Woman's enterprise., 1922-07-03

Pierre darcy was a follower Of
Dlron dArtaguette, that is, he was
follower in the sense that he had
followed him from France to the New
World, in search Of fame and fortune,
but since setting foot on the soil of
New France, it had been his fate to
follow the daring Diron only in the
spirit, for it had been the custom of
the leader of the band to leave Pierre
behind whenever there was some cam
paign afoot, and only the spirit Of
discipline, instilled into the very fibre
Of the soldiers being, kept Pierre
from revolving and deserting his post
and disobeying his orders, follow in
the trail of his chief.
On his first voyage on the Mes
c:acebe, the eye of the strategic
Oiron, had alighted on the first bluff
which one meets as he ascends the
ideal spot for the location Of a post
from which the Lilies of France
could dominate the stretches Of the
mighty river above the colony on the
Island of Orleans and make an i'm
portant link in the chain Of posts ex-
tending from the Lakes to the Gulf.
Therefore it was, that Pierre was
cooling his heels in the blockhouse
that surmounted the bluff while more
favored though not more adventurous
spirits were tracking the forests to
the North where problems of tribute
and submission to the infant colony
called them among the Natchez, the
Chickasaws, the Choctaws, and lesser
nations of aborigines that had been
taken in as part Of the new domains
of France in the New World.
Chained down by the iron hand OF
military discipline, Pierre pined away
the days that came and went and
earned for himself the reputation OF
being a gloomy and morose penseur'
The regular troops and the coureur
de bois and their Indian allies roamed
through the trackless forests but his
was the prosaic task Of looking after
the handful of men left to guard the
post and the few women and children
who had followed their husbands and
fathers into the rough surroundings
of the virgin forests that skirted the
banks of the great river.
True there were many things to
attract his attention in these parts
and wandering about the neighbor'
ing wilderness, he had seen the hills
crowned with their live oaks that be-
tokened the presence Of underground
shell banks from dried watercourses
that furnished the sustenance to the
roots of these monarchs Of the woods
He had seen the swampS where the
tall cypress trees were crowned II
the mourning garbs Of moss and tn
cane brakes from whose labyrintha
depths there came the big game tina
abounded in the country as in tn
watercourses were the finny tribes O
all descriptions.
He had gazed with more than usua
interest on the marks Of men and ha
seen the tall red cypress tree Stripe
of its bark that marked the boundar
line between the tribes, tree fror
which a tremendous pirogue coul
have been constructed in one piece
and a tree which had given the pos
its name of Baton Rouge or Re
Stick, by the united and approve
consent of all corners, for where coul
the like of this monarch of the fo1
the land of traditions and legendar
Nature certainly planted it there ths
it might bear winess through age
to come that the place was marke
by Fate from some great develol
ment in the far and distant iutur
He had seen the tries gather
the shadow Of the great red stick ar
there, after their tribal ceremonle
they had reached their inter-trlo
conclusions, had discussed their cor
mon policies and gone forth to p
them into execution in the depth
the interminable forests. These po>