Picture 26.

The original caption to this picture says, “On November 6, 1892, the Amalgamated Labor Council having so decided all the Unions connected with it began to take part in a battle which had originated in a demand for higher wages made by the draymen and truckmen and opposed by the merchants of New Orleans.  The strikers succeeded in closing all business.”  Indeed, the only business prominently operating in this picture is the street railway business, although the scene is certainly peaceful.  One assumes that the word “battle” is not intended literally.  We are looking out past the Clay statue at the corner of St. Charles/Royal Streets.  In the foreground a car is just moving onto the turntable for the Magazine and Prytania lines, on the river side of the statue.  To its right a car on the outer track is moving out toward the lake, and visible between them is a car on the Orleans RR loop around the statue.  At the right rear we can see the six track section between St. Charles/Royal and Carondelet/Bourbon Streets, with cars visible on all six tracks except the second track from the left (the inner riverbound track).  At center left is a St. Charles Street RR car entering St. Charles Street.  The most unusual car in the picture is the dark car just to the right of the base of the Clay statue.  It appears to be too massive to be a horsecar.  Possibly it is a baggage car for use on the West End steam-powered trains.  Incidentally, electrification of the horsecar system began the following year.Photos of the World and Its People, 1893

Plate7.jpg

Previous Picture | Next Picture