It is easy to forget, it being several generations and a long distance, that at one time New Orleans was a major part of the Esperanza culture (so to speak).  This is hinted at in some of the art-work, a sketch of a New Orleans cafe, sketches of plantation life and workers from Louisiana, an oil painting of a bayou.  And mentions of invitations to various balls given by some of the old line krewes: Comus, Proteus, and Momus at the least.

We don’t really know what approach to religion that either Julie or her daughters took, except church-going (but what denomination?) and opinionated about all flavours equally.  However, living in New Orleans in the winter, Julie’s daughters, especially Carlotta, seem to have enjoyed Mardi Gras.  (which even then had remarkably little to do with religion!) Julie herself went to balls only a few times, mostly to get material for writing; Morris was actually asked to help organize a Krewe one year but declined due to health, he had been involved at some level even before the Civil War; Carlotta who wintered in New Orleans on and off from the late 1870’s through to about 1900 seems to have enjoyed it the most. 

It must have been a very colorful world, far away from Hartford’s winters.