During the Civil War New Orleans again saw active campaigning.  The occupancy of the city by General Butler, and the stern measures he adopted to suppress the loyalty even of the women of the town, has formed the subject of much comment.  There are many interesting stories concerning this epoch in the city’s history, which are told with many variations to every one who sojourns for a while in the great port at the gate of the greatest river in the world.

To-day, New Orleans is perhaps best known as the second largest cotton mart in the world, some 2,000,000 bales of the product of the Southern plantations being received and shipped out every year.  More than 30,000,000 pounds of wool and 12,000,000 pounds of hides also pass through the city every year, to say nothing of immense quantities of bananas and costly transactions in sugar and lumber.

Although New Orleans is really some little distance from the ocean, the river at this point is more than half a mile wide, and the great ships of all nations are seen loading and unloading at its levee.

New Orleans naturally abounds in ancient landmarks and memorials.  The old Spanish Fort is one of the most interesting among these.  Warfare of the most bitter character was seen again and again at this place.  The fortifications were kept up largely to afford protection against raids from Mexican pirates and hostile Indians, though they were often useful against more civilized foes.  It was at this port that Andrew Jackson prepared to receive the British invaders.  The magnificent use he made of the fortifications should have given to the old place a lasting standing and a permanent preservation.  Some forty years ago, however, the fort was purchased and turned into a kind of country resort, and more lately it has become the home of a recreation club.

Better preserved, and a most interesting connecting link between the past and the present, is the world-renowned French Market in New Orleans.  A story is told of a great novelist, who traveled several thousand miles in order to find representatives of all nationalities grouped together in one narrow space.  For a work he had in contemplation he was anxious to select for his characters men of all nationalities, whom chance or destiny had thrown together.  He spent several days in Paris, journeyed throughout sunny Italy, got lost in some of the labyrinths of the unexplored sections of London, and finally crossed the Atlantic without having found the group of which he was in search.  Not even in the large cities of America could he find his heart’s desire, and it was not until he strayed into the old French Market of New Orleans that he found that for which he searched.  He spent several days, and even weeks, wandering through the peculiar market, and making friends with the men of all nationalities who were working in different parts of it.  He found the Creole, full of anecdote, superstition and pride, even when he was earning an