I recalled the words of the engine coupler at Mobile. When I parted with him, his last remark was, "Look out for the Hoodlums."
They are a set of young city bloods and toughs of the worst stripe, banded together to rob, murder and steal.
I met a well dressed young man in a large park there one night, who told me confidentially that he was a "Hoodlum"; said he thought he and I would make good friends, and that he might be able to get me in as a member, but I declined the invitation with thanks.
Yes, New Orleans is a great place in many ways. On the day I left, while standing on the street corner taking a last view of the place, a man bearing a large basket, carefully covered over, approached me and said:
"Crawfish? Crawfish?"
"What about crawfish?" I asked.
He looked at me in surprise.
"Good to eat," he said; "only five cents a pint."
I told him they were used down home for fish bait, whereupon he got mad and went strutting up the street.