Dear Cousins:-

    There has not much happened in the family since my last letter, so I am going to tell you about our trip last winter to New Orleans and St. Petersburg.

    Ida and I left New York about the middle of March on one of the coldest days of the winter on the steamer "Momus" for New Orleans. Our Insurance Company has an annual convention for their officers and agents in different places, and two years ago we went to Palm Beach. I wish to say that if you ever have an opportunity to go to Florida, do not turn it down for it is a wonderful experience. It was about zero when we left New York, and the second day out we were off the coast of Florida with the mercury about 75 degrees. Of course, we sat out on deck all day and part of the night, and thereafter for four days. The boat did not make any stops until we reached the mouth of the Mississippi River where we were obliged to wait for a river pilot. New Orleans is about one hundred miles up the river.

    The climate was about like June up here. New Orleans is a wonderful old city, it being the second largest port in the United States, and I was much surprised to see about as many ships at anchor as you see in New York Harbor. The city is several feet below the river, and as a consequence all of the sewage has to be pumped out, and all of the dead are buried above ground. There is one cemetery where the say one cannot be buried for leas than $10,000. (ten thousand.

    It is certainly very beautiful to view the marble vaults and mausoleums. The poorer class of the city have to be buried in vaults with some chemical to eat up the remains, and then the ashes are removed to make room for some other body.

    We took a "rubbernecks” trip through the old French Quarters and saw some buildings over two hundred years old. We also saw the "Orleans Hotel" which was built in 1799 and the "Absinthe House" built in 1798. We went into a Catholic Church where they were holding services, that had been standing for one hundred twenty eight years; this was in perfectly good repair. The main street (Canal Street) of the city is very wide with four street car tracks and room for four automobiles abreast on each side. This was originally a canal and has been filled in, making a beautiful street. The principal hotel is "The Grunewald" where the Convention‑headquarters were. In the basement of this hotel is a mammoth cave built to represent rocks. There were five or six hundred of us seated in this cave and served to a very delicious luncheon.