The Mardi Gras festivities were splendid that season. The Queen of the Carnival was Miss Celeste Stauffer, a famous New Orleans belle. Among her many admirers was Governor Samuel J. Tilden of New York, who some years afterward remembered her handsomely in his will. The King was Mr. Maury, a good-looking young Creole. The balls and pageants that marked the reign of the royal pair were admirable. They must have cost a deal of hard work as well as money, for the pains shown in every detail of costume, decoration, music, made one ache! At an earlier Carnival, the poor King was so active in his efforts to make memorable his rule of merriment that on the morning of Ash Wednesday he was found lifeless in his bed, having literally worked himself to death. Among the season’s belles was Cora Urquhart, later Mrs. James Brown Potter. She was already “stage struck”, and her father, Colonel Urquhart, sympathized with her ambition to become an actress. She was a lovely creature, with such an appealing manner that while you talked with her she made you feel that she was dependent upon you for all that made that hour of life worth while. The New Orleans women are not like any others; they have a quality as unique as the _salt_ of the Andalusian, a sort of veiled fire like an opal’s. We made several friends among them. I remember best of all Mrs. William W. King and her four interesting daughters, in their large comfortable house on South Rampart Street. Here I first felt the flavor and charm of Southern family life, which has a character all its own. Mrs. King was large of heart and friendly of manner, with such a glow of hospitality about her that I still have a warm feeling when I think of her and her kindness. She was the daughter of Branch Miller, one of the men who made New Orleans famous in his day for good eating and drinking and fine living. He was noted for his wit and brilliant conversation, so that his daughter and grand-daughters came by their gifts through inheritance. “Uncle” Tom Miller, Mrs. King’s brother, carried on the family traditions, and his dinners were as famous in New Orleans as Uncle Sam Ward’s in Washington.