The very name "New Orleans" brings to mind a Mardi Gras pageant moving through the streets at night: crowds of masqueraders, rearing horses, great decorated floats glowing with color and glittering with gold-leaf.  Aboard the swaying cars are centaurs, mermaids, satyrs, gods and men, illuminated by flaring torches carried by strutting negroes robed in red. . . . Each chapter is like a decorated car which tells a story [a living picture or Tableau Vivant] . . . all are interlocking--a pageant of the city. 
                                                                         Lyle Saxon
                                                    Fabulous New Orleans