The Opelousas courier., 1888-05-12
Fair Opelousas.
The Louisiana State Press Association
INCIDENTS +sP EVENTS CONNECTED WITH IFS
ANNUAL CONVENTION.

N. o. Picayune.
o OrELoUsAs, May 3, 1888.
A coed six hours journey by rail
brings one from that green level of the
rice and cane fields that are the margi-
nal note to New Orleans, with the joy
Gus, lovely, rolling, opulent country
of Opelousas, and last Monday morn
ing, incompany with half a hundred
newspaper writers, ! left New Orleans
for the second oldest town in the state,
where the Louisiana Press Association
was to hold its annual convention.
Ono3s obliged to admit that there is
a general tendency to conventions: La
Dor, capital, trade, political suffrage
and temperance conventions are being
held constantly, but the ideal conven-
ton is that Of editors who willingly
stop work and travel across state or
across continent as the case may be,
not for the purpose OF fixing rates or OF
talking " shop" but for the frank en-
Iioyment of q holiday.
The State Press Association OF Lou
isiana is nine years old. The first meet
ing was held in Baton Rouge, and CIV
ery wear of the associations existence
there has been q meeting in some part
of the state. Nearly every country ed
itor in the state belongs to the associa-
ton, and ~enterprising towns vie for the
honor Of Entertaining them and as hosts
spend thousands of dollars in a royal,
hospitable fashion that cannot be
eQualed6anywhere else in the world.
Last wear the press convention was
held at Lake Charles, and when it was
over and the editors, glowing, cheered
and complimented by their welcome
and their speeding, had returned home
they began to fill their papers with &C
counts of Calcasicu, of its resources
and advantages, so that for a month or
more the country papers were one yo-
luminous immigration document going
out to the world, and worth hundreds
of thousands of dollars to that parish,
and of which it is already reaping the
advantage.
To-day the Press Association is hold
ing its convention in O~pelousas, and as
| sit here on the broad porch of this
beautiful home, framed in with flowers
), and with d sweet, PASTORAL beauty all
/; around, [ cannot but think how pleas
ant are the lines of life when they are
laid down for US in such a country and
among such people.
An indifferent, careless person who
knows nothing of bis own state beyond
his own towns limits, who does not
half remember the dramatic traditions
i, of its early history-that picturesque
, perspective that ought to be so alluring
+ thinks, if he thinks at all, only in a
vague way of the Attakapas country
the Opelousas co%untry-of the fine old
town, so rich and elegant IN those
prosperous days of long ago, so thick'y
, settled with O proud French and Span
ish race.
Whatever Of value this rich, blacl
soil may have from a commercial poln'
1 of view there is no doubt that to tht
i idle sightseer ara tourist it is n o
the most charming portions of Louisi
ana. a
All along the road as n comes on
y of the prairies and nears the sweet OLE
Il town, summing itself IN the crest of
: gentlGhill, tangled in with shadows o
n oak and cypress and mammoth magno
las, one sees the raw material o
which Cable and Warner and Jesse
i lights have woven some of their mos
charming descriptions of II phase o
q southern life. The little gray unpaint
= ed cottages, so tidily kept, so clean AM
: so bare, the open doors that have no ba
or bolt, the blue smoke curling from
the narrow chimneys, the queer, stif
little flights of steps reaching up STEEP
+ " from the pporchfF nfder the pent ROC
Q Nowhere else will you find houses by
with the stairs to the second story @
the front gallery, and nowhere els
will you find such beds of blue eye
periwinkle, such pots of red g%eraniums
r such tall rows of hollyhocks, such tan
gled masses of fragrant flower as tina
which is called to this day the icon
IL federate jasmine"
By and by, as the train spedon-th
editors and their wives all comfortable
travelling in a special CARVE game t
% Carencr0. Once this was a great cattl
= farm and a great sWarming place fo
- turkey buzzards, SO that l asked a dea
II y old lady if that was why the place wa
named Carencro. why not?" sal
she, sis not that reason enough?"
This country is lovely to look upor
!, 1t has all the gentle pastoral beaut
= that makes England SO fair to see. II
~ farms and plantations are admirabl
kept. There are no broken fences nc
T. slattern gates, but neatness, orde
% thrift everywhere. @The rolling lane
OF hold in their shadows placid gray poo
~ of water; here and there are belts
% forest fees like deep girdles boundin
the swelling fields OF and graz
and cane and, cotton, and in these fell
TO the farmers have left here and there
III solitary tree-a green antlered thin
lie of beauty, with wild vines hiding IL
er bark. The soil is rich, dark, such
Carrot would paint, and as the sun bs
10 gan to fade we saw many pleasant pl
10 lures Of plow men trudging over I'll
lg brown, combed and serried field
10 trudging towards the blue smoke cur
ing over the cypress trees, while ever
ing mists seemed to steal from out I'll
st woods across the dewy, sweet-smellir
$, lands slowly reaching forth as if the
is would soon envelop farmer and feel
f. and as with a sponge wipe out the pi
I'd ture of peaceful, enViable country lif
Off a cross country my gentle gossl
n pointed and said, vaguely, An Larg
and then she told me of the eoloni.
| and settlements that exist there; of t
#, cheerful hearths where black-eyed W,
men sit at their looms and a al
weave and weave !; of the life that go
ON in the conntry where the innocel