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.

- Report No. 2 - Page 50 -

(John H. Campbell Family)

-2-

    March 2nd was my birthday, so Mrs. Young and I went to the Country Club in the morning;‑ I played eighteen holes of golf and then came in and inspected the Country Club, which was the finest one I have ever seen;‑ and then we enjoyed a delicious luncheon served under the largest oak tree I have seen. We enjoyed two or three hours under this tree winding up with a dinner at the hotel, Which ended "A Perfect Day".

    We sailed from New Orleans for St. Petersburg ‑ a two days' sail over the Gulf of Mexico. The mercury was about 75 degrees all the way. I never tire of watching the water with flying dish and quite often a school of porpoises, and one lady was sure she saw a whale.

    I wired to Cousin Tommy Campbell to engage a room in his hotel, but he had rented the hotel and was living in a beautiful private home, and instead of getting us a room somewhere he took us home with him. We had a delightful time while there. I played golf on the two courses there, and he took us for a fine motor trip to Tampa, Bellaire, etc. Mary, Curt, and John were there and they all gave us a fine time. Tommy is getting rich along with the rest of the people down there dealing in real estate. Real estate values are so multiplied down there I will not attempt to quote them.

    Again, I repeat, if you can go South to spend a winter, or, if you can go for only a week, do so,‑ you never will regret it, but go way down as far as St. Petersburg or Florida.

                            Yours truly,

                                        COUSIN PHIL YOUNG