​BEHAN, Miss Bessie, social leader, born in New Orleans, La., 5th March, 1872. She is a daughter of Gen. W. J. Behan, a prominent southern merchant and an extensive sugar planter. She BESSIE BEHAN.

was educated at home by skilled governesses, and had all the advantages of much travel. Her associations in the quaint Anglo-French city of New Orleans made the acquisition of the French language easy and natural, and she is thus master of two languages. Her education was completed, and she made her début in society in New Orleans in 1891, at once taking rank as a belle and winning general popularity. Her type of beauty has nothing of what is commonly called "Creole." The most coveted of all social honors in New Orleans is to be chosen queen in the Mardi Gras Carnival. That honor fell to Miss Behan in the carnival of 1891, and, was made the occasion of a memorable display of the regard felt for her by the people of her native city. She bore the festival honors easily and regally. She was not yet out of her teens when she was chosen Carnival Queen, and she was the youngest woman yet selected for coronation in that characteristic festival.