The National tribune., 1906-09-27
woman hadnon.h. law prevented h,m

I
from doing so.--
The case hangs on the question, DID
Roland Filhiol live in open concubinage
with Inez Schmidt? II he did she can
inherit, un Ser he Louisiana law, only
10 per cenk OF sfhe estate, itself large
sum; but ithe did not, then the entire
fortune goes to, her.
The evidence was largely in her favor
on this point, with the exception OF the
Cincinnati incident. None Of Filhiors
relatives, friends or acquaintances. not
even his confidential secretary, knew OF
the existence of Inez Schmidt. On the
other hand, this secrecy was violated at
| Cincinnati, where he registered with
her as his wife, and once, 1t seems, he
made the mistake of having her visit
him at his Ouachita home, although as
a precautionary measure he sent the
servants away, that none might see her
there.
VIII the Filhiol fortune and the Fill
hiol homo and the many relics OF a
proud family pass into the possession of
an octoroon? 1t would make Don Juan
turn in his grave.
A descendant of line of warriors
and statesmen, he was driven out of
Haiti during the negro insurrection and
came to Louisiana. There a tender of
his services was accepted by Don Este
van Miro. then the Spanish Governor of
the colony. and he was placed in COM
mand Of the Ouachita and Arkansas
districts as Governor Of Upper Louisi-
ana.
| He received from the Spanish Gov
ernment immense grants of land, in
cluding the valuable springs now known
as Hot Springs. which De Soto had
searched for as the Fountain Of Youth,
and which were known at the time he
| acnnirad fhAm spTha Dnv{p9 Hot
Spouts."
| The property Is now held by the Fed
eral Government. It was sold by Fill
hiol, but he claimed to have repur-
chased it, and this claim was strongly
supported by the testimony of Julien
Poydras, first Congressman from Lou
isiana. The question of ownership is
still open and the Filhiol claim Is be-
fore Congress.
| The Filhiol heirs laid claim to the
land in Pine Bluff. Ark. as belonging
to their ancestor, Don Juan Filhiol, and
as having been granted to him by Gov.
Miro. which claim, after a careful in
vestigation by Congress, was allowed. A
similar ruling in the Hot Springs case
and n decision in favor of Inez Schmidt
| in the suit now before the Ouachita
court would give her possession of the
greatest health resort in America and
of dollars.
Don Juan Filhiol died in 1921, at the
| age of 81. His son. Edmond Landry
Grammont Filhiol. married Aurora Ro-
land, of New Orleans. The grandson OF
Don Juan was Jean Baptiste Fiihiol.
who left two sons, Roland N. Filhiol,
whose property is at issue, and Hardy
n. Filhiol, in whose name the suit has
been brought to oust Inez Schmidt as
tr;x M tho nrnnertv
The F'ilhiol house is rich with furni-
ture brought from France and Spain
$50 years ago, with portraits of the Fill
hiols and their connections and branch
es with the medals and decorations that
they won in the service of Spain. One
of these relics of which Don Juan was
intensely proud is not there. however
sword presented to him by the King
of Spain which, he, when the rule of
Spain ended In Louisiana, presented to
the civil authorities of Ouachita, as the
first symbol Of power and government
in that territory. That sword hung In
the court room where the legal contest
took place over the Filhiol property.
If Inez lives the children will be in a
remarkable social position. By the laws
of nearly all the Southern States a per-
son who is fifteen -sixteenths white
and only one-sixteenth negro Is a
carried legally no further than the octo-
room. Therefore the children are white
legally. Socially, however. one drop of
known negro blood is sufficient to con-
taminate, and with all their wealth it
would be impossible for these children
to reside in the Filhiol place and live
on terms of intimacy with their neigh
bors.
Indeed, when Inez Schmidt went to
tn, t,n ho
find no white person willing to take Ter
in as boarder and would have been
compelled to seek quarters among the
negroes had not Catholic priest found
a place for her. 1t is an open secret.
therefore, that IL the Filhiol fortunes
descend to her she will seek in Europe
home where the race distinction Is
not preserved to the fourth and fifth
generation, as in Louisiana.