From this I wandered into the States by Schenectady, Utica, and Albany,
down the Hudson to New York, thence--but why recite mere names? It was
after about three months' travelling, during which my wardrobe shared a
fate not dissimilar to AEsop's bread-basket, that I found myself at New
Orleans. Coming even from the varied and strange panorama that so many
weeks of continual travelling present, I was struck by the appearance
of New Orleans. Do not be afraid, worthy reader; you're not "in" for any
description of localities. I 'll neither inflict you with a land view
nor a sea view. In my company you 'll never hear a word about the
measurement of a cathedral, or the number of feet in height of a
steeple. My care and my business are with men and women. They are to me
the real objects of travel. The checkered board of human life is the map
whose geography I love to study, and my thoughts are far more with the
stream that flows from the heart, than with the grandest river that ever
sought the sea. When I said I was struck with New Orleans, it was then
with the air of its population. Never did I behold such a mass of
bold, daring, reckless fellows as swaggered on every side. The fiery
Frenchman, the determined-looking Yankee, the dark-browed Spaniard,
the Camanche and the half-caste, the Mulatto, the Texan, the Negro, the
Cuban, and the Creole, were all here, and all seemed picked specimens of
their race.

The least acute of observers could not fail to see that it was a land
where a quick eye, a steady foot, and a strong hand were requisites of
every-day life. The personal encounters that in other cities are
left altogether to the very lowest class of inhabitants, were here
in frequent use among every grade and rank. Every one went armed; the
scenes which so often occurred, showed the precaution a needful one.

The wide-awake look of the Yankee was sleepy indifference when
contrasted with the intense keenness of aspect that met you here at
every step, and you felt at once that you were in company where all
your faculties would be few enough for self-protection. This, my first
impression of the people, each day's experience served to confirm.
Whatever little veils of shame and delicacy men throw over their sharp
practices elsewhere, here, I am free to confess, they despised such
hypocrisy. It was a free trade in wickedness. In _their_ game of life
"cheating was fair." Now, this in nowise suited me nor my plans. I soon
saw that