We beg the reader not to take the impression of supercilious excess in the polite manners of the Southern people, or of anything bordering on affectation, for this would be great injustice to them. There was too much whole-souled magnanimity and hospitality about them for that. The play of their manners was free from the prescriptive rules and ceremony which frequently produce in one's breast an agony of anxiety, and yet it was courtly and dignified, without obsequious flattery or littleness.
But to return to our voyage down the river. On nearing Memphis we were advised by the officers of the boat that we might expect a hailing shot from the batteries just above the city. And sure enough it came right across our bows. We ran in shore, and, of course, were startled into a new and strange feeling, as yet inexplicable, because so un-American, and contrary to the hitherto free experience of American travelers on their own waters or their own soil. Was it for amusement or a farcical burlesque on the governments of the Old World? Or was it ominous of that fearful struggle of blood which afterward rent the country for four long years? Events have since shown that "Coming events cast their shadows before."
After a few hours' detention we passed on down the river; but as we reached Vicksburg again we heard the booming of cannon as a signal to again tie up, be overhauled and show our "manifest." After that we were graciously permitted to pass all points without further molestation; for the reason, we suppose, that having passed the upper points of cannonized salutations, and thereby cleansed of all suspicion of being or carrying "contraband of war," it was unnecessary to waste any more powder on us. So we reached the Crescent City in peace and safety; when, for the first time, we looked upon its six miles or more of wharves, literally piled with cotton and corn, and other products of both North and South, and merchandise from Europe and the Atlantic cities by the ten thousand packages, and there were scores of steamboats, flatboats, and other crafts discharging their cargoes.
In the free play of imagination one was reminded of the account of the ancient provision of the Egyptian monarch, made under the prophetic direction and supervising genius of the virtuous and immaculate Joseph, against the seven years' famine. And as one stood there, on the hurricane-deck, or "texas," of some immense steamer, and looked up and down, over and around those crescent-laid wharves, one was moved to ask in wonder, whence and for what these immense and almost endless stores of sugar, molasses, flour, pork, corn, potatoes, fruits, etc., and what mean these dense masses of earnest-looking people, hurrying to and fro on the streets. Ah! it is the 21st day of January, 1861, and the next day was fraught with the momentous and grave issues of an election on the question of secession. The flags of all civilized nations were floating in all parts of the city, except the "Stars and Stripes;" and among them was most conspicuously displayed the "Rattlesnake" flag of Louisiana; and one could but feel it was a fit emblem of the occasion, and of the spirit of some of the people. One gentleman told us that though he had been a resident of the city for many years, and sympathized with Southern grievances, yet when he saw the flag of the Union trailed in the dust, and put out of sight, and the Rattlesnake of Louisiana hung up in its place on the Custom House, he cried like a child, and somehow felt as though the world was being buried and he was attending the funeral.