MRS. LA FOLLETTE TELLS CHARM OF OLD SOUTH
Follette, Isabel Bacon La
Mrs. La Follette Tells Ch arm of Old South By ISABEL BACON LA FOLLETTE To a "Yankee" born and reared north of the Maron-Dlckson line, the South proves a stimulating experience. Here is a society...
...But it was under d'Iberville and his young brother Bienville that real colonization took place—Mobile, Pensacola, Biloxi and New Orleans established...
...The beach is strewn with oyster shells, "those shells with which the Indians scrape out their canoes after burning" in the journal of an early explorer...
...Despcrte—France and Spain arrest us, and just as surely do we recognize this inheritance in the faces of its people...
...Ship Island also contains the ruins of Ft...
...As a good feminist we note the custom of retaining the wife's maiden name—"Fannie Lauers, wife of Justin Meaut...
...Zamor" are several "Seymours" which we imagine became the American version...
...As we walk the beach road at Biloxi it is thrilling to look out into the Gulf of Mexico toward the shadowy outline of Ship Island and to picture d'Iberville landing there...
...The shells were used for fine white roads until the advent of the automobile...
...Is it the enchanting languor in the air which retains against the northern invasions its quaint charm...
...Biloxi is second only to Baltimore in the shipping of oysters...
...Here is an ancient iron cannon "recovered from the Bach Bay from a ship of d'Iberville"—that brilliant young French-Canadian hero who was the first to colonize here for the French government...
...So France decided she needed a port for vessels, and LaSalle set out and took possession with due dignity erecting a cross and column bearing the arms of France...
...Near and about Mr...
...At first we think so...
...As we continue along the beach past the oldest lighthouse on this coast, we come to the oldest house in Biloxi...
...He laid claim (modestly...
...with walls of moss and clay...
...to all Louisiana and the River Colbert (as he named the Mississippi) from its source to its mouth...
...for more than one hundred years afterward the great powers of Europe neglected the Mississippi valley until finally France awoke to its unlimited potentialities...
...Our interest quickened, we wrack our brains and recall that we are on the ground of the early French and Spanish explorers...
...Here is a society unique and passing, but as yet retaining its individuality...
...It was originally one of several built by a French pater familias who wanted his married children living near him...
...glance up to see.names—Keynoir^ La-Meuse, Delauney...
...The oyster has played an important role in Biloxi...
...Perhaps the old cemetery recalls some of those...
...Stories were afloat of the fabulous wealth the Spaniards obtained from this territory...
...We arrive at the old cemetery, where we must pause...
...We are surprised at some German names and learn that according to Penicant's Journal there were twelve thousand Germans purchased from one of the German princes to colonize Louisiana...
...Even now we understand that there are occasional excitements here over reputed "buried treasure," left by various expeditions...
...Although the Spaniard DeSoto made his ill-fated expedition through here about 1540...
...Massachusetts, a union base during the Civil war—or as Southern patriots prefer "The War between the States...
...but as we wander about the narrow old streets and...
...Here indeed is a record: "Lazaro Lopez born in Spain"—"Ci git Jean Coneve decede le 24 Septembre 1849 L'age de 87"—"Ci-git Cyr Zamor, mort a la N. Orleans, 1815...
...Were we to follow the beach road some miles farther we should reach "Beau-voir," the last home of Jefferson Davis, but that will be a trip in itself—for another day...
...It is fascinating to poke about, questioning as we go, and find this Gulf (of Mexico) coast a realm of historical romance...
Vol. 1 • January 1930 • No. 8
