Wichita eagle., 1888-12-21
9ai1n eagle
L0UISIANA'S GLORIES,
THE BEAUTIES OF THE STATE As
SEEN BY ONE OF ITS RESIDENTS.

Scenery That stirs the Soul of the Poet.
Romantic Spots by Lake and River
The Odd and Interesting People One
May See.
In New Orleans we bury in ovens above
ground to escape the waters on which
our city floats; in ST. Martinsville there
are dungeons of underground cellars;
and in one parish the SHOWS are orange
blossoms, and in another they fall from
heaven itself. In the Acadian country,
when ball is to be, courier carries a
flag and rides over all the country shout
ing out Like a town crier in the olden
days the summons to the fete. In Gre
oledom a young girl dead is borne to her
grave by white yelled death maidens,"
and in Acadia the very horses wear ANU
lets to charm away the ''gri-gri." There
are out of the way little inns in Louisiana
where the cooking is as good as at Del
Elonico's-nay, better. Who would not
so a-swamping if only the way was
shown hin2 How many tourists would
be proof against day at Spanish lake,
Or a nights alligator hunt on the Atcha-
falaya? What Floridian scenery can
equal our Tchefuncta? There is street
in Dublin only few books long said to
be the finest street in the world; and
there is river in Louisiana only navi-
gable for little way that for beauty, for
color Of environment, is more finely
picturesque and lovely than miles of the
Thames, the Rhine, the Arkansas or the
Hudson.
NATURE APPEALS TO THE ARTIST.
Nature in Louisiana appeals to the art
ist, to the poet, to the photographer, to
the tourist, who is none of these in prac-
tice, yet all and more in love with the
beautiful. There is an indescribable
charm in the softness of our lakes. the
serene, deep beauty of our bayous, the
splendor of our forests, the gayety and
grace and lively life of our plantations
Every village has its inn, its traditions,
its accessible gossip, its peculiar local
customs, too pronounced to escape the
interested locker on. Here you will find
the big plantation, the fine house over
run with pickaninnies, the royal well
come, the never failing hospitality.
There you will find the adobe hut, the
squaiid tamales maker. Here you will find
you will find ma belle creole making a
n0vena before her saint and praying for
a husband. There you will meet a pa
tent, farm laboring friar or hear
the dirgeike chant of the entombed
Carmellite nuns. One day you NAV
stand under an orange tree freighted
with 10000 golden globes of fruit; an
other day you may climb up ladder
into the perch of the swamper or down
shaft into a salt mine far below the sur
face.
Ours is pastoral country, as pastoral
SIS England. All is gentle and serene
and matured and full of soft repose.
The flowers and even fields, the still for
ests, the waveless bayous, tho rich crops
and the lowing kline all appeal to the
home side of nature. The grass is green
everywhere, innumerahle flocks of geese
waddle over the green levees and nip
grass in the orange orchards.
THE ITINERANT SNOWMAN.
Out in the woods and by the rivers
5rim, the cheap circus people, travelling
In caravans or in gay painted barges
drawn by tiny tugs, erect their tents;
peddlers plod about in heavy blue hacks;
a gypsy fortune teller. her baby swung
on her back, stealthily creeps up and
whispers wish TO have her hand crossed
with silver; an evil Arab sinks by under
the Cherokee rose hedge leading a
dancing bear. He gets out of the way
for the gentleman planter trotting by in
his dog cart. Under the pent roof in the
Teche country, in the tiny hut made on
the gulf islands of wrecked ships timbers,
In the fine old country mansion, palace
N the old days, there burns the inextin-
guishable torch of genial hospitality.
Like the Spanish the house owner greets
the new conner with that gracious
warmth and gives him not only the best
he has but all he has.-Catharine Cole
in New Orleans Picayune.