lessen this strain in the eyes of the implacable ladies.  One of the latter, married and known to have been implicated in various intrigues with men of the locality, one day entered one of those fine balls.  ’There is a woman of mixed blood here,’ she cried haughtily.  This rumor ran about the ballroom.  In fact, two young quadroon ladies were seen there, who were esteemed for the excellent education which they had received, and much more for their honorable conduct.  They were warned and obliged to disappear in haste before a shameless woman, and their society would have been a real pollution for her.”

Perhaps, after all, little blame for such outbursts can be placed upon the white women of the day.  Berquin-Duvallon recognized and admired their excellent quality and seems to have wondered why so many men could prefer girls of color to these clean, healthy, and honorable ladies.  Of them he says:  “The Louisiana women, and notably those born and resident on the plantations, have various estimable qualities.  Respectful as girls, affectionate as wives, tender as mothers, and careful as mistresses, possessing thoroughly the details of household economy, honest, reserved, proper—­in the van almost—­they are in general, most excellent women.”  But those of mixed blood or lower lineage, he remarks:  “A tone of extravagance and show in excess of one’s means is seen there in the dress of the women, in the elegance of their carriages, and in their fine furniture.”

Indeed, this display in dress and equipage astounded the French.  The sight of it in a city where Indians, negroes, and half-breeds mingled freely with whites on street and in dive, where sanitary conditions were beyond description, and where ignorance and slovenliness were too apparent to be overlooked, seems to have rather nettled Berquin-Duvallon, and he sometimes grew rather heated in his descriptions of an unwarranted luxury and extravagance equal to that of the capitals of Europe.  But now, “the women of the city dress tastefully, and their change of appearance in this respect in a very short space of time is really surprising.  Not three years ago, with lengthened skirts, the upper part of their clothing being of one color, and the lower of another, and all the rest of their dress in proportion; they were brave with many ribbons and few jewels.  Thus rigged out they went everywhere, on their round of visits, to the ball, and to the theatre.  To-day, such a costume seems to them, and rightfully so, a masquerade.  The richest of embroidered muslins, cut in the latest styles, and set off as transparencies over soft and brilliant taffetas, with magnificent lace trimmings, and with embroidery and gold-embroidered spangles, are to-day fitted to and beautify well dressed women and girls; and this is accompanied by rich earrings, necklaces, bracelets, rings, precious jewels, in fine with all that can relate to dress—­to that important occupation of the fair sex.”