For myself, I found them in manner equal to their appearance; a greater degree of repose and gentility of demeanour I never remember to have noticed in any mixed assembly of any place. So much for report, which informed me I should find the American house here filled by noisy planters from the up-country and boisterous Mississippi boatmen. Let me however add, that my personal friends assure me a class of families attend my performances that is but rarely seen within this theatre, which the creoles do not usually patronize; and that this extreme decorum and exclusive appearance are assured by the places being all secured by families. This may in some sort be true; but at most can only apply to the _parquette_, dress, and private boxes; the mixed population is still here; and, after nightly observation, rendered acute by interest and anxiety, I must assert that, taken generally, I do not desire to meet an audience whose behaviour more decidedly justifies the terms respectable and intelligent. The least prolonged tumult of approbation even is stilled by a word to order: and when it is considered that here are assembled the wildest and rudest specimens of the Western population, men owning no control except the laws, and not viewing these over submissively, and who admit of no _arbiter elegantiarum_ or standard of fine breeding, it confers infinite credit on their innate good feeling, and that sense of propriety which here forms the sole check on their naturally somewhat uproarious jollity. Let me add, that my first engagement was for twelve nights, four nights per week; that I, on my return from Natchez, acted a like number, with equal patronage; and that on no one night was I afforded an occasion of making an exception to the opinion I have above honestly recorded, certainly with greater pleasure, because in asserting the truth I feel I am at the same time performing an act of justice. FRENCH THEATRE. The Opera, or French Theatre, which I visited several times, is an exceedingly well-appointed, handsome place, with a company very superior to the American one, and having its pieces altogether better mounted. It is to this house the creole families chiefly resort, as well indeed as the American ladies of the best class, most of whom are good French scholars; and within this _salle_ on any Sunday evening may be seen eyes as bright and forms as delicately proportioned as in _la belle France_ itself. The building, whereof this theatre forms a part only, is a very extensive one, having as a part of its establishment a large ball-room, with supper-rooms attached; and, in addition to this, a variety of hells, where gambling nourishes in full practice, from the _salon_ where the wealthy Creole plays his five-hundred-dollar _coup_, to the obscure den where _roulette_ does its work, with a pace slower but as sure, at the rate of half-dollar stakes. I have looked in on these places during the performances, and never without finding them full.