I would assume that The Rising Sun would have been the name of a tavern-cum-whorehouse, or perhaps just a low sort of tavern where the flash girls hung around plying their trade. (Perhaps, being in New Orleans, it was a reference to the face in the shape of a brilliant sun that was the symbol of King Louis XIV, "The Sun King"?) The Rising Sun would have been a good name for a whorehouse, because that is what the rake would have seen in the guilty dawn. Up here they tended to use red lights.

I wonder if anyone has gone through old directories or newspapers to determine if there was ever such an establishment in New Orleans. I have a hunch that The Rising Sun might have been a common name for taverns in the last century -- certainly there are pubs in England called "The Sun".