LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI, Part 9.
BY MARK TWAIN
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER XLI. CHAPTER XLII. CHAPTER XLIII. CHAPTER XLIV. CHAPTER XLV. |
Chapter 41
The Metropolis of the South
THE approaches to New Orleans were familiar; general aspectswere unchanged. When one goes flying through London along arailway propped in the air on tall arches, he may inspect milesof upper bedrooms through the open windows, but the lower half ofthe houses is under his level and out of sight. Similarly, inhigh-river stage, in the New Orleans region, the water is up tothe top of the enclosing levee-rim, the flat country behind itlies low—representing the bottom of a dish—and as the boatswims along, high on the flood, one looks down upon the housesand into the upper windows. There is nothing but that frailbreastwork of earth between the people and destruction.
The old brick salt-warehouses clustered at the upper end ofthe city look