TRAVEL IN EUROPE 287 



that with them I put away my prejudices. I have 

 never spent a more satisfactory day in my life 

 than that first day in New Orleans, viewing the 

 celebrated Mardi Gras. As no other of my youth- 

 ful desires had held me more firmly, so no other 

 gave me more satisfaction in the realization. 

 While spending many hours at the great levees 

 watching the army of roustabouts discharging and 

 loading ships, I pondered much on the question 

 what place the negroes could justly fill in an ad- 

 vancing civilization. What more I saw and 

 learned about the negro problem will not interest 

 you since I found no solution for its difficulties. 



From New Orleans we went to the land of 

 " Evangeline ; " saw the * Cadians and visited the 

 great sugar plantations near the border of Lake 

 Pontchartrain where the water ran away from the 

 bayous and rivers instead of toward them. While 

 inspecting a great cane-crushing machine my friend 

 put his hand on the piston and remarked that it 

 had cost him $10,000. He explained that one 

 year in the midst of the cane harvest, the piston 

 broke and the engine and a man to go with it were 

 immediately placed on a steamer for New Or- 

 leans; it was ten days before it could be repaired 

 and the machinery set going again and during that 



