The Washington times., 1924-02-06
ABS|NTHEHOUSE
LANDMARK, IS
WRECKED
Dry Agents Batter Historic
Structure to Seize Ounce
Of Costly Liquor.
BY j. e. CROWN.
Cosmopolitan News Service.

NEW ORLEANS, Feb. Anew
Orleans most romantic drinking
place-the Absinthe House that
stood mistaken for nearly cen
tury and three quarters since it
was founded in 1752-the place
where the pirate Jean Lafitte
raised his glass Of dripped absinthe
before the Battle Of New Orleans
was fought and boasted publicly
what he and Napoleon Bonaparte
would do to ices sacres Anglaises,
those accused Britons, that shrine
Of alcoholic history stands wreck
today.
And a quarter of an ounce Of
absinthe did it.
Federal prohibition agents, raiding
the place, found the quarter OF an
ounce oc absinthe, their official
report shows. To get it, they
worked on the Old Absinthe House
with axes; crowbars and sledye
hammers. Mack Overpack, d1vts'
ional chief, says they Ibid no
unnecessary damage, as a door was
slammed in their faces" However
that may be, the Old Absinthe
House is thoroughly wrecked.
QN4USb 41ASOUAIO A10As
The Old Absinthe House was
known as the most romantic his
toric bar in the New World. The
solid mahogany bar. made Of wood
imported from France in sailing
ships in 1852, was topped by two
thick slabs of white Carrara mar.
BILE. Out of these marble slabs rose
two tall silver shafts, from which
sprang delicate silver faucets. The
water fell from these, regulated,
drop by drop, in the proper method
OF dripping absinthe. In the years
since 1852, from the innumerable
absinthes dripping there, the mar
Die slabs were cut three inches
deep in strange-patterned gullies
from the drop-by drop erosin Of the
water.
The building that housed that
orld-famous bar was built of small,
flat. thin yellow bricks, brought
from France in sailing ships. The
courtyard was a patio of purest
Spanish type. The room that
housed the bar was low-ceiled and
heavy-timbered. Its door was taken
from the Old st. Louis Hotel-the
door that opened to the room where
the slave-block stood just off the
LOBBY. 1t was splintered in the raid.
Noted Guests Registered.
Not alone Jean Lafitte -eveled
there. Andrew Jackson drank at
tnat bar. Jefferson Davis visited it..
Grant, Roosevelt and Taft, three
PRESIDENTS of the United States, were
us guests. In the guest book were
signatures OF priceless value. The
DOCK was kicked to the floor during
the raid. 1t fell open at a page that
pore the scrawled name Babe
In the days when the Old Absinthe
nouse was in its glory, it was Wis.
lted by thousands of tourists from
~ over the world. No visit to New
side trip. O' 'iiie
Carnival time, when New Orleans
reVels in the Madri Gras festivities.
was a rare time at the place.
There on brilliantly lighted nights
OF carnival high revel was held.
Masked and costly.clad women of
society would slip with their escorts
through the quaint door into the
old courtyard, and ascending the
quaint, winding stairs to the little
rooms above, would sit at the old
hewn tables and toast in priceless
abs1nthe the Lord Of Misrule, as
Rex king of carnival, was known.
In one Of those old rooms was a
pile OF hammered irons-handcuffs
shackled chains with balls attached
heavy leg bars. They were left
there by Jean Lafitte, when a New
Orleans blacksmith shop made them
for his Red House on Grand Terre.
In Barataria Bay on the Louisiana
south coast. The Battle Of New
Orleans came before they were
taken to the Red House, and they
stayed there, rusting through the
years.
Marks of Battle Left.
Down through nearly two CEN
turtles have come tales of the
brawls Of the braves that the Old
Absinthe House has seen. It's wood
en- walls have never been changed,
save for careful sandpapering and
repainting from time to time, so
that repeated coats of paint would
not cover over the marks of battle
in the low-ceiled room.
ASdeep cash in one Of the wooden
walls, head high, has been pointed
out from generation to generation.
It marks the spot where in a
moment of riotous revel that turned
to wrath, Jean Lafitte fought his
famous duel with General Humbert,
one of the leaders of Napoleon
Bonaparte's armies, who was exiled
because of his romance and elope.
ment with Pauline Bonaparte.
Pirate and exiled general drew
saber and cutlass simultaneously
The terrific sweep of General Hum.
bert's saber would have split Jean
Lafitte's head, had not the pirate s
foot slipped on the 'sanded floor
as he sought to guard, and Hum.
bert's saber cut deep into the wall
Uncounted duels beneath the
Oaks in New Orleans had their
origin in the Old Absinthe House
DIR. Antommarchi, Napoleon Bona.
parties personal physician, drank
his absinthe here often during his
life in New Orleans after Napoleon
died on st. Helena.
Even in prohibition times sight
seers came to the old, old building
But now. there is no need
A quarter of an ounce of absinthe
wrecked the place through which
oceans of absinthe had flowed.
N. Y. ANNIVERSARY COINS