And then there's this, for better and worse:

>
>
>V. November Boughs
>17. New Orleans in 1848
>
>
>WALT WHITMAN GOSSIPS OF HIS SOJOURN HERE YEARS AGO AS A NEWSPAPER
>WRITER. NOTES OF HIS TRIP UP THE MISSISSIPPI AND TO NEW YORK.
>
>[From the New Orleans Picayune, Jan. 25, 1887.]
> 1
> AMONG the letters brought this morning (Camden, New Jersey, Jan.
>15, 1887,) by my faithful post-office carrier, J. G., is one as
>follows:
>
> "NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 11, '87.-We have been informed that when you
>were younger and less famous than now, you were in New Orleans and
>perhaps have helped on the Picayune. If you have any remembrance of
>the Picayune's young days, or of journalism in New Orleans of that
>era, and would put it in writing (verse or prose) for the Picayune's
>fiftieth year edition, Jan. 25, we shall be pleased," etc.
> 2
> In response to which: I went down to New Orleans early in 1848 to
>work on a daily newspaper, but it was not the Picayune, though I saw
>quite a good deal of the editors of that paper, and knew its
>personnel and ways. But let me indulge my pen in some gossipy
>recollections of that time and place, with extracts from my journal
>up the Mississippi and across the great lakes to the Hudson.
> 3
> Probably the influence most deeply pervading everything at that
>time through the United States, both in physical facts and in
>sentiment, was the Mexican War, then just ended. Following a
>brilliant campaign (in which our troops had march'd to the capital
>city, Mexico, and taken full possession,) we were returning after
>our victory. From the situation of the country, the city of New
>Orleans had been our channel and entrepot for everything, going and
>returning. It had the best news and war correspondents; it had the
>most to say, through its leading papers, the Picayune and Delta
>especially, and its voice was readiest listen'd to; from it
>"Chapparal" had gone out, and his army and battle letters were
>copied everywhere, not only in the United States, but in Europe.
>Then the social cast and results; no one who has never seen the
>society of a city under similar circumstances can understand what a
>strange vivacity and rattle were given throughout by such a
>situation. I remember the crowds of soldiers, the gay young
>officers, going or coming, the receipt of important news, the many
>discussions, the returning wounded, and so on.
> 4
> I remember very well seeing Gen. Taylor with his staff and other
>officers at the St. Charles Theatre one evening (after talking with
>them during the day.) There was a short play on the stage, but the
>principal performance was of Dr. Colyer's troupe of "Model Artists,"
>then in the full tide of their popularity. They gave many fine
>groups and solo shows. The house was crowded with uniforms and
>shoulder-straps. Gen. T. himself, if I remember right, was almost
>the only officer in civilian clothes; he was a jovial, old, rather
>stout, plain man, with a wrinkled and dark-yellow face, and, in ways
>and manners, show'd the least of conventional ceremony or etiquette
>I ever saw; he laugh'd unrestrainedly at everything comical. (He had
>a great personal resemblance to Fenimore Cooper, the novelist, of
>New York.) I remember Gen. Pillow and quite a cluster of other
>militaires also present.
> 5
> One of my choice amusements during my stay in New Orleans was
>going down to the old French Market, especially of a Sunday morning.
>The show was a varied and curious one; among the rest, the Indian
>and negro hucksters with their wares. For there were always fine
>specimens of Indians, both men and women, young and old. I remember
>I nearly always on these occasions got a large cup of delicious
>coffee with a biscuit, for my breakfast, from the immense shining
>copper kettle of a great Creole mulatto woman (I believe she weigh'd
>230 pounds.) I never have had such coffee since. About nice drinks,
>anyhow, my recollection of the "cobblers" (with strawberries and
>snow on top of the large tumblers,) and also the exquisite wines,
>and the perfect and mild French brandy, help the regretful
>reminiscence of my New Orleans experiences of those days. And what
>splendid and roomy and leisurely bar-rooms! particularly the grand
>ones of the St. Charles and St. Louis. Bargains, auctions,
>appointments, business conferences, &c., were generally held in the
>spaces or recesses of these bar-rooms.
> 6
> I used to wander a midday hour or two now and then for amusement
>on the crowded and bustling levees, on the banks of the river. The
>diagonally wedg'd-in boats, the stevedores, the piles of cotton and
>other merchandise, the carts, mules, negroes, etc., afforded
>never-ending studies and sights to me. I made acquaintances among
>the captains, boatmen, or other characters, and often had long talks
>with them-sometimes finding a real rough diamond among my chance
>encounters. Sundays I sometimes went forenoons to the old Catholic
>Cathedral in the French quarter. I used to walk a good deal in this
>arrondissement; and I have deeply regretted since that I did not
>cultivate, while I had such a good opportunity, the chance of better
>knowledge of French and Spanish Creole New Orleans people. (I have
>an idea that there is much and of importance about the Latin race
>contributions to American nationality in the South and Southwest
>that will never be put with sympathetic understanding and tact on
>record.)

--

Eric Wertheimer
Associate Professor
New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences
Arizona State University

602 543-6013