The Opelousas courier., 1897-05-22
Connecting sise CouriaBleau witt. the
TeCssc.
NEW IBERIA, May Q, 1S9'

| To the Editor of the Times Democrat:
a communication from yOHr correspondent,
at Opclons;s has appeared i'll Your issue of
Friday. the eth, that does so much injustice to
Hon Il. f. Rroussard and myself that | must
beg the of Your columns to rcpiy to it.
The facts are these:
There are about acvc,.fy or eighty miles ni
the Tcchc frn.n st. Mar;nviIle tu Port Barre,
embracing one Of the most beautiful and pro
dnctive portions of oar state. Inhabited by an
industrious and eHt1rnrISlNG population, cen
tanning several towns and many villages, that
have for years been deprived ot the ben
efitS OF navigation. with HE Bayou Tecltc ut
their doors, which can he made navlgable ut u
very small expense. considering the amount Of
commerce already existing. and what it would
hc il The people had the advantage of n;tyGa
ton These people have been compelled to
haul al! their produce lrng distances, either to
II. Martnviile or Port Barre, to ship hy water.
Or to the nearest deputS nn the Morgan railroad.
Seeing the condition of affairs. the Hon. II.
l.. Bronssard, orr member of Congress. has
succeeded Ill getting Major j. Il. Quinn,
the United States Engineer III charge, to have
q survey made and an estimate OF the crst,
with IL view nT ;t>crrtainin@ il it could be made
navi@abie Major Qunn 'ti,i so. and after
personal inspection, pronounced II perfectly
practicable, and that the expense was trtlins
III COMPARISON to the immense benefit 1t
would c0uir; not onlS to TIE people residing
on the banks of the itche, but also the whole
adjoining country, by actin: as d regulator to
the railroad iii regard tn ,reight
He knew that lie communication of the
CourtableaG with i" itca!alaya had been de7-
the current OF the AtchafaHya running Upthe
Courtablcau and meeting the current of that
stream, which he believed it would be very
difficult to remove and almost impossible to
keep open, for the same cause that caused the
RAFT TO form would Immediately fill it up again.
For these reasons he recommended the placing
of the lock i'll the Bayou Cuurt&hlcau Just he
low the mouth of the Jeche, so as to raise it's
waters sufficiently to Givert a portion of them
into the Icche, and then locking the Terhe
as to make it hold enough water to make its
4 IN
time have suice ways, to prevent any possi-
blhty of overflow.
The Hon. r. f. Broussard seeny the inl-
mense advantages of the proposed improve
ment to the people Of the TGchc. of ST. Landry
and the adjoining parishes, immediately called
on the Police Iures of the TecEe to make APP
preparations for the purpose of getting the
statistics OF the commerce Of the parishes in
tcrestcd, 10 be used i'll getting i'm ippropra
tion from Congress to carry The proposed IN
prov emnntS inio Immediate c0Mplet etun.
THIS the parishes have dane, and have ap-
pointed myself to 10 the work. After com
pietlng those of Iberia and st. Martnvi!le, 1,
with the Hon. Il. L. ErouSsard, appealed to
the police jE:y OF st. Landry, which was
equally if not more Interested. to make small
appropriation aud to give their aid in co-ope
ration.
AS had been selected to DO the work for the |
parishes Of the T6che, also wished to DO the |
work for St l.an,iIy.so as to make it complete. |
The president of the police jury of St. Landr, |
had invited both MIR BrollSsaid and myself to |
appear before them on the Sd. AS Mi. Brous- !
saih could not appear before them himself, he |
ne to do 50, and | attended the |
meeting, not expecting any difficulty orpn-
5ition, but, to my Alrprisc. | found that tie
agents or tools otAthc Morgan Railroad had
false and lnaciollateports of the true objects,
aims and intention9lof those interesbI.d .d the
in,prs,,t1~hents all over thg.lTarish of
s., ianiry, s snseee"ed in sets up con-
To show how ridiculous and abSnd their Re
ports were, VIII 'saaentiona ts1r<,f them 10
Inc ey so son at ha ',S we W to % a n ill p hs
bayou and overflow them, when by doing so
'ooiish q thing VIC would run the risk OF over
lowing ourselves. To the people of the lower
portion OF the parish they said that we intend
I'll to drain all the water from their bay GU i'll
o the Techc and steal all their commerce and
rade from Opelonsas. 10 this l replied that
t was a matter of indifference to the people of
New Iberia whether their commerce passed
through their town on tic Morgan railroad as
t was now doing, or by steamboats, i'll the
iaye the benefits of both ronteS and not lie at
he mercy of either; that they hardly expect
d that the people of st. Landry would travel
ittv or sixty miles to ito their trading at New |
IBERIA when they had such enteTprlsing mer-
ants and business men in Opelousas, near
home; that the making OF such IL charge was
reflection on the enterprise and capacity OF
he merchants of OpelouSaS.
In addition to these there were many others,
90 numerous or ridiculous to mention.
Your correspondent says that the distance
rom Port Barre to Morgan City, by the Teche,
5 2l0 miles, and that it is not liore than ninety
niles by the Courableau, Atchafalaya and the
axes to Morgan City. find it only $50 miles
" the T@chc and los miles by the other route,
iiowing the route by the 1Gche is much the
hortest, instead OF longest, as he wishes 10
make it
lcatioil. They 6it: nothing of the kind, but
nly postponed action. us | requested them te
%. told them there was no necessity for
immediate action; that, owing to the many
q that he