Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-03-27
WHERE u|WNG'S CHEAP
Mess Of MuIIet and Vegetables
Easily Obtained.
FOOD OF THE ARCADlANS
Descendants of the People Described
in "Evangeline."
ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI SOUND
Story of the Philanthropic Porpoise.
Annual Yacht Races-Modern
Conveniences.
BY WILLIAM f.. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS
Special Correspondence Of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald.
PASS CHRISTIAN: March % 1909.
There is all kinds of fishing along
Mississippi sound from Bay st. Louis
to Biloxi; and Roderick Seal, an &C.
centric orator who lived down here not
long ago. referred to that narrow body
of water as God Almighty's meat
house
The mullet, a small but very pal
atable fish. is the common diet of the
people all along the coast, and is ia =
military known as Biloxi bacon" The
mullet is caught with a little cast net
Familiarity known as the Biloxi life
preservcr,' because anybody can go out
in a boat at any time and catch Ash
enough for a meal in a few minutes
With little effort a market garden
can be made to produce all the vege-
tables that a family can possibly need,
So that this is a very easy place to get
a living.
The Louisiana fishermen are called
"cajans,' the diminutive Of Arcadians.
and they are the same people whose
pathetic story is described in Longfel-
lows "Evangeline." They are scattered
all along this coast and make their
homes chiefly on the banks Of the
bayous and inlets. but 1 have not yet
seen any one resembling either Evan
geline or Gabriel. They are not q
poetic looking class OF people, and they
live the most unpoetic lives, satisfied
with very little.
The pleasure fishing begins about the
middle Of March. when sea trout, reddish,
wedkfish and black bass begin to bite
in the bayous. In April sheepshead.
red snapper, drum and jackfish are
the fashion, and in May bluefsh and
Spanish mackerel come in. from the
gulf. followed in June by the POM
PIANO.
The king1y tarpon used to be plenti-
full along this shore. and Mr.. Clark, the
landlord here at Pass Christian, de-
clares that forty tarpon, running from
60 to 12J pounds each. were caught
here last year He tells me. too, that
John Mcdonald, local boatman.
caught 40 pound sea-bass with an
ordinary tarpon pole, and a twenty
one-strand line, 800 feet long About
six miles from Pass Christian. in the
sound. is a hole an acre or two in ex-
tent, and about sixty-five feet deep,
where the tarpon from the gulf come
In June to breed; and Mr. Clark says
they can be caught there almost any
day during that month by using live
mullet for bait.
A Philanthropic Porpoise.
While l was out for walk this morn
ing school Of porpoises came up so
close to the shore that it would have
been easy to hit them with a stone, and
they played around in the pools. like a
litter of puppies. They did not seem to
be afraid of anything, and a newsboy
VINO stood watching them with me, said
that they were ''allers jest so tame and
friendly like" And he told me a yarn
about porpoise pushing a drowning man
ashore on this beach a few years ago. and
saving his life The big fish actually
showed the body up out of the water upon
the sand. the boy said. and "as soon as
he came to his senses. he got up and
walked home"
This reminds me Of a puma or noun
tain lion. which fed the wife of Francia
the dictator of Paraguay, many years
ago. when; to punish her, that savage
despot took her out into the mountain
forest and tied her to a tree that She
might starve TO death. The. puma found
her there, helpless and hungry. ana
brought her food. Then 1t gnawed the
ropes by which the woman was bound UNI
the jungleS to safety.
This story is implicitly believed by the
people of Paraguay. and is recited In the
histories of that country as a true Incl
carnate. Similar tales have been told of
the benevolent disposition of the noun
tain Hon, which never attacks human
being or fights except in self-defense. II
has often taken care Of babes in the
woods and lost children and has defended
them from more savage beasts, but this
is the first time l ever heard Of a por-
poise appearing in the. role of a philan-
thropist.
The colored hack driver who took me
to ride in the afternoon, however. believes
the story, and said that the .pompous. -
as he pronounced 1t, is kind-hearted
man. They are thick in Mississippi sound
at all seasons of the year. It is their
f"ediEG ground. They come in from the
gulf to eat the mullet that are SO plenti-
ever the ''pompouses' found dead body
in the water they blow it ashore by
the spout hole In the tops Of their noses,
which is very likely. too, although some
people may doubt it.
Fine Yachting Course.
Mississippi sound furnishes the finest
yachting course in the south, and each
town along the coast has a yacht club
which takes turns in holding regattas ev-
cry summer for six consecutive Satur-
days. beginning the last Saturday in June
There is a large fleet of boats belonging
10 private owners, of all sizes and all
classes, including A good many steam.
naphtha and gasoline launches. and last
season couple of motor boats were
brought in. The regatta committees offer
prizes, and Inc boat owners are classified
to compete for them. Last season there
were more than 100 entries for the races
at Pass Christian
The water is perfectly safe. The sound
is well protected by a chain of islands,
divided BY harrow passes from ten to If
teen niles from the shore. and although
the wind sometimes blows up little bill
lows. the water is not treacherous and
it is possible TO sail almost every day
in the year. There are many interesting
places II visit upon the islands which di-
vide the sourG from the gulf.