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168 meditating whether this were, indeed owing to any peculiarity of the city, or to that vague longing for the quiet comforts of a household which all bachelors fell as life creeps by and each succeeding winter adds its frost to their beards. To the latter we trust; for we wish to think well of New Orleans.

There is one thing certain: a rich man who understands what the comforts of like are may make a home for himself anywhere without marrying. But rich men form exceptions to the general rule governing human lives, and we are constrained to consider the matter from the standpoint of those who are not rich, and who must expect for the greater part of their lives to work for others, however independent their capacity as artisans or talent as professional men may render them. The more sensitive their disposition and the more artistic their ideas, the more difficult, of