Omaha daily bee., 1909-08-01
MYSTIC ISLANDS OF GUILE
Children Of Many storms wrapped
in Atmosphere of Ro-
nance.

Tit latest report from the gulf coast
says that thirty-eight people were killed
In the recent storm, many more arc
missing, and much property was destroyed
The storm, though bad, cannot compare
with others which the western part Of the
gulf has known.
We Judge from the reports that Grand
Island has escaped injury. what is
Grand Island?" A most interesting place.
and one about whose fate one familiar
with Louisiana's southern coast and the
ravaEes Of gulf storms in the past is apt
to make inquiry in times like these.
"L'Isle Grande" Is the last of the
chain of sandy islands f~rinEing the
Louisiana coast which the gulf storms
have spared. II is not so famous as
Last Island or isle Derniere,' which
figures in Lafcadio Hesrn's vivid story
of the great and destructive storm in the
'JOs-"Chita: A Memory of Last Island"
But It has this advantage: it is still hab-
table.
Long years ago the gulf wanted some
playthings and II got them. These
playthings were the little islands along
the Louisiana coast. But it grew tired of
then at last and broke them just as
children do. That is, IT broke all but
one, leaving them flat sand banks at low
tide, covered with rank grasses some show
Ing a little clump of oaks at the highest
point.
only a few fishermen, taking their
lives in their hands, dare live on them
today. They are pictures OF abandonment
and Of marshlike desolation. isle au VIM, ="
which got its name from the fact that long
ago a ship with much wine in cargo was
wrecked near there; Isle Derniere'-
these and others barely rise above the
water to give a sort of local habitation and
a name to the legends that are told Of
them.
But "L'Isle Grande," with its population
Of 400 souls, ranging from white to black,
divided comically into castles according to
gradations of color, speaking much more
Acadian French than English, with the
children touching their caps to strangers as
respectfully as their great-great-great-
grandfathers touched theirs to the "seign-
eurs' in Canada or France some centuries
ago-"L'Isle Grande" survives in superb
confidence.
The inhabitants understand quite well
what has happened to all the other islands,
but they scout the idea that any disaster
can befall theirs. 1t is much higher than
the others, they say; it is growing higher
every year, and, finally, nothing except q
few deaths and a hotel washed away from
one end mar it's record as a place Of per
feet safety.
But this serenity in the face of possible
disaster is not the only thing that com
mends the island and its simple, friendly
fisher and farmer folk to the chance Wis
itor. The island has a history full OF real
thrills. 1t was there that the pirate broth
ers, Jean and Pierre Lafitte, often made
their headquarters. Back of 1t lies Bara-
tarla bay, on which the pirate craft rode
snugly at anchor. II is not every island
that can boast of that.
Maybe the confidence of the inhabitants
has some reasonable foundation. Maybe it
is mere chance that has preserved the
island from disaster. Whatever may be the
secret, no man who has been there would
be surprised to hear that a storm had re-
moved it from the map.-Chicago Inter
Ocean.