue. We do not understand
them any more than if we were in a really foreign city.
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