The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-11-03
THE FATE OF LAST ISLAND


Four Hundred of the Best.Known PEG.
pie of the South Sent From Merry
making TO Death by Great wav,
From the Gulf of Mexico.
The terrible cyclone that destroyed
Galveston Island Is not the first calam-
ity of the kind that has occurred in the
Mexican Gulf 1t wildly recalls an in
cident that will ever live in memory.
Over forty years ago there was a SINH
lar calamity in the destruction of Last
Island, off the Louisiana coast, by cy-
clone, September IL, 1885,
Last Island was long, low streak Of
green, bound around the edge with a
line of intensely white sand. Seen in
| those days from the Louisiana MAIN
land Cifteen miles away, the lower end
of the parish of Lafourche), and part
of st. Mary's (the garden of Louisiana)
| 1t seemed but a slender bit of green
| floating upon the bosom of the summer
sea. AS you drew nearer the land dis
| played it's charms. The island proper
was about seven miles wide by about
| twenty-five long. The soil was very
| rich and highly cultivated. Propinqui-
ty brought out as In a delicate photo
graph all it's lines Of radiant beauty.
OF forest, so deep and dense in the far
south, there was none. But few
enormous live-oak trees had grown
upon the island, and In the weird light
of the semi-tropic moon covered from
crown to lowest bough with a long,
gray moss of the latitude, they seem
like great giants wrapped in their fun
eral robes, waving their arms aloft as
they fled from a coming dies irae. Be-
yond these there were no forest trees,
as l have said. The island was but one
long sand spit (only few feet above
the highest tide level of the seal, COW
cred with everything green But 1t was
a very Eden of flowers. The fallen
leaves of the live-oak for centuries had
created in their decay n bed Of rich al
luvium, which artificial means had
greatly increased. The ever-warm air
from the further south seas had given
to the shrub growth an extraordinary
richness of verdure, The orange and
lemon trees the olive, the oleander
which In Louisiana Is tree thirty feet
HlSn), all Oh lllb LIlDt VI JdpollltdS, anu
the scented summer flower, jessamine
yellow and cape, and hundreds of 9TH
ers unknown here, made the island CO.
ruscant with brilliant colored blooms.
1t seemed that all that was rich and
lovely and beautiful in the vegetation
of the semi-tropics here found it's most
congenial home
In the eveing, when the sun went
down and the warm south wind blew in
from the sea, the air would be heavy
with sweet, but unfamiliar, flower
doors. You would be eveloped in very
caress of perfume, direct from the heart
of the great white persian jessamine. |
All, the dreary, happy life of that Won
derful isle in the days of long ago! |
True 1t was watering place, with
most splendid surf bathing on the sid I
next the open sea-coast places of later
days. 1t could never have been like /
Long Branch or Cape May. To gam
blers and games of the half-word Last
Island was as difficult as Paradise. 1t
was impossible to pass the Argus eyes
Of the dozen who watched the gang
way of the boat as the passengers came
on board for the enchanted Isle, as for
guarded by the angel with the flaming
sword. The men who gathered there
were not strangers to each other, for in
Louisiana then everybody who was
anybody knew of his social equal, If he
was not personal acquaintance, no
matter in what region he lived. SO
1ere was spot, not very much known
% the outer world where could gather
when summed days became long and
he dog star ragged, the great cotton
planting magnates Of Louisiana. Mis-
jissippi and Alabama, or the rich,
'ourtly Creole sugar growers from the
Bayou Lafourche country or the Cote
'Or, on the Mississippi river, and their
the American sugar plant
RS from the Felicianas and wealthy,
ristocratic Rapides.
Once a year the very cream of the c
gentry from the states
famed, with a sprinkling of wealthy {
city men," merchants and factors {
rom New Orleans, few bankers, pop
lar clergymen from the rich city par ]
shes--who enjoyed good living and be- 4
eyed st. Paul was right when he ex- {
orted Timothy to take a little wine for I
is > sdhe-dll lueSe people,
18th their wives and daughters would t
Ongregate at Last Island and eat of
he divinest combinations of the French {
lisine, produced by cordons bleus, |
rink sparingly generally-of the good
I'd wines of France-for your old time r
lanter, especially if he was of Creole d
ood, never abused Gods good t
,ings"-take daily plunges into the i
arm surf, and thus decorously enjoy o
onth of dolce far neinte. Never were /
en- more courtly. Never were women II
weller. 1t was the very paradise of r.
antle, graceful, courteous attention to G.
eautiful women. Here Cupid was en- Il
lrined, for who could resist the witch d
y of the perfumed summer night or n
e dark-eyed Creole women? All, how n
ten was that sweet old story told tt
ere-that old story, but ever new b
hich Adam first whispered amid the b
SEES that bloomed supernal in Eden! r,
nd sometimes, but not often, the scene W
lried. Men were younger then, and CT
e blood of youth ever runs hot. A Sc
lick word OH the promenade, jealous n,
ok at the ball and early next morning al
the sands there would be seen the r.
Ssh and CLEAN of the long, slender u
-colored duelling sword on the broad 81
I'd. white beach or pair of duellng f.
Stole-a mart of every Gentleman'S