tries to make
us think that bananas and cocoanuts grow on sugar-maple trees. However,
in the last year or two, St. Paul has perceived the folly of her course,
and has resumed her annual carnival.

In the case of New Orleans I cannot believe there is real danger that
the carnival will be given up. Instead, I believe that the business
enthusiasts will be appeased--as they were a year or two ago, for the
first time in carnival history--by the inclusion of an industrial
pageant glorifying the city's commercial renaissance. Also the New
Orleans newspapers soothe the spirit of the Association of Commerce, at
carnival time, by publishing items presumably furnished by that capable
organization, showing that business is going on as usual, that bank
clearings have not diminished during the festivities, and that, despite
the air of happiness that pervades the town, New Orleans is not really
beginning to have such a good time as a stranger might suppose from
superficial signs. With such concessions made to solemn visaged
commerce, is the carnival continued.

* * * * *

There are at least six cities on this continent which every one should
see. Every one should see New York because it is the largest city in the
world, and because it combines the magnificence, the wonder, the beauty,
the sordidness, and the shame of a great metropolis; every one should
see San Francisco because it is so vivid, so alive, so golden; every one
should see Washington, the clean, white splendor of which is like the
embodiment of a national dream; every one should see the old gray
granite city of Quebec, piled on its hill above the river like some
fortified town in France; every one should see the sweet and
aristocratic city of Charleston, which suggests a museum of tradition
and early American elegance; and of course every one should see New
Orleans.

As to whether it is best to see the city in everyday attire, or masked
for the revels, that is a matter of taste, and perhaps of age as well.
To any one who loves cities, New Orleans is always good to see, while to
the lover of spectacles and fetes the carnival is also worth
seeing--once. The two are, however, hardly to be seen to advantage
simultaneously. To visit New Orleans in carnival time is like visiting
some fine old historic mansion when it is all in a flurry over a
fancy-dress ball. The furniture is moved, master, mistress and servants
are excited, the cook is ove