New-York tribune., 1879-04-12
SEIZURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE
IN THE SUGAR COUNTRY.
THE RICH CANE FIELDS or TERRFBoNNE-A QUAiN


to,, , sprc,,r CoRRrsr oNDFNT OF THE TRIBUNEI
Hor,,, TrRpFBoNNE PARISH, La. Feb. Inns
Parish well deserves the name gwen IL ny '''
French settlers who pushed their batteauA up It's
bayous more than hundred years ago i"o
land il indeed good-what there is Oh IL s 90
rich and inexhaustible as the most ierule il'noi'
nrairio hut il lies in streaks anu Pd'on''
among the swamps ana nowhere
more than two or three feet above the leVel oi
the wafer Like nearly all of Louisiana peiow heu
pi,-ar Tho country here looks as if man had come
ppon if prematurely, before 1t was ready for his oc
cnpancy. A few thousand years more would be
needed for Nature in her Slow deliberate fashion to
ra,se the level of the land, drain the swamps'
and convert the bayous that draw OIL the
surplus waters of the Mississippi into re-
spectablc law-ablding streams, keeping theiI Guam
nels and never Overfowing their banks 10 play INC
mischief with the adjacent fields But the Iahu WAS
found TO be adapted to raising sugar-cahe' anu i"
refused 10 wait upon geologic processes lie cleaieu
mn the higher portions built big levees to Keep
off the water of the bayOus, ana Hl'Ie oneS
as protection against overflow from the sWaihPs'
and so i'm course of time get toleIaoIy hdol'doIo
country The cypress and the spanish HioSs arc
bis host fricnds-one purifying the water and the
other the air from the poisonous influences Oh uc-
cavinp vegetation; so that, though every dwelling
:; surrounded bv near horizon wall of swalnps
y
that look like constant breeders of deadly masma'
tbo atmosphcre is balmy and the climate not
specially unhealthy.
The land in TerrcbOnne is owned in large estates
EXCEPT the little patches that form the homeateads
of the Kagians-the descendants of the Acadians
whom the British expelled from Nova Scotia. These
people are a genuine peasantry, and the contrast
between their ways and condition ana
those of the landed gentry Is rs shaIp
"a that between the most widely separated
classes of society in any European country Inc
Raglan usually lives in a little one-story frame
bouse. on the margin of bayou. He has bar
barrie fondness for color. and frequently paints the
SIDES of his cottage pink, the front white, and the
sluttcrs blue. He owns a bit of garden and field
of maize but he detCsts agricultural labor, ana
gets large part Of his subsistence by fishing ana
hunting. When hard pressed for money he will get
ont slaves and pangS from the swamp or gather
and cure a few bales of tree moss, or work week
OF two for wages in a sugar mill, but as a steady
laborer he is motto be compared with the negro lie
speaks a corrupt French-nO worse a dialect how
ever, than the Canadian French-isa good Catholic,
sometimes reads little but rarely writes, believes
New-Orleans to be the principal city in the world
cares little for politics but votes the Democratic
ticket drinks clarct in preference to whskey,
smokes the strong perique tobacco, and barring his
laziness and ignorance is not bad sort of fellow.
The Raglan girls are often graceful and
attractive but they age frightfully after
marriage. 1t is a pretty sight to see one
of them padding a pirogue along bayou. The
slightest false motion will upset the trail craft, but
the girl keeps her balance, and steers and prOpels
the boat with long, sweeping strokes as skilfully
as could practiced canOeist. However small the
Kagian house may be, the interior is neat
and orderly, the floor well washed and swept,
and the beds of snowy whiteness. The Raglan
housewife prides herself especially on her beds
She does the family washing in the bayou, bending
over board thrust into the stream for half its
length on which she spreads the clothes and beats
them with a paddle 1t is rude aud laborious style
ofIaundry work, but the peasants of more than one
country in Europe practise it as well as the simple
Louisiana creole.
Houma is the cOunty-town Of TerTebOnne. 1t is
situated on bayou no longer navigsble by reason
of the grasses that choke it up but it can afford TO
dispense with water transit since the completion OF
n branch road fifteen miles long to MOrgan's
Louisiana and Texas Railroad, which gives
1t an outlet TO New-Orleans. The place has
about thousand inhabitants, rejOiceS in two
weekly papers, printed half in French and half in
English. a courthouse with a Greek temple porticO
n Catholic school for girls two or three churches
and a Struggling shabby, narrow business street
queer congeries of one. story structures. One
enters dingy, low-ceiled sitting room where
a wood fire is smoulderng in a huge fire
place. more to heat the fat-irons of shapely
nulatto giIl who is ironing on a back piazza than
10 warm the room. for all the doors and windows
are opon and the mercury stands at 7O2, though 1t
is midWiutcr at the North. On one side Of the room
stand three armchalrs with decr-skn cush-
ions and on the other side three rocking
chairs upholstered in like manner. Two enor-
nous armOires and an old bureau, whose graceful
form tells of French origin, complete the furnishing.
The paper Is of astonishing pattern, such as one
remembers to have seen on the bandbOXes of his
grandmother and there is painting of a red
legged French soldier looking at fort. No land
lord is visible, and the management appears to
be in the hands of fat old woman and
gaunt midde-aged woman, who occupy
the sitting-room, welcome the guests, and
direct the negro servants. At dinner a tocrabe
claret is served without extra charge, several bot
ties standing on the table for the guests to make
free with.
After dinner l walked about the streets, each a
canal of unfathomable black mud, bordercd by mar
row strips of plank sidewalk and stopping at
the Court-house got into conversation with a
group of negroes summing themselves on the stcp7.
is this Republican ParishW asked the blacklist
and ragCedeSt of the group. Mighty strong Re-
publican boss our majoritv's bout seven hun
dred" Then you elect all The parish officers y
"'Lect 'em all, boss. We send two colored members
TO the Legislature, and one State Senator" Ever
have any trouble with the white folks about poll
ties :" NO. sah." mo bulldozing ever prac-
ticed here ~ NO sab reckon 'twOudn't be safe
fur 'em to try it, Dere amt enough of 'em,
boss" Another negro Joined in the conversation,
and accounted for the immunity of IerIe-
bonne from intimidation at elections by its com
paratlye isolation and its distance from parishes
from which the Democrats could draw as