American cities 556

The Thomas house, in Franklin Square 561

You will see them having tea, and dancing under the palm fronds of
the cocoanut grove 576

Cocktail hour at The Breakers 581

Nowhere is the sand more like a deep warm dust of yellow gold 588

The couples on the platform were "ragging" 600

Harness held together by that especial Providence which watches over
negro mending 613

It was a very jolly fair 616

The mysterious old Absinthe House, founded 1799 620

St. Anthony's Garden 632

Courtyard of the old Orleans Hotel 641

The little lady who sits behind the desk 656

The lights are always lowered at Antoine's when the spectacular Cafe
Boulot Diabolique is served 664

Passing between the brilliantly illuminated buildings, the Mardi
Gras parades are glorious sights for children from eight to eighty
years of age 672

THE BORDERLAND

O magnet-South! O glistening, perfumed South!
O quick mettle, rich blood, impulse and love! good and evil!
O all dear to me!

WALT WHITMAN.

AMERICAN ADVENTURES

CHAPTER I

ON JOURNEYS THROUGH THE STATES

On journeys through the States we start,
... We willing learners of all, teachers of all, lovers of all.

We dwell a while in every city and town ...

--WALT WHITMAN.

Had my companion and I never crossed the continent together, had we
never gone "abroad at home," I might have curbed my impatience at the
beginning of our second voyage. But from the time we returned from our
first journey, after having spent some months in trying, as some one put
it, to "discover America," I felt the gnawings of excited appetite. The
vast sweep of the country continually suggested to me some great
delectable repast: a banquet spread for a hundred million guests; and
having discovered myself unable, in the time first allotted, to devour
more than part of it--a strip across the table, as it were, stretching
f