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Antebellum New Orleans. Extensive letter from

Currency:USD Category:Antiques Start Price:50.00 USD Estimated At:100.00 - 125.00 USD
Antebellum New Orleans. Extensive letter from
Antebellum New Orleans. Extensive letter from antebellum New Orleans, Mar. 6, 1847, 4 1/2 pp., Mobile circular date stamp. An almost incredulous description of the life of luxury in the Crescent City. "Col. Winchester gave a magnificent dinner here...at Hewlitt's Exchange, a famous dining hotel in this city. He 'did the thing brown' as they say: forty-five gentlemen sat down to table...I have never seen anything to equal the luxury of the dinner. The cooking, or rather the 'cuisine' of the French restaurants here is equal to anything in Paris...Mr. Clay, Gov. Johnson of this state, Judge Eustis...and several prominent merchants & professional men of this city...The great statesman as usual was extremely happy in his remarks, which alluded chiefly to Boston and the Bostonians...At this dinner, the Bills of Fare were printed on rose-colored satin." After dinner, Clay joined the others "with the intellectual game of poker. His political foes, according to the writer, said he played with the 'potentates' of Europe at $1,000 an ante. "This is the fashion in the Southern country...." Last 1 1/2 pp. cross-written at an angle, to save paper. Red wax seal largely intact. Fine.