Southern Sketches

II. An Lnteresting eiperience awaited va upon our arrival at the Crescent City. lt was Just coming' dai-k when we reached there, and a committee oï good citizens met us to give i welcome and to teil ufl they would take the party to the theatre that evenlng. Our car was placed a long ways up the yairds ín the Frenen QUarter, in a Bectiom called the Elys-ian Flelds, the ïorBier aristocratie ( reole portion oi the city, but now a tough ipiart. Aa we had a scant hour Ier upper, varioufi groups of Miehigankifis Ix'gan to scurry out for a restaurant. There were none within a coupiB of miles, so alter various exptolts, severaJ oï the men wlth thelr Avives found xlu'inselves in the back room of a free-lunch saloon where they ooyered all the saw-dust floor of xhe little 7x9 hole-in-the-vall and ate oysters standing up. Coming back they etepped into the open sewrs running In the streets and were the the wonder of the deizens of the place, to -u-hom such a raid was an un■usual Bight. lt was a ïunny way of "sluiumiiig it." In New Orlvans the days were pass?d in caariage drives and rides on the river by day, theatres and receptions by aight. The drives took in the U. 'S. Mint, where 1892 dollars were betag tlirown out; the old eemetery, vith íts graves all above ground (lor they cannot (lig below the surf ace); tiie old pi'ison, where the Malla men were shot and taken out for hanglng; the club house where the prize fighte tafce place; the old French eathedral and the inai-ket, where every edible anay 1k bought. It is a quaint ioreign town where the creóles are, but not 60 un-American as it has been, for a new life is coming even to the confeervative aristócrata of New Orleans. En passant, the pronunciation of New Orleans, gives rise to a joke. They say that when a person has plenty of inoney and is well fixed, he sounds it New Or'-leans; Uut when he Ss otrt of i'unds and hungry he ssimply says New Or-leans'. One ehould not go to Louieiana'H tnetropolie without a ride on the river. Ours was taken under favorable auspices in a boat chartered by the eommittee oí eltizene, where the band, 'the lunch, the salutes of whistles, éannon and flags made inïinite vei-iety of sound and color. Tlie Father of "Waters bears great Hieets of boats along lus tawny current. Oftea the house on ahore is lower than the boat close by, the great levees alone protectdoog it from ;the vloods. Bnt ïrequeotly break haway to inúndate vast sections oi' iarm ín mis. Thós great volume oí water, brought down firom the north, with its tearing out and ïilling in of banks, puts a burden upon the people of Louisiana. which they Bhould not wholly bear. Jjevees liaye to be built by some one, and it would seem as though Uncle (Bam might well go down thea-e to help tafce care of those levees. We think he -will, when the republicana have ilu' house o.' repreeentativea once loro. A tdaehing little incident carne to s below the city where we la-nded o vixlt trie national eemetery, ariving there as a soldier boy was beíg buríed with military honors. The ervice wa read, the volley fired, .he coínpany marched away, leavíg liira lonely, far froiii home and Ín 111 ■tinwcpt grave. ín 01 of ouir drives we stopped at ihe exposition grouiods whence the Univcrsity of Michigan got the Chinese exhibition of its museum. Things liere are rapidly going back to their ormer state, little remaining wave the horticultural building whefe tropical plants still flouris'h. A little beond tliat, and along the river bank, s New Oleans' oíd timo duelllng ground where, beneath the far-reachng liveoaks, young men used to kill ach other for trivial insults, oí for oving the same gii'l. Üur friends, many of whom had ought on Vhe confedérate ide, showd lis Tvith piride thedr handsome memorial building iilled with intèresting relias oí tlie last war. They have a öociety üke the G. A. R., but composed oí eoutliern BoMiers, whlch looks nier the poor and Kiek BOldiers. Next the memorial building is a fine ibrai-y built out of lottery money and wesenitéd to public use. One evening a reception was tendered at a .regular old-fashioned, but modera southern home, the abiding )lace of tmie hospitality. The host vas Capt. Thos. Woodward, an old sea captain beiore the war, and comnandant of a Union Ship during "the uss." Pleasant speeches on both sides were delivered, Perry Powere, of Cadilac and Chas. Hampton, of Petoskey, vtspondhig ior the Micliiganders in i -way to make us all proud of thera ns representatives of the state association. For the delightiul days in the CresCent City we were greatly indebted to Gen. Jastremski, Robert Bleakley, J. V. Gilmore, Capt. Kilpatrick and H. Dudley Coleman.