A gentleman, knowing of a dissension between two parties, was dining with one of them, in company with several others.  This guest spoke to the hostess disparagingly of the enemy of her husband, who, hearing the remark, rebuked his officious guest by remarking to him:  “Doctor, my lady and myself would prefer to find out the foibles and sins of our neighbors ourselves.”  The rebuke was effectual, and informed the doctor, who was new in the country, of an honorable feeling in the refined population of the land of his adoption alien to that of his birth, and which he felt made these people the superior of all he had ever known.

No one has ever travelled upon one of those palatial steamers abounding on the Mississippi, in the spring season of the year, when the waters swell to the tops of the levees, lifting the steamer above the level of the great fields of sugar-cane stretching away for miles to the forest on either bank of that mighty river, who has not been delighted with the lovely homes, surrounded with grounds highly cultivated and most beautifully ornamented with trees, shrubs, and flowers, which come upon the view in constant and quick succession, as he is borne onward rapidly along the accumulated waters of the great river.  This scene extends one hundred and fifty miles up the river, and is one not equalled in the world.  The plain is continuous and unbroken; nor hill nor stream intersects it but at two points, where the Plaquemine and La Fourche leave it to find a nearer way to the sea; and these are so diminutive, in comparison with all around, that they are passed almost always without being seen.

The fringe of green foliage which is presented by the trees and shrubs adorning each homestead, follows in such rapid succession as to give it a continuous line, in appearance, to the passers-by on the steamer.  These, denuded of timber to the last tree, the immense fields, only separated by a ditch, or fence, which spread along the river—­all greened with the luxuriant sugar-cane, and other crops, growing so vigorously as at once to satisfy the mind that the richness of the soil is supreme—­and this scene extending for one hundred and fifty miles, makes it unapproachable by any other cultivated region on the face of the globe.  Along the Ganges and the Nile, the plain is extensive.  The desolate appearance it presents—­the miserable homes of the population, devoid of every ornament, without comfort or plenty in their appearance—­the stinted and sparse crops, the intervening deserts of sand, the waste of desolation, spreading away far as the eye can reach—­the streams contemptible in comparison, and the squalid, degraded, thriftless people along their banks, make it painful to the beholder, who is borne on his way in some dirty little craft, contrasting so strangely with the Mississippi steamer.  Yet, in admirable keeping with everything else, all these present a grand contrast to the valley of the Mississippi, and only prove the latter has no equal in all that pertains to grandeur, beauty, and abundance, on the globe.  To appreciate all these, you must know and mingle with the population who have thus ornamented, with labor and taste, the margin of this stream of streams.