New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-07-08
MAGNOLIA.
MAGNOLIA.
The Fourth on the jackson Railroad.


reports of what was done all along shore.
One went over the wilds upon the Jackson
Railroad, across Manchac, up the Tangipa-
hoa, into Mississippi to Magnolia. OF his
rural trip and communings with nature,
along the rich lands of the magnolia and the
hooking bird, he says:
To see nature in all her richness COM
mend me to trip of a hundred miles UP
the Jackson Railroad. From the very
start, the noblest trees are seen; first some
live oaks (quercus virens), covered with
frosted dressing of hanging moss (tillandsia
usneoides), parasitical plant which adds to
the beauty of the adopted parent without
shortening its life or injuring the tree,
merely giving it the appearance of white
beard and silvery locks of age. 1t weeps
from every branch of almost every tree for
fifty miles. The rare beauty of the first
ten miles Of country, however, consists in
its rich land and fertile sugar and corn
fields, albeit there are few of these staples
in cultivation. At Kenner's are some large
hedges of the Cherokee rose, vivid ever
greens, with single white blossoms, and the
foliage so thick that snake could hardly
get through it. Thence to Bayou de Sair
the face of the earth is covered with "cat
tails and "mohawks" (typna latifolia, and
some sort of althea or mallows). On for
many miles to Pontchatoula the country,
even in July, is full of interest for the eye
of a botanist. Rare pines, .jassamines (gelu-
cinum sempervirens), fan palms, the nym-
phPa OdOratus or white water lilly, which
is one Of the most snowy flowers of America,
being brother or cousin of the famous
Victoria regia of South American origin.
The Virginia creeper or American ivy Am
pelOpsis), and the fragrant yellow geluci-
mum, are seen running among the bushes
and up nearly to the top of trees in Occa-
sional swamps. Then there are androme-
das, gOrdOnias, and the yucca tilimentosa
now and then by the side of the track At
the next station species OF tick was found
too troublesome for botanizing, hence,
probably. the station is called Tick
faw. These ticks and red bugs
are a great Southern torment, insidiOus in
their approaches and unknown or unseen
until tightly fastened into your skin. The
only safety there was to stick to the cars,
getting a glance among the tai timber of
old acquaintance such as the acer r,tbra, the
cedars, sweet and black gums, magnolias as
large as elmr, not forgetting animated ma
ture the while for on this route are seen Oc
casional alligators basking in the sun, the
American white pelican, whose mates are
mostly off breeding in the far countries of
the north; or the snowy heron the great
white heron, or the graceful Louisiana
heron, with countless specimens Of the
buteO rulga,is. or common buZzard. at which
one need not look unless he choose, nor at
the owls, of which there are short and long
horned, barred and long-eared specimens i'll
this timber.
Entering the "piney woods Osyka is
soon reached-so called, it is said, by one of
its first prOprietOrs, after an Indian beauty.
From this village-for it is but a village,
though the rail was opened thus far sixteen
years ago-a club of base-ballers 20 to Mag
nolia to try the mettle of clubs from New
Orleans Algiers and Vicksburg. 1t is a
Mississippi town. but nearly on the
divide A very few miles further is
Chatawa (Silver Springs), which the chatty
inhabitants persist in accenting on the first
instead of more euphoniously on the second.
as the Indians did, and as the inha bitants at
nOuncc theirs. The next station, only a
hundred miles from the Crescent City, is
the pleasant town of Magnolia, named from
the numerous large trees of the mag-granGl-
fora which fill the adjoining forest, and
which received their name from Linraus a
century and half ago. from Professor Mag
mol, a French bOtanist of celebrity. And
at Magnolia is the Central House" kept by
that kind and courteous landlord, II. Gottig,
who is not one of those masters of a hotel
who consider it rather derogatory to show
personal civility TO their customers. Not
withstanding he accommodated three hun
dred and seventy-One guests at once
during the holidays, when the house is cal
culated for one hundred less than this num-
Der, Gottig did all in human power to make
all comfortable and give them an
is the handsomest on the road,
with extensive piazzas, shaded by brave old
oaks and watered by never failing spring
of clear. cold water. 1t juts right against
the virgin forest, covered with all, and more
than all, the trees, and shrubs. and flowers
hitherto mentioned, for here is the wide
spreading beech, the kalmia latifolia or
laurel; the Wits vulpina or muscadinc
grape, twining up the trees on the rich
shores of the Tangipahoa, which flows in
the rear of the hotel. Its where these mag
nolias shoot up their majestic trunks,
crowned with evergreen leaves and deco
rated with a thousand beautiful flowers,
that perfume the air around, where the
forests and fields are adorned with blossoms
of every hue. and where the Orpheus poly
glOttus las LinnRus SO well named the mock
ing-bird) fixes its abode, and pours forth its
wOndrous song, that the writer of this chose
to pass glorious fourth.
But having arrived at Magnolia, the
reader is mistaken if he expects to find ex-
actly everything that was said and done
there-how twinkling- footed terpsichore
waltzed and polkaed and gallOped and piI-
rouetted Saturday night and Monday night
in the parlors and billiard rooms and tenn
ported pavilions out in the moonlight on
the island of the Central House He can
not know from this pen how the ladies were
dressed: of their tarletans and tulls, their
fiOunces and flowers, of thin gauze wings
and ruby lips, their alabaster shoulders and
lovely legs-he shall know nothing. though
the writer's brain still vibrates with the
magnetic influence and recollection of them.
Nor can the reader know all of the speak
inc and playing, and of the grand fire works
displayed on the days and nights named-of
whether the Lone Stars, from this city, the
Atlantics. from Algiers, or Nicksbmg or
the Osykas, from Osyka, caught or batted
the base ball the best; or whether the
one of Judge Landon was most eloquent
and appropriate. Let it suffice for him to
know that cOtillons of an hour and half du-
ration. or waltZes whose names would break
this pen in its attempt to name them, could
not fire the active and healthy dancers who
participated at Magnolia. That the base
ballers played in spite of Old Soils injunc-
ton, and that the day was celebrated, not
withstanding the Governmental programme
could not be carried out as intended, owing
to thernon appearance of the leading char
acters whose names headed this programme
New silver Mines.-DiscOvery and Develop.
Tho Santa Fe Post saws that the excite