BUT FIRST~DETOURI<br > Once upon a time， while minding my own business drawing<br > historical cartoons， I became intrigued with the realistic manner<br > in which the street names of New Orleans told my city s lusty<br > history.<br > One night in i943 I gave a short talk on the subject before the<br > Toastmasters Club. The subject， in turn， intrigued my listeners.<br > From this beginning came requests for other talks til， in num-<br > ber， these lectures have been more than a hundred. ?d~ not think，<br > in the whole history of New Orleans， that anyone has ever spoken<br > from the platform more about the same thing without being either<br > elected or defeated for public office.<br > In the course of these lectures my information and source mate-<br > rial was corrected and corrected again as the story of the names<br > of the streets was exposed to more and<br > informed audiences. Thus， more critical and well-<br > accidentally， I found myself--a simple<br >cartoonist--breathing down the necks of historians， daring to<br >question and double check their holy writ.<br > Historians are skillful people， who reach over their shoulders<br >and drag back the past by its h<br >their presence， the ， ~. ~ eels. Then， as it lies orostrate i-<br >In d~t _ ，1 *cientlesslu and :--" ， " "<br > ~，ense of histori J mumate~y write all about it.<br > ~-~， a sunject such as the street names of New<br > s is not one that can be so recalled. Tan led ro er "<br > "gs~he days， and rusting iron i ~ g P P ty hnes<br >iX oind and pin the sub ec p pe markers of methodical sur-<br > as to~// v J t to ancient times and t<br > n a city as old as New Orleans， the pffh?o~d~en<br > ~ iX ~<br >