The water from the Mississippi l>egan to nin off during the last two week» of March, but in lower lyouisiana thr; flood continued U) swell through the greater 7<ortion of April, and even when the ris<! ceas^^l it suljsided m> slowly that it was late in June lK;fore many of the plantations were quite free from water. The floo<l may therefore Ik; considered as having lasted fully five months. Over a hundred breaks or crevass'.'S v/ere cause*] by it, and 22,000 square miles of territory, with a fK>pulation of 400,000, were overflowed. Hit-lief bureaus were established by the Government during the early days of the disaster, and several hundred thousand dollars worth of rations were distrili-uted. In lyjuisiana this aid was supplemented by a relief commission v/hich sent a fleet to the upper portion of the State to remove the \x-J)J>]o, to safe ground, and to furnish forage for the fUxtk, which was perishing by thousands. This fleet rescued many pr;ople from dr;ath by starvation or drowning.
According to the refK»rts prej>ared Ijy the jKilice jurifs at the re<juf;st of the governor, for the purp'iw of estimating the h«s entailed ufKm r>;uisiana by the flfKKl, it was rhown that 28 out of '><> parishes were involved in it, the damage to crops of all kinds amounting to $11,408,000; that to stfx-k, fencfjs, houw;s and household grK^ls, hivcxtn and railroads, to *!{,5iiB,000; making a grand total of $].'),004,000 loss in I»nisiana alone. In Mississippi the loss was figured at
$6,701,000; in Arkansas, at $4,033,000; in Tennessee and other States, at $1,-300,000; the amount for all being the pretty sum of $27,038,000.
The lessons of 1882 so forcibly demonstrated the necessity for good levees that since that time the work has been carried on with a vigor and persistency which has resulted in giving a nearly complete system of levees to Mississippi and Louisiana. In 1884 the flood caused but one important crevasse, which, however, was a verj serious one. It occurred at the Davis plantation 22 miles above New Orleans, and was caused by the imperfect refilling of a rice flume cut in the old levee—a fertile cause of trouble now practically abolished—^througti which the water rushed, cutting out m a short space of time a gap of 1,000 feet. Through this immense opening the tide flowed in a converging stream that foi'ced its way inland to the distance of several miles, spreading destruction in its path. The tracks of the Texas Pacific, and of the Morgan lines of railway, wore soon submerged, and all traffic stopped. The two companies united in the effort to close the crevasse, but the force of the powerful current, and the masses of driftM'ood and debris which it hurled like a battering ram against the work, so blocked and impeded it as to compel its abandonment. The gap widened, the water spreading itself in a vast sheet of devastation over the country, invading adjoining parishes, pouring into the town of Gretna, driving families from their homes, and carrying destruction and misery wherever it appeared. The richest sugar district in the State was submerged, the flood extending almost to the Gulf, and entailing a loss of over $5,000,000.
From 1866 to 1887 the cost of high water is computed to have been:
To the building and maintenance of levees $25,704,482.94
To crevasses and loss from floods 71,827,600.00
Total cost of high water in twenty-one years $97,532,082.94
The Mississippi River Commission, created by act of Congress in 1879, and charged Avith the diitj' of suggesting a plan for the improvement of the river, and of supervising the work, has recognized the importance of levees as a factor in river improvement. From tlie early days of levees in Louisiana it has been observed that tlie river in the section where these were maintained was al-Avays deep and imobstructed by bars. The Commission, in its first report, insisted forcibly upon this point,, and it has since lent liberal aid in the work of levee building. As a result of the greater care bestowed upon them the levees
liave been able to withstand the force of the floods of the past fourteen or fifteen years, and so to protect from serions loss the property along the river. In 1893 the water reached a higher reading on the gauge than had ever before been recorded, bnt it was kept well within control, and the few slight breaks were repaired qnickly and with comparatively little loss. The fight against high water may therefore be considered as won—though in this as in other contests against natural forces eternal vigilance is the price of security.
The following table, abridged from one included in a report of the Mississippi River Commission, gives the probabilities as calculated from the floods occurring within periods of from eighteen to twenty-five years, of high Avater at various points along the river where gauges are established:
Once in everv ten 3'ears there may be expected:
Feet.
At Cairo, a flood of 51.5
At Memphis, a flood of 34.5
At Helena, a flood of 46.5
Mouth of White River, flood of 47.5
At Vicksburg, flood of 49.0
At Natchez, flood of 4S.0
At Red River Landing, flood of 47.0
At Carrollton, flood of 15.6
The wharves are wooden structures, built against the levee, which is protected by a bulkhead of plank. They are, in fact, stagings of jDlank, supported by piles twelve feet square, and fifty feet in length, which are driven down into the bed of the river by huge pile-drivers as far as possible, and cut otf to the proper level. Caps of twelve foot timber are laid upon these, parallel with the bank, and boimd together by stringers of 6x12 timber. On these, again parallel with the bank, are laid and firmly secured the planks which form the staging.
Since 1891 the wharves have been leased to a company knoAAoi as the "Louisiana Improvement Company,"' which, in consideration of the revenues collected at rates fixed by the ordinance granting the lease, bound itself to expend during the first tvw years of its contract $465,000 in wharf improvements, to construct and keep in repair wharves, bulkheads and landings between Toledano and Piety streets, a distance of four miles, and to light the whole front by electricity, the lights to be placed not less than 250 feet apart. They are also required to maintain a depth of twenty-five feet of water at the extreipes of their line, where sea-going vessels lie, and of twelve feet at the central jxjrtions which are i;sed by river-craft. This lease expires in May, 1901.
The following iiiforiiiMtioii in regard to the wharves is derived from ^Mr. Gervais Lombard, engineer of the Orleans Levee Board:
"In 1893, in fact until May, 1897, when the water in the Mississippi river broke all previous records at Xew Orleans, reaching a stage of 19.5 feet on the Canal street gauge, the wharves and the levees immediately behind them were required to be kept up to a grade of 18.5 feet according to Canal street gauge, the zero of which is 2.5 feet below Mean Gulf Level. The Louisiana Tinjirove-ment Company, who are the lessees of the wharves and landings, are bound by their conlract with the city of New Orleans to maintain the wharves and approaches to the same at said grade of 18.5 feet. When the water rose above this grade and completely covered the wlnrves in 1897, it was kept o\it of the city by a temporary levee or embankment constructed of sand bags. The immense shipping and commercial interests suifered great inconvenience for nearly a month, or until the water subsided.
" The Orleans Levee Board and the Port Commissioners adopted a new grade of 20.5 feet for the levees and wharves, and the wharf lessees, though not bound by contract to conform to this new grade, have raised the greater portion of the lovee and a small portion of the wharves to 20.5 feet, and as any new work is done, or any repairs become necessary, the new grade is conformed to.
" In the latter part of 1897 the Orleans Levee Board, considering that something must be done about the banks of the river in the lower Third district, which were caving and sliding into the river, because of the encroachment of the channel and the consequent steepening of the bank, employed an engineer of considerable repute to devise some feasible plan for staying the encroachment. An elaborate system of continuous wharves was recouuncnded, it having been observed that the wharf system had imjmn'cd the commercial fi'ont of the city. Years before, the Third district had been considerably used as a landing place for the commerce of the city, but owing to the rapid and continued caving of the banks, and the consequent destruction of all w^harves and improvements made upon them, the district was aliandoned as a place of landing, and in obedience to the unwritten but universal law which governs such matters in all great cities, the improvements were moved farther up the stream. The wharves were at first built in the form of piers, projecting out into the river at right angles to the shore, b^it great trouble was experienced in maintaining them, owing to the fact that the resistance offered to the rapid current by the projecting ends created eddies which attacked and undermined the bank, causing the whole thing to
cave in. LattT the plan of making the wharves continuous, and parallel to the bank, was adopted. By this method the wharves do not extend so far out into the stream, and so, oflFering less resistance to the current, are found to be more stable. Another, and perhaps the principal, reason for the diminished caving of the wharves may be found in the fact that the river has ceased to encroach xipon the eastern banks where they are constructed, and is actually beginning to recede, according to the habit of the great Father of Waters,—which is to first eat away the banks on one side for a generation or two, then to replace them with interest during another one or two generations, while devouring large slices from the other side.
" The elaborate system of wharves recommended for the Third district has been duly constructed, thus extending the wharf system some If miles down stream, making a continuous stretch of wharves from the upper end of the Stuy-vesant docks, at Peniston street, to a point 100 feet below Egania street, a distance of 6|- miles. The success of the Third district wharf system, which was constructed in an iinusually substantial manner, is still in the balance, some signs of failure having become apparent after the flood season of 1898, although the United States government had gone to great expense to assist in protecting the banks by means of mattresses of woven willow brush, loaded with rock, and simk along the shore line."
The width of the river in front of New Orleans varies from 1,500 to 3,000 feet, and the length of the harbor in actual use for steamers and shipping is about seven miles on either shore. In 1880 there were on the left bank, where the greater part of the active commerce is carried on, 6G wharves capable of accommodating large steamers two abreast, or sail vessels four abreast, and a wharf for river and coasting steamers and barges of nearly li miles front. This central wharf or levee forms a large plaza several squares wide, and extending from Julia street to St. Louis, and is what is usually meant when "the levee" is spoken of. It consists of three divisions, the Grain levee, at the head of Poydras street, the Cotton levee, at the head of Canal street, and the Sugar levee, at the head of Conti street. In former years, before the establishment of commercial exchanges, much of the buying and selling was transacted on this great levee, which, during the busy season, presented a scene of bustling activity. It is often remarked that the wharves are no longer crowded as they once were with cotton bales, barrels and hogsheads of sugar and molasses, and with other produce of fields and factories. This, however, does not indicate tJiat the cotton
and produce no longer come to ISTew Orleans, or come in reduced quantity. On the contrary, they are brought in vastly increased quantities, but the methods of handling have been so improved that the wharves never appear crowded. Formerly, for instance, cotton was brought down the river by steamboats, of which there were great numbers, and which, during the height of the season, would arrive piled to the hurricane deck with tiers of bales. These were all unloaded upon the wharves, and -reloaded upon drays or "floats," which transferred them to the presses. When readj' for shipment they were all again loaded upon floats and hauled back to the wharves where the ocean steamers lay waiting for their cargo. Now the gi'eater portion of the produce is brought in by rail, and each railroad has a port or terminal dock facilities, with great elevators and all the modern machinery for liandling freight in the cheapest and most expeditioiis manner.
Reference has been made to the "making" of the bank on one side of the river. The groimd thus added is called "batture," and the city front has been extended considerably between the old Place d' Armes,—now Jackson Square.— and the foot of Felicity street, since the settlement of the city, amounting, at its greatest width, near the foot of Delord street, to nearly 1,500 feet. The custom now is to follow up the battxire by an annual extension of the wharves, tlio earth being filled in behind them to the level of the levee.
Several law suits have gro'wii out of disputes between the proprietor to whose land the batture has been added, and the corporation, as to the ownership of the alluvion, or newly-made ground. The most notable of these suits is that brought by John Gravier for possession of the batture in front of his property in the Faubourg Ste. Marie. This batture had long remained open to the public, and persons wishing for sand and earth wherewith to fill up their own low lots, had been accustomed to obtain it from Mr. Gravier's alluvion without even the ceremony of asking leave. When, therefore, Mr. Gravier fenced in a portion of this ground, and went even to the length of selling other portions, the public felt itself aggrieved, and the proprietor was compelled to have recourse to law in order to establish his title. He engaged Mr. Edward Livingston, the celebrated constitutional lawyer, who had recently become a resident of New Orleans, to defend his claim, which Mr. Livingston thought so good that he himself purchased a portion of the disputed ground, and proceeded to improve it. This excited the community to such an extent that, notwithstanding the decision of the court in favor of Gravier, they determined to drive oif the intruder by force
of arms. Rallying by thousands to the beat of a drum they marched to the disputed territory, and were only dispersed by the appeals and entreaties of Governor Claiborne, who promised to have the whole matter referred to the United States government. This was done, with the result of bringing on a long and acrimonious dispute in which Jefferson took an active part both as President and as attorney for the government after his retirement from office. The case was finally decided in favor of Gravier and Livingston, but neither of them derived much benefit from the property in dispute, as other heirs of Bertrand Gravier, from whom John claim.ed to have inherited his title, put in a claim, and the litigants were forced to compromise both with these new claimants and with the corooration.
CHAPTER Vll.
TIIK (JIUOOI.ES.
By Henry Riohtor.
AN iTiti'lli^'ciit iindi'iNtMiKliiii; of the iiicMiiiiii; of llic word ('roolo, iis uschI in LouisiaiKi, iiMirtt li;irk liiick, tlii-oui;li lirwihlcriiii; otvmolofjiciil imitations,
to tli(> orif;iiKil Mini i;cnuinr sense, llic rh/ition. of tlio word as us<'il in IIk^ Spiinisli colonics years iK^forc the coinplox society of tlio earliest sottlenicnts at New ()i-|('ans and vicinity decreed the iiecossity for a differentiating nomenclature, (lesci'il)iiig the different.kinds of peoples, and gave rise to its employment. Etymologists are agreed that the word, in its remotest philological analysis, comes from the Latin iTfiirc, to create (Spanish criollo) implying, in a sens(\ creations of the molhci- country in a new clime, Creoles; yet, whatever he the genesis of the word, it will come l!om(^ to on(^ wiio lalioriously studies the writings referring to the suhjecl. ( I will not say authorities, for, in all sincerity, there are none) that, while elymologieally the word has a very distinct and, to tlie impartial i)hilologist, un(M]nivocal meaning, to the great body even of well informed writers as W(dl as to (he nuiss of mankind, the word means nothing. Nor is this to !«> wondered at whi'n we consider how tew words possess narrow and explicit meanings, e\eii the word iiKin. descriliing originally the ideal type, intellectually and physically symmetrical, having comi- to hi' the common symbol for athletes and cripples, |)hilosoph(M's and ])iekpockets.
'IMie general misunderstanding t>f the word, prevailing even among scholars, is excm|ilitieil in (he delinition given in th' ('enlnr\' Dictionary, wherein the following appear^: "In Louisiana: [a] originally a native descended from l"'ri'nch ancestoi-s, who had settled thei-e; later, any native of l'"'r(>nch or Spanish descent by either pai-enl ; a person belonging to the French-speaking portion of tli(> whit(> race. [h) \ native born negro, as distinguished from a negro brotight from .Vtrica."
To the tirst part of this d'tiniiion, namely, that the original signifieatioii in Louisiana (d' the word "Creole" was thai of a native desc(>nd(>d from French
/Z^Q^..^-t^-*^-<^f>4 ^:/_jz..^
ancestors who had settled there, exception is to be taken on the score of its being incorrectly restrictive. One of the earliest writers upon matters pertaining to Louisiana, M. Bossu, a French captain of marines, who visited Louisiana during the time of the governor, the Marquis de Vau-dreuil (1740-53), a scientist trained to definiteness and accuracy of statement—botanist and ornithologibt—has said: "The Creoles are those that are born of a French man and a French woman or of European parents." Even in those early days we have the testimony ot a scholar to the indefinity of the word. Again, the second statement of the Century definition is incorrect, for the same reason applicable to the first; it is too restrictive. There are, and have always been in Louisiana, since a period so nearly contemporary with the beginning of the use of the word "Creole" in the territory as to admit of no argimient on the accuracy of the assertion, Creoles of German descent, and of Irish descent, and there are progeny of these whose names would inevitably be mentioned by the informed in an enumeration of representative Creole families of the state, such are the Waguespacks of St. James (German), the McCarthys of New Orleans (Irish), Pollocks (Scotch-Irish).
The last sentence of the Century definition is, in respect of the signification of the word in Louisiana (and I take it to be axiomatic that the meaning of a word must be sought among the people, the exigencies of whose social life gave rise to its employment), an injustice to the Creoles, to whom the title properly belongs, and an injury as pronounced as it is difficult to explain. In plain truth, no white Louisianian ever calls a negro a Creole. Therein lies the key to the whole misunderstanding. It is the negroes themselves who delight in the title, who seek by every means to gather to themselves something of the dignity of their masters, who adroitly turn to the account of that ambition for identification with the whites, which is at once one of the most marked and sinister characteristics of the race, every turn in the confusion which tliis unfortunate word creates. And there are circumstances in league with this tendency which it may be well to examine: First, the misinformation (I liesitate to ascribe it to anything so petty as prejudice) of writers; second, the fact that the dominant lexicographical meaning imputed to the word emlxidies the idea ot its referring to negroes.
That most sincere, prudent and painstaking examinator, Lafcadio Hearn, has left, among other monuments to his genius in these parts, a quaint little
volume bearing the title "Gombo Zhebes," in wliich are preserved proverbs from "six Creole dialects," enumerated as those of French Guavana, Hayti, New Orleans, La., Martinique, Mauritius and Trinidad. Hearn uses the word in its Islands sense, in its general application throughout the volume, but in the introduction he is careful to prefix the adjective colored when he refers to negroes. If the word of itself implied the possession of negro blood even in the Islands, this most careful and selective etymologist would not have used the superfluovs prefix colored. Yet the fact remains—despite Hearn's curious observation, that even in the Islands and Colonies the word does not necessarily involve the idea of negro blood—that in those places and as of these places, the word means, in its quickest use, negro.
Gayarre, in his scholarly and indignant pamphlet, "The Creoles of History and the Creoles of Romance," wherein he inveighs against the fictionist trifling with matters too close to fireside honor for any but the calm and honorable portrayal of the faithful pen, has made the same point as that made by Hearn. He says: "The word Creole in the course of time was so extended as to apply not merely to children born of European parents, but also to animals, vegetables and fruits, and to everything produced or manufactured in Louisiana. There were Creole horses, Creole cattle, Creole eggs, Creole corn, Creole cottonade, etc. The negroes born within her limits were Creoles to distinguish them from the imported Africans and from those who, long after, were brought from the United States."
Here, then, is the sharp point: that the negro, ever in Louisiana a chattel, was but given the distinguishing name of his master, and his master's effects. As the eggs of his master's hens were Creole eggs and the kine of his master's field were Creole cattle, so he was a Creole negro. There were creole Negroes, not negro Creoles; and upon the bald fact represented by this ultimate analysis, corruption and all the vices and vagaries of the languages of a polyglot country have labored to rear the bewildering fabric of confusion into which this most unfortunate of words has resolved itself to-day.
Gayarre himself, the passionate champion of the Creoles of Louisiana, gives us a plain, rational definition: "Creole means the issue of European parents in Spanish or French colonies." P. F. de Gournay, in a scholarly article published in the Magazine of American History, and obviously deriving its inspiration from Gayarrc's pamphlet, sharply defines Creole, "The descendant of a Colonist." An old lexicon published at Philadelphia in 1835, The Encyclo-
pedia Americana, edited by Francis Lieber, based upon the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon, gives a definition, which, carrying v?ith it the warranty of German carefulness, as well as that of having been written at a time nearer the birth of the word, is of interest as verifying what has already heen said. The definition is as follows: "Creole (from the Spanish criollo) is the name which was originally given to all the descendants of Spaniards bora in America and the West Indies. It is also used for the descendants of other Europeans, as French, Danes, in which we say French-Creole, Danish-Creole * * *." It is significant that no reference is had to negro Creoles, though there were thousands of human beings in the West Indies, contemporary with this writing, who might have been so called had not the unyielding distinctiveness of the word prevented its being so employed. Further along in the same writing, is foimd the following: *'In the West Indies the Creoles have always enjoyed equal rights with native Europeans. Before the declaration of independence by the colonies of Spanish America, there existed marked lines of distinction between the difiPerent classes, foimded on differences of birth. The Chapetones were European by birth and first in rank and power; the Creoles were the second; the Mulattoes and Mestizoes (descendants of white and black or white and Indian parents) formed the third class; negroes and Indians the fourth."
The word in Louisiana has saiffered from abuses difficult and dangerous to analyze. Those entitled to the name have, with a generosity and hospitality characteristic of their class, admitted to the honorable privileges of the title, families in no sense entitled to its distinction. Such have been persons coming here since the colonial period, speaking French, taking up their residence in the Creole section, adopting the manners and customs of colonial descendants, yet no more entitled by any valid argument to be called Creoles than a Louisianau taking up his residence in Staten Island after the colonial period, might lay claim to the distinction of Knickerbocker. So it is that, with negroes, bastard children and ill-informed writers and lexicographers on the one hand seeking to Africanize the honorable word, and greedy tradesman, or ambitious or obscure vulgarians, planning to elevate themselves commercially and socially under the magical mantle, it would be strange, indeed, did not a confusion exist, which tlie splenetic and the designing have not been slow in turning to account. Yet the fact remains that, at this late day there is no stemming the tide of misuse to which the word is a victim, and the old and genuine Creoles, admitting to
tlic'ir ranks tlio newcomers—with a proper moderate reserve to themselves—are tliemselves contributory towards the destruction of a term which, in its Louisiana sense, has been accepted througliout the civilized world as among the proudest warranties of a gentle, cultured, patrician people to be found on the Western ]Iemisphere.
'I'lu' homo life of the Creoles has ever been one of repose, affection and n>-finement. They are an intensely domestic people, loving their homes an<l tlieir families, cherishing the tenderest and most considerate affection for their kinsmen to the remotest degree, and recognizing them with no diminution of respect and esteem, even when adversity mav have widely separated their ways of life. It is not surprising that a people so affectionate, coming of Latin blood, heated by the warm suns of a semi-tv(>i)ieal country, should be endowed with violent prejudices and passions. So it was that the duello flourished among them as a favorite institution, and many is the proud scion of the race has fallen upon the field of honor. The favorite duelling place of the Creoles was at "The Oaks," now tlie Lower City Park, and the more immediate scene of some of the most famous encounters was at a eolleetion of oaks known as "Les Trois Soeurs," situated near where is now a Jewish burying ground at the intersection of Gentilly Road and the track of the old Ponchartrain railroad.
Partly as a consequence of the custom of duelling and partly as a cause of that custom, the Creole's inherent respect for women became a reverence. AVives, sisters and sweethearts shared with the church the holiest respect of the Creole gentleman's daily life. Courage, activity and endurance have ever beeii characteristic of the Creole men, as distinguishing as. the beauty and virtue of the women. In every war in which thev have been engaged thev have won the name of being the most patient and enduring under hardship and fatigue,and the most gallant, daring and unconquerable in action. They possess a fine faculty of adaptability, their cheerful, buoyant, merry nature, making the most of repose and perpetually fortifying itself for the surprising expenditure of energy they are able to pxit forth when occasion arises.
Leaving care to slaves, the Creoles of the prosperous days before the Civil War, at once kept an eye to the material wants of life, and cultivated the most princely and refined society of the day, educating their sons in Paris, their daughters in the refining and spiritualizing atmosphere of Catholic convents, and so producing a race of fiery, spirited, chivalrous, cultured men and delicately beaiitiful, modest and charmingly feminine women.
A significant and instructive event in connection with the Creoles of New Orleans occurred on the twenty-fourth day of J\ine, in the year 1886, when by act before Charles T. Soniat, notary public, was chartered the Creole Association of Louisiana. The objects and purposes of the association are set forth in the cliarter, by-laws and rules of the association, as follows: "Literary, social, charitable, and mutual benevolence; to give one another mutual aid, assistance and protection within the powers of this organization; to disseminate knowledge concerning the true origin and real character, and to promote the advancement of the Creole race in Louisiana." Article third of the charter authorized the association to organize branches in each of the parishes of the state, and as an earnest of the detenuination of piirpose of the organization, Article Nine provided that no dissolution of this association shall take place so long as ten members in good standing shall remain willing to continue. This charter was originally signed by the following gentlemen: A. Schreiber, F. P. Poche, Charles J. Villere, And. L. Remain, G. A. Lanaux, A. C. Landry, John Augus-tin, Paul E. Theard, L. And. Burthe, Octave Morel, Frank D. Chretien, Geo. H. Theard, J. B. Levert, Chas. Letellier, Ete. Camilla Mire, James M. Augus-tin, Louis Burthe, L. V. Porche, Chas. de Lassus, Chas. T. Theard, D. Burthe, Alcee Fortier, Chas. F. Claiborne, Jno. L. Peytavin, Ete. Blanc, P. L. Bouny, Just. Comes, Charles Parlange, Anthony Sambola, Hugues J. Lavergiie, L. E. Lemarie, B. Sarrat, Placide J. Spear, C. E. Schmidt, Albert Paul, Horatio Lange, Geo. W. Hopkins, F. Leonce Fazende, A. Mendes, Thomas Layton, J. O. Landry, Wm. Sanchez, Dr. A. B. de Villeneuve, C. A. Phillippi, Leon Fazende, A. J. de risle, F. Formento, M. D., C. M. Isley, Henry Chiapella, Jno. C. Delavigne, Th. Soniat du Fossat, Cyrille C. Theard, Adolphe Calonge, E. J. Meral, E. Surgi, Jas. Thibaut, Paul Fortier, R. La Branche, J. E. De Wint, U. D. Terrebonne, Thos. J. Cooley, Jr., P. Alb. Roquet, Raoul Dupre, Alex. Laroque Turjeau, B. M. Nebrano, Chas. Laudumiey, Chas. Fuselier, Geo. Staigg, Lamar C. Quintero, James Legendre, J. N. Augustin, Dr. A. H. Parra, James L. Lemarie, E. Bermudez, G. T. Beauregard, R. T. Beauregard, George W. Dupre, Geo. Guinalt. Ernest Miltenberger, Jules J. d'Aquin, H. J. Ma-lochee, Wm. J. Grahan, Jas. Freret, John A. Betat, J. T. Morel, Oct.. Robert, Charles de Gruy, Charles Fourton, F. C. Fazende, C. T. Soniat.
A piece of private history, not heretofore divulged, explains why so distinguished and typical a Creole name as that of the historian, Charles Gayarre, should not have been signed to the charter. Tlic letter is now given, not only
because it is typical of the sensitiveness of the race of which Louisiana's illustrious historian was so distinguished an exponent, but because it casts a quiet side-liglit upon the proud and self-sacrificing character of Gayarre himself. The letter is addressed to Charles T. Soniat, notary public, under date of June, 1886, and reads as follows:
Dear Sir: —I lately received a postal card requesting me to call at my earliest convenience at your office, No. 13- Carondelet Street and sign the charter of the Creole Association of Louisiana. The postal card is not signed, but presuming that it comes from your office, I address my reply thereto.
I regret to say that, b(Mng uncertain of my daily bread, I cannot join any association that would entail any expense on me, and without being in that respect on a footing of equality with all its members.
Very respectfully,
Charles Gayarre.
The meeting at whicli permanent organization of the Creole Association of Louisiana was accomplished, was held at the old Grunewald Opera House, June 20, ISSG. At the meeting the following officers were elected: President, P. P. Poclie; vice-president, Charles A. Villere; recording secretary, A. L. Ro-main; tiuaiicial secretary, Major John Augustin; treasurer, A. C. Landry.
The president of tlie association, a late Justice of the Supreme Coui't of Louisiana, being absent from the city at the time, the address of the occasion was delivered by Col. Villere, a lineal descendant of the Villere of the Lafreniere insurrection, and vice-president of the association. This speech was widely reproduced in journals throughout the country at the time, being accepted as an authoritative enunciation by the Creoles, through their own selected mouth-piece. The speed', which was very long is hero reproduced in its more important parts:
Ladies, Genflemeii and Brothers: —The object of this meeting is to lay before the Association tlie by-laws and rules adopted by the Board of Control. It hai< also a greater oltject—to spread fulhM' information with regard to our intentions. To those wiio liavc nr)t stopped to study our organization, let me give the assurance that they and their children are to receive benefits from its success. Wo are working for all, "and it shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that lir<>ngh( forth his fruit in his season; bis leaf also shall not wither."
As your jjrosiding officer, allow me a few remarks on the spirit, the scope ami [uii'posf of the Assoeiation you are requested and urged to join. * * *
They (the press) realize that we, as Creoles, are combining, not for the advancement of the few to the detriment of the nianv, but having seriously at heart the prosperity and aggrandizement of the whole State controlling a might, which, strong in favor of good govei-nment, could and should, at the proper time, be utilized.
If such an organization is indispensable, the very attacks it has received evidence. It is also clear that Creoles have a dormant power which, if vivified, woidd be a factor of no mean significance. We shall strive to emulate others. We hope to do, in our sphere, as much good as the New England, the Hibernian, the German, the French, the Swiss, the Italian and other organizations long in existence, and of which numbers of us are members in the best standing.
We have adojitcd the appellation of Creoles in no exclusive sense. To have rejected it would have been a confession of weakness; it would have been a retreat, and Ave are mutually pledged to forward march. As Creoles we are known; our manhood revolts against an unfavorable discrimination. As Creoles we entered the race, and we see plainly great results for all, for ourselves, for our posterity.
Let no craven heart enter our ranks. Let no man, repudiating the tongue in which his first prayers were lisped, join us. Let no one so lost to shame, so miserably mean, so abject as to curse his fathers, come to us. But come the brave, patient, the industrious—come, come, crowd our phalanx, and engage in the great work so s]dendidily mauguarated.
We, Creoles of Louisiana, claim our share of pluck, energy, intelligence and patriotism. Our ancestors colonized the thin, vast limits of Louisiana; they were the first on this continent to sow the seeds of independence and to water it with their life's blood, and fnuu sire to son a most chivalrous spirit was transmitted. We wish to write the history of our people, to hold them up to the light of day, to draw them out of their blameable retirement, to keep fresh in the memory of all, not only the names of tlie early settlers, but to hold up as exemplarv of great citizenship, the careers of Claiborne, Livingston, Johnson, Walker, Porter, «Boyd,', Ogden. Guion, Nicholls, Morse, Thurmann, Fenner, Minor, ISTott, Palfey, Baker, Gordon, White, Martin, TJrquhart, Eost, Eustis and hosts of others who have made of this State a garden spot and controlled her destinies in their day and generation.
Where now stands an incomplete and neglected monument, Creoles, unarmed, faced the veterans of England, defending all that is most sacred to man.
(
From Texas to tlie halls of the Montezumas they acted a glorious part. In the late war, liow snliiime their record ! every battle field is an historic tale of their Tinsnrpassed valor. They were not mere soldiers—stipendiaries of power—they were educated men, who knowing their rights, dared maintain them.
On the 14tli of September, a date which should ever be memorable and dear to freedom, and especially so to this great and hospitable city, Creole boys rushed to the front and vied in heroitm with veterans of many a hard fought battle. * * * Who dares assert that Creoles have been unworthy of public trust—who dares assert that they have not been jealous of their country's honor as of their own ? Have they not given proofs of common sense, practical knowledge, and of the highest order of talent! I refer to the records—they speak in authoritative tones ^ * * The Creoles of Louisiana have, for this state at least, an interest; they have adopted principles of such liberality; they are prompted by desires so laudable, that they feel confident of the support of all classes, having within the State material or sentimental interests. * * * We have launched an argosy freighted with influence on the true position to be occupied by all those, either of Creole origin or connected with the valiant race by sympathies, ties of blood or affinity. The necessity of this Association, organized under allspices so favorable to its full and proper development, has long been felt, ami the minds of our liest and truest men were occupied how to combine the shattered forces. "There is a tide in the affairs of men—" To^ay we are a corporate body, and we point with exultant pride to the names of our members— soldiers with untarnished fame, jurists and lawyers honored by erudition, unrelenting labors, and integrity of a noble profession; physicians whose acquirements, researches and abnegations should thrill the heart of any community with admiration and gratitude. * * * "We are battling for our rights, and under a name, scoffed at, ridiculed, blackened, tortured, deformed, caricatured ; our vindication is of importance far and wide. This is our soil; we are in the house of our fathers. It would take the eloquence of Gratton or of Emmet, the persuasive power of Parnell, to convey a feeling as deep as it is natural to the human heart. We have an abiding confidence in the discernment of the generous community in which we live, and I feel assured of the influence and kind services of the pure, self-sacrificing, intelligent women of our State, and in the name of the Creole Associfition, I express the respect and gratitude of strong and proud men to the fair and accomplished daughters of our beloved Louisiana.
The following letter from the Secretary of the Association was pnblislu'd at the time (June, 1S8G), in the Picayune, and is interesting as explaining somewhat more in detail than the speech of Col. Yillere, the aims and ambitions of the Creole Association:
" Editor Picayune: The very kind notice given of the birth of the 'Creole Association" by the Picayune, the Times-Democrat, the Statb and the Bee is thankfully acknowledged by the founders of that society. It has encouraged the members of the Provisional Board of Control to crave a space in your columns, so as to further elucidate whatever may seem to be still obsciire or mysterious, and in order to develop more fully the exact scope and purpose of the organization.
" As clearly indicated in its declaration of principles, its paramount object, in fact, the very cornerstone of the whole structure, is to disseminate knowledge—not sporadically, but continuously—concerning the true origin and real character of the Creoles of Louisiana, hoping thereby to destroy the nuniy jirejudices still existing against tliem—begotten, no doubt, by ignorance, but fostered by hate—one of the most painful and revolting of which is, that they are of an inferior race and not the equals, as a class, of their fellow-American citizens of another ancestry.
" It is truly amazing that the descendants of the earliest settlers of the Southwest, who are to Louisiana what the descendants of the Dutch and the Huguenots are to New York and South Carolina, should be so persistently misrepresented as the Creoles, whose ancestors, be it remembered, bore that name and received it with becoming pride, as letters patent of nobility issued to them in commemoration of numerous deeds of endurance, valor and industry; while on the other hand, the Knickerbockers of New York and the French Protestants of South Carolina are considered to-day as the very best in the land and eagerly cling to the traditions of the past.
" Yet such is the stern, palpable fact, which is to be met squarely and not evad"ed, and whicli cannot be denied, for the evidence is overwhelming; and that, in spite of the occasional efforts of the press of this city to throw light upon the subject, and even while that great congress of American nations, the late Exposition, had thrown open to view the earlier records of Louisiana's history, and could and did point with particular pride to the 'Creole Exhibit' as one of the most complete, as it was assuredly the most replete with gems of artistic and* historic value, that could be found therein.
" To correct erroneous impressions, to refute falsehood and to prove by well authenticated history that the origin of the Creoles is as pure and honorable as that of any other race in the land, is a pnrpose which challenges the approval of all Creoles, who venerate the memory of their ancestors; and which must, as it
already does, meet with tlie encouragement and the assistance of all patriotic Louisianians, of any ancestry, who should scorn to live on terms of social equality with a race of men which would tamely submit to abuse and slander.
" Our brethren of a different ancestry have the assurance that we do not propose to be exclusive, and that their co-operation is not only acceptable, but earnestly desired and resjieetfidly solicited.
" Another prevalent prejudice against the Creoles is, that as a class, they are ignorant, indolent, dull of intelligence and callous to progress. Thus, in onv time we read from correspondents of the press, who are now describing the resources of Western Louisiana, the bold assertion that the tardy advancement of that section of the State is attributable to the character of its early settlers, who were typical Creoles and Acadians, and too indolent for the exigencies of a rising country.
" It is far from our piu'pose to deny that among the Creoles, as well as with all other races, there are ignorant and slothful people. On the contrary, one of the objects embraced in the progi'amme is to awaken that very class of our people to the necessity of education and to the demands of progress. But at the same time we intend to demonstrate and to protest against the injustice of selecting the weakest element of a race, and to hold it up as a type of that race. Why should writers of romance and of contemj^oraneous history seek their models of Creoles from the wild and unimproved prairies of the Attakapas and of the Opelousas, while they turn their faces from the many representative Creoles of this city and of other portions of the State, wlio yield to none in intelligence, in patriotism, and in refinement?
" In contrast with the beniglited Creoles, who are unjustly described as types of our race, we turn our eyes to those same parishes, which have given birth to and reared the ]\Ioutons, de Blancs, de Clouets, Olivets, Grevembergs, Fuseliers, Delahoussayes, Lastrapes, Simons, Gerards, Debalions, Garlands, Dupres, Dejeans, Voorhies, Chretiens, LeBlancs, Martels, Diimartrats and a host of others, whose names are synonomous with intelligence, valor and honor in that region and throughout Louisiana.
''These and many other similar objects are the land-marks of our fields of labor, and we suggest that they are as foreign to the formation and promotion of a political party as science or political economy; and we respectfully submit that all insuniations to the contrary are as unfounded as they are unauthorized.
"By order of the Board of control,
"A. L. Roman, Recording Secretary."
Commenting upon the organization of the Creole Association, the Times-Democrat, of June 21 St, had the following to say:
" Such a movement, so plainly indicated, should have been started long be-
fore this, for it appears fully time, now that the whole country is busy talking and inquiring about them (the Creoles), when writers pretending to say what they are, have stated that they are not, for themselves to rise to a point of personal explanation, as it were, and let the world know something authentic. Owing to these and many other considerations, the meeting to-day, at which the ladies have been invited, will be of great interest, and we heartily welcome this inaugural movement of our native-born."
In connection with the organiztion of the Creole Association, an effort was made to establish a paj^er, "Lo Trait d'Uniou," which should be, in a way, the official organ of the body. The late A. L. Roman was director of this projected paper. It was to have been published by the Creole Publishing & Printing Company of Louisiana, of whom the following gentlemen composed the board of directors: A. L. Roman, Emile Rivoire, Alcee Fortier, John Augns-tin and Lamar C. Qiiintero.
The Creole Association proved to be a chimera and was short lived. It contained within it what was the inevitable germ of dissolution, to wit: political aspiration. The late Hon. P. P. Poche was spoken of as Governor, and an effort was made to focus the influences of the Creole Association upon his candidacy. Internal differences ensued, and in the course of a short while the Creole Association had passed out of existence, and with it, the Trait d'Union, which was to have been its organ.
Among some old documents foimd in the archives of Charles T. Soniat, who was one of the prime movers in the establishment of the Creole Association, ami the notary who drew up all the papers, I found upon a yellowed piece of paper an almost imdecipherable scrawl Avhich possesses a peculiar interest. It is much interlined and changed, and evidently represents the idea of Mr. Soniat and his friends as to the true meaning of the word Creole. It reads as follows: " N^one but white Louisiana Creoles shall be admitted as members in this organization. The Louisiana Creole is one who is a descendant of the original settlers in Louisiana under the French and Spanish governments, or, more generally, one born in Louisiana of European parents, and whose mother-tongue is French." Beneath this and on the same piece of paper, scribbled in lead pencil in another handwriting, is the following in French: ''LTn natif descendant de parents Europeens parlant la langue Francjaise on Espagnole."
Glued, undated, into an old scrap book lent me by a sweet-eyed Creole lady, is the tribute to Creole women, which follows. It is the truest and most sym-
pathetic appreciation of the inspiring subject I have seen. No alien pen could have written what is at once so uioilcst and so faithful, so I make sure it was written by one of themselves. The article is signed simply E. P., and I would I knew who wrote it, that the name might be here set down:
" Not obvious nor obtrusive, but retired, and with but few traces of architectural display, the Creole's home is, nevertheless, the Creole's delight, and the pleasantest realization he has had of the poet's dream of Arcadia. It is so, as well to others than its merrydiearted inuuites wlio may have been so fortunate as to Ik? welcomed within its guarded penetralia, whether they find it located near the whispering waters of one of the beautiful bayous of Louisiana, on the skirts of the M'aving grass of its prairies, by the musicdiaunted shores of the G\i\i, or scarcely seen through the foliage of oaks and magnolias overshadowing quiet, out-of-the-way villages, or in some of t!ie quaint old streets of the almost deserted qiiartier Franrais of ihe ancient city of the Creoles. As these old Creole homes have been, from father to son, inhabited by persons similarly educated and endowed with the same peculiar tastes, the only changes which they have undergone are such as were adapted to the needs of each successive occupant, without materially altering the original design of the homestead. Their reverence for it as the liome of their fathers has prevented them from making siicli additions even to its immediate surroundings as might offend the genus-loci of it, or disturb the repose of the sequestered, unsuspected paradise. The old trees—venerable centenarians of the forest—renuiin to this day where they were planted, untouched and unchanged only in their pendant moss-growths Avhich hang from limb to limb like so many gray beards. The same expansive parterres, with curiously ornamental beds, in which flower the prolific vegetation of southern climes; the same shell garden walks, bordered with trailing ivy and violets, are still there as tliey were arranged by the cunning hands of their ancestors. Winds, dews, and sunshine, indeed, seem to have leagued with each generation, as it came, against such influences as would mar the beauties of the old homestead, or steal from the revered demesne any of its wealth of flower or foliage, or in any way disturb the peacefid harmony of form and color which have been so pleasantly preserved in the long lapse of years.
" And so the cliarming old Creole homstcad comes down to its occupants of to-day one of the few memorials of olden times, worth preserving, that has been well preserved. There are so many pleasant things all about its rooms and galleries and gardens that one wonders if thei'e be anv nook or corner to stow a
new one in. There conies a time, however, during the warm snnnner months, when an added c.liarm is bestowed upon the old homestead that comes to its neighborhood ahnost as a spell of enchantment. The pretty Creole maiden, born to it some dozen happy years before, returns to it, from the convent, where she had gone for her education, to spend the summer vacation at home. Like all delicately-reared Creole children, the little demoiselle is such a creature as Vesta and Venns would have moulded, had they been asked to form a petite model which could be e.Kpanded in a given time into mature beauty. One looks at the pretty and playful, yet sedate girl, and realizes in her budding beauties of form and feature the assured expectancy of future loveliness as one may, looking at the well-fonned and healthful bud, predict the beautiful flower, or in the blossom anticipate the golden fruit that is sure to come in due season. Although she may not have crossed the flowery borders of young maindenhood, one can realize the fascination slumbering in her dark eyes, as their richly-fringed lids droop timidly over them, softening, but not diminishing their brilliance. Already her petite figiire is formed with the subtle grace and lightness of a fairy, and her voice is as musical as the song of a bird, the rustle of forest leaves, or the rippling of waters, touched by aerial fingers. Of course, the little Creole maiden takes kindly to music. Life and melody were twin-born with her. She has been, as it were, cradled into song. It is mother's milk to her. Her earliest lullabies were operatic airs. She comes of a musical family, and, as in infancy, its essence supplied her inward feelings, it has quickened her outward observation as she has grown up. She would be untrue to the traditions of her family, the female portion of it at least, if she were not a lover of the art musical. She is fond of the flowers of every hue that decorate the old gai'den-walks, whicli in their delicate loveliness, seem akin to her, and of the feathered songsters of the woodlands, who cease their song to listen to hei's, when in the long summer vacation she visits their haunts, and feeds the in with her own hands.
" Although the Creole maiden is naturall}' merry and vivacious, there is none of that wild rompishness about her for which others of the same age, but of difl"crcnt training, are often distinguished. Though, at the sound of her voice, Sisyphus would rest ui)on his stone and pause to listen, there is none of that boisterous merriment which, in other households, defy the rules of etiquette and the frowns of mothers. And yet in all the merry-makings of the neighborhood demoiselle seems at the summit of girlish felicity. In the gay parties given her as she is about to return to her stud es in the convent—the feast which ushers in
the fast-—she is the merriest of all the demoiselles assembled, and in the livelier measiires of the gay cotillion her tiny feet are scarcely visible in the mazes of the dance, fluttering indistinctly in the air like humming bird's wings.
" A year or two elapses—probably more, as fortune smiles or fro\vns upon tlie family. One day there comes into this old Creole homestead, with its oasis of verdure, a yoimg girl, pretty as its flowers, happy as its birds. It is our little demoiselle of the vacation. She has finished her education at the convent, and enjoyed a brief but gay season at home or with some of her schoolmates. Orange blossoms shine like stars in the midnight of her hair, and a single rosebud nestles in the white wonder of her bosom. She returns to her home with the benedictions of Holy Church, a Creole bride. One who had known her when she conned her lessons in the convent's shpdowy aisles, realizes that she has not disappointed the promise of her girlhood. And seeing her now, the pretty bud expanded into the consummate flower, surely it is treason to any of the higher forms of beaiity to regret the maturity of that which was so beauteous in its budding glories, and with
The flower to close.
And be a bud again.
"Travel where you will, you will not meet with one so fair, so fresh, so smiling, so gi-aceful, merry, and easily contented as she. See her once, whether in the happy family circle or in the dancing throng, and it is a picture framed in memory's halls, undimmed forever. The sun of a Southern clime has mellowed and matured what the graces of nature, art and fortune assisted iu forming. Hers the charm that gives brilliancy and play to every feature. Hers the manner that purifies and exalts all who come within the reach of its influence. Piers the featui'es that delight the eyes, and gladden the hearts of poets, artists and sculptors. She is a special providence to the little world she moves in.
"Of course hers is at once one of the brightest names of the illuminated page of society. In accordance with the law and custom of her peculiar circle, she selects her acquaintances and makes up her list of visiting friends, and is fastidious in her selection. She could not be more so if the destiny of the re-piiblic were at stake, l^one but the select are to be found at her receptions, and to be admitted at her reunions is a much coveted honor. All of the surroundings of her home, even down to the little bits of porcelain of rare 'Faience de Diana de PuUiers' —the hcirlctimis (if lidnovcd ancestors—are cumme il faut, elegant and refined. Her days are passed in fetes and entertainments of every description.
"Is the fair Creole hride given over to the gauds and fopperies of fashionable life ? Nay. The brighter parts of her character, which shine with increasing lustre with each passing year, have had their source in another school. Her unbounding generosity, her trae nobility of thotight and feeling, her courage and her truth, her pure, unsullied thought, her untiring charities, her devotion to parents and friends, her sympathy with sorrow, her kindness to her inferiors, her dignified simplicity—where could these have been learned save at the altars of her faith ? At matins and vespers the profane eye that w-ould disturb her devotions might see la belle Creole kneeling at the Prie dieu of her oratory, before the Holy Virgin, of unblemished Carrara, with as much aban^ donment of spirit as others display before shrines where cardinals officiate, and scores of acolytes fling their censers.
"As the years pass the family tree has added branches to it. And as the family increases does the Creole matron give up her pleasant receptions and hah dansants? And has the fashionable world only left to it a memory and a tear for what was so brilliant and recherche ? Not so. Not for her the recluse life of the household cypher or the nursery drudge—
Retired as noontide dew. Or fountain in the noonday grove.
" It would be pitiable—worse, it would be false to all family tradition. Beside that, society wotild rebel. Emeutes would prevail. Madame gracefully resumes the throne she had only temporarily vacated, and the social circle continues to be distingiiished for its elegance and refinement. She unites the duties of home with the charms of social life. Her graceful influence is felt in both, pleasantly reminding one of the orange tree of her own sunny groves, which bears in its beautiful foliage in the same month the golden fruit of maturity with the fair blossoms of its spring.
"With all her wealth of maternal affection, the Creole matron is not imprisoned in her nursery to be devoured by her children. She has renewed her youth in her children. With her maternity
Another morn Has risen upon her mid-noon.
"Born of one, she is in her own person that masterpiece of nature's work —a good mother. Her motherly virtue is her cardinal virtue. Care for her children seems to have contributed indeed to the numbed and the sensibility of the chords of sympathy and affection. These tender offices of maternal affection
zoo STAXDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
are, as it were, ber field duty, wliile the other and manifold cares of the liouse-iold are her rejDose.
''The Creole matron, however, does not squander upon the infancy of her children all the health necessary to their youth and adolescence, nor does she destroy their sense of gratitude and her own authority, and impair both their constitution and temper by indiscriminate and indiscreet indulgence. She is a good little mother, and bestows her maternal care in quality, rather than in quantity. She economizes her own health and beauty as she adds both to her offspring.
"The Creole matron is all the fonder of what her sterner sisters of the K^orth deem frivolities because of her children. For them the gay reception, and the graceful dance are i^leasaut and harmless pastime, and recreation even ac-eeptable methods of education. In such indulgences her children learn that ease of manner, grace of movement, and the thousand little prettinesses which are so adorable in after years. She has nursed ber babies, prepared tiliem for their studies in the convent school, and she thus finishes an important branch »f their education which the school b-joks have neglected to furnish.
'"Aiul thus la Ijcllo Creole grows up almost to womanhood under her loving eye. She is not permitted to lorm intimacies outside of home, nor yet witii the first come friends, the ordinary associates of the family, however good and respectable they may be, unless they are in manner and feeling acceptable. She is a brilliant little gem; one, however, possessing only the brilliancy with-dut the hardness of the diamond, but soft and yielding, and too apt to receive impression from coarser materials. The watchful care of the Creole matron may be somewhat rela.xed as the mind of demoiselle becomes more perfectly formed though the invisible rein is still held with a firm, though gentle hand.
'"Tlio Creole matron is the inevitable duenna of the parlor, and the constant attendant chaperone at ail public assembles. Outside of the sanctuary of demiosellc's chamber as important a factor in all her movements as the air she fcreathes, this, her guardian angel, is at her side, an ever-vigilant guide, and protector against aught that may offend the fine feeling, the noble pride, or the generous heart of demoiselle. And when the time comes for la belle to marry she does not trust her own unguided fancies, ilthough she may have read in story books of gallant knights, and Lad many jsleasant dreams of such heroes as live ©nly in the pages of poetry and romance. The Creole matron saves her all the trouble in the perplexing choice of a husband, and manages the whole affair
with cxtroinc skill, tact and al)ility, exactly as sncli tliini;-^ sliotilil be inanao'ed. The preliminaries arranged, the selected husband in fiduro is invited to the house, the drawing-room cleared of all superfluities, and the couple left to an agreeable tete-a-tete, during which they may behave like sensible children and exchange vows and rings. The nuptial mass at the chiirch follows, as there is no breaking of engagements or hearts in Creole etiquette, and a series of honeymoons also follow of never ending
Delicious deaths, soft exhalations,
Of Soul, dear and divine annihilations;
A thousand vmknown rites
Of joys and rarefied delights. " In the Creole matron's matrimonial experience there are neither marriage automatons, nor luipitied wrecks on folly's shore.
" The Creole matron grows old, as she does everything else, gracefully. Slie has not been shaken by the blasts of niany passions, or enervated by the stimulants of violent sensations. There is no paled reflex of her youthful warmth in the glance she gives to the past, with its buried joys, or the present, with its all-pervading contentment and happiness. She defies cai'e, determines that the torch of friendship shall be inextinguishable, and demonstrates, in her own experience, that the loves of capricious youth can he perpetuated in frozen age.
" Althottgh the vile spirit of avordujwis has added magnificence to her embonpoint, and her waltzing days are over, her pretty well-shaped feeet still beat time in unison with the spirit of its music. Although hers is stateliness to the very summit of bumble pride, it is yet softened by the taste of its display. She is an artiste of conversation, and her bon mot is uttered with such natural avoidance of ofl'ense, and the arch allusion is so gracefully applied that she gives one the idea of a new iise of language, and yet she is a marvelotis listener. Her complaisance is ever ready; words come of themselves upon your lips merely from finding themselves so obligingly listened to; and whilst others seem to follow the conversation, it is she who directs it, who seasonably revives it, brings it back to the field from which it has strayed, restores it to others without showing it, stopping at the precise point where they can resume it, and never going beyond it, lest her marvelous tact in its skilful management should betray itself. And thus, without perceiving it, she has led the thoughts of others, helped to elicit them, giiessed them before they were expressed, supplied them with words, and gathered them on the lip, as they come into happy utterance. And
the gay world may not know how much of the stately dignity the polished ease, the refined elegance that reign supreme in her household is the inspiration of its gay mistress, who remains, in age as in youth, the life and ornament of it.
" And so with the snows of many winters on her head and the sunshine of many summers in her heart, surrounded by three or four generations of children, hlessing and blessed, the Creole matron is at length gathered to her fathers. And the beautiful flowers of the earth toll where she, the still more beautiful flower—in life—lies buried in the consecrated ground of the Holy Church, and sunlight and starlight are not the only visitors to its ever fragant and welcome shade."
CHAPTER VIII.
THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF NEW OELEANS.
r
By Dr. Gayle Aiken.
THE gradual development of medicine in the city of New Orleans is a subject of peculiar interest. We see before us a battlefield, on which a gallant little
army of devoted men contended with gigantic forces of disease, pestilence and death. To trace the unselfish and heroic lives of some of the physicians of the past and of the present, to describe the environment in which they labored, the successive visitations of epidemic maladies which they combated, and thus to give some idea of their tremendous life work, will be the purpose of the present chapter.
The city of New Orleans, situated in latitude 29 degrees, 57 minutes and 15 seconds, and in longitude 13 degrees, 5 minutes and 45 seconds from Washington, with an elevation of 0 to 17 feet, possesses a semi-tropical climate, and the prevalent moisture of the atmosphere is clearly shown by the following table:
TAKEN FROM THE WEATHER BUREAU RECORDS EXTENDING BACK TO 1870.
Partly Mean Prevailing Clear Cloudy Cloudy Rainy Rain in Hygrom-Months. Temp. Winds. Days. Days. Days. Days. Inches. etry.
January 54.0 N. 9 12 10 11 5.44 74=
February 58.7
March 62.3
April 69.0
May 74.8
June 80.6
July 82.6
August 81.8
September 78.2
October 70.1
November 61.2
December 55.9 N. 9 11 11 11 4.63 74'
On February 13, 1899, the temperature fell to 6.8 above zero, the coldest weather known in this city during the century. The river presented a remarkable spectacle, being full of floating ice. In spite of this intense cold the yellow fever germ survived, and quickened into life in the following summer.
It will be seen that for si.\ months of the year the prevailing winds are from the southeast, and during those six months we have the heaviest rainfall. The air is saturated with moisture and the penetrating power of the solar rays is obstructed. In consequence of this the extremes of heat so often felt in more northern latitudes are rarely experienced here, and sunstrokes and prostrations from heat are of infrequent occurrence. For this reason, also, radiation takes place very slowly, and the summer nights are almost as warm as the days; but the winds which prevail during this season, being from the southeast, and passing over the Gulf of Mexico, bring healthful influences, chlorine and other antiseptic properties, and thus render our summers generally healthy, with a smaller death rate than in the winter.
In such an environment, tropical and malarial diseases found a ready foothold, and the early settlers were decimated by these maladies and by small-pox. The first appearance of yellow fever is lost in the obscurity of a past, the records of which have been almost obliterated. This was due to various circumstances. The-unsettled, nomadic, and yet monotonous life of a struggling colony presented little that seemed worthy of record, and the transference of Louisiana from France to Spain, from Spain to France, and from the latter to the United States, resulted in the loss of documents of public interest, since they were written in foreign tongues, and have long been hopelessly entombed in the archives of distant lands. The early physicians, too, who came to the colony, often had in view the sole object of acquiring a fortune and returning to their European homes, and while in Louisiana had no thought of collaboration or organization for scientific research and record. It is, therefore, wisest to acknowledge that the introduction of yellow fever is still an unsolved problem, and has been attributed to many different sources. Dr. Dowler avers that yellow fever did not appear in New Orleans for nearly a century and a half after the Northern States had been devastated by many epidemics. Noah Webster, in his work on "Pestilence," says that when white men arrived in New England in 1620, some of the Indian tribes had been reduced in numbers from thirty thousand to three hundred, by a terrible fever two years previously. The survivors asserted that those affected "bled from the nose and turned yellow, like a garment of that color, which they pointed out as an illustration."
It seems probable, however, that yellow fever has had lodgment on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico since the Europeans first settled on them. The sailors of
Columbus were attacked by a violent fever in the West Indies, and Cortez found a similar disease, with the characteristic "black vomit,"' much dreaded by the Aztecs, whose cities were sometimes half depopulated by its ravages. LaSalle and his soldiers found a deadly fever lurking on the shores of the Mississippi, where many of these hardy pioneers sank into nameless graves. As early as 1647, Mr. Richard Vines, physician and planter in the Barbadoes, records an "absolute plague of fever," and Mr. Hughes, in his "Natural History of Barbadoes," quotes Dr. Gamble's statement that the "new distemper, pestilential fever, or Kendal fever," was most fatal in 1691.
In the French Islands this fever was called "fievre de Siain" and was believed to be a sinister gift from the effete civilization of the far East to the newly planted life of the AVestern world. It seems certain that yellow fever first appeared in Martinique after the arrival of ships from Siam, but as these vessels had touched at Brazil, where this form of sickness had prevailed for years, it seems doubtful if the disease can be referred to so distant a source. Dr. Joseph Jones, an eminent authority, declares that "yellow fever has been sporadical in two continents since men born under a cold zone were exposed, in low, torrid regions, to miasmatic atmospheres."
It seems probable that the familiar type of fever known as "yellow" was brought to Louisiana by French settlers from the West Indies. The summers of ITOl and 170-1 are recorded as most unhealthy, "la maladie" being very prevalent In the latter year the Chevalier Tonti, Le Vasseur, the Jesuit Donge and thirty soldiers newly arrived, died of it. In 1701 Sauvolle succumbed, and the biographers of Iberville declare that he had an attack of fever at Biloxi, in 1702, which affected his constitution to such a degree that he M'as obliged to return to France to restore his health. It may be doubted whether this was genuine yellow fever, as the famous soldier and pioneer afterwards died of it in Havana in 1706. Bancroft, who, it is presumed, examined carefully into the facts, notes the great havoc made in Mobile by yellow fever in 1705. The depletion of Bienville's soldiers in 1739 by the same pestilence is mentioned by contemporary writers, but nothing further on the subject is to be found until the influ.x of refugees from St. Domingo in 1791 brought an invasion of the same scourge.
The governors of Louisiana made gallant efforts, according to the limited sanitary knowledge of the day, to improve the health of the little city. As early as 1726, M. Perrier, on being appointed governor, was charged as follows: "Whereas, it is maintained that the diseases which prevail in New Orleans during the summer proceed from the want of air, and from the city being smothered by the neighboring
woods, which press so close upon it, it shall be the care of M. Perrier to have them cut down as far as Lake Pontchartrain." Towards the end of the century, Baron Frances Louis Hector de Carondelet, governor of Louisiana, constructed a canal from the city to the lake for drainage purposes. All the laborers engaged in the work were carried off by yellow fever, and a violent epidemic ensued. This epidemic of 1796 was the first to attract widespread notice, and the first to be authentically recorded in New Orleans, but the total absence of medical works and journals renders it impossible to give statistics on the subject. A small pamphlet was published in 1796, dedicated to Baron Carondelet, bearing the title, "Medicaments et preces de la methode de M. Masdevall, medccin du Roe d'Espagne, Charles IV, pour guein tontes les maladies epidemiques, putrides ou malignes." This early benefactor of our colony, M. Masdevall, is said to have been very successful with the Spaniards and negroes, but the American settlers yielded less readily to treatment. These same Americans were accused of bringing the fever into New Orleans during the ensuing years, until 1S0.3, for numbers of them came annually, in pursuit of commerce, from New York and Philadelphia, where yellow fever raged at that time. The Count de Vergennes declared Louisiana to be the first country of the world, as to the mildness of its climate and its happy situation, and the yellow fever was emphatically the "stranger's disease." The medical authorities of the day waged a furious controversy over the importation or non-importation, the contagion or non-contagion of the fever; a dispute not always confined to words, since we read in Dr. Dowler's history of the fever that two physicians of Jamaica, Drs. Bennett and Williams, upheld their opinions at the sword's point, fought a duel over the mooted question, and were both killed!
With varying intensity and at longer intervals or shorter, the disease appeared up to 1816. In the following sixty-five years it infested the city every year, although sometimes mildly and sporadically, with only two exceptions, viz., in 1821 and 1861. It was heavily felt in 1817, 1819 and 1820; a fatal epidemic occurred in 1824, another in 1832, and a still more dreadful one in 1847, when two thousand eight hundred and four victims perished.
The year in which New Orleans sufl'ered most severely was 1853; the first two deaths were reported in the month of May, and the number increased in an alarming manner; in July there were 1,521 deaths, and in the month of August 5,133 occurred from it. It declined very rapidly from that time, and lingered in the city until December, four deaths being reported in that month. During the four months when the fever was at its height, 7,849 deaths plunged the community into gloom
and mourning. No satisfactory explanation of the unusual and excessive virulence of the disease during this outbreak has ever been formulated. The mortality from other causes was also appalling, the total number of deaths being 1.5,787. This shows a total percentage of 102.43 per 1,000. Only one year in the past eighty-five has equalled this fatal '53. In 1832, the terrible cholera year, the death rate amounted to 147.10 per 1,000. Thus 1853 stands at the head of the list for the greatest mortality in yellow fever, and second in the percentage of deaths from all causes in the last eighty years. The improved sanitation and medication of the day induce the firm conviction that '53 will maintain its sinister pre-eminence, and that our city will never again be subjected to such devastation. A notable fact connected with that epidemic is that only eighty-seven of the deaths were reported as natives of ISTew Orleans, 3,855 were not classified, and the remaining 3,907 were nearly all Irish and Germans. The year 1858 was the next most malignant fever year. The population had increased to 165,450, and the reported deaths from yellow fever were 4,855—29.30 per 1,000. Next, 1847 follows in order of severity, 2,804 deaths being reported, 25.80 per 1,000. The year 1878 is next in order; death rate from yellow fever, 19.20 per 1,000; 1837, with a mortality of 19 per 1,000; 1833 is sixth in order, mortality 17.30 per 1,000; 1867 is seventh in rank; mortality, 17.10 per 1,000. In this year the fever began in June, slowly increased in July, was declared epidemic in August, raged violently during September and October, diminished rapidly in November and disappeared about the middle of December. The number of cases was much greater in proportion to population than ever before, but the type of fever was much milder, and the mortality less in consequence. The number of cases in the city has been variously estimated at from 40,000 to 60,000. The mortality among the United States troops stationed here was much higher than among the citizens. Dr. Delery comments upon the remarkable fact that many deaths occurred among the native creole population of French descent. Other notable features of this epidemic were its mildness among the negro population, its sad severity among children, the occurrence of many fatal cases after cold weather had set in, and the fact that it was preceded and followed by many cases of cholera and dysentery.
The year 1878 was the last of the terrible epidemics with which this city has been afflicted. From its inception the fever was most malignant in type, attacking all classes indiscriminately, especially young children. The blind panic of rhe people was increased by exaggerated reports in the newspapers; never was such selfish and unreasoning terror manifested during previous epidemics. The popula-
tion fled in pverv direction, abandoning friends and kindred; parents even deserted their children, and the little ones were found dead in bed with their shoes on, having died unattended and alone. The number of eases reported was 23,540 and the number of deaths 4,056. Probably the mortality due to yellow fever was larger, for many cases were reported as malarial, hemorrhagic fever, pernicious fever, congestive fever, cerebro-spinar meningitis, etc. The saddest fact connected with this epidemic was the appalling death rate among children under sixteen years of age.
From 1880 to 1897, except for an occasional sporadic case, the city was entirely free from yellow fever. In 1897-98 and '99 it again made its appearance, and although the type seemed to be extremely mild, the great majority of those attacked recovering after a very short illness, yet many of the cases presented the disease in its most malignant form, the patient growing rapidly and steadily worse from tlie first development of the characteristic symptoms, until death ended the suffering in a few days.
The first case in 1897 occurred at Ocean Springs, Miss., Past Assistant Surgeon Wasdin, Marine Hospital Service, making the diagnosis and announcement. On September 6 the first ease was reported in New Orleans by Dr. Sydney L. Theard. The patient was a child, recently arrived from Ocean Springs, and it died after a short illness. The city at this time was full of fevers, autumnal, bilious, intermittent, remittent, etc., which continued throughout the fall. When it is considered that very many of the practitioners in New Orleans had never seen a case of yellow fever, nineteen years having elapsed without an epidmic, it is not unreasonable to suppose that errors in diagnosis were made, and that many cases reported as such were not yellow fever. A very mild type had apparently replaced the malignant fever of former years. The writer treated about ninety cases of fever between September 1 and December 1, with only three deaths; two of these had received no treatment until the end was near, because of fear of house quarantine.
In all cases reported to the Board of Health, flags were tacked on the residences of the patients and guards placed at the doors night and day. The strictest house quarantine was enforced as far as possible, inflicting the greatest hardship, in many cases, and frequently proving utterly valueless as far as the isolation of the patient was concerned, for the otlicr occupants of the houses passed in and out through side and back doors. In one place, where the writer was attending a fever patient, step-ladders were used by the people of the house and their friends, who climbed over the l)aek fence into their neighbors" premises at will, and passed thence into the street, wliile the guard sat, supremely unconscious of it all, at the front
door. One noticeable and suggestive fact concerning the fever of 1897 was the number of cases occurring on St. Charles and Jackson avenues. These streets are paved with asphalt and kept scrupulously clean; how shall we explain the prevalence of fever on them, whereas on man}' unpaved and uncared-for streets, notably Gal-vez street, which has a wide, uncovered, dirty and ill-smelling canal in the center of it, filled with stagnant water, not a single case of yellow fever was reported ?
Notwithstanding the terrible reports circulated by some of the N'orthern ])a-pers as to the condition of affairs in New Orleans, the city, during the summers of '97, '98 and •'99 was comparatively healthy, and the mortality reports show a smaller death rate than we find for the same period of time in winter.
A backward glance over these three years leads to the conviction that the greatest cause of alarm and panic was the exaggerated rumors and statements with flaming headlines in the public press. The fever of these years was of the mildest type; no disease was ever milder, or occasioned less actual suffering. Epidemics of typhoid, small-pox, diphtheria, scarlet fever or la grippe in other cities, with far greater suffering and mortality, occasion no such alarm and excitement. The ravages of past epidemics, the mortality and loss, have been fairly stated; it is only fair also to add that in the entire valley of the Mississippi, an area of nearly one-third of a million square miles, the aggregate mortality from yellow fever up to the present time will not exceed that of a single year in old Spain, where it has amounted, by official reports, to one hundred and twenty thousand, in localities free from swamps and even mountainous in character. (Dr. Bennet Dowler.)
It is not the province of this paper to discuss the stiology, morbid anatomy, symptoms, etc., of yellow fever. But it is proper to add that the cause of this disease is the micro-organism discovered by Professor Guiseppe Sanarelli of the University of Bologna, Italy, and named by him "bacillus icteroides."
To save the reader the trouble of wading through an account of the fever as it prevailed each year, and as a matter of convenience and reference, I append a table, chronologically arranged, giving the number of deaths from fever each year from 1817 to 1900, and the population of the city during those years. No record of deaths previous to 1817 has been found:
STANDARD HISTORY OF NE^V ORLEANS.
Popu No of
Year. lation. Deaths.
1769 3,100 Fever introduced by slaves from Africa (Norman)
1787 5,284
1788 5,338
1791 6,245 Fever
1796 8,756 Fever
1799 8,810 Fever
1800 8,940 Fever
1801 9,038 Fever
1804 12,165 Fever
1808 17,081 None
1809 17,120 Fever
1810 17,242 None
1811 18,235 Fever
1812 19,229 Fever
1813 20.212 None
1814 21,216 None
1815 22,209 None
1816 23,303 None
1817 , 24,196 823
1818 25,190 116
1819 26,183 425
1820 27,176 400
1821 29,441 0
1822 31,706 808
1823 33,971 1
1824 36,236 108
1825 38,501 49
1826 40,766 5
1827 43,031 109
1828 45,296 130
1829 47,561 900
1830 49,826 117
1831 52,455 2
1832 55,084 400
1833 57,713 1,000
1834 60,342 95
1835 62,971 284
1836 65,600 5
1837 68,229 1,300
1838 70,858 17
1839 73,487 800
1840 76,116 3
1841 78,745 1,325
1842 81,374 211
1843 84,003 487
1844 86,632 148
1845 89,261 2
1846 102,070 160
1847 108,699 2,804
1848 115.503 872
1849 122,511 769
Year.
Population.
No. of Deaths.
1850 129
1851 138,
1852 147
1853 154
1854 156,
1855 158,
1856 161.
1857 163,
1858 165,
1859 166,
1860 168,
1861 169
1862 171,
1863 172
1864 173,
1865 174
1866 178
1867 181
1868 184
1869 187
1870 191
1871 193,
1872 196
1873 198
1874 201
1875 203
1876 206
1877 208
1878 211
1879 213
1880 216
1881 218
1882 220
1883 223
1884 226
1885 228
1886 231
1887 234
1888 236
1889 239
1890 242
1891 247
1892 252
1893 258
1894 264
1895 275
1896 280
1897 285
1898 290
1899 294
The first attompt to prevent the introduction of yellow fever by cstablisliins; quarantine was made in 1817. Although far from perfect, it was still a pledge of more efficient and scientific development. The first suggestion for quarantine restriction was made by the first American Governor of Louisiana, W. C. C. Claiborne. Public opinion was distinctly unfavorable, however, and an Act of the Legislature in 1.S19 repealed the Act establishing a Board of Health, and invested the Governor with authority to establish quarantine at discretion by proclamation. Dr. Dupuy de Chambery wrote a sketch of the yellow fever in 1819, and claimed that the fever was neither contagious or exportable. This was an opinion generally held by the medical faculty of that day, but Governor Villere and his successor, Governor Robertson, believing strongly in quarantine, urged the Legislature to pass laws for its enforcement. This was done in February, 1821, a Board of Health was created, with full powers to enforce a quarantine based upon the most rigid code, and protected by heavy penalties. The quarantine station, established at English Turn, cost $22,000. The Board was composed of twelve members, with Mayor Joseph Roffignac as president ex-officio. These measures appeared to be effective, since no yellow fever appeared in 1821, but as the city was visited by terrible epidemics in 1822 and 1824, the quarantine laws were finally repealed in February, 1825.
Another Board of Health was established in June, 1841, consisting of nine members; three aldermen, three physicians and three private citizens, with ample powers to adopt and enforce sanitary measures. In spite of their efforts, the fever raged that year, numbering its victims in the thousands. This Board of Health was dissolved in 1844, and the General Council invited the Medico-Chirurgical Society to take charge of the sanitary interests of the city. A committee of nine members was appointed, and acts were passed from time to time, but the present system of quarantine was not established until 1855, after the terrible years of '53 and '54. An appropriation of $50,000 was made, and a quarantine station erected about seventy miles below the city. Dr. Sam'l Choppin holding the position of quarantine physician. A State Board of Health was established and a thorough and systematic method of quarantine gradually evolved. In 1859 there were but ninety-two deaths, in marked contrast to the terrible mortality of 1858, when 4,855 individuals died of yellow fever. During the war the blockade of Gulf ports and the enforced cleanliness of the city saved the community from any visitation. In 1870, Dr. C. B. White, president of the Board of Health, introduced the disinfection of premises with diluted carbolic acid. Although the fever had already gained a foothold in the city, it did not spread, and Dr. White, in 1872, recommended the
use of the same disinfectant in cleansing ships and cargoes at quarantine station. In 1874 Dr. Alfred W. Perry designed and constructed a machine for pumping sulphuric acid gas into the holds of ships. The quarantine detention was relaxed by an Act of the Legislature in 1876, and vessels allowed to come to the city after a brief stay of a few hours at the station. The terrible year of 1878 followed and in May, 1879, Mr. William Van Slooten, chemist to the Board of Health, suggested the disinfection of ships by high temperature. It was impossible to carry this out, as the Board was not supplied with sufficient money, but it was decreed that vessels should be detained for twenty-one days, scraped, fumigated, drenched with carbolic acid, whitewashed and painted.
Dr. Joseph Jones, who assumed the duties of president of the Board of Healtli in April, 1880, devoted his remarkable scientific attainments to the preservation of the health of the community. He, too, constructed an improved machine for pumping sulphur fumes into the holds of ships. Dr. Joseph Holt was the real inventor of the present system of quarantine. In 1884 Dr. Holt substituted a solution of bichloride of mercury for the carbolic acid and obtained from the legislature an appropriation of $30,000 to put in operation his plan of maritime sanitation. In 1885 an apparatus was erected, consisting of a sulphur furnace, with a steam-propelled fan attached, connected with a twelve-inch galvanized conductor leading to the hold of the vessel. Dr. Holt also built a heating chamber for the disinfection of clothing, bedding, etc. Dr. C. P. Wilkinson, president of the Board of Health in 1688, suggested some improvements in the heating chamber, and an entirely new plant was constructed in 1889. Dr. S. R. Olliphant, president of the Board of Health in 1890, still further improved the mechanism of this plant, perfecting the "Louisiana system of maritime sanitation." Its efficacy is in no way to be questioned, because of the introduction of yellow fever in '97, the disease having originated in Ocean Springs, Miss., and being brought into the city by the railroads.
The presidents of the State Board of Health, since its organization in 1855, have been Drs. Samuel Choppin, G. A. Nott, A. F. Axson, S. A. Smith, C. B. White, F. B. Gaudet, Samuel Choppin, Joseph Jones, Joseph Holt, C. P. Wilkinson, Samuel E. Olliphant and Edmond Souchon.
In May, 1898, an act was passed providing for the establishment of local parish and municipal Boards of Health. The State Board of Health consists of Dr. Edmond Souchon, president; Dr. Hampden, S. Lewis and Dr. C. A. Gaudet, of New Orleans; Dr. J. C. Egan, of Caddo; Dr. R. A. Randolph, of Rapides; Dr. T. T. Tarleton, of St. Landry, and Dr. W. G. Owen, of Iberville. Dr. G. Farrar Patton
is secretar}'. Drs. Lewis and Gaudet having resigned, have been succeeded by Dr. Arthur Nolte and Dr. P. B. McCutcheon.
The Board of Health of the city of New Orleans consists of Dr. Quitman Kohnke, chairman and health officer; Dr. Paul Michinard, Dr. Alfred C. King and Messrs. Horace N. Beach and John Delery. Dr. Sydney L. Theard is secretary and sanitary officer. This board employs a chemist and a bacteriologist, and has the use of the fine laboratories of the medical department of Tulane University. Dr. Edmond Souchon is of the opinion that these two bodies, if properly supplied with funds, would save the city from further visitation of contagious disease in an epidemic form.
Asiatic cholera has also played a very important part in the history of New Orleans. The first authentic record we have of its appearance in this city was in 1832. An epidemic of yellow fever already prevailed, when the horror of the situation was deepened by the announcement that cholera had been reported, a case having been discovered on October 25. It spread with alarming rapidity, and out of a total of 8,090 deaths that year from all causes, 4,340 were ascribed to cholera. This was the darkest year in the history of New Orleans, the death rate reaching the enormous proportion of 147.10 per 1,000. The population at this time was 55,084, and more than one-seventh succumbed to disease. The following year, '33, was also marked by a cholera visitation; this disease claimed 1,000 victims out of a total of 4,97G deaths. It reappeared in 1848, destroying 1,646 inhabitants. The city was infested with this malady for seven years; in 1849 it raged in an alarming manner, carrying off 3,176 victiras. This was its last virulent visitation. In 1850, '51, '52, '53 and '55 it was heroically combated by the medical profession, and many able treatises were written on the subject. The gradual disappearance of cholera has been, at least, one hopeful feature of the pathological history of the city.
Small-pox, also, committed great ravages among the early settlers of Louisiana and before the introduction of vaccination. Thirty-five years after the foundation of the colony, historians notice the prevalence and fatality of this disease. Vaccination was introduced a little later than 1802, and since that time, up to 1861-1865, New Orleans has been almost exempt from destructive epidemics of sraall-pox. In 1849 the deaths from small-pox were 133; in 1857, 103; in 1858, 108. During the civil war the disease committed greater ravages, the deaths in 1864 being 605; in 1866, 613; and in 1870, 528; 1877 was the year in which small-pox reached its height, 1,099 deaths from it being reported. During the forty years extending from 1844 to 1883, there was a total of 7,070 deaths from this cause.
We have reviewed the devastations caused in our community by various epidemic diseases. The remainder of the chapter will be devoted to short sketches of some of those whose duty and ambition it was to foil the attacks of these terrible foes to human life. The earliest physicians who visited the struggling colony and ministered to the sick have left but few names to be gratefully remembered by posterity. In 1710 Dr. Jallot is mentioned; in 1722, Dr. Navarre, and the famous Dr. Masdevall, who practiced in 1796. These are the only three names on record in the eighteenth century. The early years of the nineteenth century are more prolific. Dr. Martin, Dr. Eollins, Dr. McConnell all left distinguished reputations, w^hile Dr. Davidson and Dr. Kerr won distinction in the epidemics of 1817, 1819 and 1822.
Dr. Edward Barton, a Virginian by birth, settled in ISTew Orleans in the first or second decade of the century. He made a careful study of yellow fever and wrote much on the subject, advocating the theory that, under favorable meteorological and terrene conditions (notably, the digging and upturning of the soil in summer), the dreaded disease might originate in the city. This was violently opposed by the believers in the invariable importation of yellow fever, and the perfect efficacy of quarantine as a preventive. Dr. Barton filled the chair of Materia Med-ica and Therapeutics in the University of Louisiana from 1835 to 1840. He died in 1867.
Dr. William Newton Mercer was a very prominent figure in the New Orleans of ante-bellum days. He was a native of Cecil county, Maryland, born in 1792. He had every educational advantage during his youth, and was, for several years, a pupil of Dr. Benjamin Rush, in the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating with honors, Dr. Mercer was appointed assistant surgeon in the army, about the beginning of the war of 1812. He came to New Orleans with the army in 1816, but was soon ordered to Natchez, where he resided for some years, winning a high position in the community by his sterling character and his lofty integrity. Dr. Mercer returned to New Orleans in 1843, and soon became one of its most honored citizens. He erected a handsome dwelling on Canal street, where he dispensed a courtly hospitality. His deeds of kindness and charity have left an enduring record in this city. St. Anna's Asylum, one of our most worthy charities, was liberally endowed by him in memory of the lovely daughter, who died in her twentieth year of consumption. In conjunction with Dr. Duncan, of Natchez, Dr. Mercer paid an installment due on the home of Henry Clay, who would have been involved in bankruptcy but for the timely aid so generously tendered to him. Dr. Mercer was, in sentiment, loyal to the Union, but he shared all the hardships of his fellow citizens
during the war, and was enabled to assist and protect many unfortunate families, through the respect and confidence he inspired, even in the Federal authorities. He refused to take the oath of allegiance, but gave into the hands of the provost marshal a list of all his property, retaining $2,000 in gold for his support. This sum he reported to General Butler, who left him in undisturbed possession of it. Dr. Mercer lived in New Orleans for some years after the war, the type of a generation of courteous and noble gentlemen.
Dr. Alfred Mercier shed upon the city of his birth not only the lustre of professional ability, but also the soft radiance of literary talents of a high order. Born in 18] 6, he lived through the stirring events of the century and died in 1894. Dr. Mercier was a graduate of the College of Louis le Grand, having received his medical education in France. He was the secretary of the Athenee Louisianaise. and a leading spirit in literary circles, being a distinguished Latin, Greek and Italian scholar. "The Eose of Smyrna," "The Hermit of Niagara," "St. Ybars Plantation" and "Lidia" are among the most charming productions of his pen.
Dr. C. A. Luzenberg was born of Austrian parents in the city of Verona, Italy, in 1805. His father removed to German)', where the talented youth received his education, and acquitted himself so brilliantly that the Mayor of Wissenburg is said to have removed his hat in the presence of the elder Luzenberg, saying: "Sir, I must uncover my head before the man who owns such a son!" Dr. Luzenberg emigrated to Philadelphia in 1819. Becoming deeply interested in tropical fevers, he decided to settle in New Orleans, where the field for study would be varied and extensive. He accordingly located in the southern metropolis in 1829 and was shortly after elected house surgeon of the Charity Hospital. Dr. Luzenberg devoted his talent and energy to combating yellow fever, the scourge which then visited the city almost every year. He revolutionized the medical practice of the day. Instead of using calomel and purgatives, he treated the disease by general and local bleeding. This method was met by violent opposition and fierce invective was resorted to in the medical journals of the day to combat this heresy. Dr. Luzenberg was the first practitioner in New Orleans who excluded light from the apartments of small-po.x patients, having noticed its baleful influence in the disfiguring effect of the malady. In 1832 the Doctor contracted a wealthy marriage with Mrs. Mary Ford and enjoyed an extensive European tour, visiting all the hospitals, studying, comparing, analyzing with inexhaustible energy. His return to New Orleans was greeted with enthusiasm. The charitable impulses of his nature led him to devote two hours daily to the service of the poor and to offer, during an epidemic, to treat
all indigent Germans gratis. With the wealth now at liis disposal he built a private hospital on Elysian Fields called the Franklin Infirmary. The operations performed by Dr. Luzenberg entitled him to rank among the foremost surgeons of the century. In removing a cancer he made a complete extirpation of the parotid gland; the patient, a man of sixty-two, survived and lived, in good health, for several years. He also made an excision of six inches of the ileum, and distinguished himself by tying the primitive iliac artery for the cure of an aneurism of the external iliac. Dr. Luzenberg's specialty was the removal of cataract, and many grateful eyes owed the blessing of sight to his skill. This wise physician was Dean of the Medical College of Louisiana, which he originated, delivering lectures in the old State House on Canal street and giving demonstrations in the Charity Hospital. Dr. Luzenberg also filled the chairs of Anatomy and Surgery in 1835. This man of strong character, fearless and outspoken, was persecuted and maligned by many enemies, and his life was embittered and saddened by their machinations. He withdrew voluntarily from the college, but was expelled from the Physico-Medical Society, and sued for mal praxis in the Criminal Court. The suit was carried to the Supreme Court of Louisiana, where Dr. Luzenberg was triumphantly acquitted. He endured these trials with dignity and courage, turning a deaf ear to those who counselled flight, or withdrawal from the scene of so many labors. He remained, endured and conquered. He now devoted himself entirely to the Charity Hospital, and in spite of opposition was elected an administrator, and afterwards vice-president, a position which he held for the rest of his life. The research and experience of years were to have been embodied in a work on yellow fever, but although he collected much data, it was never arranged and completed. In 1839 Dr. Luzenberg founded the "Society of Natural History and Sciences," and in 1843 he formed and incorporated the "Louisiana Medico-Chirurgical Society." In 1843 he was appointed physician to the Marine Hospital. As there was no government hospital, he appropriated his own, and filled the house with comforts and the garden with curious specimens of vegetable and animal life to amuse the invalid sailors. They were removed from his care for political reasons, and he then received into his hospital the invalided soldiers of the Mexican war. Dr. Luzenberg's health failed in 1848, and he left the city to find strength at some Virginia springs, but died en route in Cincinnati, July 15, 1848.
Dr. Erasmus Darwin Fenner inherited his love of medicine from his father, a distinguished physician of a fine North Carolina family. He graduated at the University of Transylvania, Ky., and commenced to practice in Jackson, Tenn. He
married in 1832, but lost his young wife in 1837, and cherished her memory with unswerving fidelity throughout his long and useful life. In 1840 he removed to New Orleans with his little son, to whose education he devoted all his leisure hours. Then ensued some years of poverty and obscurity, through which the Doctor struggled sturdily towards the prominence and success which he finally achieved. In 1844 he published, in collaboration with Dr. A. Hester, the New Orleans Medical Journal. So low were the funds of the two editors that the Journal was published on credit, but each number managed to pay its way, until it was absorbed in the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal (1848), a publication to which Dr. Fenner contributed largely and brilliantly. Three of his most valued articles were two accounts of the yellow fever prevailing in 1846 and 1848, and a pamphlet entitled, "History of the Epidemic of Yellow Fever in New Orleans in 1853." Dr. Fenner was an ardent advocate of sanitary measures, but his advice was indifferently received. The earnest object of his life was attained when he established, with the aid of some kindred spirits, the New Orleans School of Medicine, in 1856. The faculty of the new school was as follows:
Dr. E. D. Fenner, Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Principles and Practice of Medicine.
Dr. J. M. W. Picton, Professor Diseases of Women and Children.
Dr. Thos. Peniston, Professor Chemical Medicine.
Dr. Samuel Choppin, Professor of Surgery.
Dr. C. Beard, Professor of Anatomy. ,
Dr. Howard Smith, Professor of Materia Medica.
Dr. I. L. Crawcour, Professor of Medical Chemistry.
Dr. A. F. Axson, Professor of Physiology.
Dr. Warren Brickell, Professor of Obstetrics.
Dr. Anthony Peniston, Adjunct Professor of Anatomy.
Dr. Fenner's eloquence and energy secured to the students and professors of the school all the privileges of the Charity Hospital. He also procured from the Legislature an appropriation of $20,000 for enlarging the buildings and increasing the museum. The new school opened in 1856 with a class of seventy-six students. It closed its doors at the beginning of the civil war on two hundred and forty-seven, many of whom shouldered their muskets until the close of the fateful struggle permitted the survivors to resume their interrupted studies. The school was used as a negro school during Federal domination, but was reorganized and reopened in 1865. Dr. Peniston being dead, the chair of Anatomy was filled by Professor Henry F. Campbell, of Georgia, and that of Physiology by Dr. Alfred C. Holt of
Mississippi. After a few sessions, and after the death of Dr. Tenner, the New Orleans School of Medicine ceased to exist.
Dr. Tenner originated the Louisiana Hospital in Eichmond during the war and proved his devotion to his native South by refusing to take the oath of allegiance. He was banished by General Butler, and went to Mobile, where he remained until the end of the war. He returned to New Orleans when peace was established, resumed his extensive practice, and was pursuing his career with unabated energy, when he suddenly succumbed to fever. May 4, 1866. Dr. Tenner was a man of sociable and lovable character, and was remarkably devoted to children. He left an honored name, which has been worthily borne by his son. Judge Charles E. Tenner.
One of the most widely-known physicians of New Orleans, remarkable alike for great talent and virile and heroic personality, was Dr. Warren Stone. He was professor of Surgery in the University of Louisiana for thirty-five years, and surgeon of the Charity Hospital for thirty-nine, so that his name would seem to be identified with all that is wisest and best in the history of both institutions. He first saw the light in the remote town of St. Albans, Vt., in 1808. A fine mother gave him a frame of superb proportions and iron nerve, and a nature full of lofty ambition and honorable ideals. Dr. Stone's education was conducted by private tutors, as the schools of that day were but poorly equipped, and he became a pupil of Dr. Twitchell, an eminent surgeon and physician of Keene, N. H. He frequently declared that he was indebted to Dr. Twitchell for the most valuable portion of his extensive professional knowledge. He was an ardent student, and when he graduated from the medical school in Pittsfield, Mass., in 1831 he was thoroughly equipped in all the practical branches of medicine. In 1833 he started from Boston, by sea, for New Orleans, but the brig Amelia met with violent storms, cholera appeared among the passengers and crew, and the unfortunate vessel finally ran aground on Tolly Island, at the entrance to Charleston harbor. The unfortunate passengers were supplied by the generous people of Charleston with all needful and medicines, and Dr. Thomas Hunt, a distinguished physician, rendered devoted attention to the sick. The Amelia was burned as a necessary sanitary measure, but another vessel being chartered to convey the passengers and crew to their destination, Dr. Stone at last landed in New Orleans, friendless and poor, at a time when yellow fever and cholera were both raging. Through the kindness of Dr. Cenas, young Stone received some employment in connection with the Charity Hospital. His unusual ability and industry soon made a favorable impression upon all around him.
When Dr. Hunt, with whom he formed a warm friendship during the sad days on Folly Island, removed to New Orleans from Charleston, and was appointed resident surgeon at the hospital, he secured for Dr. Stone the position of assistant to Dr. Picton. So clearly were his abilities demonstrated in this post that he was appointed resident surgeon of the hospital in 1836. One of his biographers says, in reference to this advancement: "Never was so elevated a professional office so meritoriously acquired; never was one so ably and satisfactorily filled. Now was fully inaugurated a career never enjoyed by any surgeon in America. Known and endeared to the people by his services in the hospital, particularly in the free dispensary, which was filled by a large and anxious crowd every mid-day in the week; elected in 1836 lecturer on Anatomy, and in January, 1837, professor of Anatomy by the petition of the admiring class, and, on the resignation of Prof. Lu-zenberg, lecturer on surgery, he became, at the next session, professor of Surgery, the leading and most eminent surgeon and physician in the city, the most celebrated and popular professor in the school, until his resignation in 1872."
In November, 1849, Dr. Stone operated successfully in a case of traumatic aneurism of the vertebral artery, by incising the sac, turning out the coagulum and controlling the artery by a graduated compress. He also enjoys the humane distinction of being the first to use chloroform for the alleviation of suffering, in New Orleans, on the 25th of February, 1817.
Dr. Stone built and conducted a private infirmary at the corner of Canal and Claiborne, for some years, from 1859 to 1867. Dr. William Kennedy, a prominent physician of the day, was associated with Dr. Stone in this, and although much practical good was achieved, the enterprise was financially unsuccessful and was finally abandoned. At the outbreak of the war, Dr. Stone was appointed Confederate surgeon-general of the State of Louisiana. He was present at the battles of Bull Eun and Shiloh, and devoted his fine surgical skill to the alleviation of the wounded soldiers. When New Orleans was in the hands of the Federals, he was sent to Fort Jackson, where he treated the Federal soldiers free of charge. But, gladly as he rendered aid to the suffering, regardless of sectional or political feeling, he was never in the least "reconstructed," but remained to the end an enthusiastic Democrat, the devoted friend of Jefferson Davis. Dr. Stone lost the sight of one eye in 1841 from an inflammation contracted from a little patient. Dr. Stone was a frequent contributor to the Medical Journal. Among his important articles may be mentioned "The Treatment of Wounded Arteries," "Ligation of the Common Iliac Artery," "Inflammation" (1859), and "Pulmonary■ Tuberculosis"
(1866). The wise physician, so kind of heart, keen of wit, generous of hand, laid down the burden of his earthly cares, and entered into his rest, December 6, 1872.
Dr. T. G. Eichardson, born in Lexington, Ky., in 1827, received a complete medical education in the University of Louisville, and afterwards enjoyed years of profitable intercourse with the celebrated Dr. Gross, whose private pupil he was. He was appointed demonstrator of Anatomy in the medical department of the University of Louisville, immediately after his graduation in 1848. He accepted, in 1856, the chair of Anatomy in the Pennsylvania Medical College. He acquired a reputation at the age of twenty-nine, by the publication of a text-book entitled "Richardson's Elements of Human Anatomy." While in Philadelphia, Dr. Eichardson edited, with Dr. Gross, the "jSTorth American Medico-Chirurgical Eeview." He removed to New Orleans in 1858, to occupy the chair of Anatomy in the Tulane University of Louisiana, which he retained until 1872. Dr. Eichardson then accepted the chair of Surgery, which he occupied for seventeen years. He was dean of the medical department of Tulane University from 1865 to 1885, and was emeritus professor of Surgery until his death. Dr. Richardson was president of the American Medical Association during the year 1877-78, and presided at the session held in Buffalo. As surgeon of General Bragg's staff, Dr. Eichardson followed the fortunes of war from 18G2 to 1865, returning to his home, with a heart crushed by the defeat of his country and his cause. A terrible domestic bereavement was added to the sorrows of the patriot; he lost his wife and three children by the explosion and wreck of a Mississippi steamboat. These sorrows, endured with courage and submission, probably emphasized the cold reserve and dignity of his manner. His devoted friend, Dr. Edmond Souchon, tells a story which illustrates his courage and devotion to duty. Being called to a patient who was bleeding profusely, he introduced the tiny silver canula into the vein at the elbow, and in the simplest way told Dr. Souchon, his assistant, to introduce the other end into his (Dr. Eichardson's) vein, thus giving his own blood to restore the patient, but in vain. Dr. Eichardson died on May 26, 1892, but a noble memorial has been erected to him by his wife, Mrs. Ida A. Eichardson, in the superbly fitted medical college, for the building of which she donated one hundred thousand dollars.
Dr. Samuel M. Bemiss was of Eevolutionary stock. His father was thrown earlv on his own resources, and acquired a medical education in the face of countless difficulties. He settled in Kentucky, where Dr. Samuel Bemiss was born. He enjoyed the distinction of being the first matriculate of the University of New York,
where he graduated in 1845. He. too, like the other doctors we have mentioned, bore a gallant part in the troubled years from "61 to '65, serving as surgeon in the Confederate army. At the termination of the war, he returned to Louisville, but shortly after, in 1866, he accepted the chair of Theory and Practice of Medicine in the University of Louisiana, which he filled up to the day of his death. Dr. Bemiss was noted for conservative opinion, and careful and painstaking practice. In 1878 he was chairman of a commission appointed to investigate the origin and spread of yellow fever in the interior of Louisiana. He visited a number of infected towns and made an elaborate report of his investigations. Dr Bemiss was for some years senior editor of the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, and his facile pen contributed to numerous scientific magazines. He was a member of the American Medical Association, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Louisville, of the Kentucky State Medical Society, of the Boston Gynseco-logical Society, and of the State Medical Association of Louisiana. Dr. Bemiss died the 17th of November, 1884.
Dr. Samuel Choppin, born in Baton Eouge, in 1828, graduated at the University of Louisiana, in 1849. He spent two years in Paris to complete his medical education, and while there witnessed the coup d'etat of Louis Napoleon in 1851, and but narrowly escaped with his life, on one occasion, being one of a defenseless crowd, which was suddenly and unexpectedly fired upon by soldiers. On his return to New Orleans he was appointed demonstrator of Anatomy in the Medical College, a position which he held for five years, and during the same period he was house surgeon of the Charity Hospital. He devoted much time to the literature of medicine, and was associate editor of the New Orleans Medical and Hospital Gazette, which printed his "Notes on Syphilis." In conjunction with Drs. E. D. Fenner, D. W. Brickell and C. Beard, Dr. Choppin took an active part in organizing the New Orleans School of Medicine in 1856. He served as medical inspector, and surgeon-in-chief to General Beauregard and was present at the siege of Charleston and Petersburg. On his return to New Orleans, after the war, he formed a partnership with Dr. C. Beard. His deepest sympathies were enlisted in the struggle of his native State with the radical despotism, and he was one of the leaders and organizers of the revolution of September 14, 1874. Dr. Choppin was president of the Board of Health in 1876. He made a gallant struggle to protect the community from the invasion of yellow fever, but failed in 1878. The treachery of seeming friends, the misrepresentations of the press, embittered his last years. He died of pneumonia, on May 2, 1880.
■ Dr. John Dickson Bruns was a man of rare culture, who united to professional ability the charm of fine scholarship and poetic talents. Born in Charleston, S. C, February 24, 1836, he graduated at the Medical College of South Carolina in 1857, on which occasion his thesis entitled "Life, its Eelations, Animal and Mental," won a prize of one hundred dollars. After traveling in the North, and attending lectures there, Dr. Bruns returned to Charleston, and edited the Charleston Medical Journal in 1858. He was the friend of Sims, the novelist, and of the gentle poet Timrod, delighting both by his youthful enthusiasm and eloquence. He married in 1858. After the fall of the Confederacy, which had been the object of his devoted allegiance, Dr. Bruns spent several months in Europe, and in the autumn of the same year (1866) accepted the chair of Physiology and Pathology in the Medical School of New Orleans. He was afterwards elected professor of Practice of Medicine in the Charity Hospital Medical School. He was associated for several years with Drs. Choppin, Beard and Brickell, in practice. His pen was ever active and his poems are full of chaste and delicate fancy. " 'Morituri Salutamus' is a poem," said the Times-Democrat, "which we fully believe deserves a permanent place in the gallery of English chef d'ceuvres." His most brilliant scientific papers appeared in the Southern Journal of Medical Science (1867) and in the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal (1880).
A noted name in the list of New Orleans surgeons is that of Dr. A. W. Smyth. He held for many years the position of house surgeon in the Charity Hospital, to which he was elected in 1862. Dr. Smyth's unusual mechanical gifts led to the introduction of many improvements in the domestic arrangements of the hospital. But liis fame rests securely upon the fact that he was the first surgeon who successfully performed the operation of tying the innorainata, the vertebral, and other arteries for the cure of subclavian aneurism. Dr. Smyth was a graduate of the Medical College of Louisiana. An Irishman by birth, he has returned to his native land to spend his declining years.
The pathos of an early death, a brilliant career brought to an untimely close, is associated with the name of Dr. Albert B. Miles, one of the most esteemed physicians of late years. Dr. Miles was a native of Alabama, and was born in 1852. An education begun in the Gordon Institute of Arkansas was completed at the L'niversity of Virginia in 1870, when he graduated at the age of eighteen. Coming to New Orleans in 1872, he began the study of medicine, and became a resident student in Charity Hospital, April 7, 1873. He graduated in 1875, and was at once
elected demonstrator of Anatomy in the medical department of the University. After filling the position of visiting physician to the Hospital and of assistant house surgeon, he was appointed physician in charge of the Hotel Dieu, and in 1882, house surgeon of Charity Hospital, which he remained until his death, of typhoid fever, August 5, 1894. He made a gallant struggle for life, and when gently informed that the end was near, exclaimed, "So soon!" A sentiment soon echoed by the whole community, which had expected so much from this brilliant and useful life! Dr. Miles was a member of the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Association, of the Orleans Parish Medical Association, and of the Louisiana State Medical Society.
Dr. Charles Jasper Bickham resided in New Orleans for thirty-eight years, and enjoyed the respect and affection of his fellow citizens, while his urbanity to the younger members of the profession led to an extensive consulting practice. He was born in Covington, Louisiana; after receiving the degree of M. A. from the Southwestern University of Texas, he studied medicine in New Orleans, and graduated in 1856. He assisted Dr. Stone in surgery, both in the doctors own hospital and in the Charity Hospital. Dr. Bickham practiced medicine in Shreveport for a time, served as surgeon in the Confederate army during the war, and afterwards settled permanently in New Orleans. He held the position of demonstrator of Anatomy in the University from 1867 to 18T2; he was also at different times an administrator of the Charity Hospital, a member of the Louisiana State Board of Health, and of the Orleans Parish Medical Society. Dr. Bickham died February 14, 1898.
Dr. Joseph Jones occupies a notable position as an authority on yellow fever, the malady which has engaged the attention of so many learned minds. Dr. Jones devoted years to the most careful and minute researches, and his work entitled "Medical and Surgical Memoirs" contains a wealth of information, statistics and scientific data. Dr. Jones was president of the State Board of Health, assuming the office in April, 1880. He was also connected with the University for many years as professor of Chemistry. His range of culture was very wide; he was the leading archaeologist of the South, and made a collection of rare and antique arms, pottery, etc., which is jiistly an object of pride to the whole city.
The limited scope of this chapter will not permit more than a mere mention of many well-known and honored names. Dr. John Leonard Riddell, the inventor of the binocular microscope. Dr. Isadore Labatut, Dr. Thos. Hunt, Dr. James Jones, Dr. Brickell, the friend and partner of Dr. Bruns, Dr. Austen, Dr. Holliday,
/
J)r. Sani'l Logan, devoted their lives to scientific research, or to practical labors among the suffering members of the community. At present the city can boast of many able physicians; Dr. Ernest Lewis stands pre-eminent in Gynaecology, as does Dr. Eudolph Matas in Surgery. Dr. John B. Elliott in the theory and practice of medicine. Dr. Castellanos, a writer and scholar, as well as a talented doctor; Dr. Loeber, full of years and honors—all these and many more will leave an enduring mark upon the history of the medical profession in New Orleans. Dr. Stanford E. Chaille fills with dignity and ability the office of dean of the medical department of the Tulane University. Dr. Chaille is of fine French lineage. His ancestors settled in Maryland, but his father removed to Mississippi, and Dr. Chaille has made New Orleans his home for many years.
The School of Hahnemann has been represented in New Orleans since 1841, when Dr. Taxile, of Toulon, France, settled here as the pioneer of homeopathy. He had been an illustrious allopath, and chief physician of the civil hospital in Toulon. He practiced until his death in 1857, and left three disciples to continue his labors, Dr. D'Hemecourt, Dr. Dupaquier, Dr. Cabosche and Dr. S. W. Angell. The ranks of homeopathy were recruited by Drs. Adolf and Jules Cartier, and then by Dr. Julius Matthieu, the first American member of the new school of medicine in New Orleans. Dr. Mattliieu was born in this city, and graduated at the Louisiana State University, having since pursued a professional career of marked success for many years. Dr. J. G. Belden, a graduate of the Boston College of Physicians, moved to New Orleans in 1846, and attended to a large clientele with success, until his death in 1897. His son, Dr. Webster Belden, has inherited his father's practice. Dr. Charles J. Lopez, a native of Cuba, located in New Orleans in 1869, graduated at Tulane University in 1873, and is still in active practice. Dr. Gayle Aiken, born in Charleston, S. C, and a graduate of both Tulane University and of Hahnemann Homeopathic College in Chicago, has been a resident of New Orleans since 18S2. Dr. S. R. Angell, Dr. Charles R. Mayer, a graduate of Hahnemann Homeopathic College, Chicago, Dr. D. Arthur Lines, a graduate of Pulte College, Cincinnati, David M. Lines, and Dr. Robert D. Voorhies, who took his diploma at Herring College, are among the best known homeopathic physicians of the city.
Dr. William H. Holcombe deserves an extended notice for the services rendered by him to the cause of homeopathy, not only in this city, but throughout the South. He was not only the wise physician, with the genius of diagnosis, but the cultured man of letters, whose versatile pen was constantly employed in the composition of medical essays and pamphlets, poems, novels, and works of a religious character. Dr. Holcombe was born in Lynchburg, Va., May 29, 1825. He was of good old
•
Virginia famih', his grandfather having served in the Continental army. His father was a distinguished physician of the old school, and young Holcombe, who early manifested his taste for his chosen profession, was sent to the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, where he graduated in IS-IT. He removed to Cincinnati, and it was there, during an epidemic of Asiatic cholera, that lie became interested in the study of homeopathy. The marked success lie met with in liis experimental use of it induced him to devote himself to the new school of medicine, and he became one of its most talented disciples. Dr. Holcombe removed to Natchez in 1852, where he and Dr. Davis, his partner, were appointed physicians and surgeons to the Mississippi State Hospital. In 18G4 he located in New Orleans, where he made his home until his death, November 28, 1893. He was chairman of a yellow fever commission in 1878, and published an excellent report of the work done during the epidemic of that year. Dr. Holcombe was for many years co-editor of
the North American Journal of Homeopathy, and was president of the American Institute of Homeopathy in 1876. In 1852 he published "The Scientific Basis of
Homeopathy/' and in 185G, "Yellow Fever and Its Homeopathic Treatment " He
was the author of a number of medical treatises, of two volumes of poetry, and of
eight religious works, embodying the doctrines of Swedenborg. His last literary
composition, "The Truth About Homeopathy," was completed only a few days
before his death. Dr. Holcombe was a man of lofty and noble nature, and of ten-
derest charity, a true philanthropist, winning the respect and devotion of all who
knew him. In the midst of his labors he succumbed, quite suddenly, to heart disease.
A monthly paper, L'Homoion, was published by the "Societe Hah-nemanieniie de la Nouvelle Orleans," a society organized in 1859, but soon dissolved. During the yellow fever of 1878, the New Orleans Homeopathic Relief Association was organized, for the purpose of furnishing doctors, nurses and medicines to the sick, and also food and clothing, when necessary. Its headquarters were at No. 132 Canal street, and it published and distributed, free of cost, a pamphlet entitled, "Guide for Diagnosing, Nursing and Medicating Yellow Fever."
The Hahnemann I\ledical Association of I;Ouisiana was oi'gnnized in New Orleans in 1880, but it was not incorporated, and after meeting in different cities for six years, it disbanded. The Homeopathic Medical Association of Louisiana was organized in New Orleans in November, 1890, with Charles Madnell, president; D. R. Graham, vice-president; Frank Millington, secretary; and Col. George Soule, treasurer. This association has also been allowed to lapse. There is a Homeopathic State Board of Medical Examiners, appointed by the Governor, and a similar board of the other school.
CHAPTER IX.
HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NEW ORLEANS. By JoitN R. FiCKLEN, Professor of History in Tulane University.
NEW ORLEANS was founded in the year ] 718 by Jean Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville, but it did not become the permanent capital of the colony until 1722. At this period the province was under the control of the famous Company of the West, which, though it ended in disaster under the title of the "Mississippi Bubble," was certainly instrumental in making large additions to the population of Louisiana. As the colonists began to pour in, the question of education became a pressing one, and it was only natural that the religious orders, to whom primary instruction during the eighteenth century was chiefly intrusted, should be the first in the field to satisfy the new demand.
The Capuchin monks, to whom had fallen the ecclesiastical control of the lower part of the province, are said to have given to Louisiana her first teacher. This was a certain Father Cecil, who in 1724 opened a school for boys in the neighbor-hcod of the present St. Louis Cathedral; but what was the fate of this first school in the new city by the Mississippi, is not recorded.
As schools for the two sexes were generally separate at this time. Governor Bienville soon became interested in providing instruction for the female yoiith, and in 1726 the Company, at his suggestion, signed a contract with some Ursuline nuns to como over from France, and to assume the care of a charity hospital, and at the same time to undertake the education of young girls. This contract has come down to us, and in it we find the Company agreeing to support six nuns, with a salary of six hundred livres (francs) a year to each, until they could draw a suflicient income from a plantation to be donated by the Company. The Mother Superior was to appoint one of the nuns as housekeeper, two others to be continuous nurses in the hospital, one other to be a teacher in a girls' school, and the sixth to take the place of any sister that might fall ill. The actual number of Religieuses that came over in 1727 was eleven, one being a novice, two candidates, and eight professed members.
Never was heartier welcome accorded to any colonists than to these holy sisters ■when, after a tempestuous voyage of several months across the Atlantic, they finally .arrived in New Orleans. Bienville had been supplanted as governor by Perier, and *his late residence near the levee was given to the nuns as a temporary home. It was the finest house in the little city, but it was still surrounded by the primeval forest. Here the Sisters remained until 1734, when their convent, the Archbishop's palace
-of to-day, was, after many delays, completed, and it became their permanent home, until ninety years later they removed to their present spacious buildings in the lower part of the city. Their early experiences in the new city on the banks of the great river are recorded in the charming letters of the novice, Sister Marie Madeline Hachard, who was one of the original band, and who for thirty-five years aided with rare devotion her associates in caring for the sick and in educating the female youth of that day. She has recorded the humble beginnings of the long history
■of the Ursulines, and has left us a vivid picture of the pensionnaires or boarders and of the day scholars that soon began to crowd their schoolroom. Their devotion
"to their work knew no bounds, for Sister Hachard tells us that during two hours
■of the afternoon they also gave instruction, spiritual and mental, to negresses and 'Indian girls, who were eager to learn from these gentle sisters. The negresses, she adds, were easy to teach, but not so the Indian girls, who, "on account of their sinful passions are baptized with fear and trembling on our part." It seems that the
•inhabitants expected to have to pay for the instruction of the day scholars, and when they discovered that this class of pupils was to be taught gratuitously, they showed their gratitude by overwhelming the nuns with presents of everything that was necessary for their comfort. In 1728 there were, besides the day scholars, sev-
•eral slave girls to be prepared for baptism and the first communion, and twenty
.pensionnaires. It does not appear that these last were required to pay more than was necessary to meet the expenses of their food and lodging. Thus the educational
'plan of the Company was broad enough to include gratuitous instruction for the female youth of the three races found in the colony. Nay, a few years later we find that the Ursulines have taken charge of the female orphans whose parents perished in the Natchez massacre, and that they receive from the Company a regular stipend
'for their support. Finally, to cap the climax of what was expected of the nuns, Bienville, in 1735, wrote to his government: "Two women in the colony raise silk worms for amusement and succeed very well. Eggs should be sent by the government to the Ursulines, so that they could teach this industry to the orphans intrusted to
xtheir charge."
However, those of the nuns who devoted themselves to teaching were so zealous in their labors that the colonists felt that they had an additional reason for remaining in the province, and the Company perceived that it had taken not only a charitable, but a wise step. The admiration of the scholars for their teachers reached such a point that they all wanted to take the vows and become nuns, but Father Beaubois frowned on this, and declared that he wanted them to become Christian mothers, and spread the cause of Christianity in the colony. The girls at this period generally married at the age of thirteen or fourteen and were very ignorant; "but henceforth," says Sister Hachard, "no girl was allowed to marry until she had been instructed by the Ursulines." How this \:ise social regulation was enforced we are not told. It may have been left to the discretion of Father Beaubois, who was the constant friend of the Sisters, and who was doubtless able to control the marriages of the colony in the interests of mental and spiritual education. Such, then, was the beginning of educational training for girls in New Orleans, as recorded in the fascinating pages of Madeleine Hachard.
If Father Cecil's school was still in existence in 1742, it must have been found inadequate to the training of boys, for in this year we find Bienville, once more governor, and his intendant, Salmon, addressing the following communication to their government: "For a long time the inhabitants of Louisiana have been emphasizing the necessity of establishing here a college for the education of their children. Impressed with the importance of such an establishment, they proposed to the Jesuits to undertake it, but the Fathers refused on the ground that they had neither the lodgings nor the materials to support a college. Yet it is essential that there should be such an institution for instruction in the humanities, in geometry^ in geography, in pilotage, etc. Besides, the children would learn lessons in religion, which is the basis of morals. It is only too apparent how useless young men become when they are reared in self-indulgence and idleness; and how much those of the colonists who are able to send their children to France to be educated have to spend for this purpose. It is also to be feared that the greater part of this class of young men, disgusted with their country, will return to it only to gather up the property which their parents have left them.""*
Louisiana had now passed once more under the control of the king, and its importance was not considered sufficient to justify the estabhshment of such an institution; but this last and noblest effort of Bienville for the welfare of the colony on the eve of his final departure from the city he had founded, is worthy of
•Translated from a copy of the letter in the archives of the La. Hist. See.
record. More than sixty years were to elapse before such a college as Bienville had planned was to be established in New Orleans.
SPANISH DOJIINATION.
Thus far the schools for the training of the young had been confined to Xew Orleans, and even in the city we have no evidence of further progress until the period of the Spanish domination (1768-1803.) In 1785 the population of the city had grown to 4,980, including blacks and Indians. Three years later Governor Miro writes to his government as follows: "In 1772, under Governor Unzaga, there came from Spain Don Andreas Lopez de Armesto, as director of the school which was ordered to be established at New Orleans. ■ With him came Don Pedro Aragon as teacher of grammar, Don Manuel Diaz de Lara, as professor of Latin, and Don Francisco de la Galena as teacher of reading and writing. In spite of the weight that such names must have carried with them, the governor expressed himself as greatly embarrassed, as he knew that the parents would not send their children to a Spanish school unless iinder fear of some penalty. Not wishing to resort to violence, he confined himself to making the public acquainted with the benefits they would derive from the education which the magnanimous heart of his majesty thus put within their reach. Nevertheless, no pupil ever presented himself for the Latin class; a few came to be taught reading and writing; these never exceeded thirty, and frequently dwindled down to six." Miro adds that the late conflagration having destroyed the schoolhouse, Don Andres Almonester, who subsequently built the cathedral, "had offered free of charge a small edifice containing a room thirteen feet by twelve, which would suffice for the present, as many families had retired to the country, and the number of pupils had been thus reduced from twenty-three to twelve. * * * Those who have no fortune to leave their sons, aspire to give them no other career than a mercantile one, for which they think reading and writing to be sufficient. They prefer that their children be taught in French, and thus there were, before the fire, eight schools of that description, which were frequented by four hundred children of both sexes."*
In commenting on these words of Miro, Mother Austin Carroll (see her "Essays on Early Education in Ijouisiana") remarks that the existence of the French schools and of the Ursuline school explains the decline of the Spanish institution, and she adds that, comparatively speaking, the children of New Orleans one hundred years ago were as well educated as they are now—perhaps better. Although
•Gayarre's Spanish Domination, p. 204-5.
the phrase ''comparatively speaking" qualifies the statement, the opinion of the good Mother seems too laudatory of the past. It is true that the wealthy youths wore carefully educated, most of them, like Etienne de Bore, the first successful sugar planter in Louisiana, being sent to Canada and to France for both secondary and higher training. But for the mass of the children there were no such advantages for thorough instruction and discipline as are offered by the institutions of the present day. Our public schools, supported by the self-taxation of the people, find no real counterpart in the governmental and denominational schools of the eighteenth century. We have at the present time as many denominational schools in proportion to our population, and we have in addition, the well patronized public and private schools, capped by the higher education offered in the various departments of Tulane University.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, some of the Ursulines, fearing persecution under the French republic, to which Spain had ceded Louisiana, retired to Havana, but the rest of the Sisters, finding themselves treated with kindness by both the French and American authorities, continued their educational work, as they do to-day, after a lapse of one hundred years. A visitor to New Orleans in 1801, says: "There is here a convent of Ursulines, who receive young boarding pupils. With a grant of $600 a year made to them by the Spanish treasury, they maintain and teach twelve orphans."'* Martin says that in 1802 the nuns received tuition fees from the wealthy, and educated some poor girls gratuitously. During this period of transition, however, a new educational impulse was introduced by the emigrants from San Domingo. After the revolution in that unhappy isle, several thousand French exiles settled in Louisiana, and in New Orleans many of them utilized their talents in the education of the young. "About six months ago," says the author quoted above, "a college was formed for the education of young (Creole) men. A boarding and day school for girls has also been established. The instruction they receive there seems more carefully conducted than that which the nuns formerly gave, and is, therefore, preferable. These two institutions, which are of prime importance, are due to the French refugees."*
UNDER THE AMERICAN FLAG.
As we pass over into the jjcriod of American domination, wc find no diminution of interest on the part of the new government in the subject of education. The impulse given by the Domingoans was not allowed to languish, although many years were to elapse before New Orleans was to obtain a sound and efficient system of
•Quoted by Prof. Fay in his "Education in Louisiana.'
public education. The citj', as well as the rest of Louisiana, followed what Dr. William T. Harris has called the general trend of educational development in the United States. "First, from private, endowed and parochial schools," he says, "there is a change to the assumption of education by the State. When the State takes control, it first establishes colleges and universities, then elementary free schools. Then it adds supplementary institutions for the afflicted; then institutions for teachers, together with libraries and other educational aids. In the meantime increasing attention is paid to supervision and methods. Schools are better graded * * * and so the educational idea advances towards a divine charity." This, amid many vicissitudes and difficulties, we shall attempt to show, has been the line of educational progress in New Orleans.
Under the American rule it will conduce to clearness if we describe separately the public and the private institutions of learning that sprang into being in New Orleans. The history of the public institutions, moreover, falls naturally into three periods. The first, or tentative period, extends from the purchase of Louisiana down to the year 1841; the second, or period of permanent establishment, down to the civil war; and the third, or period of changing conditions and general progress, from the civil war to the end of the nineteenth century.
FIRST PERIOD.
When Louisiana passed under the American flag, it was but natural that the new government should not be satisfied with the old denominational school of the LTrsulines or the newly established French institutions of the San Domingoans. Americans were already seeking their fortunes in New Orleans, and more were expected to come. Hence we are not surprised to find that, when the new American governor, W. C. C. Claiborne, was placed in office, his enlightened policy spoke out in no uncertain accents on the subject of public education. His address to the Legislative Council of 1801 contains these words: "In adverting to your primary duties, I have yet to suggest one than which none can be more important and interesting. I mean some general provision for the education of youth. * * * * Permit me to hope that, under your patronage, seminaries of learning will prosper, and means of acquiring information be placed within the reach of each growing family. Let exertions be made to rear up our children in the paths of science and virtue, and impress upon their tender hearts a love of civil and religious liberty. My advice, therefore, is that your system of education be extensive and liberally supported."
This wise suggestion of the governor resulted in a legislative act, establishing the University of Orleans. The regents thereof were to create as parts of the university, the College of New Orleans (afterwards known as the College of Orleans), one or more academies in each parish, and a number of separate academies for the instruction of the female youth. The girls' academy never existed except on paper, and in fact the only portion of this university scheme that took on material form was the College of Orleans. While enjoying the title of college, this institution, as we shall see, soon degenerated to the grade of a secondary school, except, perhaps, in the teaching of the classics. It is not clear exactly when it opened its doors to the public, but in 1812 the honored historian of Louisiana, Charles Gayarre, was matriculated as a boarder at the age of seven. The most interesting account of the "college" is to be found in Gayarre's semi-historical novel, entitled, "Fernando de Lemos."
It was situated at the corner of Hospital and St. Claude streets, where the church of St. Augustin now stands. The first president of this institution, mentioned by Gayarre, was Jules Davasac, who was one of the numerous refugees from St. Domingo. These refugees were often persons of considerable culture, and the faculty of the college were nearly always, if not wholly, drawn from their ranks. The instruction was in French, but English, Greek, Latin, Spanish, mathematics, history and other branches were also taught. The pupils in after years became conspicuous for their attainments, and looked back with affection to the alma mater that had given them their early training. One of the amusing recollections of Mr. Gayarre was the constant conflict between a later president, Mr. Eochefort, who despised mathematics, while he adored poetry, and Mr. Teinturier, who adored mathematics and scorned poetry. The mutual contempt of these two antagonists was a constant source of enjoyment to the pupils.