The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1884-01-05

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Many ans the lsgsnds toId Of La
iitte ssbnried treasures in tbs parish,
aloasg the banks Of rivers aad bayous.
Not q peeuliaF booking spot on the
banks Of any Of the streams have
escaped the search Of the supsrsti-
itions treasure seeker. Bat as vet, we
Believe, none Of them have found any
thing Of vatae. We rrcollect one IN
stsncn, (which we were called ON 30
visit where seekers bad been to work
the PfsSions night We were told
that The party of seekers bad come
over thirty Hailes, and worked al
night, and depatted jast before day
light m the naerning. The spot was
somewhat ,roHzan;ic in appearance,
but not any more 50 than many other
places to be found in this State. Il
seems that after digging numerous
holos and not finding anything, Of
aCourse, q consultation WAS held, in
which 1t was decided that the treasure
was buried beneath a email house
thirty or forty feet away, in which a
sw&mPer had left his wife and child,
while IN the swamp st work. No
sooner than tie decision WAS arrived
at, when work commenced. The we
man and child we're ordered ont, the |
floor torn up and the excavation COIN
Hseneed and prosecuted until the
hOuse was completely undermined and /
timbled into the hole. The most re
thing about the operations
Of these seekers after hidden treasure,
is that they invariably observe the .
greatest secrecy p"ssibie in their
One would suppose that
this idea Of LaEttc's having treasure
buried rpromiscpousiy abont in every
odd looking spot, would exist only
with ignorant and saperstitious per
sons bnt we can assert, without fear
Of contradiction, that sach is not the
case, always Men of known good
sense have been drawn in this foolish
search. The banks of the MermeniRu,
Nezpiqae, English bayou, Calcasien
liver, CoatrabaRd bayou, Choupique,
md the Sabine river, all, to-day, bear
marks of the searehers.
In all our reading Of LATTE, We
nave never, anywhere, seen wherein
il has been stated, with tue intention
Of having it believed, that LaGtte ever
did, in has piractieal excursions, cap.
ure any great amount of treasure.
History, if our memory serves US right,
asserts thai Laitte died in poverty in
New Orleans. And We ask where is
he consistency in his dying IA want,
when he had wealth buried in every
'pot, that mad only the evidence OF
-Ac existence, at some prehistoric
lime, OF having been the resort Of
some Eayagc tribe only, and for this
popularity conld be deemed curious,
We believe there are men now IN our
midst, who are accredited with fair
average OF intelligence and common
sense, who still entertain the idea that
.reasure is buried somewhere and will |
1e found. And to those who do still
nave this idea, we say, the quicker you
lispel it the better for you, or like the
motion crank, your hopes
will founder upon the banks of insan-
ty. The whole truth is, that Laftte
never had any treasure at all and
what little he did capture in his criml-
la expeditions, was gambIed of aud
pent in dcbauchery as fast as OBJ
aimed.
This hidden treasure business has
'een the hobby of many who are
.iyen to be over credulons, and have
lad their imagrnatioRs worked upon
~ reading books of fiction, snch as
Dumas Count Of Monte Christie"
That is all there Is about it.