The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1902-10-25
ROMANCE AND OIL.

L
on Anse Labutte which gives a
graphic pen picture of the
famous spot, with Breaux Bridge
and Longfellow's inn mortal oak
as a background. The author of
this invaluable contribution to
the already voluminous literature
of Anse Labutte is Mr.. Harrison
Clark. An intermingling of ro-
nance and oil gives added charm
to Mr.. Clark's story, and par.
donable degree of poetic license
is responsible for a few slight
discrepancies. Mr.. Clark pre-
faces his article with the follow
ing paragraphs.
Beau mont, Texas, Oct. "a
THE land to which poor. disap-
pointed, lOvelOrn Evangeline came
in search of her recreant lover,
and which Longfellow made
famous in verse, is now fever
ishly springing into prominence
as the center of the new Oil fields
Of the South.
But few miles from the
grand old oak under which
weary Evangeline rested and
listened to the whisperings of
the wind and the song that was
in her heart, an iron-lined hole
in the ground has for the greater
part of a week been sending out
it's raucous noise, and the bosom
of the beautiful Bayou Teche,
which murmuringly bathes the
feet of the great but lonely old
monarch of a departed forest, is
greasily covered with splOtches
and streaks of floating OF l..
With the exception of the re-
proach to the memory of Evan
geline's hapless lover, the fore
going is all true. But no maiden
of ancient or modern times was
ever loved by more faithful
lover than was Evangeline.
After a short incursion into the
realms of romance, the writer
tells of more sordid things.
He says:
"Already there are hundreds
of the advance guard of an oil
boom headed toward Anse La
butte, and there are predictions
of a boom such as that which
struck Beaumont 1S months
ago. Spectators and legitimate
Oil men are gobbling up real or
supposed Oil lands, and asking
little about the price or the title,
so that they may for the time
them. Hotels and eating
houses and photographers are
springing into existence within
the sound of the new gusher,
and all of them are dreaming
when they sleep, which is not
golden streams spout
ing out of the ground and falling
in the shape of ducats into their
pockets.
After paying a deserved COM
pliment to the Haywood
Mr.. Clark has the
to say of the country
to Anse Labutte and
If the distances to Lafayette and
20 Breaux Bridge. Says Mr.. .
Clark:
The history of the Anse La i
uUUS ol1 11c1u 10 LII 6
he first place, Anse Labutte,
With or without oil, is interest
ng. Originally it was called {
'Anse Labutte, and there is
a meaning to the name, {
,ut it is not known to the aver :
ge inhabitant. It is IA miles
,elow Breaux Bridge, on the
Bayou Teche, and about ~ miles r
,elow the great oak tree under Z
which, according to Longfellow, r
Ivangeline sat and bemoaned the g
bsence Of her lost lover. The
and of the neighborhood is +
evel, as the term would be un- b
erstood in St. Louis, but there b
5 more rOughness than there is f
1 the neighborhood of Beau
lont. The hills are higher, and T
here are more of them. Lafa-
cite, which is the nearest town
} the oil field, is practically fiat,
geographically, and from the :,
own the spouting column of n
as, sand, water and oil can be G
lainly seen. The noise of the n
usher can be clearly heard at n
lis distance-49 miles.
AS The Gazette has been =,
intly charged with the people "
Lafayette with harboring sin -
ter designs. it will submit, -
ithOut arpument the teSti-