USA > Louisiana > Orleans Parish > New Orleans > Standard history of New Orleans, Louisiana, giving a description of the natural advantages, natural history settlement, Indians, Creoles, municipal and military history, mercantile and commercial interests, banking, transportation, etc. > Part 49
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Until it was closed by the law, old No. 18 Royal street was one of the most famous establishments of the city. Roulette and loto, faro and other games were played. It was frequented by large crowds of all classes and nationalities. It was brilliantly illuminated and ran day and night. More than most American gam- bling houses it resembled the gambling resorts of Europe, on account of the cosmopolitan character of the crowds and the popularity of roulette and the foreign looking croupiers, with their blue-black, close shaven faces. There were always Chinamen in this establishment playing loto. The Americans played roulette and faro and other games, only occasionally taking any hand at loto to try their luck against the Chinamen. With celestial patience and perseverance the Chinamen used to stick to their game for hour after hour, with absolute immobility whether they won or lost.
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Although there are laws against gambling in Louisiana-the Constitution de- clares gambling to be a vice, and the lottery has been stopped and the large gambling houses closed-there is still a considerable amount of it in the city. Boys who play craps in the street are arrested, but private gambling houses that are out of sight flourish unmolested, although it is charged that the police must needs know of their existence. The man who comes to New Orleans who wishes to gamble will find no difficulty in running against a sport who will steer him to a place where he may be fleeced with a thoroughness as absolute as it was done in the old days. Poolrooms are open and are thronged by men of all classes and ages. At the private clubs there are still played games of poker, and it is said the gains and losses sometimes amount up to a considerable figure. Of course, at the races, there is a regular bet- ting ring, and on every race a considerable amount of money changes hands.
RACING.
While it is true that neither in New Orleans nor in Louisiana has there been any breeding of blooded horses, nevertheless, on account of the sporting and pleas- ure-loving character of the people, horse-racing, from the earliest days, has been a prominent feature of the city. The old Metairie racecourse, where now the Me- tairie Cemetery is located, fifty years ago was the most famous racecourse in the United States. Between 1840 and 1860, in proportion to the population, New Or- leans could bear comparison with any city in the world as to the number of its racecourses and the quality of the races. Even at the present time, New Orleans is one of the racing centers of the country.
There was the Eclipse course at Carrollton, the Metairie course, that has just been referred to, the Bingaman course in Algiers, La., a course on the Hopkins plantation, about twelve miles below the city, and the Union course, now the Lou- isiana Jockey Club course, which is the only one that is now used.
It was on the Metairie course that Lexington defeated Lecompte, April 1, 1854. Duncan F. Kenner, Richard Ten Broeck, Colonel Jefferson Wells, Colonel Binga- man, Colonel William Johnson and all the magnates of the day were present. Among the spectators was ex-President Fillmore. Perhaps this was the most fa- mous race that was run in New Orleans in the old days, although the racing was frequent, the horses were of first quality and the purses high.
The races in our day take place in the spring and autumn at the Fair Grounds and are conducted by the Louisiana Jockey Club.
The New Louisiana Jockey Club was incorporated on the 24th of March, 1880,
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with a capital stock of seventy-five thousand dollars. The charter members and the first board of directors were : R. W. Simmons, John A. Morris, Walter J. Hall and George W. Nott.
The New Orleans races are one of the features of New Orleans and of the South. The best horses of the country are brought down, and great pains are taken by the club members, who are gentlemen of high character, to have the races abso- lutely fair. The crowds that gather there are great and the grand stand frequently contains a large assemblage of ladies.
Adjoining the racecourse is the Jockey Club House, on the Metairie road, with an entrance drive from the racecourse. The Jockey Club House was once the residence of Mr. Luling. The club purchased it for sixty thousand dollars. It has a front of five hundred feet on Esplanade street by twenty-five hundred feet deep, with an area of nearly thirty acres. It is high ground and is exempt from overflow. The gardens are beautifully set out and are kept in perfect order, with Southern trees and plants and flowers and shrubbery. In the center of the park there is a lake, with a small island. There are orchards of fruit trees surrounding the park, and flowers and shrubbery. It is one of the most beautiful places in the country. The club building is a large old-fashioned brick building, three stories high, with magnificent reception and dining rooms, library, reading rooms, etc., beautifully furnished with carved furniture. Large galleries surround the building and the terrace is one of the most beautiful in the country. It is surmounted by a cupola, from which a magnificent view of the city and the surrounding country can be had.
Here, during the summer, the club gives its famous promenade concerts, which are attended by the fashionable people of the city and are among the features of social life in New Orleans. Bands of musicians are stationed about the gardens, in the shrubbery, and the grounds are lighted up by numbers of Chinese lanterns and electric lights, the effect of which is very beautiful.
HUNTING AND FISHING.
On account of its situation, surrounded as it is by water and with bayous and lakes all over the country, and its neighborhood, no city in the country is more fav- orably situated than New Orleans for all sorts of sport. The hunting is principally of ducks and snipe, but all kinds of fish, fresh water and salt, are caught in the immediate vicinity. There are many hunting and fishing clubs near the city of New Orleans, many of them within the city limits, though not within the built-up por-
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tion, as the city limits of New Orleans stretch to the Rigolets, from the Jefferson line, a distance of forty odd miles. Every sportsman has his particular hunting and fishing grounds, but the whole country is good. There are hunting clubs at Eng- lish Look-out, at the Rigolets, Chef Menteur, at Miller's Bayou, Lake Catherine, and at Chandeleur Islands. All of these places are good for fishing also. Many of the sportsmen have elaborate outfits of canoes, pirogues and hunting suits- which must be yellow, the color of the marsh grass-and decoys, and innumerable paraphernalia for the amateur sportsman. The snipe shooting is good, but hunting duck is considered the nobler sport. The variety of ducks that may be shot in Louisiana is innumerable. The experts will name many more kinds than are found in the treatises of the ornithologists. The French duck is generally conceded to be the finest duck with regard to appearance and for the table. The Louisiana ducks, it is claimed, 'fly faster than the ducks in any other part of the world, but nevertheless very many are killed, both by the regular pot hunters and by amateur hunters. Many of the hunters are expert shots, and will calculate to a nicety the exact angle at which the gun is to be held and the exact distance ahead of the duck that it must be pointed. The hunting trains during the hunting season over the Louisville & Nashville Road, are always crowded with the regular hunters and their friends, whom they are taking over, and when they return Sunday night the amount of game that is brought in is something extraordinary. Over every seat is hung a bunch of ducks, and the baggage car, besides, is loaded full. To hunt ducks in Louisiana is not like hunting game in any other part of the country, where an afternoon can be devoted to the sport. It is a regular expedition. It is necessary to go to the hunting grounds so as to remain over night and get up an hour before daybreak and row or paddle in a small canoc or pirogue (riding 'in a Louisiana pirogue has been described by a visiting Englishman as floating in the water on a match) to the hunting grounds, where the blind is made and the hunters lay con- cealed until daybreak, when the ducks are expected to come. The coldest weather is considered the best for the sport, which, with a long pull before daybreak, makes the amount of hardship that is endured necessarily considerable. The marshes are damp, and when the ducks do come, you have to be very quick in handling the gun, as single ducks or whole flocks will fly by with the rapidity of a rifle bullet. Never- theless, the game seems to be worth the candle, as when the ducks are flying the bags that are secured arc considerable, and the Louisiana ducks are the finest in the world.
All sorts of fish are caught in the waters of South Louisiana. Trout, black
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fish, perch, bass, croker, shecp-head, Spanish mackerel, pompano, mullet, plaice, red-fish and cat-fish. The cat-fish usually trouble the amateur fisherman, as they abound everywhere in great quantities. To catch small shark at Grand Isle with a rope for line and immense hooks is considered a very enjoyable sport on account of the dangers from the bite of the fish. The sport is not finished when the fish is caught, as, with the shark, it is necessary to kill it. The favorite way is to chop off its tail with a hatchet. While the fisherman is chasing the shark to "decapitate" its tail, if an Irish bull may be used, the shark is very often chasing the fisherman. Sharks are caught at the end of the Island and they are usually small shark, three to three and one-half feet long. Green trout is considered one of the finest fish that can be caught, and in all the bayous and lagoons during the summer they abound.
The sportsmen's stores in New Orleans keep in stock all sorts of rods and tackle and flies, where fishermen's outfits and paraphernalia can be had, and the trade is very considerable, as many men in New Orleans are enthusiastic fishermen, and some of them very expert. Green trout are usually caught with live bait, shrimp being used, though some believe in a bit of red flannel to attract the trout. There is always doubt about the red flannel, but it is supposed to appeal to the picturesque taste of the fish. There is no doubt about the shrimp. They will bite at shrimp, and the 'Cadian fishermen, who are always experts in all sorts of fishing, always employ shrimp.
COCK-FIGHTING.
In the old days, cock-fighting was one of the sports par excellence in New Orleans. While the practice never grew to the extreme that it has in Mexico and in the Central American countries, where the Renidero de Gallos is as invariably a feature of the city as the Plaza, with its bands of musicians ; nevertheless there were cock-pits in many parts of the city, and then there was quite a trade in the breeding and training of game cocks, and considerable money was wagered upon the success of likely birds.
The old Spanish cock-pit is at the corner of Dumaine and Pricur streets, where occasionally a cock-fight is held, and where, a few years ago, there were mains regu- larly every Sunday from 9 a. m. till 3 p. m. Although it was originally a favorite sport with the Creoles, and although most of the fighting was in the Creole quarter of the city, nevertheless, it spread to the Americans, and the up-town residents be- came as fond of the sport as their down-town neighbors. There is a cock-pit in
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Jefferson Parish, just across the dividing line of the Parish of Orleans and the Parish of Jefferson, where many celebrated mains have been held, and where the jeunesse dore and the boys from "the front" frequently gathered to see the sport.
PRIZE-FIGHTING.
At one time prize-fighting was one of the regular sports in New Orleans. In no city of the world, not even in London, has the manly art flourished as it did in New Orleans in its heyday. New Orleans was the headquarters of the Sullivan- Ryan fight which took place in Mississippi, and of the Sullivan-Kilrain fight, which also took place in Mississippi ; and in the city itself many famous fights were held, principally at the Olympic Club, at which Sullivan, Corbett, Hall, Fitzsimmons and all the great stars of the prize ring appeared and won fame and large purses. No club in the United States ever offered as large purses as the Olympic Club. There were several of the fights where purses of twenty thousand dollars were of- fered.
Prize-fighting in New Orleans was finally stopped by a decision of the Supreme Court in a suit to forfeit the charter of the Olympic Club, and now only glove con- tests are held, which are infrequent and do not elicit great interest.
BASE-BALL,
Base-ball, since it has become a national game, has been played in New Orleans, and there have been in the city many fine games, the base-ball season extending for quite a while, and clubs from different leagues playing in the city, principally at Sportsman's Park, the grand stand of which is very large and the accommodations being sufficient, with the bleachers, to hold many thousands of people, who fre- quently congregate to sce the games.
RACQUETTE.
Racquette is still played in New Orleans at the old City Park on the Metairie road, near Canal street, by the Creoles, who have always been very fond of the game. There are several clubs in the city in the down-town quarter, and on Sundays very good games may be witnessed.
TENNIS.
While it was fashionable, tennis was played throughout the city, though of late it has been supplanted by golf. There are still many clubs in existence, notably one that plays in Audubon Park, and many people have tennis courts in their pri- vate yards.
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS. 477
GOLF.
The game of golf is recent in New Orleans, but is firmly established here, as in all large American cities who have followed the fashion of England and of New York in reviving the ancient game of Scotland. In Audubon Park there are several golf links, and the players operate upon them very frequently. There is a Golf Club and a Golf Club house in the park, at which, on ladies' day, teas are given which are considered quite minor society events.
A peculiar feature of the sport in New Orleans is the picaninny caddy, who is very different in appearance from his Northern and European compeer, and by no manner of dressing up in the golfing rig can be made to look "English, you know." The appearance of a little negro boy in golf costume is one of the most comical sights that can be seen anywhere in the world, the resemblance being to that of the monkeys in fancy dress that accompany hand-organs. Nearly all of them pout while they are addressed as caddy, as if they did not understand the meaning of the word and take it to be a term of opprobrium, and, as during a game it is fre- quently necessary to call "caddy," the faces of the little negroes grow blacker and blacker.
SUMMER PLEASURE RESORTS.
In summer the population of New Orleans goes to the West End, which is reached by electric cars that start on Canal and Bourbon streets. In some respects it is like Coney Island in New York. There is music there during the summer, and some of the bands are of a very high quality. Vaudeville, restaurants, a scenic railway and sideshows and special attractions on special days draw the crowd. The restaurants have been already referred to under that particular head. The Southern Yacht Club is located at West End, and the West End and the St. John Rowing Clubs.
The Spanish Fort, where the old Spanish Fort is still standing, was at one time a popular resort, and it is claimed by many to-day to be a much prettier place on account of the gardens than West End, but very little used, partly on account of the defective train service and partly on account of the growing supremacy of West End, due to its nearness to the city. The Spanish Fort has been given over to the negrocs, and is a favorite place for negro picnics.
The oldest of the summer pleasure resorts in New Orleans is Milneburg, whence the boats leave for Mandeville and Covington and places across Lake Pontchar- train. There are many private clubhouses here, and restaurants, also skiffs and
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sail-boats to hire. The finest of the restaurants is Moreau's, which will be treated of under the head of restaurants.
RESTAURANTS.
One of the most celebrated eafes of the old days was John Davis's, on Orleans street, between Royal and Bourbon, next to the Orleans Theater and the famous Orleans ballroom. Here the wild young fellows and the roues of the early part of the eentury used to meet to drink. Here they would quarrel over their drink or over some rival at one of the quadroon balls in the ballroom next door, and when the details were arranged, to report under the Trois Soeurs at the City Park, or, as tradition has it, if it were late at night, upon the plat of ground in the rear of the Cathedral, now fenced in, which was an admirable and convenient place for a duel with eoliehemardes. Then there was the La Bourse de Maspero or Maspero's Ex- change, eelebrated in the third decade of the present eentury. This was located on the corner of St. Louis and Chartres strcets. The building has been changed somne in the progress of time, but the aneient arehiteeture is still recognizable. The Southern Exchange barroom is now where the old Bourse used to be. This was the literary restaurant in ancient times, and the editors of the papers, professional men and the merehants, used to meet and drink, quarrel and play dominoes, which was a great game in the old days. In aneient New Orleans there were quarrels and also duels, not so many as at John Davis', which was the fighting plaee par ex- cellence.
The restaurants to-day are Lamothe's, on St. Charles, near Common, Moreau's. on Canal, between Carondelet and St. Charles, which has just been eloscd, and Fabaeher's and The Gem, on Royal, near Canal, and the Restaurant de Paris, on Bourbon street, just opposite the French Opera House, where there is an admirable table d'hote, and Antoine's, on St. Louis street, between Royal and Bourbon, eele- brated for its Creole cooking, as also Bezaudun's Restaurant de la Louissane, on Customhouse, between Royal and Bourbon; at West End, Tranchina's and Astrcdo's and others. At Milneburg there is Moreau's, where they still serve the Bouilla baisse. Here it was that Thaekcray ate it when he came to New Orleans in the '50's, when Miguel cooked it, and the famous novelist acknowledged that it was as good as that of Monsieur Terre, at Paris, famous in the New Street of the Little Fields that he immortalized in the Ballad of the Bouillabaisse.
Opposite the City Park is the Renaissance des Chenes Verts, which Mr. Alciatore keeps. It is one of the best restaurants in the country. There is Begue's, the fa-
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mous breakfast place, on Decatur, at the corner of Madison, and countless small restaurants in Little Italy, where the Bohemians foregather ; Pegot's, Buffa's, etc.
The cooking in New Orleans is celebrated, gourmands claiming that the Crcole cooking is the best in the world. Francatelli and Urbain Dubois cannot equal the dishes prepared by a genuine Crcole cook. The game, papabottes, grassets, ducks and snipe are served fessandé. There is bisque and courtbouillon and salmi and Spanish omelettes of all sorts, and gombo, gombo aux herbes, gombo filé, gombo aux ecrevisses.
Two drinks that are peculiar to New Orleans are the "roffignac," said to have been invented by the Marquis de Roffignac, one of the celebrities of the early days; and absinthe, which is also drunk in Paris. It is found at the old Absinthe House at the cornor of Bourbon and Bienville streets, which was built in the year 1752, and which has been an absinthe house since 1826.
CHAPTER XX.
THE CHURCHES.
BY J. M. LEVEQUE.
T HE church which first sent the desciples of the gospel into Louisiana was the Roman Catholic. De Soto is recorded as having had a number of missiona- ries with him. In the early days of the settlement of New Orleans, that religion, as to-day, had the majority of followers here. That was inherent in the nature of things. The two nations, Spain and France, under whose dominion Louisiana was, and to whom the early settlement and progress of Louisiana were due, were Roman Catholic, and, although many of the early settlers were Hugue- nots, the strife of religious belief seems to have been much softened by the exigencies of the new life and the necessity to be brotherly and to live after the teachings of Christ. Twenty-two ecclesiastics are recorded to have accompanied the adventurous band of De Soto. The influence of the church is legibly traced in numerous names of parishes in the lower section of the State and in even more numerous names of streets of the city.
When Robert Cavalier de la Salle gave the name "Louisiana" to all that terri- tory which for years was of very indefinite boundary, one Father Athanase accompanied him. This is the same priest who later was the companion of Bien- ville and Iberville when they entered the river from the sea in 1699. The Roman Catholic Church was very active in its missionary work among the Indians in those early days, and many of the clergy were martyrs to their zeal at the hands of the red man.
When Decoudray came to Mobile in command of a fifty-gun ship in 1705, the Bishop of Quebec sent five priests with the party. The bishop also sent two nuns to Louisiana. They were of the order of Grey nuns and were the first to come to Louisiana. As early as this date, or very little later, there must have been a chapel erected in this city by the Catholics, for we find mention of it in the chronicles of Father Charlevoix, who visited the city in 1722. New Orleans was then an infant city, and it is evident that the founding of the city and of the place of worship in
B. M. Jahmer
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STANDARD IIISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS. 481
it, must have been contemporaneous. It is recorded that in the year following, 1723, a severe storm passed over the city, demolishing the little chapel in which the first inhabitants of New Orleans used to worship. It is, therefore, not to be supposed that the first edifice of worship was a very sturdy structure.
In the time of Bienville, three of the great orders of the Catholic Church were assigned each a division of ecclesiastical territory-the Jesuits, the Discalced ( bare- footed) Carmelites and the Capuchins. The territory thus divided was very vast, extending to the Illinois River. The division excluded from New Orleans the order of Jesuits, and so Bienville provided that the Mississippi Company should furnish a house and lot for the representative of the Jesuits, and a chapel and vestry. Father Petit, a Jesuit superior, was stationed here, and thus the order of Jesuits, which has subsequently become so powerful and taken such a leading part in edu- cational and other work, had its humble origin in this part of the world. Although excluded from New Orleans in the assignment of territory, the necessity of having representation and a home in the entrepot of the southern valley brought the order here.
The Discalced Carmelites, failing to take charge of the territory assigned them in the ecclesiastical assignment, their province was turned over to the Capuchins.
The Bishop of Quebec at this time was the Vicar-General of Louisiana. He appointed Father Bruno, of the Capuchins, the first superior in Louisiana. The superior and his two monks ministered to the people of New Orleans in the early days. One of the monks was assigned to the troops, stationed here for the defense of the infant civilization, and the other ministered to the laity.
It was by the industry of the Jesuit fathers of the early days of New Orleans that a large and valuable tract of the territory now occupied by the city of New Orleans, in the heart of the business section, was clearcd of forest trees and put into use by civilized man. The tract extended from what is now Common street to De- lord. Facing on the river, it extended back to the lake. On this tract the Missis- sippi Company erected for the order a house and chapel. The grant of this property was made as a result of the Jesuit convention of 1726. The Jesuits, having them- selves cleared their property of the trees, installed a wax-shrub grove, from which a merchantable article was extracted. Their active industry converted this tract into one of the very first and finest estates of the primitive days. During the reign of Louis XV, of France, the estate was confiscated and sold for $180,000. The confis- cation took place in 1763. It was at the time that the greatest unfriendliness was being shown the order by the home government. It was alleged as an excuse for
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