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Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

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THE ROMANCE OF BANKING 297at these two agencies, represented a considerable part of thecotton exported from the United States. Mr. Kains, whowas afterwards manager of the San Francisco branch, wasthe officer who opened the New Orleans agency. Attemptswere made to legislate the agency out of existence by imposingheavy taxation on it as a foreign enterprise, and thisfinallyled in 1901 to the establishment of the CommercialNational Bank of New Orleans as an allied institution to takeover the business.Just as California is subject to earthquakes, Louisianahas suffered from flood and fever.The city of New Orleansitself has escaped disaster from flood, but for many yearsit stood in great danger of the vast volume of water broughtdown by the Mississippi river breaking through the leveesand inundating the city. On several occasions in the springthe office of the bank in New Orleans was ten to fifteen feetbelow the level of the river, and frequently the water has beenkept out of the principal streets of the city only by the use ofsandbags. At the time when the bank did business in NewOrleans the city had no sewerage or water system, and theresidents depended for their water supply on rain-water collectedin large cisterns. Many of the officers who went fromCanada will recall the unpleasant necessity of using themuddy Mississippi water for toilet purposes.In the earlier years of the bank's business there its officerswent through several epidemics of yellow fever. On oneoccasion New Orleans was quarantined by all the surroundingcountry. Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and the rest of theState of Louisiana absolutely refused to permit anyone fromNew Orleans to enter their borders; and through trains fromNew Orleans were not allowed to discharge any passengersfrom that city. Men with shotguns were placed at everystation to see that the regulations were obeyed; and itwouldprobably have meant death for anyone to attempt to get off atrain for a moment's airing. Fortunately yellow fever is nowalmost a thing of the past, as a result of the discovery that

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