f papa's business, or Mademoiselle's proper bank account. So
the hotels--though not frequented by the ladies of the city at
all--became, each year, more and more thronged by the young men; and
consequently, each year, the outsiders gained a very gradual, but more
secure, footing near the home society and even began to force their way
into it.

It must be confessed that some damsels from Red River wore diamonds at
breakfast; and that young ladies from Ohio would drive tandem to the
lake! And then their laughs and jokes at a soiree would give a dowager
from Frenchtown an apoplexy!

_Que voulez vous?_ Pork is mighty! and cotton was king!

There was much difference of opinion as to the morals of the Crescent
City. For my own part, I do not think the men were more dissipated than
elsewhere, though infinitely more wedded to enjoyment and fun in every
form. There was the French idea prevalent that gambling was no harm;
and it was indulged to a degree certainly hurtful to many and ruinous
to some. From the climate and the great prevalence of light wines,
there was less drunkenness than in most southern towns; and if other
vices prevailed to any great extent--they were either gracefully
hidden, or so sanctioned by custom as to cause no remark, except by
straight-laced strangers.

Oh! the delicious memories of the city of old! The charming cordiality
to be found in no colder latitude, the cosy breakfasts that prefaced
days of real enjoyment--the midnight revels of the _bal masque_! And
then the carnival!--those wild weeks when the Lord of Misrule wields
his motley scepter--leading from one reckless frolic to another till
_Mardi Gras_ culminates in a giddy whirl of delirious fun on which,
at midnight, Lent drops a somber veil!

Sad changes the war has wrought since then!

The merry "Krewe of Comus" has been for a time replaced by the
conquering troops of the Union; the _salons_ where only the best and
brightest had collected have been sullied by a conquering soldiery; and
their leader has waged a vulgar warfare on the noble womanhood his
currish spirit could not gaze upon without a fruitless effort to
degrade.

Of the resident ladies, I can only say that to hear of a fast one--in
ordinary acceptation of that term--was, indeed, rare.

The young married woman monopolized more of the society and its beaux
than would be very agreeable to New York belles; but, if they borrowed
this custom from their French neighbors, I have n