Copyright, 1912, by
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

Printed in the United States of America

To
MY CHILDREN
and
MY CHILDREN’S CHILDREN
and to
THEIR CHILDREN TO COME

FOREWORD

Far more vivid than the twilight of the days in which I dwell, there rises before my inner eye the vision, aglow in Southern sunshine, of the days that are gone, never to return, but which formed the early chapters of a life that has been lived, that can never be lived again.

Many of the following stories are oft-told tales at my fireside—others were written to record phases of the patriarchal existence before the war which has so utterly passed away.

They have been printed from time to time in the pages of the New Orleans Times-Democrat, the editor of which has very kindly consented to their publication in this form.

CONTENTS

CHAPTERPAGE
I.New Orleans Children of 1840[1]
II.New Orleans Schools and Teachers in the Forties[7]
III.Boarding School in the Forties[14]
IV.Picayune Days[23]
V.Domestic Science Seventy Years Ago[31]
VI.A Fashionable Function in 1842[42]
VII.New Year’s of Old[50]
VIII.New Orleans Shops and Shopping in the Forties[58]
IX.The Old French Opera House[65]
X.Mural Decorations and Portraits of the Past[71]
XI.Thoughts of Old[80]
XII.Wedding Customs Then and Now[87]
XIII.A Country Wedding in 1846[94]
XIV.The Belles and Beaux of Forty[101]
XV.As It Was in My Day[107]
XVI.Fancy Dress Ball at the Mint in 1850[116]
XVII.Dr. Clapp’s Church[120]
XVIII.Old Daguerreotypes[125]
XIX.Steamboat and Stage Seventy Years Ago[130]
XX.Hotel at Pass Christian in 1849[140]
XXI.Old Music Books[146]
XXII.The Songs of Long Ago[153]
XXIII.A Ramble Through the Old City[159]
XXIV.“Old Creole Days” and Ways[173]
XXV.A Visit to Valcour Aime Plantation[182]
XXVI.The Old Plantation Life[191]
XXVII.People I Have Entertained[200]
XXVIII.A Monument to Mammies[209]
XXIX.Mary Ann and Martha Ann[216]
XXX.When Lexington Won the Race[245]
XXXI.Louisiana State Fair Fifty Years Ago[250]
XXXII.The Last Christmas[256]
XXXIII.A Wedding in War Time[264]
XXXIV.Substitutes[273]
XXXV.An Unrecorded Bit of New Orleans History[280]
XXXVI.Cuban Days in War Times[287]
XXXVII.“We Shall Know Each Other There”[295]
XXXVIII.A Ramble Through New Orleans With Brush and Easel[303]
XXXIX.A Visit of Tender Memories[320]
Biographical Note[331]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS