t five o'clock, met a large party at dinner at Mr. B----'s; Madame
B----e, a lady of the country, doing the honours with that vivacity and
grace which is said to distinguish the French creoles of New Orleans:
the dinner was excellent, a mixture of English and French cooking, both
good, and admirably served; whilst for wines, we had Chateau Margarot of
1825, with frozen champagne, and Madeira, such as can only be produced
in this country. The dinner party, with the exception of a couple of
creole French gentlemen, was composed of my own countrymen; and little
was here to remind one of a strange land, save the plates of clear ice
sparkling on the table, and the faces of ebony shining behind our
chairs.
NEW ORLEANS.
AMERICAN THEATRE.
On Monday the 5th I attended rehearsal at the American Theatre, and was
pleased to find it a large, well-proportioned house, with three rows of
boxes, a pit, or _parquette_, as it is termed, subdivided as in the
French Theatre: each seat is numbered, and, being taken at the
box-office, is secured to the purchaser for any part of the evening. The
company was a very tolerable one; and in the person of a nephew of Mr.
W. Farren's, I found an adjunct of much importance to me--an excellent
old man.
My next anxiety was about my audience, not its numbers, as I was assured
every seat in the house was disposed of, and this as far as could be
allowed, for every night I might perform; but I felt solicitous with
respect to its character and composition, of which I had received very
discouraging reports. I kept however my apprehensions to myself,
resolved to do my best after my own fashion, and abide the result as I
best might.
On Tuesday I made my _debut_; and never was man more agreeably surprised
than myself when, after making my bow, I for the first time took a rapid
survey of the aspect of the house: the _parquette_ and dress-boxes were
almost exclusively filled by ladies, _coiffees_ with the taste which
distinguishes Frenchwomen in every country, and which becomes peculiarly
striking here, where are to be seen the finest heads of dark hair in the
world; many wore bonnets of the latest Parisian fashion, and all were
more dressed than it is usual to be at theatres in America. This
attention to costume on the part of the ladies, added to their occupying
the pit, obliges the gentlemen to adopt a correspondent neatness; and
hence it occurs that, when the New Orleans theatre is attende
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