It is in the practice of a large number of men with their wives, who
visit New Orleans and spend the winter, and who to support themselves,
take the round of the gay and fashionable throng, and while moving
here, the wife, with a perfect understanding of the matter with her
husband, suffers herself to become _seduced_, and thus falls into the
arms of some dashing wild young man, who is proud of his conquest. He
lavishes upon her costly presents and money, and in fact will bestow
upon her any thing that she may demand, within the compass of his
purse. And when he ceases to give, not unfrequently will her husband
make the accidental discovery of their intimacy, and in the fearless
rage of an injured and outraged husband, threaten to come down upon him
with all the vengeance of Southern chivalry. And to save himself he
will pay almost any sum the husband may demand. Thus she will go on,
for months, making conquest after conquest, and being seduced at least
by half a dozen, and with all of them, practising the most cunning and
deceptive arts, charging each one to be exceedingly circumspect and
cautious, so as to avoid the least suspicion in the eyes of the world
and her husband. And yet, during all this time, her hands are being
filled with costly and magnificent presents and money, and in fact,
any thing that she may desire, while each one regards himself as the
sole possessor of the _stolen fruit_! She is enabled to pursue this
course, and avoid suspicion among her _favorites_ of being intimate
with more than one, by meeting them at the houses of assignation. The
regulations by which these houses are kept, throw around a female the
most perfect security against detection that can be imagined. They
usually go in disguise and often in mask, and very frequently are
unknown to the men who see them there, and their name is never enquired
for, as it is generally understood that none but _respectable ladies_,
both married and unmarried, frequent these houses. And yet during
all these love scenes, captivations and seductions, the lady and her
husband are in the foremost rank of the fashionable circle, supporting
a style and splendor of equipage that few can surpass or even imitate.
Of those who possess this extraordinary faculty of adapting their sense
of propriety to circumstances, there are many who come here as regular
as the returning season, and have become so familiar and intimate with
the routine of fashionable life, that they may be regarded as the
principal “stars,” around which all others must circle to enable their
lights to become visible to the world. These ladies are usually well
educated, highly accomplished and intelligent, all of which give them
a ready command of every thing that can be available in the scenes
of dissipation which make up the holidays and sporting season of New
Orleans. And in this round of enjoyment and gaiety, there is no place
that can equal it in lowering the moral sense, and prostrating every
virtuous impulse, and creating in the feelings of almost every person,
male and female, a light estimate of a life of fidelity and chastity
between the sexes, not only among the married but the unmarried. Thus
it is, the moulding of all these things is done by those who, for their
own gratification, arrange all the rules of social intercourse to favor
their own seductive schemes and plots. Hence, the manner and style of
dress are always of that character to present and expose the charms of
the female form, and are in every respect calculated to present them
to the consideration of the other sex, as not being very modest or
reserved. Under such circumstances, a ready familiarity is produced,
which is increased by her more familiar conversation and ready
intimacy, and all designed and tending directly to the accomplishment
of her purpose. And here it is, into this circle, are thrown the
virtuous and unsuspecting visiters who come into this city for pleasure
and pastime, and if they can pass through and come out unsullied,
and as pure in mind and as chaste in their sense of propriety and
as virtuous in feeling as when they entered, they will hereafter be
perfectly secure against the vices and contaminations of the world. But
those who do so are few indeed; for they must be more than “Cesar’s
wife,” that can enter these enchanting scenes, where every thing they
come in contact with is an appeal to the passions, and not a thought
or an expression do they hear, but what is calculated to betray and
seduce, and forever banish the purest impulses of the heart.