The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-03-22
TIE CRESCENT CITY.
Its Women and Markets-Sunday %.
servsnce-A Dizzy Dance-The
Anttpodes Of Topics Die
cussed in an Interest
ing Way.

A reporter of the Sentinel had an interest
ing chat with wellknown Southern rail.
road official, who was stopping at the Bates
House one day last week. Originally q
Northern man, he has spent score or more
of years in New Orleans, and is q very enter
tanning talker and close observer In q con-
versation, lasting more than an hour, he
chat.ed freely of the different phases of
Northern and Southern society. What
struck him as seeming strange and unusual
was the stiffness and apparently lonely feel
ing of Northern Sunday. "Of all the days
of the week Sunday is tine most lively and
gay in New Orleans" said our acquaintance.
''San Francisco. and especially New Orleans.
are considered goddess by moral people gen.
orally. and it is fact each is wholly un-
mindful Of Sunday observance. Most of the
stores, all the markets, theaters and operas
have their biggest booms on Sunday. Some
weeks sin &c, on Sunday night, l attended
masquerade ball in the French quarter of
New Orleans that was one of the largest OF
the season, grossly gay aud wickediy de-
moraliziDg in its characteristics. 1t
was q mixed crowd of 500 or GOO persons,
containing many grades or society, ranging
fsom the damsel of ordinary respectability
to the tainted and bedizzened wanton aud
her consort- The native French and the
Spsnieh Creoles usually somewhat exclu.
sive freely mixed with the Southern Ameri-
can. One-third of the males present were
men OF business, such "a cotton brokers,
merchants. bankers aud their clerks, as we'll
as your Northern visitor, all of ordinary cir
cumspection, but curious like myself.
The mixing and dancing was a grand
carousal, not outdoDe by that on the occa
sion of Belshazzer's feast. Scores OF
DANES and damsels suffered from an Insult
ciency Of dress. low bodices and curtailed
skirts, conspicuously displaying the curved
lines of female strength and grace. The cos
tunes were rich in material and fantastic in
arrangement. At midnight all unmarked,
revealing many quite pretty and few
very handsome faces. The revelry culmi.
rated about o'clock in the morning, when
The few sober persons in the great hall could
be counted on the fingers of both hands.
One little beauty of the better class, q creole,
and evidently bride Of but few months,
was q most consummate hirt, seemingly
armed with the seductive grsces of
siren. Under the warmth OF a South.
1ssk fy nature sney bad dn IN graceful ssl
with prodigality Of physical beauty. She
looked the very type of sensuous and soul
full lovelinese. As the princess of Co.
quetry" she played the part with magnificent
grace and skill. In feature regular aud per-
feet, with hair abundant and black. Her
eyes impossible to describe. deep. dark and
luminous. full of soul. now thoughtful, now
beaming with a mischievous stare. The nose
aqueline. q small and shapely mouth-a
thousand pranks, humors, wkims and laugh
ter lurking in its tremulous lines-a voice of
sweetlv modulated tones with an accent de.
liciously meilifiuous by reason of its Cas-
lillian origin. In her superb toilet of white,
sarnished in rich lace and other elaborate
trimmings she was simply dazzling. Her
/ lace bore well the scrutiny it was
subjected to. The husband was a young
/ Cuban sugar planter or great wealth, but of
| little personal attraction aud less manhood,
else he would not consent to have his wife
appear in scenes in which he was an exile,
hanging on the edges of the crowd near the
door, or aneasily pacing the floors OF the
| cloak or wine rooms while his wife was
smothered in the warm embrace OF tall aud
| handsome Southern rake. tripping through
the dizzy waltz the sport of alternating
amours and scandal.
Southern women" continued our ac-
quaintance, .are not all fiiTts by any means,
nor are they given to excuses In
wine bibbing or dancing. A popularity
of the young Southerner, male or female,
is their early betrothal and eventual mar
rage. . condition that usually binders un-
due dissipation, even il the desire exists. As
rule fewer divorce suits cucumber the
records of our courts than in the North, q
reason for which I am at Q loss to give, not
believing that climate has any influence
over II whatever. The beauty Of the South
efn woman 10 also proyerbial. Their skin.
though soft, 10 not always so clear, white and
yet . creamy complexion, with dush OF the