News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-04-19
4 NEW ORLEANS LEGEND.
The Weird story of Mime. La-LHUFei Home
in the Old French Town.

A New Orleans correspondent of the
| Nashville american writes as follows -
! There is no portion of New Orleans so
! full of interest to stranger or resident
! than that which a stranger prettily called
" the New Orleans of George W. Cable. "
It's old red-tiled cOttage-houses, some
with great Overhanging roofs that serve
as a sort of awning, with high balustrades
of tiles set on end, forming an odd
decoration around the edge of the roof,
are pretty to look upon. Time has
| sOftened the angUlarities in these small
houses, the winds of many years have
blown a rich soil upon their tops, as
witness-I passed a cottage on Bourbon
street the other day upon the tiled roof
of which grew, in luxurious profusiOn,
golden rod, each stalk at least four feet
high
Far down upon the corner of Royal
and another street stands big square
house built in old French style. It is
five stories, and although there are great
scars upon the gray stone walls, and the
ornate carvings over the peaked tops of
the small-paned windows are beginning
to crumble of, it is building whose
architectural features attract the atten-
ton OF all the sight-hunting strangers.
About fifty-fve years ago this house
belonged to a wealthy old Frenchwoman
whom one may call Nine. La-laurel.
She owned many slaves, and when she
went to live in her Royal street residence
she furnished some of the rooms i'll grand
style.
That the Madame was ashe-devil. who
tortured her slaves, all the town was
beginning to know. There was a deep
well in the back yard, in which it was
SAID she hung the negroes, even to the
little babies, suspending them by the
arms so that the black, cold, foul-smelling
water came u to their lips, and there
they I! hung zGarnost dead. If they
uled III the v7I,yvip11s- the ba7pics,
who could ndNsnaturaIIy endure much of
of such treatment, the body was
weighted, the rope cut, and the Door.
freed darkey sunk swiftly out of sight.
In a room on tine lower floor of the |
house Nine. La-laurel had built sort of |
dungeOn-a brick room inside Of a brick |
room. It has one window, with iron |
gratings across it, and is rs black and |
awful looking as any dungeon you can |
imagine. The floors in this echoing old |
building are full of looking |
stains, and to-day, if water is thrown
upon them, they come ont blood-re6. It
was up III the garnet, though, that the
worst tOrturing was done. Here this
blOOd-thirsty old woman, so they say,
upon the least prOvOcation, used to take
her negroes, tie them to the walls or nail
them by the hands down to the floors,
and then amuse herself by cutting off
their ears, tearing out their nails, and
cutting out their tongues. One night
there came hOarse roar blowing down
the narrow length of Royal street, and
toward midnight a black crowd Of human
awful result of an outraged
a mOb-sUrrOunded that
stately, grim building. The old French
listened in scOIn to the storm
ike clamOr, until the tumuIt of people
came to a halt under her own
and she heard her own name
erled out with threats for her of the
orture.
She sprang down the oa1ken stairway,
lcross the marble hall, past the dungeon,
hen full of fostering wretches, past the
we'll of water-they say the reason It's
10 black to-day is owing to the little
negro babies on the bottom-and I'M
DOSING the heavily barred back gates.
he made her way to the river side.
She lodged her pursuers and crossed
he river i'll a canoe. Finally she escaped
o France, where she afterward died.
They say the mob, after freeing the
legroes, fairly Quilted the house. Of
curse the place Is haunted. BY all the
avs of sensationalism it could not but
'e place where black ghosts walk The
'TIilding was once used as a public high
chool, but the parents of the girls were
uperstitious and would not allow their
aughters to cross the threshold of the
lace, so it was abandoned.