Susan Blanchard Elder

"The sons of New Orleans were prudent in council, brave and gallant in warfare, generous in hospitality, and deeply attached to the pure pleasures of a home life, where urbanity, grace and good taste made their homes a rendezvous for the cultured and refined, — and so brilliant were the assemblies which grouped together the elite of the city, that a European might easily fancy the beautiful women in their silks and laces and jewels, and the gallant men so distinguished and noble."