Among the prominent racing boats which have been associated with the Southern Yacht Club, have been Charles P. Richardson's 40-foot sloop "Nepenthe," which defeated the "Wasp" of the New York Yacht Club, in a 40-mile cruising race in New York harbor. Vice-Commodore Alex. Brewster's open 25-foot sloop "Mephisto" is another of the old boats which has established records. She has engaged in over thirty races and has each time been victorious.

Of the new boats owned by members of the club, there are several very fine

steam yachts. Among these are the "Semper Idem," owned by Commodore Baldwin and Ed. Schleider. She was designed and built here and her engines are of New Orleans manufacture. The "Semper Idem" is the largest boat of her kind ever built in the South. The steam yacht "Oneida," recently sold to the Mexican government, was formerly attached to the club's fleet. The sloop "Florence," now in commission in these waters, was designed by Commodore O'Donnell, after HereschofE's creation, the "Gloriana," but was afterwards remodeled with spoon bow and modern stern after the style of the cup-racer "Defender."

There have been many interesting races given under the auspices of the S. Y. C. in past seasons. In 1888 the "Silence," afterward known as the "Brown," came from the New York waters to sail against the "Lady Emma," and was defeated by the latter. The race was a match for $3,500 a side.

Commodore O'Brien's flag-ship, the "Zoe," was one of the best sloops of her day. She is a 25-foot boat with cabin and is still in commission, and has been every season for the past twenty-five years.

The Southern Yacht Club rules are accepted as authority in all regattas in Eastern Gulf waters. The club has a membership of 500 and there are 75 boats of all descriptions in the fleet—steam yachts, motor launches and sailing boats.

During the summer months regattas are in progress on the Southern circuit, under the auspices and rules of the S. Y. C. The clubs which take part are the Mandeville Club, Mandeville, La.; the Pass Christian Club, of Pass Christian, Miss.; the Biloxi Eegatta Association, Biloxi, Miss.; the Pascagoula Yacht Club, of Scranton, Miss.; the Bay-Waveland Yacht Club, of Bay St. Louis, Miss.; and the Point Clear Yacht Club.

SOUTHERN AMATEUR ROWING ASSOCIATION.

Prior to 1893, the amateur rowing clubs of New Orleans and vicinity were banded together and known as the Pontchartrain Eowing Association, but in the spring of that year the association was disbanded. Two of the clubs which had been members of the association—the St. John Eowing Club and the Louisiana Boat Club—founded what is to-day known as The Southern Amateur Eowing Association, and all of the local clubs which were formerly members of the Pontchartrain Association have, at different times since, applied for membership and have been admitted into the new organization. The association now includes the St. John Eowing Club, the Louisiana Boat Club, the West End Eowing Club, the Tulane Eowing Club, and the Young Men's Gymnastic Eowing Club, all of New Orleans; and the Southern Eacing Club, of Pensacola, Florida.

After the reorganization in 1893, the first officers elected were: Commodore, George Maspero, of the Louisiana Boat Club; Vice Commodore, T. E. Richardson, of the St. John's Eowing Club; Secretary, A. C. Norcross, of the same club; and Treasurer, Jules M. Wogan, of the Louisiana Club.

Afterwards Gus Eitzen, of the Pensacola Club, was elected Commodore; J. J. Woulfe, of the Y. M. G. C, First Vice Commodore; W. B. Vail, of the West End Eowing Club, Second Vice Commodore; 0. Lagman, of the Tulane Eowing Club, Treasurer; and Ed Eodd, of the St. John's Club, Secretary. A constitution was drawn up and adopted and every season regattas are held under the auspices of the association. Since the reorganization of the amateur oarsmen in New Orleans, the races have been held on Lake Pontchartrain, with the exception of those of 1898, which were rowed at Pensacola, Fla. The races have attracted much attention and the prizes have been sufficient to cause sharp competition among the local oarsmen and some records have been established.

The rules of the association governing the races are very explicit and are accepted by the oarsmen of this part of the country. It is a distinctly amateur association, an amateur oarsman being defined as follows, and no person who does not come under these requirements is allowed to compete in any of the events:

"We define an amateur oarsman to be one who does not enter in an open competition; or for either a stake, admission money or entrance fee; or compete with or against a professional for any prize; who has never taught, pursued, or assisted in the pursuit of athletic exercise as a means of livelihood; whose membership of any rowing or other athletic club was not brought about, or does not continue, because of any mutual agreement or understanding, expressed or implied, whereby his becoming or continuing a member of such club would be of any pecuniary benefit to him whatever, direct or indirect, and who has never been employed in any occupation involving the use of oar or paddle; and who shall otherwise conform to the rules and regulations of this association."

LOUISIANA BOAT CLUB.

The Louisiana Boat Club was organized August 39, 1879, and is one of the oldest corporations of its kind in the city. The first officers elected after organization were: E. B. Musgrove, President; J. H. Lafaye, Vice President; George Maspero, Secretary; J. A. Boze, Treasurer; E. J. Soniat, Captain; F. M. Boze, First Trustee; S. F. Lewis, Second Trustee; E. Coutourie, Third Trustee. The club had an active membership of 67 at this time, with two honorary members on the rolls.

On May 11, 1883, the organization was incorporated under a charter for twenty-five years, and since that time has figured prominently in all the regattas of the Southern Amateur Rowing Association. In 1894, the season following the organization of the association of amateur oarsmen, the members of the Louisiana Boat Club won thirteen of the sixteen medals offered. At this regatta the champion four were W. G. Ellis, George Maspero, C. M. Wogan and Alfred Archinard. James C. Harris, of this club, won the medals for both the junior and senior single sculls in the regatta of '95.

The officers last elected were: J. A. Boze, President; H. J. Lafaye, Vice President; H. Tremoulet, Treasurer; M. C. Monroe, Secretary; H. B. Daborel, Captain; and Hugo Fernandez, Lieutenant. The club has grown in membership, and, while not the oldest, is one of the strongest amateur rowing clubs in the city.

WEST END ROWING CLUB.

The West End Rowing Club was formed after the old organization known as the Orleans Rowing Club had disbanded in 1880, and the membership at the start comprised many of those who had belonged to the old club. The new organization was incorporated May 9, 1890, and has among its members amateur oarsmen who are among the more prominent contestants at the annual regattas of the Southern Amateur Rowing Association. This club won the pennants for 1896, '97 and '98. The officers are Thad. G. Stehle, President; Dan Edwards, Vice President; D. J. Manson, Treasurer; John Bigler, Jr., Financial Secretary; John C. Weber, Recording Secretary; and A. J. Hamilton, R. L. McCormack and Albert Ducombs, Trustees.

YOUNG men's gymnastic CLUB's ROWING CLUB.

This organization was known as the Crescent Rowing Club prior to the regatta of 1898, which was held at Pensacola, Fla. Several months before this event it was decided to organize a new club known as the Young Men's Gymnastic Club's Rowing Club, being a branch of the Y. M. G. C. of New Orleans. The club-house is on Bayou St. John, where many of the local rowing clubs have been formed. Members of this club have made good records at the annual meetings and won the pennant for 1899. The officers of the club, who were elected when it was organized and have served since, are: John B. Cefalu, President; F. 0. Reinecke, Vice President; E. J. Reiss, Treasurer; Paul Landry, Financial Secretary ; Nat. Dreyfus, Recording Secretary; John Wells, Captain; and W. Demoruelle, Lieutenant.

WASHINGTON ARTILLERY.

The Washington Artillery was organized in 1839, through the influence of General Persifer F. Smith, as a battalion under the command of C. F. Hoxey, with J. B. Walton as adjutant. February 22, 1840, it was reorganized as the right-flank company of the Washington regiment, Colonel Persifer F. Smith, this regiment being the only military organization in the American quarter of the city. In 1844 J. B. Walton was Lieutenant Colonel of this reigment, and in 1846, when it entered the service of the United States, Lieutenant Colonel Walton was in command of the regiment. After serving under General Taylor on the Kio Grande and returning to New Orleans, Colonel Walton was elected Captain of the artillery battalion, so remaining until 1861, at which time the command was increased to four companies or batteries, and moved immediately to the seat of war in Virginia. However, a reserve force of twenty men in charge of Lieutenant W. I. Hodgson, of the fourth company, was left at home to recruit a fifth company, which company was mustered into the service of the Confederate States, March 6, 1863, and on the 8th of the same month left for the seat of war. Having served through the war the organization returned to New Orleans, leaving 139 of its members on the various battle-fields, who had been killed or who had died in the service, and here it was practically disbanded. In 1875 it was reorganized, with Colonel Walton in command, he serving until 1877. The full list of the colonels in command of this military organization is as follows: J. B. Walton, May 26, 1861, to July 8, 1864j B. F. Eshleman, July 8, 1864, to April 9, 1865; J. B. Walton, July 22, 1875, to May 17, 1877; W. M. Owen, May 17, 1877, to February 22, 1880; and John B. Eich-ardson, from that date to the present time.

The battalion has erected in Metairie cemetery a large and handsome tomb and monument, above which stands at ease a Confederate artilleryman in uniform, and upon the four sides of which is a roll of the dead of its members. The arsenal originally owned by the command, located on Girod street, was confiscated and sold during the war, and in 1880 Colonel Richardson purchased its present large and commodious three-story brick building on St. Charles street, between Girod and Julia streets, and extending through to Carondelet. The command has its own cannon, rifles, sabers, equipment, uniform and ammunition, and also a shooting range in the building. The walls of the building are ornamented with a fine painting by Julio, "The Last Meeting of Generals Lee and Jackson," at Chancel-lorsville, and a large number of other pictures and relics of the Civil War.

The command was incorporated under the laws of the State March 15, 1878,

and on Jime 26 following decided to enter the Louisiana State National Guard. The battalion is composed of some of the best known men of the city, is open-hearted and open-handed to all old soldiers of the Civil War, whether of the Confederate or Federal side, and has extended courtesies to numerous military organizations from all parts of the United States.

UNITED CONFEDERATE VETERANS' ASSOCIATION.

The United Confederate Veterans' Association of Louisiana is composed of sixty camps, located in various sections of the State, five of the principal camps being in New Orleans. These five are the Benevolent Association of the Army of Northern Virginia, Camp No. 1; the Association of the Army of Tennessee, Camp No. 2; the Confederate States Cavalry Association, Camp No. 9; the Washington Artillery Veterans' Association, Camp No. 15; and the Henry St. Paul Battalion, Camp No. 16.

These camps were organized soon after the close of the war, as benevolent associations, for the purpose of caring for unfortunate comrades, who were sick, wounded or destitute and burdened with debt. Several of them have built tasteful tombs in the new Metairie cemetery for the interment of their deceased members, among which are the beautiful vault of the Army of Northern Virginia at the lower end of the cemetery, surmounted by a tall granite shaft, upon whose summit stands a statue of General Stonewall Jackson; and an attractive tomb of the Army of Tennessee, located at the right side of the entrance to the cemetery, surmounted by a magnificent equestrian statue of General A. S. Johnston, and the tomb of the Washington artillery, which presents an imposing appearance in the center of the grounds.

Through the instrumentality of these city camps a soldiers' home was established in the year 1882, and is located on the banks of the historic Bayou St. John, known as Camp Nicholls, in honor of the warrior statesman, governor, now supreme judge, Francis T. Nicholls. This home has been a grand boon to the crippled and otherwise unfortunate among the Confederate veterans, as it has comfortably housed and fed thousands since its establishment. Until 1899 it was managed by officers of the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of Tennessee; but inasmuch as the State of Louisiana has regularly made appropriations to sustain the institution it is now managed conjointly by the officers of the camps of veterans in New Orleans and a number of appointees by the governor of the State. The building has a capacity for 150 inmates, and the board of directors,'

in addition to improving the grounds, have built in one of the cemeteries a substantial stone tomb for the interment of tlie dead. On the 6th of April each year, when memorial exercises are held at the Confederate monument, the veterans' associations form a line and visit each of the tombs named above, fire a military salute and listen to addresses appropriate to the occasion.

The Ladies' Confederate Memorial Association, the oldest association of the kind in the South, was organized immediately after the war for the purpose of collecting the remains of the fallen heroes of the Southern cause and securing their interment in a spot over which now stands the first Confederate monument ever built, and known as the Confederate monument, in Metairie cemetery. It is of marble and supports a tall shaft upon the top of which stands a private soldier at parade rest. On four sides of its base are likenesses of four of the principal leaders of the Southern armies, viz.: General Eobert E. Lee, General Stonewall Jackson, General Albert Sidney Johnston and General Leonidas Polk. Mrs. Sarah Polk Blake, daiighter of General Polk, has for many years been the President of the association, Mrs. J. Y. Gilmore being the Recording Secretary arid Miss Daisy Hodgson the Corresponding Secretary.

The Daughters of the Confederacy have within the last two years effected an organization in Louisiana with Mrs. J. Pinckney Smith, President of the Louisiana Division, U. D. C, and Miss Cora Richardson, Secretary. The New Orleans Chapter is presided over by Mrs. W. H. Hickson.

The United Sons of Confederate Veterans have also effected an organization throughout the State, this taking place during the year 1899, with W. H. McClelland commander of the Louisiana Division, the camp in New Orleans being named Beauregard.

These several organizations co-operate with the Louisiana Division of the United Confederate Veterans, wliich division at its last convention, held at Baton Rouge, July 3 and 4, 1899, elected J. Y. Gilmore, Major-General, for the ensuing j'ear, and he appointed Colonel Lewis Guion Adjutant-General and chief of staff:. This division is in the department of the Army of the Tennessee, of which General Stephen D. Lee is the Commander, and is under General John B. Gordon as Grand Commander, who has been at the head of the organization since the formation of the Confederate camps of the South into one grand association at a convention of such bodies of organized Confederate veterans, held at New Orleans in 1889. Commanders of the Louisiana Division, beginning with 1892, of the United •Confederate Veterans have been as follows: W. J. Behan, 1892; John Glyn, Jr.,

1893; J. 0. Watts, 189-t; B. F. Eshleman, 1895; W. G. Vincent, 1896; John McGrath, 1897; C. H. Lombard, 1898; W. H. Timnard, 1899; and J. Y. Gilmore, 1900.

For more than twenty years, in the exercises of the Confederate Veterans, the organizations of Federal Veterans in New Orleans have participated, reciprocating a similar courtesy shown them on their Decoration day by the Confederate Veterans, thus doing on both sides what they can to assuage the once bitter feeling of the war.

GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC.

The Grand Army of the Eepublic was first organized in Louisiana in 1867, with H. C. Warmoth, department commander; but as little attention was given to' reports at that period the records furnish but meager information as to the number and strength of posts. Then, too, the unsettled condition of affairs in the State hastened a general breaking up of the organization.

A reorganization of the Grand Army was effected in the State in 1873, Joseph A. Mower Post, No. 1, being chartered April 10, that year. As this was the only organized post in the State for a number of years it performed a good deal of work among the Federal soldiers who had settled in Louisiana and adjoining States, and the friendly association of its members with similar organizations among the Confederate soldiers aided largely in allaying the bitter feelings that had been engendered by the war.

The first encampment of the Gulf was held in New Orleans, May 15, 1884, with William Eoy commander. By general orders dated June 13, 1884, the title was changed to the Department of Louisiana and Mississippi. Early in 1890 nine posts were chartered by Commander Gray, whose motives in thus suddenly bringing into existence these new posts, composed, as they were, largely of colored members, were seriously questioned, and in the department encampments of 1890 and 1892 these newly created posts were allowed no representation. The case being brought on appeal before the national encampment, the principle was clearly enunciated, by two national encampments, that the colored ex-soldier was entitled to all the privileges and benefits enjoyed by the white ex-soldiers, in the Grand Army of the Eepublic. Orders having been issued by Commander-in-Chief Palmer for the recognition of these new posts by the department, a special department encampment was convened in March, 1893, and the department organization was dissolved and the charter forwarded to national headquarters, while five of the eight white posts also surrendered their charters. Past Department Commander A, S.

Badger was appointed commander, and the charter returned to him, with instructions to reorganize the department. A temporary organization was effected and a department encampment held in August, 1892, at which encampment the department was again regular]}' organized with twelve posts and a full complement of officers. Charles W. Keeting was elected department commander at the annual encampment held in March, 1894, and has been annually re-elected to the same office ever since. The department now has forty-nine posts, with an aggregate of 1,000 members.

Following are the names of the posts located in New Orleans: Joseph A. Mower Post, No. 1; Andre Cailloux Post, No. 9; C. J. Barnett, No. 10; U. S. Grant, •No. 11; John H. Crowder, No. 12; Oscar Orillion, No. 14; Ellsworth, No. 15; R. G. Shaw, No. 18; Farragut, No. 21,—the average membership being somewhat more than thirty.

MISCELLANEOUS.

L'Athenee Louisianais was incorporated January 12, 1876, at which time a constitution was adopted and officers elected. The founders of this society were: Dr. Labin Martin, General G. T. Beauregard, Dr. Armand Mercier, Dr. Just Tonatre, Dr. Alfred Mercier, Colonel Leon Queyrouze, Dr. Charles Turpin, James Auguste, Oliver Carriere, Paul Fourchy, Dr. Jean G. Hava and Judge Arthur Saucier. The objects of this society were to cultivate the study of the French language, to disseminate the results of literary research and to encourage local talent. The latter two objects were accomplished by the establishment and publication of a periodical called the Comptes Rendus de I'Athenee Louisianais. As the members of this society were and are men of education and ripe scholarship, they have, for the years during which the society has been in existence, prepared and published many papers on a great variety of subjects, valuable in a local and general way, but too numerous to present even a list of them in this work.

L'Union Francaise, or the French Union, was organized in 1872, and incorporated October 5, of that year. Its object was to aid such natives of Alsace and Lorraine as might desire to leave their native land rather than live under the German government, those two provinces having been taken from France by Germany after the war of 1870-71. However, it resulted that there were fewer of such people seeking Louisiana as a home than had been expected, and the Union turned its attention to the succoring of those needing aid because of the yellow fever epidemic of 1878, the society caring for 845 persons, of whom only 58 died, and spending in its benevolent work $16,807.65.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE CARNIVAL OF NEW ORLEANS. By Henry Rightor.

THE Carnival of New Orleans is holiday in spirit and practical in fact; and right here is the charm and the strangeness of the thing. It is a heritage from

the Latin Old World to its most faithful children of the New World. It can not be imitated nor reproduced elsewhere, nor can the blue skies which swing above the glare and brass of its masks and revels. The inspiration lies deep in the genius of the people. Life is held sweet in New Orleans. Money is for life, not life for money. The Carnival is not a commeicial expedient. If it were, it would not escape the fate that befalls whatever is insincere. It is the expression of a genuine emotion. It is the embodiment of care thrown to the winds. It is no more a hypocrisy than the glance of a maiden's brown eye or the blush which mantles her cheek. Yet it sets in motion powerful commercial activities. If it did harm it might not endure. It not only does no harm, but on the contrary is productive of much good; so it is supported heartily, not only by those who are impelled by the carnival spirit, but as well by those who, from motives of philanthropy or public spirit, perceive in its perpetuation a benefit to the city and its people.

There is no measure of the advantages of the Carnival to be found in the immediate results to tavern-keepers, street cars and tradesmen. The effects are cumulative—establishment of new conditions, new wants created, opportunities discerned, mistakes rectified. It is a crucible from which emanate strange crystals. That is a narrow view which insists upon putting the fiuger upon results. The Carnival to be good must be genuine, and lo be genuine it must be taken with the simple faith of those worthy roysterers who started it here in their joyous way this century ago. There are enemies of this Carnival; not those chill-hearted, shrivel-skins who frown it down as a device of the devil; not the clergy, nor any overt opposition. It is the innovators who are to be feared, they who do not understand the carnival spirit, and seek to have it new. This striving to have the people point and cheer will some time kill the Carnival. Once let it get into the hands

of the Philistines and it is gone. It is a Latin institution. The genius of the Carnival is a madcap whose face is smeared with the lees of wine. It is gay and mad and rollicking, and over it all broods the ghost of the grotesque. It wots nothing of the prim and formal. It is not beautiful. Its elements are contrast, not harmony. It is laughter and youth and forgetfulness and humanity. It is, in fine, the Carnival, and as such should escape the clumsy, dispiriting, despoiling, profaning hands of vandals and innovators.

In its earlier days the New Orleans Carnival was formless and inchoate. It represented merely the hey-dey spirit of the time, a gorging for the fast. The streets were filled with a pleasing tumult and the imaginations of the people ran riot in the search for grotesque and unusual disguises. While there has never been in New Orleans entirely the license which characterized the primitive revelries of the Greeks and Eomans, nor even as great a degree of abandonment to pleasure as prevailed in the Italian Carnival before the Church laid its refining and compromising finger upon the ceremonies, the people have ever, even to this day, thrown themselves into the pleasures and immunities of the time with an enthusiasm and genuineness, impossible to any save those of Latin blood. The evolution of the Carnival has been natural and normal. Its continuance has accentuated and refined the qualities of mind and temperament which gave it birth. The ardent and uncultivated imagination which, at the dawn of the century, manifested itself in the creation of a mere motley of color and diversity of form, has developed, by gradual stages, into an aestheticism which, consulting the lore of all the ages and exploring the treasures of every art, spreads before the wondering gaze of the multitude, a series of gorgeous and s}Tnmetrical spectacles, inspired by imagination, directed by art, and embodying within themselves fidelity to history, mythology and all the harmonies. Where before was the flash of color, the hoot, the shout and the cheer of the undiscerning rabble, to-day is found the well-considered pageant passing in orderly review before observant and informed cosmopolitan audiences, quick and critical as the auditors in a theatre. And all this peopling of the streets with good and evil genii, with tales of enchantment and figures stalking out of the silent and mysterious solitudes of the past, has exerted upon the already nimble and expansive imaginations of the peojile, an influence rendering them sprightly, charming and different from any other people of the continent, while at the same time preparing them for the production of works of art and literature which shall some day come to surprise the world with their fertility of fancy and si ngular originality.

It is not to be understood tliat the old mad spirit of the Carnival has entirely passed away. It has been refined, etherealized and more or less systematized as to the masses; yet lurking in odd corners and among quaint peoples, the old Carnival is still to be found. And, oddly enough, it is the negroes who preserve in its truest essence the primitive spirit of the Carnival. In the vicinities of the St. Bernard and Treme markets, in Frenchman street and elsewhere in the densely ]ioj)u]ated neighborhoods of the Old Quarteer, the Carnival runs as mad and rollicking in the season as it did when the old Orleans Theatre was the focus and culmination of its revelries a half century ago. The favorite disguise with the negroes is that of the Indian warrior, doubtless from the facility vnth which it lends itself to a complete transformation of the personality without the use of the encumbering and embarrassing mask; and in war paint and feathers, bearing the tomahawk and bow, they may be seen oji Mardi Gras running along the streets in bands of from six to twenty and upwards, whooping, leaping, brandishing their weapons, and, anon, stopping in the middle of a street to go through the movements of a mimic war-dance, chanting the while in rhythmic cadence an outlandish jargon of no sensible import to any save themselves. With undiminished spirit and energy, and with the utmost good humor, these negro maskers continue their pranks and capers till night falls, when they repair to the hall they have selected for their ball, where they are joined by their women, and new accessions of maskers and dance away the hours till the Carnival spirit has died within them from sheer fatigue.

At such a ball the hall is usually decorated with garlands and festoons of colored tissue paper, which contribute a very animated appearance to the scene. Near the entrance is to be found a kind of bar, at which are dispensed liquid refreshments of various kinds—lemonade, beer and more ardent liquors. At the rear or on the floor below is located a primitive kind of cafe communicating with a little kitchen, in which enormous cauldrons of gumbo are boiling, platters of which with a liberal allowance of boiled rice, are served to the bucks and their wenches for a small sum.

On Mardi Gras night, fatigue, leagued with a proper regard for the Church's decree that Lent begins at midnight, usually brings these negro balls to a close in respect of the majority of the attendants, before the first hour of the morning of Ash Wednesday. But the negro mask balls usually begin at least a week before the day of Mardi Gras proper. The Saturday preceding Mardi Gras will find a dozen of them in progress at such halls as Hope Hall, on Treme and Dumaine, and

Economy Hall, on Usurlines, near Vileere. At these pre-Mardi Gras balls, the dancers being subject only to the casual fatigues of the work-a-day world, it is not uncommon to find them breaking up well into the glare of day.

There is another feature of the season, typical enough in its way, which may be considered representative of the more vicious tendencies of the Carnival. This consists in the balls given by the class corresponding to that of the gladiators and hetarae of antiquity. These balls, usually two in number, one given on the Saturday night preceding Mardi Gras, the other on the night of Mardi Gras proper, have been celebrated for many years at the Odd Fellows' Hall, in Camp street. Here resort the courtesans of the town, as well as those whom opportunities for diversion and excitement attract to the city from distant places during this period of lavish expenditure and abandonment to pleasure. The women who attend these balls are most commonly masked, though some of the more brazen, garbed in silks and jewels which might well put to blush the handsomest toilettes seen at the balls of virtue and fashion, make the occasion one for the exhibition and advertisement of their charms. The balls are essentially democratic in respect of the personalities of those who attend, the test being only Caucasion blood and a reasonable degree of decorum; and, being under the eye of the police, they are characterized by far less ribaldry than is commonly supposed. It is a common thing for the jeunesse doree, who have spent the earlier hours of the night, in conformity with the proprieties, at some of the exclusive balls of the patrician class, to wind up the night at these easier affairs of the demi monde. It is considered a license of the period for bachelors to attend these balls and strangers of the sterner sex who do not at best get a glimpse of the floor consider that they have missed one of the sights of the Carnival. The men do not, as a rule, mask, although there are many exceptions who prowl round the room mysteriously garbed in black from head to heels, like hangmen. There were several striking figures upon the floor at one of these balls given during the Carnival of 1900. One of the most conspicuous was a very tall and shapely woman whose identity baffled all surmises. She represented Mephistopheles, and was garbed in flame-colored fleshings with a hideous mask and horns. Two little women, disguised as clowns, advertised a brand of champagne, and cut ridiculous capers. Another woman represented a toreador, while a tall man strutted round in the costume of a matador. There were also a Marguerite and a Faust, both women, an empress, a dozen flower girls, a Red Eiding Hood, a Dolly Varden, a Pocahontas and innumerable princesses. The price of admission to these balls is usually several dollars, and wine, as well as other refreshments, are sold at extravagant figures. The balls usually endure until dawn.

To the great mass of the people, tlie Carnival means the street pageantries, and chiefly those of Eexand his satellites. All the other events of the Carnival are more or less class affairs, but these street processions are the common property of the well-to-do and the proletariat, and all the year round the children and working folk look forward to them as beautiful dreams that come once a year.

The evolution of the New Orleans Carnival has not yet reached a stage where definite limitations to the season have been fixed. Under one construction it is possible to assume the Carnival season beginning as early as the night of January the 6th, when the ball of the Twelfth Night Revelers is celebrated. This is upwards of a month earlier than Mardi Gras ever occurs, yet it is a carnival ball in this, that it is a masked ball, with all the customs prevailing which characterize the balls of the acknowledged Carnival season. On the other hand, the Carnival is a matter concerning the people in the widest and most democratic sense, and the ball of the Twelfth Night Revelers is essentially a class and patrician affair. It would therefore seem a distortion of the true meaning of the word, to have it that the Carnival begins at Twelfth Night, or that it begins, indeed, at any time anterior to the celebration of the first street parade. And as these street parades are not constant in their appearances year by year, with th3 exception of Rex, Comus and Proteus, no prescribed beginning of the Carnival has yet been fixed, nor is susceptible of being fixed, until a definite date, so many days before Mardi Gras, be set for the first pageant. In the year 1900 the Carnival season began with the electric street pageant of Nereus, which took place on the night of Wednesday, February 21st, six days before Mardi Gras. The balls of the Twelfth Night Revelers, Atlanteans, Census and the Elves of Oberon had already been given, during the course of the previous fortnight, but these were exclusive affairs not open to strangers and the general public, excepting upon the warranty of personal cards of invitation, and were, therefore, not essential factors in the great popular celebration.

We are told that the Carnival in Louisiana harks back to a psriod as remote as Bienville's ascent of the Mississippi, and are given a picturesquely circumstantial account of those hardy discoverers mooring their boats to the reedy banks of the river and celebrating the Carnival with great spirit and abandon upon the virgin soil. But I take it that this is at best apocryphal and intended to accentuate the romanticism of our history and cast a certain glamour over the genesis of the Carnival. Records of the origin of the Carnival in New Orleans are meager, but the community having been from its inception Latin and Catholic, it is highly probable that desultory masking on feast days was not unusual so early as the time of the first influx of colonists or refugees from the Spanish possessions.

In the time of Louis Philippe, all Paris went mad with the Carnival. Il was the height of the city's gayety and splendor. Louisiana at that time was prosperous and the sons of wealthy planters and merchants were sent to'Paris to complete the educations begun in the parochial schools at home. In Paris these young men imbibed the spirit of the Carnival. The tang of the mad time was sweet to their Latin blood, and they brought the custom home. jVVe have accurate information that in 1827 a number of these young Creole gentlemen, fresh from their Parisian experiences, effected something like an organization of the wandering and nondescript maskers who peopled the balconies and sidewalks, and paraded —-in vei'y bad order and with worse discipline—the principal streets of the city. There appears to have been no further organization of maskers until 1837, when there were even more maskers in line than before.,

The Bee of Mardi Gras, 1839 (Feb. 13), published a call requesting all those who were to take part in the masquerade, to assemble at the Theatre d'Orleans (on Orleans street, between Royal and Bourbon) not later than half past three o'clock of the afternoon. The order of march of this parade was as follows: From the Theatre d'Orleans, Royal street, St. Charles, Julia, Camp, Chartres, Conde, Esplanade, Royal. The parade was of the most indiscriminate and democratic nature, wagons crowded with merry negroes following in the wake of coaches and fiacres in which sat slim, silk-garbed patricians, while hundreds of maskers, in the most diverse and grotesque make-ups, ran along on foot, shouting, cheering, imitating animals and throwing kisses and confetti at the sidewalks and galleries, or perhaps belaboring some unlucky onlooker who had pressed too near the ranks, with the resounding, but harmless, inflated goat-bladder. Having marched its appointed route, the parade broke up towards nightfall, and later such of the maskers as had subscribed to the affair, repaired to the fancy dress and masquerade ball given at the old Orleans Theatre. Another ball of the same character was given on the same night in the ballroom of the old St. Louis Hotel (now the Hotel Royal).

From 1840 to 1845 a number of parades similar to that described above were given year by year; then a period of comparative inactivity in respect of the celebration of the Carnival in the form of parades appears to have intervened and continued until 1852, when, as Norman Walker tells us, "A number of New Orleans' first young men determined to get up a procession that would equal in numbers, in order, variety, elegance and piquancy of costumes, any that the chronicles of Mardi Gras in this country could record. The announcement of this intention, through the press, excited universal curiosity, and when the memorable day came New Orleans boasted

of an accession to her population, in the sl.ape of visitors from the Xorth, West and South, that has not been surpassed since. The procession traversed the leading streets of the city, which were positively jammed with admiring throngs, and at night the old Orleans Theatre was the center of attraction for all that the Crescent City held of beauty and fashion. The maskers of the day there received their friends; and that bewildering ball was long remembered as the gem of many such jewels clustering in the diadem of the Queen of the South."

A custom which prevailed in the earlier days of the Carnival, but whicli police discretion has since seen fit to abolish, was that of the masker carrying, swung to his side, a bag of flour, handfuls of which it was considered right and entertaining to throw in the faces of luckless pedestrians whom the maskers might encounter as they went sweeping up the street. The abolition of this prank of flour-throwing was hastened by the fact that, whether through malignity or inability to get flour, some of the maskers were prompted to fill their bags with quick-lime, which naturally produced most disastrous results when thrown into the faces of citizens. By starts and spurts the Italian habit of throwing about the streets bits of paper or plaster, simulating sweetmeats {confetti) has prevailed in New Orleans, but the maskers have, as a rule, been more genuine in their favors, and whenever they saw fit to throw anything into the crowds, have used real candies. In the year 1900 a Westerner imported from Italy a number of barrels of confetti in the shape of little disks of various colored paper the diameter of a lead pencil. These were distributed among peddlers, who hawked them about the streets with such good eiTect that presently the air was all red and blue with the fluttering bits. The police at first put a stop to the sale and throwing of these confetti, but after an indignant article from the Times-Democrat newspaper, the Mayor removed the restriction.

The earliest formal Carnival organization of any consequence in the South belongs not to New Orleans, but to the neighboring city of Mobile. This was th-; Cowbellions, which originated the idea of presenting tableaux on vehicles moving through the streets. The Cowbellions gave its first parade in Mobile, New Year's Eve of the year 1831. The originator of Carnival pageantries in New Orleans was the Mistick Krewe of Comus, which first appeared upon the streets at 9 o'clock of the night of February 24, 1857. The subject of representation was Milton's Paradise Lost, and a newspaper of the day described the procession and ensuing ball in the following words :

"This Krewe, concerning whose identity and purposes there had been such

tortures of curiosity and speculation, made their debut before the public in a very unique and attractive manner. They went through the streets at 9 o'clock, with torchlights, in a guise as much resembling a deputation from the lower regions as thij mind could possibly conceive. The masks displayed every fantastic idea of the fearful and horrible, their effect being, however, softened down by the richness and beauty of the costumes, and the evident decorum of the devils inside. After going through the principal streets, and calling upon Mayor Waterman, for the purpose, we suppose, of obtaining a license to 'raise the supernatural' in the Gaiety Theatre, they proceeded to that elegant establishment in order to entertain the hosts of guests they had summoned.

"The interior of the theatre was decorated with a profusion of hanging wreatln and festoons of flowers. In a short time after the doors were thrown open, all the space inside, apart from the floor and stage, was jammed with an audience composed of the elite of Louisiana and the adjacent States—none being in mask but the Krewe. In due time the IMistick Krewe appeared on the stage in the full glare of the lights. If we may so speak, they were beautiful in their ugliness—charming in their repulsiveness. There were upwards of a hundred of them, and no two alike, whilst all were grotesque to the last degree. They represented the difl'erent characters with which religion, mythology and poesy have peopled the Infernal Eegions, and which Jlilton has aggregated in his "Paradise Lost." Four tableaux were given. The first represented Tartarus, the second the Expulsion, the third the Conference of Satan and Beelzebub, and the fourth and last the Pandemonium. At the conclusion of the tableaux the barriers were removed and the brilliant audience crowded upon the dancing floor. The Mistick Krewe having disbanded, dispersed among the crowd and joined in the dance in a manner which showed them to be very gentlemanly and agreeable devils."

On February 1, 1873, under Colonel Walter Merriam and Edward C. Hancock, arrangements were made for the reign of Eex, our gracious, benignant king, who favors us yearly with his jovial presence, to the delight of pleasure-lovers and particularly of children.

Kex, according to a quaint "Handbook of the Carnival," published in 1874, i.-the offspring of Old King Cole and the goddess Terpsichore, whom the former wooed in the shape of an Irish bull. The king was born some time in the eighth century on the shores of the Mediterranean. He ruled at one time over the whole of Southern Europe, which he had conquered, but gradually losing his power, became disgusted and adopted the Land of Freedom as his home. He now lives

in seclusion among our swamps and appears once a year to his loyal subjects. He has never married, being too young and gay to settle down, but is still sowing his wild oats, and chooses every year one of the fairest girls of the Crescent City to reign as queen with him.

Following is the "first autograph letter" of Eex (1872) :

"His Royalovitch Highness of the King of the Carnival, Officia llywels, comest one worle aush isroy alcons with e mosts wiss ant Duke, Alexis Alexandro-viteh, Eomanoff, audri eth a Idaspe cuala uehe wsef orh Isrece ption atsue use ton Mardi Gras. Rex."

Among the guests at his first grand banquet were General H. S. McComb, General Beauregard, Colonel Sam Boyd, Norbert Trepagnier, P. 0. Hebert, Samuel Smith, J. W. Burbridge, I. N. Marks, C. A. Whitness, C. H. Slocomb. About forty young men composed the association which was to achieve such grand results.

Rex published eight edicts, one of which forbade the punishment of children during his reign. All quarrels and disagreements were likewise to be suspended. Mardi Gras is a legal holiday in New Orleans.

The first "turn out"' of Rex consisted of the "Boeuf Gras," a beautiful white bull, representing the "meat" to which the city was saying farewell, and an immense crowd of maskers. Three silver keys (of the city) were turned over to Hex by the Mayor, and for a day pleasure reigned supreme. The Carnival was this year witnessed by the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia. Until 1877, however, no formal parade of floats was given.

The society of New Orleans is, in a sense, built around the Carnival balls. They are the events of the year and are awaited as eagerly by the debutantes lapped in luxury as are the parades by the little street Arabs. The season is opened, as a rule, by the Twelfth Night Revellers' ball. Very handsome invitations are issued by all the Carnival organizations. In Leap Year the ball of Les Mysterieuses, an organization composed of ladies exclusively, follows the Twelfth Night Revellers, and then in succession Mithras, Consus, Elves of Oberon, Atlanteans, Nereus, mark the flying weeks till the great events that crowd about Mardi Gras. The Momus ball is usually given the Thursday before Mardi Gras. Friday the Carnival German is danced. Monday afternoon the king comes in—Rex arrives—and parades with the city militia. It is a gay day on the river, and all the boats join in welcoming to tha city, the King of Joy. Monday night the Proteus parade and ball take place; Tuesday about noon the Rex procession, and Tuesday night the Comus parade, and the Rex and Comus balls. The king and his court always attend, later at night, the ball of Comus. Wednesday morning finds an exhausted city.

Improvised seats are put up everywhere for reviewing the Carnival. Rex's colors (green, yellow and purple) are seen everywhere. At night the illuminations are magnificent, particularly at the various clubs, where large receptions are held. The air teems with light and color and resounds with the king's own anthem, "If Ever I Cease to Love." Immense crowds throng Canal street and St. Charles aveni'ij up to Louisiana avenue, to which point the parades of latter years proceed. But fe^r accidents occur, good nature prevails and the immense concourse of people is admirably managed by the authorities. The electric cars also play their ])art without a mistake, usually.

The processions are always headed by a title car and a chariot containing the special monarch of the occasion. The Rex parade is always headed by the Boevf Gras, or fatted ox. Mules and negroes form a necessary part of the procession, and at night picturesque flambeaux are carried. Most of the work connected with the Carnival is now done in the city, and labor and materials do not have to be imported.

Nothing disagreeable occurs during the Carnival time. Maskers often tosi presents of candy to friends whom they perceive in the crowd. In the year 19'00 pretty spirals of colored papers were thrown in profusion.

To be queen at one of the balls is the greatest honor that can befall a Xeu-Orleans girl. But there are four or five maids of honor to each queen, so by the time the Carnival is over almost every popular debutante has had a Carnival honor. The queens and maids of various Carnivals are conspicuous for grace and beauty, and good'taste in dress. Notes are sent by the maskers every year, "calling out" ladies for the maskers' dances.—the first five or six or seven on the programme. Ladies "called out" are given particular seats and enjoy the ball to the utmost. Handsome pins and souvenirs are given by the maskers to their partners in the dances, and besides many little trinkets that form part of t\v; Carnival costumes.

In 1857 Comus presented "Paradise Lost," as has already been described.

In 1858 Comus' subject of illustration was "Mythology."

March 8th, 1859, witnessed a particularly magnificent pageant of Comus, representing "Twelfth Night, or Lord of Misrule." It was followed, as in the preceding year, by four tableaux, and a ball at the Varieties Theatre At twelve o'clock the maskers disappeared.

February 21st, 1860, fifteen cars, presenting American history from Columbu-to Webster, formed the Comus pageant. The cars represented blocks of granite.

upon which groups of white statuary rested. The horses, also, were draped in white. The procession, as usual, stopped en route to pay its respects to the mayor of the city. At the ball that night ten tableaux were given.

"Scenes from Life"' was presented by Comus February 13th, 1861. Infancy, with its cradle, boyhood with tops and kites, youth, manhood and old age with attendant vices, virtues and follies were followed by a car representing Death, and containing a skeleton.

For the next few years the Civil War was raging and all Mardi Gras festivities were suspended. But on the 13th of February, 1866, four cars passed through the streets representing "The Past," "The Present," "The Future," and "The Court of Comus." This was Comus' meager first parade after the war. The ball invitations represented those sad intervening years of trouble, 1863, '63, '64, '65.

March 5th, 1867, "Triumphs of Epicurus"' was given by Comus.

February 25th, 1868, "The Senses"—''Smell, Touch, Taste," etc.

February 9th, 1869, "Lalla Rookh."

March 1st, 1870, Comus gave "History of Louisiana" (statuary). In this year the New Orleans Carnival was pronounced by a Boston Journal to be "worth crossing a continent to see." In this year (1870), also, the second in age of the Carnival organizations, "The Twelfth Night Revellers," gave a procession in which Europe, Asia, Africa and America were represented. A ball ensued at the French Opera House. This, of course, was given January 6th, the night the Three Wise Men came to Bethlehem.

In 1871, Comus represented Spenser's "Faerie Queen" and the Revellers represented "Mother Goose."

The year 1872 formed a momentous epoch in Carnival historx, for it was in this year that Rex first came upon the streets. In this year Comus gave "Dreams of Homer," and the Twelfth Night Revellers represented "Humor, Its Gods and Its Fathers." In this year Momus first came into being and presented "The Talisman," with a fine tableau and a crowd of maskers.

In 1873, in which year the city illuminations were very fine, Comus gave the "Darwinian Theory""; the Revellers, "Audubon and His Birds"; Momus, "Coming Races." The Darwinian theory was much discussed at this time. (The Momus parades from 1872 to 1876 were given on the 31st of December. In 1876 the time was changed to the Thursday preceding Mardi Gras. In 1873, Rex paraded with a number of maskers, and several new organizations helped to swell his numbers,— the "King's Own," "Oxonians," the "Pack" and "Lights of St. George." The pro-

cessions stopped at various places on its way, where toasts were drunk and speeches made.

In 1874 the Eevellers presented "Dolliana," the parade being headed by an immense cake, borne in state. The Rex procession (February 17th) illustrated "The Glories of Persia"; Comus received "The Nations of the Earth," and led them through his favorite city.

There was no street carnival in 1875, but several balls took place (February 29th).

In 1876 Comus gave "Four Thoiisand Years of Sacred History." Momus gave "Louisiana and Her Products."

On February 13th, 1877, Eex gave, "War in Every Age," in his first series of mounted tableaux. Comus illustrated "Aryan Race," and Momus a "Dream of Hades."

In 1878 (March 5th) Rex gave a caricature of mythical personages; Comus, "Metamorphosis of Ovid"; Momus, "Scenes From the Realm of Fancy."

On February 25th, 1879, Rex as "Richard Coeur de Lion," presided over various scenes from the world's history.

In 1880 (February 10th), Rex illustrated the "Elements," and the "Phunny Phorty Phellows," an organization famous for mirth and burlesque, turned out for the third time with its body of merry maskers. Comus in this year gave the "Conquest of Mexico," and Momus "Dream of Fair Women."

In 1881 (March 1st), Eex presented "Arabian Nights," and a new organization, "The Independent Order of the Moon," followed with "Pictures from the Town." The Phunny Phorty Phellows gave the "Boss' Dream About Women"; Comus, "North-land Myths"; Momus, "Scenes from Popular Story Books."

The year 1883 (February 21st) saw in Rex's procession the pageant of "The King of Pleasure"; Independent Order of the Moon, "Mirth, Melody and Moonlight"—scenes from popular songs; Phunny Phorty Phellows, "Comical Illustrations of Days We Celebrate"; Comus, "World Worship." In this year first appeared (1882) "Proteus," an organization which now takes rank with Momus and Comus. The initial pageant of this order presented "Egyptian Myths." Momus in 1882 gave "Ramayana," the epic poem of the Hebrews.

In 1883 (February 6th), Rex gave "Atlantis," the Phunny Phorties a burlesque of the stage—comedy, tragedy, opera; the Independent Order of the Moon, "Familiar Rhymes," literally interpreted; Proteus, "History of France," and Momus, "Moors in Spain." Comus did not appear that year.

In 1844 (February 26th), Rex illustrated "Semitic Races"'; the Mystic Merry Bellions, an organization of the same kind as Independent Order of the Moon, "Vanity Fair"; the Phunny Phorty Phellows, "Medley"; Momus, "The Passions"; Proteus, "The Aeneid"; and Comus "Ancient Ireland."

In 1885 (February 17), the Rex parade represented "Ivanhoe"; Momus, "Legendary Lore"; Proteus, "Chinese Myths"; there were this year only three parade* in all.

In 1886 (March 9th), Rex gave ".\urelian's Triumph" and other historic scenes; Proteus, "Visions of Other Worlds," and the Independent Order of the Moon, "Twelve Months' Rations," each month in turn, with its holidays and peculiarities, being burlesqued.

In 1887 (February 22nd), Rex presented "Music and Popular Airs"; the Independent Order of the Moon, "The Yankee Nation"; and Proteus, "Anderson's Fairy Tales."

In 1888 (February 14th), Rex gave "The Realm of Flowers"; the Independent Order of the Moon, "Flights of Fancy"; Proteus, "Legends of the Middle Ages."

In 1889 (March 5th), Rex presented "Treasures of Earth." While Proteus, Momus and other mystic rulers of Carnival times conceal their identity, that 3f Rex is now publicly announced. The mimic kingship is an honor awarded some citizen for popularity and always reflects credit on the man chosen. In the year 1880 the name of the King appears to have been given out for the first time. In 188;) Rex was Mr. John 6. Schriever, and he chose as queen. Miss Cora Richardson. Proteus gave, in 1889, "Hindoo Heavens," and at his ball chose Miss Edith Jennings for queen. Momus, in a series of beautiful tableaux at the Opera House, presented the "Culprit Fay."

On the 18th of February, 1890, Rex, in the person of Sylvester P. Walmsley, headed a number of handsome floats presenting "Rulers of Ancient Times."' His queen was Miss Anita Shakespeare. This year saw a great revival in Carnival spirit. Proteus gave "Elfland," his queen being Miss Emma Joubert. Comus displayed the "Palingenesis of Comus," his queen being Miss Katie Buckner. Momus gave a large ball, of which Miss Nora Glenny was queen, and his tableaux had for subject "Paradise and the Peri." Mention might here be made of the Carnival German, a very exclusive society affair, given usuaMy the Friday before Mardi Gras, as was the case in the year just referred to. The dancers do not mask at this ball.

In 1891, the Atlanteans first appeared. Their ball was given February 3d, thus opening the Mardi Gras season. Their tableaux represented the "Temple of

Poseidon and Coleito" and "Destruction of Atlantis." The ball was said to be magnificent, and its queen was Miss Adele Blanc.

On the 10th of February, 1891, Rex (Mr. James P. Richardson) gave "Visions of Rex." His queen was Miss Bessie Behan. The Momus ball was presided over by Palmer Cox's "Brownies." The queen was Miss Amelie Aldige. The Proteus parade represented "Tales of the Genii,"' and the queen was Miss Susan Miles. Comus gave "Demonology," and chose as his queen Miss Cora Jennings.

In 1893 the tableaux of the Atlanteans represented "The Tempest," and the queen of the ball was Miss Lucia Miltenberger. Rex (March 1st), in a beautiful pageant, gave "The Colors." Mr. Robert S. Day was king of the Carnival, and Mi.s-Carrie Spellmaa queen. The Comus parade chose for its subject "Nippon, the Land of Flowers," and the Comus queen was Miss Winnie Davis, "Daughter of the Confederacy." Proteus gave "The Vegetable Kingdom," and for queen chose Miss Valentine Cassard.

In 1893, the Atlanteans in their tableaux gave "Northern Allegories"; thei:-queen was Miss Annie Payne. Mr. John Poitevant, as Rex, on the 14th of February, chose Miss Ella Sinnot for his queen. The subject of the Rex parade was "Fantasies." Comus gave "Salaminbo," Flaubert's novel, in a series of handsome floats. His queen was tlie beautiful Miss Josephine Maginnis. Proteus" subject, in 1893, was "Kalevala, Myths of Finland,"" and his queen was Miss Virginia Xicholls. Momus in his tableaux prettily illustrated the "Four-Leaf Clover," and his queen was Miss Ella Barkley.

In 1894, the Twelfth Night Revellers gave a beautiful ball, of which Miss Fannie Eshelman was queen. According to old customs, a cake is cut at each Twelftli Night ball. Its slices are distributed to the debutantes present, and the piece containing a golden bean singles out as queen its fortunate possessor. In like manner, silver beans mark the maids of honor. The Atlanteans (1894) chose for the subject of their tableaux "Ballet of the Seasons at Fontainebleau," and as queen. Miss Evelyn Gasquet. Rex (B. A. Oxnard) presented "Illustrations from Literature."' His queen was Miss Minnie Stewart. Mardi Gras this year fell on the fifth of February. The subject of Momus in his ball was "The Fairies and the Fiddler""; his queen, Miss Louise Dunbar. Proteus on this occasion presented "Persian Myths." His queen was Miss Alice Denis. Comus gave "Once L'pon a Time," his queen being Miss Mathilde Levert.

In 1895 the Twelfth Night Revellers, with Miss Nora (ilenny as queen, gave a tableaux representing old time merry-makers around a chateau. The Elves of

Oberon made their first appearance this year (1895) in a handsome ball, of which Miss Josie Craig was queen; the tableaux represented "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The Atlanteans presented "The Bride of the Ice King." Their queeii was Miss Nellie Dwyer. Eex (February 27th) was impersonated by Mr. Frank T. Howard, whose queen was Miss Lydia Fairchild. The subject of his parade wa^i "Fairyland Chronicles." Momus, in his annual ball, presented "The Wooing and Wedding of Nala and Darmayante." His queen was Miss Charlee Elliott. The Proteus parade gave "Norse Myths," and Miss Louise Wiltz was queen. Comus' subject was "Songs of Long Ago"; his queen, Miss Emily Poitevant.

The year 1896 saw the Carnival growing and prospering. The Twelfth Night Revellers, at their ball, gave an exquisite tableau of "Cloudland," and the golden bean fell to Miss Bertie Hayward, who reigned over the festivities. This year being leap year, a number of leading society women planned and gave a very handsome ball, of which Mrs. A. A. Brittin was president. They called themselves "Les Mysterieuses." Mr. Willie Stauffer was made king. In all re.=pects the usual positions of men and women were reversed, the former being "called out" by the latter. On February 3rd (1896), a new organization made a very successful appearance. This was the Krewe of Nereiis. His first ball presented in tableaux "Sea Views," and his queen was Miss May Van Benthuysen. The Atlanteans, at their ball, presented "Loves of the Angels,'' Moore's poem, and their queen was Miss Penelope Chaflfe. The Elves of Oberon gave "Visions in ilarble,'' and their queen was Miss Virginia Logan. On the ISth of February (1896), Eex illustrated "Planets." Mr. Charles Janvier was king of the Carnival, Miss Arthemise Baldwin, queen. Momus, in his ball this year (1896), burlesqued the Carnival, a miniature parade being given on the stage, and his queen was Miss Alice Buckner. Proteus chose for the subject of his parade the "Animal Kingdom," and for queen. Miss Vir,i Boarman. Comus this year presented on his floats "The Seasons," and his queen was Miss Alma Kruttschnitt. The Phunny Phorties this year gave a ball, with a medley of grotesque and mirth-provoking maskers, and Miss Myrtle Gehl for queen. This organization, in 1878, gave "The Fire Department"; in 1879, "The Militia" ; in 1880, "Brother Jonathan," and kindred societies, in 1881, "Woman's Rights."

In 1897, Miss Lydia Winship was queen of the Twelfth Night ball. . The Mithras ball gave a handsome series of tableaux. The queen was Miss Louise Joubert. The Elves of Oberon, with Jliss Edith Buckner as queen, presented "Rhineland Pictures." Nereus gave views of the sea-deeps, and his queen was Miss Alys Laroussini. The Atlanteans presented "The Elements." Miss Stella De-

moruelle was queen. This year a new organization, Consus, made its appearance, and in a very handsome ball depicted "Eobin Hood, and His Merry Men." The queen was Miss Stella Demoruelle. The subject of the Rex parade was "Marine Pictures." Mr. A. B. Wheeler was king, and Miss Ethelyn Lallande queen. The subject of Comus was the "Odyssey"; his queen. Miss May Schmidt. Momus gave no tableaux. The queen of this ball was Miss Lydia Finlay. Proteus chose for his queen Miss Juanita Lallande, and for the subject of his parade, "Orlande Furioso."

In 1898, the Twelfth Night Eevellers gave "Minstrels of Olden Times," Miss Julia Palfrey being queen. The Atlanteans illustrated in their tableaux, "Garden of Irem." Their queen was Miss Erskine Kock. Mithras presented the "Sun God." His queen was Miss May Wiltz. The Elves of Oberon depicted beautifully "The Eainbow." Miss Louise Denis was queen of the ball. Xereus gave "Pluto's Eealm." His queen was Miss Annie Soria. Consus had a beautiful ball and tableaux. Rex (February 22nd) was Mr. Charles A. Farwell. His queen was Miss Noel Forsythe, and the subject of his parade, "Harvest Queens." Comus gave illustrations from Shakespeare, and his queen was Miss Isabelle Hardie. The Phunny Phortie Phellows, in 1898 (February 18th), gave their first night procession. This represented "Slang Phrases," and the queen of their ball was Miss Henrietta Kahn. Momus this year gave a ball, of which Miss Kittie Eustis was queen. Burlesque presentations were the subjects of the tableaux. Proteus gave "A Trip to Wonderland," and his queen was Miss Laure Lanaux.

In 1899 occurred the famous snow and sleet storm, of which some mention should be made, as the Carnival organizations deserve great credit for braving the weather and making a successful Mardi Gras despite all their disadvantages. Shrove Tuesday came in the very worst part of the miserable weather. This is the only really "bad" Mardi Gras on record.

In 1899, the Twelfth Night Eevellers, with Miss Belinda Miles for queen, gave a representation of "Butterflies." The Atlanteans gave "Destruction of Atlantis." Miss Mary Matthews was queen. Consus represented the "Court of Louis XVI." His queen was Miss Adele Brittin. Mithras' subject was the Persian "Sun God," and his queen. Miss Corinne Braughn. Nereus represented the "North Pole," and his queen was Miss Ethel Miller. The Elves of Oberon gave pictures of the seventeenth century. Their queen was Miss Corinne Braughn. Eex (Walter Denegre) gave, February 14th, a handsome parade representing "Reveries of Rex." The queen was Miss Perrine Kilpatrick. Comus had as subject "Jewish History"; as queen. Miss Robbie Giffen. Proteus, who postponed his parade to the following Friday, gave "States of the Union." His queen was Miss Pauline Menge.

In 1900 the Twelfth Night Eevellers presented "The Four Seasons." Mi-is Evelyn Penn was queen. Mithras gave "The House Boat on the Styx." The queen was Miss Sophia Eogers. The Elves of Oberon had as subject "Chance"; for queen, Miss Haydee Druillet. Consus, by some strange mischance, had the same subject as had Mithras—"The House Boat on the Styx." The queen was Miss Nannie Grant. The Atlanteans gave "Fall of the Incas." Their queen was Miss Nora Glenny. A new organization, "The Falstaffians," gave their initial ball—a beautiful affair, representing "Fallstaff's Dream in Windsor Forest." Miss Virginia Zell was queen. Nereus this year gave his first parade, which was on trolley cars instead of the old floats, and represented "The March of Civilization." The float representing "Electricity" was particularly fine. The queen of Nereus was Miss Maud Wilmot. Momus gave a very fine parade, illustrating the "Arthurian Legends," and his queen was Miss May Waters. The subject of Proteus was "Tales of Childhood." The queen was Miss Louise Ferrier. On Saturday befors Mardi Gras a "Merchants" parade was held, chiefly for advertising purposes. Captain Thomas J. Woodward was Eex (February 2~th), whose parade represented "Terpsichorean Revels." His queen was Miss Eosa Febiger. Consus gave "Stories of the Golden Age." His queen was Miss Marietta Laroussini. Les Mysterieuses gave another charming ball in 1900 (January 3rd), at which "Fair Women of Four Realms" were represented, and four kings chosen: John Tobin, Hunt Henderson, Felix Puig and Wm. F. Maginnis. The Happy Forty Friends First Carnival Association of Algiers gave a parade of nine floats on the evening of February 3~th, 1900.

CHAPTER XXVI.

OEIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF THE SUGAR INDUSTRY OF LOUISIANA.

By Dr. W. C. Stubbs.

NO HISTORY of New Orleans would be complete without a chapter upon Louisiana's chief industry, an industry which has contributed so largely to the upbuilding of this great city. Startingwith De Bore's first commercial crop in 1795, grown upon the grounds of the present Audubon Park, now well within the city limits, the sugar industry of Louisiana has expanded, despite the many serious obstacles it iias encountered, until to-day it occupies nearly the entire area between Lake Ponchartrain on the east, Vermillion River on the west, Alexandria on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico on the south.

From De Bore's first crop of $13,000, the annual output has grown in value well up into the millions. If the present prospects for the crop of 1900 be realized, and the present prices for sugar be maintained, thirty-five millions of dollars will probably be required this year to market the output of our sugar houses. De Bore's small sugar house, with its horse mill and iron kettles, has been supplanted by the modern central factory, with its ponderous mills or diffusion batteries, with improved clari-fiers and vacuum effects, with immense vacuum pans and capacious centrifugals.

Once the horses and oxen propelling the mills were supported by the tops of the cane; to-day the great boilers which furnish the steam to turn the mighty rolls, and to evaporate the tons of water from the extracted juice, are fed mainly with the refuse of the cane (bagasse), which their own force has created. So great has been the change from the original sugar house, to one of our modern central factories, that De Bore himself, could he again revisit his much-loved State, would not recogrnize in the latter the least resemblance to the former. Even an ante-bellum planter would be strangely out of place in a modern, up-to-date sugar house. The agriculture of sugar cane has kept an even pace with its manufacture. The wooden mould board plow, and home-made harrow, have been succeeded long since by the improved turn plow and revolving harrow, and these in turn supplanted by the disc plow and harrow. Improved labor-saving cultivators have largely displaced ex-

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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS. '647

pensive hoe gangs, and the cane harvester, now being evolved from the brain of genius, is everywhere awaited as the last contribution of the nineteenth century to the great sugar-cane industry of the world. Drainage is justly esteemed as the prerequisite of large production, and irrigation is discussed by all and practiced by a few as an essential aid to uniformly good crops.

The alluvial lands of tlie Mississippi River and its outlying bayous were once regarded as possessing inexhaustible fertility, and any effort to increase artificially the supply of fertilizing ingredients therein, would have been looked upon as the act of the madman or the dream of a visionary; yet the closing years of the nineteenth century find nearly every planter buying enormous quantities of tankage, cotton-seed meal, acid phosphate, etc., for application to these very soils, and to aid in the growth and development of larger crops of cane. Science has shown that properly selected fertilizers judiciously applied will enhance the acre yields even on our richest soils.

This wonderful development has been evolved from numerous and serious difficulties which have attended this industry from the beginning. Floods have repeatedly inundated whole sections and destroyed thousands of acres of cane. Pestilence, "that walketh in darkness," has several times smitten the sugar districts. The Civil War completely prostrated the industry, leaving so little vitality that fully fifteen years were required for partial recuperation. Low prices and unreliable labor have sometimes shorn the industry of all its profits. Unfriendly legislation has frequently brought the coolie-raised or bounty-fed sugars of other countries into direct competition with that grown in Louisiana. And lastly, perhaps the most potent obstacle of all, is the want of permanency in our national legislation, a defect inherent in our form of government, which gives the people the opportunity of overturning "the powers that be" every four years.

All of these have militated against the progress of our sugar industry, and vet it has been developed to such a degree of excellence that Louisiana is to-day justly esteemed as the leader of the sugar cane world, and is sending words of intelligence and experience to every tropical sugar country.

This progress, wonderful as it has been in the aggregate, has been achieved through much suffering, large expenditures of money and unceasing activity; at times moving with almost imperceptible gradations, at others with leaps and bounds. It may be truly said, that nearly every dollar made by the sugar planters of this State since the war has been expended in the improvement of their estates and the enlargement of their sugar houses, until to-day they, together, reprcFcnt an investment exceeding 100,000,000 of dollars.

EFFECT ON THE CITY.

While the development of this great industry was going on in the country, New Orleans, the emporium of trade in the Mississippi Valley, was receiving and distributing its products, erecting immense sheds and warehouses, furnishing factors and brokers, returning supplies and moneys. It became, and continues, the headquarters of the sugar planter, where every want of field and factory could be supplied, and where the products of his toil could be exchanged for every luxury or necessity. Foundries and machine shops, capable of turning out the largest and best equipments of a complete sugar house, have found permanent locations in New Orleans and give employment to thousands of skilled mechanics. Cooper shops, of enormous capacity, for the manufacture of hogsheads, and sugar and molasses barrels, are found in almost every ward of the city. Enormous sugar refineries, located within the heart of the city, hard by the sugar sheds, stand ready to buy the raw sugars and transform them quickly into snowy crystals.

The Sugar Exchange furnishes a market place for all sugars and molasses, and by its rules so regulates trade as to insure honest weights, prompt payment and quick sales.

The implement men, the mule dealers, the coal sellers, the fertilizer agents, "et id omne genus," have all concentrated in New Orleans, and from their offices either by personal interviews or correspondence, effect sales with the planters.

Hence, New Orleans, the pride and boast of every sugar planter, is inseparably connected with Louisiana's greatest industry.

HISTORY OF THE SUG.IR INDUSTRY.

It is said that Iberville, "coming to the deserted village of the Quinipissas, made a plantation of sugar cane there from seed he had brought from St. Domingo, but the seed, being already yellow and sour, came to naught."

Whether the above statement be true or not, does not affect the well-established fact that the Jesuits brought into the colony in 1751 sugar cane and planted it on the plantation of the reverend fathers, which was immediately above Canal street. It is recorded that two French ships, conveying troops to Louisiana, stopped for a short while at Port au Prince, St. Domingo. While there, the Jesuits of that island obtained permission to put on board some sugar cane and a few negroes who were acquainted with the cultivation of this plant. Both sugar canes and negroes reached Louisiana in safety, and in accordance with instructions the latter planted the former in the gardens of the above mentioned plantation The Jesuits' Church, on Baronne street, marks the location of this plantation.

The cane introduced was the Jlalabar or Bengal variety, subsequently known all over the world as Creole cane.

This experiment gave no immediate results, but it served to introduce sugar cane into the colony which has been grown ever since, albeit the manufacture of sugar thereJ^gm was delayed for nearly fifty years thereafter. It was grown for "chewing" purposes, and found a ready sale in the markets of the town.

Gayarre says: "The colonists, however, were striving to increase their resources and to ameliorate their condition by engaging with more perseverance, zeal and skill in agricultural pursuits. Dubreuil, one of the richest men of the colony, whose means enabled him to make experiments and who owned that tract of land where now is Esplanade street, seeing that canes introduced by the Jesuits in 1751 had grown to maturity and had ever since been cultivated with success, as an article of luxury which was retailed in the New Orleans market, built (1759) a sugar mill and attempted to make sugar. But the attempt proved to be a complete failure." The Chevalier de Mazan, who lived on the right bank of the river near the city, also undertook to manufacture sugar in 1764, but failed. Again, in 1765, several planters, among them Destrehan, then treasurer of the King of France in the colony, put tip works similar to those of Dubreuil, below the city on the left bank of the river. The small quantity of bad sugar made by them and consumed in the country "looked like marmalade or guava jelly." In the same year a vessel which sailed to France took out a number of barrels of the article to complete her cargo, but it was so inferior that it aU leaked out before rep-^*" ing port.

Up to this time neither the judicious use of lime, nor the proper point of co* centration for striking, were known—two essential factors for successful sugf-manufacture.

These failures, the cession of Louisiana by France to Spain, and doubtless other causes, seemed to have checked further efforts at making sugar, but many farmers continued to grow the canes to supply the markets of the city and to manufacture "tafia."

It is certainly true that considerable quantities of cane were, prior to this time (1764), used for the manufacture of a rum called tafia, since on the 7th of June, 1764, D'Abbadie, in his official report to his government, mentions the immoralities of his people and says, "The immoderate use of tafia has stupefied the whole population." Gayarre says: "The manufacture of sugar has been abandoned since 1766 as being unsuited to the climate, and only a few individuals continued

to plant canes in the neighborhood of Kew Orleans to be sold in the market of that town. It is true that two Spaniards, Mendez and Solis, had lately given more extension to the planting of that reed, but they had never succeeded in manufacturing sugar. One of them boiled its juice into syrup and the other distilled it into a spirituous liquor of a very indifferent quality, called tafia,"

But the descendants of Mendez in this city indignantly deny that Mendez failed to manufacture sugar, and offer in evidence the following from their family records: "Don Antonio Mendez (b. 1750, d. 1829), Procureur du Roi of Spanish government in Louisiana, married Donna Feliciana Ducros, and lived in St. Bernard Parish. In 1791 he bought out Solis, a refugee from St. Domingo, who had striven in vain to make sugar from sugar cane, and then having secured the services of a sugar maker from Cuba, by name of Morin, made sugar for the first time in Louisiana in 1791, and continued to make it afterwards." In an old copy of Louisiana Sentinelle de Thibodeaux, a correspondent signing himself J. B. A. (J. B. Avequin, of whom we will have more to say later), says: "In 1790, a Spaniard named Solis, in Terre aux Boeufs, nine or ten miles below New Orleans, was perhaps the only one who cultivated cane, but with the purpose of converting the juice into tafia or rum. The numerous experiments in sugar manufacture which had been made in this section had been imsuecessful. The lands owned by Solis are now a part of the Olivier plantation.

"In 1791, Antonio Mendez, of New Orleans, bought from Solis his distilling mitfit, the land and the canes, with the firm resolution of dovoting himself to sugar manufacture and to conquer all difficulties. For this purpose Mendez employed Morin, who has passed many years in St. Domingo, for the purpose of studying cane culture and sugar manufacture. But whether it was that Mendez did not have the means of installing a sugar factory like those of St. Domingo, or whether he still doubted of complete success, he made but a few small barrels of sugar, and it is certain that he experimented also in refining them, for in 1792 Mendez presented to Don Eendon, who was then Intendant of Louisiana for Spain, some small loaves of sugar refined by him. It required one of these little loaves to sweeten two cups of coffee. In a grand dinner he gave that year to the authorities of the city of New Orleans, Intendant Eendon called the attention of his guests to this sugar during the dessert, presenting it to them as a Louisiana product made by Antonio Mendez. Up to this time, it is thus seen, Mendez and Morin had manufactured but a very small quantity of sugar, since it was still presented as an object of curiosity."

The above, as well as other authorities which space prevents us from quoting, substantiate the claim that Mendez made the first sugar in Louisiana, and was also the first to refine it, but evidence is wanting that he ever made it in large and paying quantities.

The first crop of sugar large enough to influence the future of Louisiana and profitable enough to justify others to embark in the enterprise, was made by Etienne De Bore in 1794-95-96, near the present site of the Sugar Experiment Station on Audubon Park.

Mr. Gayarre, the historian, the grandson of De Bore, gives a graphic description of the situation at that time in Louisiana, and the circumstances which drove Mr. De Bore to his bold adventure. He purchased a "quantity of canes from Mendez and Solis, and began to plant them in 1794 and make all other preparations for manufacture, and in 1795 he made a crop of sugar which sold for twelve thousand dollars—a good price at that time."

Mr. Gayarre describes the excitement prevailing in the community and the intense interest manifested by the planters, during the preparation and trial of this bold adventure. An immense crowd waited with eager impatience the concentration of the juice to the granulating point, and stood with breathless silence to catch the first announcement, "It granulates." When announced, "the wonderful tidings flowed from mouth to mouth and went dying in the distance as if a hundred glad echoes were telling it to one another."

De Bore was "overwhelmed with congratulations," and was called the "Saviour of Louisiana." The sugar maker who watched the cooking of the juice up to the moment of granulation was Mr. Antoine Morin, according to the evidence of Mr. Charles Le Breton (a descendant of Bore's, who has recently died in New Orleans), the same one associated with Mendez in his trials.

It may be mentioned here, that Mr. De Bore from this time on redoubled his energy and greatly increased his wealth, which at his death exceeded $300,000, all made in sugar.

It may not be out of place here to state that Etienne De Bore was born in 1740, in Kaskaskia, the Illinois district of Louisiana, and married the daughter of Des-trehan, the ex-treasurer of Louisiana, and settled on his wife's plantation, then six miles above New Orleans (now Audubon Park). Many of his descendants still live in and around New Orleans, prominent among them being Judge Emile Eost, the distinguished president of the Sugar Planters' Association, and the owner and manager of his ancestral plantation known still as "Destrehan." Other descendants have already been mentioned.

It may also be apropos here to mention the fitting centennial celebration of the above event a few years since by the Audubon Sugar School, with the graduation of its first class. Hon. John Dymond, a leader among the sugar planters, presided, and Hon. Theodore S. Wilkinson, a distinguished scion of famous ancestry, himself a large and successful planter, delivered the centennial address. The meeting was largely attended, and fully described at the time by the New Orleans dailies and sugar journals.

The successful results of De Bore's adventures stimulated scores of planters to follow his example. Among the first were the Piseros, the Caverets, the Eiggios and the MacCarthys (names no longer on our roll of sugar planters). Each succeeding year added new names to the list of sugar planters and all of them rapidly accumulated wealth.

VARIETIES OF CANE IN LOUISIANA.

The Malabar, Bengal or Creole variety has already been mentioned. It was from this variety that De Bore made his first crop of sugar. It was this variety, now deemed unworthy of cultivation, that gave origin to that mighty industry which has occupied the lower valley of the Mississippi, "planted the highest civilization in Louisiana and laid broad the foundations of a commonwealth, at once the most picturesque and most steadfast in its elements, to be found in America."

The Tahiti variety was introduced about 1797, but by whom has not been recorded in any history available to the writer. With the Creole, it furnished the cane for the planters up to the introduction of the striped and purple varieties by Mr. John J. Coiron, in 1817 and 1825. The introduction of these varieties gave an additional impulse to the sugar industry of Louisiana. They soon supplanted everywhere in field culture the Creole and Tahiti canes, and are to-day the chief varieties found throughout the sugar belt. They are natives of Java and are known there as the Batavian Striped and Black Java. They were first introduced about the middle of the last century into the Island of St. Eustatius by the Dutch. In 1814, a vessel brought some packages of these canes from St. Eustatius to Savann.ah, Georgia, and they were planted by Mr. King on the Island of St. Simon. They grew well, and Mr. King manufactured sugar from them.

Mr. Coiron, who had formerly resided in Savannah, but now a planter of Louisiana, secured some of these canes and planted them in his garden, in 1817, at St. Sophie plantation. Pleased with their growth, he later, in 1835, brought a schooner load of them and planted them on his plantation. From this plantation they have scattered over the entire State and gave a new ardor to sugar culture.

Its ability to withstand greater cold enabled planters to open new plantations further north, and thus greatlj' enlarge the area of cane growing in Louisiana.

Mr. Coiron died ignorant of the immense benefit he had conferred upon the State of his adoption, and the planters owe to his memory the erection of some statue or monument to commemorate their grateful appreciation of his invaluable services. Miss Emile Coiron, a daughter of Louisiana's benefactor, is still living in New Orleans, and Mr. Charles Janvier, president of Sun Insurance Company, is his grandson.

Georgia was thus an early contributor to Louisiana's prosperity. She was then a rival in the sugar industry, with Savannah as its center. Eecently Louisiana has reciprocated by the cordial reception and generous courtesies extended to the delegation of Georgians, headed by that large-hearted, public-spirited citizen of Savannah, Captain D. G. Purse, which was seeking information by which the large syrup industry of that State might be more profitably converted into sugar. It is hoped that Louisiana may be able to confer on Georgia a benefaction equal to that received years ago.

SUGAR CANE EXPEDITIONS.

In 1856, Congress appropriated $10,000 for the purpose of obtaining cuttings of sugar cane of such varieties best suited to the climate of the Southern States. On account of the partial failure for several years of the Louisiana crop of cane, it was currently believed that the varieties cultivated in Louisiana had "run out," and should be renewed. It was in response to this general belief that this appropriation was made. The Commissioner of Patents was authorized to superintend the expeditions which were to procure the seed cane, and the Secretary of the Navy was directed to furnish the ships. One expedition went to the Straits Settlements and brought back the Salangore variety, which was so badly rotted on arrival that no results were obtained. A rather full account is given of the other expedition, which also was without known results. The United States brig "Ee-lease," under the command of Captain Simms, was detailed for the expedition. Mr. Townsend Glover, the entomologist, was detailed to accompany the expedition and make the proper selection of the canes. The following instructions were given Mr. Glover by Mr. Brown: "As arrangements have been made by the Commissioner of Patents for you to go to South America in the United States brig 'Release,' now waiting for sailing orders at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, for the purpose of obtaining a supply of cuttings of sugar cane, I am directed to confer with you as to the best means of procuring said cuttings, the varieties suited to the

climate of our Southern States, and as to the best modes of packing them in order to insure their successful growth after they arrive.

"The points determined upon for obtaining said cuttings are near the river Demerara, in British Guiana, and on the high lands near Caracas, in Venezuela. At the former place there are no less than eighteen varieties of the sugar cane; but I would particularly call your attention to the kind known under the name of Labba. The reddish, purplish and violet colored sorts would probably suit our climate best. Therefore it would be advisable to confine your selections principally to them. There are at least three varieties near Caracas. Those of Japanese origin, with deep purple joints, are the kinds you should procure. The cuttings should be taken from the middle portions of the cane towards their top, cut about three feet in length, including a portion of the leaves. The plants from which they are taken should be healthy, vigorous and not over-ripe, and free from injury from borers, other insects or "the blast." They may be packed in boxes in alternate layers, with cane leaves and common, finely-sifted earth taken from the fields in which they grow, or the cane plants may be pulled up by the roots, their tops doubled down or pinched off, and done up in bundles containing twelve or thirteen stalks in each, enveloping them entirely with small ropes, made by twisting together the leaves of cane. If the roots of these bundles could in any way be surrounded with moist earth taken from the fields, the vitality of the plants would be longer maintained."

With these specific instructions, Mr. Glover, having placed aboard "one thousand and eight boxes," each about three feet in length, in which to put the canes, and other necessary material for the voyage, the brig Eelease sailed from the Brooklyn Navy Yard early in September, 1856. The expedition returned to New Orleans in the early part of 1857. Mr. J. Holt, Commissioner of Patents, in his annual report for 1857, says: "The cuttings of the sugar cane imported from Demerara by the government for the planters of the South, promise to attain a large size, and should they prove siifficiently hardy to withstand the climate of the regions where they are intended to grow, it is believed that they will amply compensate in the end for the trouble of introducing them."

In De Bore's Review, May, 1857, we find a severe arraignment of the parties engaged in the introduction of these canes. The following is quoted from the New Orleans Delta:

"The boxes were filled with miserable, trashy stuff, completely spoiled. The heat in the hold of the vessel, it is said, was by the thermometer 120 deg.

F., or upwards. ... If this was the case why make the planters pay freight, when prices are so high, too, for a handful of West India pebbles ?

"A plain, unpretending overseer from this State would have saved the government much expense and have done something more, probably, for the planters than help to extract the few dimes from their pockets (in the shape of freights on trash), which they saved from the wreck of the last crop, to say nothing of the preceding ones." In another place in the same issue of the Eeview, is a letter from one of the largest planters, which handles the "oflficials" "without gloves." He says: "There never was such a failure. What a misfortune that Uncle Sam did not send a practical planter. . . . Not a sound bud, from the stalks either in the hold or on deck."

The evidence here seems contradictory, but if any canes were grown from this importation it is not generally known to the sugar planters of this State.

A word here in explanation of this appropriation. In 1853-5-i, prices of sugar fell in New Orleans, under the enormous home supply (449,384 hogsheads), added to the large crop of Cuba, to two, and three and a half cents per pound, and for the next few years the crop of Louisiana but little more than paid the expenses of the different plantations." This created dissatisfaction at home and a loud cry against the sugar industry of Louisiana in Congress. It was thought by some that the seed cane of Louisiana had "run out" and should be renewed, and hence an effort on the part of Congress to import fresh seed cane. But the year the cane was introduced Louisiana had another large and profitable crop, from'Louisiana cane. Hence the absurd notion that the previous failures were due to degeneracy of the seed, was no longer tenable either at home or in Congress. The Hon. Miles Taylor, of Louisiana, in a speech before Congress in defense of the'local sugar industry, in 1857, declared that "the crop of this year would be the largest ever made in the State. . . . This declaration will excite surprise in the minds of those who infer from the appropriation made last year for the procuring of sugar cane for renewing the seed in Louisiana, that the plant had deteriorated then. The cane has not deteriorated. The cane crop for the present year is planted with Louisiana cane, and the crop exceeds any ever before planted there. This appropriation, in consequence of which some of the declared enemies of the sugar culture have taken advantage to decry that culture as a forced one and altogether precarious in its results, was, I will not say a Buncombe affair, but it was one which was occasioned by newspaper representation coming from the inexperienced, grew out of a desire to concentrate public sentiment and was, in my

view,of doubtful expediency, and was more than doubtful in principle. I say it was of doubtful expediency because the cane which has been cultivated for many years in Louisiana, in my opinion, is better fitted for the production of certain and large crops of sugar than any which will be likely to be introduced." This last opinion expressed by the speaker has been fully sustained by subsequent experiments. In spite of an introduction and thorough trial of over one hundred foreign varieties, the purple and striped varieties are still occupying nearly all of our cane fields, and will doubtless remain unless superseded by some of the seedlings (mentioned below) now so full of promise.

Mr. P. M. La Pice, on his return from Java in 1872, brought back with him the white cane known by his name, and called in Java "Light Java" or Canne Pana-chee. This cane is extensively cultivated and yields well both in quantity and quality of sugar and molasses.

Mr. Du Champ imported the Purple Elephant cane in 1875, and Mr. Palfrey, of St. Mary Parish, introduced about the same time the Bourbon variety, which has locally been styled the "Palfrey."

During Mr. Le Due's incumbency of the Commissioner of Agriculture at Washington (1877), he had imported a peculiar variety of cane from Japan, called "Zwinga," or Japanese cane. It was a very hardy variety, but of no value to the planters of Louisiana.

In 1886, the Sugar Experiment Station, through the kind offices of Commissioner Coleman, began the importation of foreign canes and now has growing on its grounds over seventy-five varieties.

But the efforts to increase our sugar yields by the selection and acclimation of foreign varieties has been entirely superseded by the discovery of the ability of the cane seed (heretofore thought to be infertile) to germinate and produce "seedlings."

Accordingly, every sugar country is now at work producing "seedlings" and selecting therefrom those promising the largest tonnage with the highest sugar content.

The Sugar Experiment Station, of Audubon Park, has been experimenting with seedlings, and has already distributed large quantities of two of the most promising varieties, Nos. 74 and 95, to the planters of the State. It is expected that these seedlings will greatly increase the output of our sugar houses when universally cultivated.

SUGAR OUTPUT OF LOUISIANA.

The success of Etienne De Bore's trials gave a powerful stimulus to the sugar industry of Louisiana. Slaves were imported in great numbers, plantations were

rapidly seeded in cane and sugar houses were erected. So great was the increase that New Orleans in 1802 received over 200,000 gallons of rum, 250,000 gallons of molasses and 5,000,000 pounds of sugar. In 1818 the yield of sugar had grown to 25,-000 hogsheads.

In 1822 another impetus was given the industry by the introduction of steam power for the crushing of canes. Thenceforward the industry grew gradually until 1844, when the crop was doubled. It is true that various causes, local and national, influenced a great fluctuation in yields during this time. Freezes, overflows and variations in the price of cotton and sugar, were some of the local disturbances; while national legislation then, as now, had a profound effect upon the industry.

In 1828 there were 308 estates, with an invested capital of $34,000,000. Of these estates 82 used steam power, and the rest horse. These estates were cultivated by 21,000 slaves. Mention has been made of the occasional interference of the cotton crop with the sugar industry. Growing side by side with sugar in the upper sugar parishes, it has invaded or retreated from the sugar area, just as the prices of the two fluctuated. If cotton was high and sugar low, cotton was cultivated, and if the reverse sugar was grown. In 1835 sugar fell to six cents per pound, a price then regarded as too low for the profitable cultivation of this crop, and many sugar planters turned their attention to cotton,asRisting in increasing this crop in Louisiana for 1836 to 225,000 bales. This condition of affairs prevailed until the price of sugar, stimulated by the tariff of 1842, had again risen, and cotton, from overproduction, had declined. Thereupon numerous planters again deserted cotton and resumed the cultivation of cane. We therefore find in 1843 and 1844, 762 sugar estates (of which 408 were using steam power) with a capital of $60,000,000, and cultivated by 51,000 slaves. The following table, taken from the Patent Office report of 1844, will show the parishes, w-ith yields in that year:

Hogsheads. Hogsheads.

St. Mary 15,311 Jefferson 5,453

Ascension 10,633 West Baton Rouge 3,087

Iberville 9,644 St. Martin 2,621

St. James 9,350 East Baton Rouge 2,334

La Fourche 6,732 St. Bernard 2,026

Plaquemines 6,641 Lafayette 908

Terrebonne 6,366 Orleans 778

Assumption 6,256 St. Landry 395

St. Charles 5,822 Pointe Coupee 246

St. John the Baptist 5,743

Total 100,346

The industry had then covered very nearly the same territory now occupied by it.

The industry made rapid strides in the early forties, both local and national, conditions being propitious for large crops with remunerative prices. In 1845 there were 737 old sugar houses and 367 new ones, or a total of 1,104. Most of the new houses were erected on former cotton plantations, and it is recorded that many small cotton planters became cane growers, and not having the means to erect sugar houses on their own places had the cane ground at the mills of their neighbors. During this year (1845) seventy-two engines were added to the sugar houses of the State.

During these years many of the former cotton plantations of East and West Feliciana, Pointe Coupee, Avoyelles and Eapides, were converted into sugar estates, and it was found that the abandoned cotton lands of the Felicianas, which had been in cultivation for thirty years, and were too badly worn to be further profitable in cotton culture, would grow luxuriant crops of cane. The Daily Delta records the cane as the equal to any found in the rich alluvium of the Mississippi, "a fact which comes as near raising the dead as anything we have ever witnessed." The first successful experiment of converting a cotton plantation into a sugar estate was made by the Messrs. Perkins, and was soon followed by scores of the leading planters of East and West Feliciana parishes. This successful extension of the sugar industry into the cotton fields alarmed the planters of the coast, who positively asserted that in the near future their most formidable competitor in the production of sugar would be found in the entire cotton region of the State, and would cause a radical change of views of the planters as to the necessity of a tariff on sugar. Some even asserted that the tariff of 1842 would impel the whole cotton region of Louisiana into the cultivation of cane. In 1849, in spite of crevasses on the Mississippi and its outlying bayous, and the destructive overflow of the Red Eiver, there were made 269,-769 hogsheads in 1,455 sugar houses; 113 new plantations were brought under cane for the first time, "62 of which will make sugar in 1850 and 19 in 1851." This estimate did not include sis new cane plantations in the parish of Concordia, Louisiana, and the county of Wilkinson, Mississippi. Texas, too, was increasing her areas in cane, and this j-ear had 35 estates yielding 10,000 hogsheads of sugar. There were 355 new sugar mills and engines introduced in Louisiana between 1846 and 1849.

In 1850 crevasses in Pointe Coupee and West Baton Kouge parishes and the Bonnet Carre of St. John, did great damage to the sugar crop. These, with early fall freezes, including the "severest remembered" on 7th December "destroying all standing and greatly injuring the windrowed canes" materially shortened the crop

of this year, Botwithstanding the increased culture on old plantations and the opening of many new ones, 1,490 sugar houses making only 211,201 hogsheads.

At the end of this year the improvement in the price of cotton deterred many from entering into the sugar industry and caused some planters on the "border" to return to cotton. Very few new engines and mills were bought.

In 1851 only 1,474 sugar houses were in operation and the output was 235,547 hogsheads. The cane was very green, 70 gallons of molasses being obtained to every 1,000 pounds of sugar. There were crevasses on the Mississippi and one each on Bayous Plaquemine and La Fourche. In 1852 the crop was fair and sugar content large, the juice everywhere weighing 9 deg., to 10^ deg. Baume, 1,481 sugar houses yielding 321,934 hogsheads. Only two small crevasses reported.

In 1853 prices of sugar were very low, wood and coal very high, former $5.50 per cord, and the latter $2.00 per barrel. Much sickness among the negroes. The crop was, nevertheless, very large, 1,437 sugar houses turning out 449,322 hogsheads.

The low price of sugar drove planters back to cotton, so that in 1854 there were only 1,324 sugar houses, with an output of 346,635 hogsheads. In 1855 a frost on October 23d was very destructive and reduced the sugar yield in 1,299 houses to 231,427 hogsheads. But the climax of low yields was reached in 1856. The freeze of the previous October had destroyed stubbles and injured seed cane, and the severe storm of August which inundated "Last Island" with destruction of many lives, aided by the cane-borer which had been introduced into Louisiana only a few years before, all combined to reduce the crop of sugar to 73,296 hogsheads made in 931 houses, "over 400 houses doing nothing." This was a year of disaster and gloom to the sugar planters of Louisiana. It occasioned the National appropriation for the renewal of seed cane described elsewhere.

Hon. Judge P. A. Eost, father of our present president of the Sugar Planters' Association, in a letter to the Louisiana State Agricultural Society, in January, 1857, strives to picture better prospects for the future, and recites the destruction of the cane-borer by the severe cold of 1855, the excellent quality and unusual quantity of seed cane for 1857, the liberal aid afforded by general government in procuring new varieties from abroad, and closes by asserting that the cane crop was as certain as any other that could be grown and would continue to increase in the future as in the past.

His prophecy was fully verified, for in 1857, despite a frost on April 2nd, "which cut the young canes to the ground" and the severe frost of 19th and 20th of November, 1,294 sugar houses turned out 279,697 hogsheads.

In 1858 the Bell and LaBranehe crevasses, with frost in the upper parishes early in November, reduced acreage and yield, yet 1,298 sugar-houses yielded 362,-296 hogsheads.

The crops of 1859-60 were again small, but the crop of 1861, made after the outbreak of the war, was unprecedented in Louisiana's history, 459,410 hogsheads.

With the war came destruction, complete and effective. The slaves were freed, sugar houses destroyed, many of the owners killed, or died during the war. Land values were greatly reduced, labor disorganized and credit absolutely destroyed. The industry was thrown back where it was in 1795 directly after De Bore's success, with this difference, then (1795) labor was organized and abundant, lands plentiful and planters ready and eager, and financially able, to embark in the sugar industry.

In 1865-66 the lands, and the willingness of the planters to re-establish the sugar industry, were the only potent factors. Labor and capital were wanting, and both had greatly to be coaxed ere a beginning could be made. But ''Tiuman fortitude is equal to human calamity," and many a brave heart and strong arm undertook to recuperate his lost fortune and restore the sugar industry of Louisiana. But the changed relations of proprietor and laborer, of the merchant and planter, caused many a failure and hence a rapid transfer of estates from old to new owners. Nowhere in the South was there presented a sadder spectacle than that enacted in Louisiana soon after the close of the war, by the forced abandonment of so many ancestral homes by Creoles of the highest type of gentility and blood. During and after the war up to 1870, the sugar industry was very precarious, at no time did the yield reach 100,000 hogsheads. In 1870, notwithstanding late planting, and frosts in November, 1,105 sugar houses yielded 144,881 hogsheads. Fifty-two of these sugar houses had vacuum pans or other improved methods of evaporating. Throughout the seventies, the sugar crop fluctuated between 89,498 hogsheads in 1873, and 213,221 hogsheads in 1878. In 1873 there were large crevasses, and in 1874 there were destroyed 25,000 acres of cane by overflows. In 1875 many planters went into rice culture. There were 91,761 acres of cane ground in the mills this year, which were increased over twenty per cent in 1876.

The year 1877 was marked by a storm in September and a freeze in November. The Sugar Planters' Association was organized on 27th of November of this year, with Hon. Duncan F. Kenner as president. The year 1878 was notable for its large cane crop and for the extensive epidemic of yellow fever throughout the South. In 1879 twenty-two new vacuum pans were erected. In 1880 syrups were sent in considerable quantities for the first time to the refineries to be worked into grained sugar.

The crop of 1881 was small and gathered from a decreased acreage, but the year is memorable in the history of the sugar industry by the creation by national legislation of the Mississippi River Commission, with an appropriation of $5,000,000 with which to improve the navigation of the Mississippi and works connected therewith. This action promised great assistance (which has been fully realized) in the construction and maintenance of our levees, and sent thrills of joy to every planter's heart, that had so often suffered from the disastrous floods.

In 1882, notwithstanding the "great" overflow which destroyed about 47,000 acres of cane, there was harvested the largest sugar crop then made since the war; 1883 followed with nearly as large a crop. The crevasses and floods reduced the crop of 1884 very materially. In 1885 a fair average crop was made. This year is memorable for the International Exposition held in New Orleans, and for the establishment by the planters of the State of "The Sugar Experiment Station," now domiciled at Audubon Park, New Orleans.

The crop of 1886 was materially injured by the very severe freeze of January, the thermometer falling as low as 15 deg. F. at New Orleans. Since that year the sugar industry has gradually grown in acreage planted, in improvements in fertilizing and cultivating the cane, and in the efficiency and capacity of the sugar houses.

The drouth of 1889 greatly reduced the crop and caused much discussion as to the efficacy of irrigation, which has since been permanently adopted on several plantations.

The heavy and continuous rains of the fall and early winter in 1898 gave a very "green" crop, which was harvested at great expense.

The unprecedented freeze of February, 1899, the thermometer going down to 6 deg. F., at New Orleans, destroyed the stubble and injured the seed cane, cutting the crop short fully two-thirds. The number of sugar houses in this State are gradually diminishing, but the aggregate capacity is steadily increasing In October, 1891, under the operations of the bounty, there were about 700 sugar houses in this State, now (1900) there are not more than 350 in actual operation. The prospects for the present crop (1900) are very flattering, and with favorable seasons the largest crop in our history may be expected.

STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.

The following table from Bouchereau shows the quantity of sugar raised in Louisiana for the years 1823 to 1899, inclusive of both years, in tons of 2,240 pounds each:

Years. Tons.

]823 15,401

1824 11,807

1825 15,401

1826 23,101

1827 36,450

1828 45,178

1829 24,642

1830

1831

1832 35,931

1833 37,482

1834 51,339

1835 15,401

1836 35.937

1837 28,925

1838 35,927

1839 59,049

1840 44,065

1841 46,257

1842 71,878

Years. Tons.

1843 51,347

1844 102,678

1845 142,723

1846 70,995

1847 123,214

1848 112,964

1849 120,465

1850 103,111

1851 115,197

1852 164,312

1853 224,188

1854 177,349

1855 113,664

1856 36,813

1857 137,542

1858 185,206

1859 113,410

1860 117,431

1861 235,856

1862

Years. Tons.

1863 39.690

1864 5,331

1865 9,289

1866 21,074

1867 19,289

1868 42,617

1869 44,382

1870 75,369

1871 65,635

1872 55,891

1S73 46,078

1S74 60,100

1875 72,958

1876 85,102

1877 65,835

1878 106,909

1&V9 88,836

1880 121,886

1881 71,304

1882 136,167

Y^ears. Tons.

1883 128,318

1884 94,372

1885 127,958

1886 80,858

1887 157,970

1888 144,878

1889 128,343

1890 215,843

1891 160,937

1892 201,816

1893 265,836

1894 317,306

1895 237,720

1896 282,009

1897 310,447

1898 245,511

1899.Not known.

■ ' OBSTACLES TO SUGAR CULTURE.

are many and varied, and a recital of the trials endured and successes fully mastered by the sugar planters from the day of De Bore to the present time would fill more space than allotted us. Many of these obstacles are such as are encountered in the cultivation of any one crop. Drouths and excessive rainfalls are injurious to crops everywhere, while severe cold frequently destroys the wheat crop of the Xorth. From a climatic standpoint, therefore, the culture of sugar cane presents no more obstacles than accompanies the cultivation of other crops. Year in and year out it is about as certain as our cotton or wheat crops, and no one has ever yet assigned a failure in either of these crops to their being exotic and unadaptable to our climate.

LEVEES.

The most serious obstacle our planters have encountered in the past has been the occasional crevasses and overflows, destroying the growing crop of cane. A plantation cannot be renewed in cane as quickly as with cotton. Frequently our cotton planter follows the receding flood waters, sowing cotton seed, and sometimes our largest and best cotton crops are made from sowings thiis made, following an

overflow. But not so with sugar cane, where the stalks are planted. It requires from two to six tons of canes to plant an acre, and when an entire plantation of growing cane is destroyed, several years will be required to grow seed enough to replant it and re-establish the prevailing rotation. Hence crevasses and overflows, serious even to cotton growers, are almost fatal to sugar planters. In the past our levees have been temporary, and broke in almost every high water. The great floods of 1874, 1882 and 1884 remain as horrid nightmares in the memories of our planters. Fortunately, the national government, after years of neglect and indifference, recognized its obligation to the riparian dwellers of the Mississippi in the creation of the Mississippi Eiver Commission in 1881, whose duty it is to improve the navigation of the river and works connected therewith. It therefore includes the construction and maintenance of the levees. This action on the part of the national government was promptly seconded and supplemented in Louisiana by the creation of Levee Districts in various portions of the State, each to be governed by a Levee Board, with power to issue bonds, collect specific taxes and erect and maintain efficient levees. From the issue of bonds and the proceeds of levee taxes, supplemented with appropriations from the Mississippi Eiver Commission, the levees of the State have been rebuilt, strengthened and raised three feet above the highest waters known. It has been clearly shown that dirt properly placed, and an abundance of money, can keep the Mississippi from our lands even in the highest floods. It is believed that the day of overflows is gone. It is true that caving banks, crayfish holes, etc., may even now occasionally produce a crevasse and temporarily overflow a restricted area of land, yet a general overflow, caused by extreme high water, is now believed to be impossible. There are several Levee Districts in the State. On the right bank of the Mississippi, running close to its mouth, is the "Buras." Above this, and extending up to the intersection of the La Fourehe with the Mississippi Eiver, is the La Fourehe. Beyond the La Fourehe and running up to the Atehafa-laya Eiver, is the "Atchafalaya." Beyond the Eed Eiver and extending up to the Arkansas Line, is the "Fifth Levee District." In the interior of North Louisiana, extending from the Bayou Macon on the East, to the Ouachita on the West, is a section of country which is flooded whenever the levees on the Mississippi in lower Arkansas are broken. This section is incorporated into the "Tensas Levee District," and uses its funds to protect the levees in Arkansas. Eeturning to the left bank of the Mississippi, the "Ponchartrain" District begins at Baton Eouge and extends to the upper limits of the city of New Orleans. The city of New Orleans is a separate Levee District. From the lower limits of the city southward to the gulf, is the "Lake Borgne" District.

In the neighborhood of Alexandria, is the "Red River, Bayou Boeuf and Atcha-falaya" District, while around Shreveport, on the upper Red River, are the "Caddo" and the "Bossier" Levee Districts. These Levee Districts are controlled, each by a separate "Board," the members of which are appointed by the Governor of the State. With the assistance of the State Engineers, they build and maintain the levees of the State, utilizing the funds derived from taxes, self-imposed by the dwellers in each District, upon their own lands and products. They have succeeded, with the help of the national government, in erecting powerful levees everywhere, at a cost high up in the millions, and maintain them during flood periods. Such confidence is now reposed in Levees, that the dwellers on the Mississippi River in flood seasons feel almost as safe as those who occupy the bluff and hill lands of the State.

This great obstacle, if not the greatest, to the sugar industry of this State is now happily reduced to a minimum, if not entirely removed.

TARIFF ON SUGAR.

The first duty imposed on sugar by the national government was in 1789, of one cent per pound on brown and three cents upon loaf sugars. These duties were augmented in 1790,1797 and 1800. In the last year the duty on brown sugar was raised to two and one-half cents, and that of loaf sugar to five cents per pound. During the war of 1818, the duty was raised to five cents, but was lowered to three cents in 1816. These duties were imposed at a time when there was not only no sugar made in the United States, but when there were no lands within its limits suitable for cane culture. They were levied for "revenue only," and continued up to 1832, when the "compromise act" was adopted. This act gave a gradually reducing tariff each year. Under its operation prices of sugar fluctuated greatly, more in consonance with demand and supply, than in response to the tariff; for it must be remembered that the world's demand for sugar at that time was exceedingly limited. A series of large crops both in Cuba and Louisiana, prior to 1843, had caused a serious depression in the prices of sugar. At the same time the compromise act had reached its height and afforded but little or no protection. Accordingly an universal demand arose for higher protection, which resulted in the tariff of 1842, giving two and one-half cents per pound on brown sugar. In this connection, it may be of interest to many readers to insert a "call" to attend a meeting of the sugar planters at Donald-Bonville, La., on May 16th, 1842. The call states: "It is confidently hoped that all those who are of the opinion that nothing short of effective Federal Legislation can save the sugar planters from the absolute ruin brought upon them by the struggle

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of the last seven or eight years between them and foreign labor, will not fail to attend." This call was dated April 28th, 1842, and was signed by E. D. Shepperd, Louis Labranche, Etienne Lauve, A. B. Roman, S. M. Roman, J. T. Roman, Y. Aime, Charles A. Jacobs, P. Landreaux, Andry & Boudousquie, A. Hoa, G. L. Fusilier, Charles Grevemberg, G. Derbigny, E. Roman, L. Millaudon, J. B. Oliver, Duncan F. Kenner, W. B. Kenner, W. W. Montgomery, P. A. Rost, P. M. Lapice, H. Lavergne, C. Adams, Jr., Gabriel Villere, Calliste Villere, Jules Villere, Felix Villere, Andole Villere, Widow A. Fusilier, Samuel Fagot, C. Zeringue, Silvestre Roman, J. Toutant, and S. R. Proctor.

Many a reader will recall perhaps an ancestor or a relative in the above list of planters.

The tariff of 1842 was supplanted by another in 1846, which continued in operation up to 1857. This tariff established a tax of 30 per cent ad valorem. This diminished tariff did not affect prices very materially for several years after its adoption, on account of the small crops in Cuba. However, when the crops of both Cuba and Louisiana increased yearly, culminating in Louisiana in 1853, in the unprecedented yield of 450,000 hogsheads, then prices fell to two and three and a half cents, and crops barely paid the expenses of making them. In 1855-56 short crops in both Cuba and Louisiana forced the prices up, which reached a maximum in 1856. In 1857 the tariff was lowered to 24 per cent, ad valorem, and so remained until the war. During the war it fluctuated from three-quarter cents to three cents per pound.

After the war, up to 1869, the rate of duty collected on brown sugar was three cents per pound. In the winter of that year a new schedule was adopted that reduced the average collected to about two cents per pound. This reduction was quite severe upon Louisiana, and the years immediately following its adoption witnessed the failures of many merchants and planters.

In 1873 the financial needs of the government led to the addition of 25 per cent to the above average, and made the amount collected about 2i cents per pound. This protection gave a healthy advance to the sugar industry which has continued almost without interruption ever since. In 1890 all tariff on unrefined sugar was removed and a bounty of IJ and 2 cents per pound was paid to every producer of domestic sugar. This lasted through the administration of President Benj. Harrison. Soon after the inauguration of Mr. Cleveland, the laws were changed, the bounties abolished and an ad valorem of 40 per cent, with differentials of one-eighth and one-tenth of a cent per pound, was levied upon sugars. This change of laws, just at a

time when the world's markets were overstocked with sugar, and when a financial panic prevailed everywhere, bore very heavily upon our planters, many of whom had large contracts for improved machinery, and sent a few into involuntary bankruptcy. However, the industry was too firmly established to be destroyed, and the planters had too much money invested in improved sugar factories to discontinue the cultivation of cane. While a few planters made money under the Wilson tariff, the majority simply held their own.

Soon after the inauguration of President McKinley, the Dingley Bill was enacted, giving to sugar the following protection, viz:

SCHEDULE E.

Sugar, Molasses, and Manufacturers of:

209. Sugars not above number sixteen Dutch standard in color, tank bottoms, syrups of cane juice, melada, concentrated melada, concrete and concentrated molasses testing by the polariscope not above seventy-five deg., ninety-five one-hundredths of one cent per pound, and for every additional degree shown by the polariscopic test, thirty-five one-thousandths of one cent per pound additional, and fractions of a degree in proportion; and on sugar above number sixteen Dutch standard in color, and on all sugar which has gone through a process of refining, one cent and ninety-five one-hundredths of one cent per pound; molasses testing forty deg., and not above fifty-six deg., three cents per gallon; testing fifty-six deg., and above, six cents per gallon; sugar drainings and sugar sweepings shall be subject to duty as molasses or sugar, as the case may be according to polariscopic tests, provided that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to abrogate or in any manner impair or affect the provisions of the treaty of commercial reciprocity concluded between the United States and the King of the Hawaiian Islands on the 30th day of January, ISTS, or the provisions of any act of Congress heretofore passed for the execution of the same.

210. Maple sugar and Maple syrup, four cents per pound; glucose or grape sugar, one and one-half cents per pound; sugar cane in its natural state or unmanufactured, twenty per centum ad valorem.

211. Saccharine, one dollar and fifty cents per pound and ten per centum ad valorem.

212. Sugar candy and all confectionery not specially provided for in this act, valued at fifteen cents per pound or less, and on sugars after being refined, when tinctured, colored or in any way adulterated, four cents per pound and fifteen per

ecntinn ad valorem; valued at more than fifteen cent-; per pound, fifty per centum ad valorem. The weight and the value of the immediate coverings, other than the outer packing case or other covering, shall be included in the dutiable weight and the value of the merchandise.

This bill is now in operation, and but for local conditions, which produced an unusually "green" crop in 1898 and a very small crop in 1899 (described elsewhere) would have been of valuable assistance to our planters in their earnest efforts to enlarge and improve their factories and to extend the area in cane. The crop of the present year will doubtless be a very large one, and if good prices of sugar prevail it will afford the means of accomplishing further improvements all along the lines ef our sugar industry.

The following condensed table will show rates of duty on brown sugar since the establishment of the United States:

Act of Cents per pound,

July 4, 1789 Ic.

Aug. 10, 1790 l^c.

Mch. 3, 1797 2c.

May 13, 1800 24c.

July 1, 1812 5c.

Apl. 27, 1816 3c.

July 14, 1832 2|c.

Aug. 30, 1842 2ic.

July 30, 1846 30 per e.

Mch. 3, 18.57 24 per c.

Mch. 2, 1861 5c.

Aug. 5, 1861 2c.

Dec. 24, 1861 24c.

June 30, 1864 3c.

Dee. 22, 1870 IJc. to 25c.

Mch. 3, 1883 IJc. to 2^0.

Mch. 3, 1890 Free; bounty given of

Ifc. and 2 cents.

Mch. 3, 1894 40 per cent and ^

and 1-lOth.

Mch. 3, 1898 l|c. to 1.95c.

From 1890 to 1893 is the only period in the history of the United States thai brown sugar was admitted free. All other times it has had a duty averaging about two cents per pound. The tax on sugar was sometimes low, but this important

source of revenue was never entirely discarded save during the existence of the bount}'. The highest rate ever imposed was five cents temporarily during the war of 1812. The Act of March, 1861, imposed the very low rate of f cent per pound following the ad valorem of 24 per cent which had been in force for four years. War exigencies speedily brought about an increase, which in 1864 was placed at three cents.

PROGRESS OF THE SUGAR INDUSTRY.

The fir.st impulse to impro\ements in the sugar house was given by the introduction of the steam engine as a propelling power of the sugar mill, by Mr. John J. Coiron, in 1822. The first engines and mills were extravagant in price, costing $12,-000 and were imported, chiefly by Gordon and Forstall. This large cost deterred many planters from using them. Soon, however, foundries in this country began their manufacture and reduced the price to $5,000—$6,000 placing them within the reach of the less wealthy planters. The planters began to purchase freolv and by 1828 there were 82 estates using steam power. The number gradually increased until to-day steam power is virtually used all over the State; only four horse mills are reported as making sugar, in Bouchereau's Sugar Eeport for 1898-09.

In 1845 there were 72 engines and mills introduced into Louisiana, coming from Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, New York, Philadelphia and Eichmond. Mr. T. A. Morgan, of Orange Grove Plantation, of the lower coast, had the honor of first introducing the vacuum pan in 1830. Almost simultaneously Mr. A'alcour Aime and Messrs. Gordon & Forstall followed Mr. Morgan's example. The results of the vacuum pan were watched with an interest scarcely less than that exhibited in De Bore's first attempt at sugar making. It was a success from the start. Mr. Valcour Aime, of St. James, and Messrs. Gordon & Forstall, along with the pan, imported other improved machinery and the best chemicals for refining purposes. Their experiments were wonderfully successful, producing a very high grade of refined sugar. ^Ir. Y. Aime continued his refinery up to his retirement from active life in 1854, when he turned it over to his son-in-law, Mr. Fortier. His first mention of refining sugar was in Xovember, 1834.

It is recorded that a shipment of refined sugar by Gordon & Forstall to New York at this time, attracted much attention, secured a gold medal for its excellence and changed the trend of opinion on the tariff in Congress. Messrs. Livingston & Johnson had recentlj', on the floor of the Senate, in response to interrogatories of Eastern men who were clamorous for the removal of tariff on refined sugar, confessed the inability of Louisiana producers to make refined sugar.

The arrival of this sugar on the market of New York controverted the above statement and induced Congress to continue the tariff with the hope and expectation that Louisiana would soon furnish all the sugar required by the United States.

Mr. Yalcour Aime, in a review of McCulloh's Report in De Bore's Review, says: "I attempted without success some expensive experiments for making white sugar in 1830. I tried, in connection with a common set of kettles, in 1832, the bascule pan, and in 1833 the serpentine test, and ascertained that with good canes no definite advantage can be derived from either. In 1834 I bought moulds, procured the bag filters of Taylor, to filter my cane juice when boiled in the common kettles to 30 degrees Baume, ordered from London one of Howard's vacuum pans, and began to refine." In 1840 his sugar maker "was sent to Europe for the filter Peyron," but "he returned with another on Dumont's plan." "In 1845 I procured Derosne's apparatus." "In 1846 Mr. Lapiee put up one of Derosne's apparatus, made at 'Novelty Works, New York,' with tigers when I kept to my moulds."

It may here be remarked that Mr. V. Aime records his first use of coal as a fuel in 1840, and his first centrifugal in 1858, and his first bagasse furnace in 1853.

He records the blossoming of sugar cane in 1803 and 1843 on his own plantation.

Mr. P. M. La Pice reports in 1846 that he had "a double pressure mill which extracts nearly all the juice from the cane and fits the bagasse in the best possible manner for manure, which is fit for immediate use."

In 1844 Mr. Norbert RiellieuXj a native of Louisiana, but educated in France, invented what was known as the Riellieux apparatus, and now familiar to us under the "double," "triple" and "multiple" effects, and installed one on the Packwood plantation, now Myrtle Grove, below the city. In a letter to the Commissioner of Patents at Washington, Mr. Riellieux claims that this apparatus would make 12,000 to 18,000 pounds of sugar, with only 14 gallons of molasses to every 1,000 pounds of sugar; that with the bagasse from cane, only one cord of wood was necessary to make 1,000 pounds of sugar.

In 1846, a committee of the Agricultural and Mechanical Association of Louisiana, upon sugar, gave the prizes for best sugar as follows: First, to Pack-wood; second, to Packwood & Benjamin; third, to Verloin Degruys; first and second made by Riellieux's patent sugar boiling apparatus, and third by N. Riel-lieux's vacuum pan. The committee says that next year the following estates will use Riellieux's apparatus: Armant, of St. James; A. Lesseps, of Plaquemine; A^erloin Degruy, of Jefferson, and Chauvin & Levois, of St. Charles."

* In 1847 a Eiellieux apparatus of the largest size was erected in connection with a refinery on the plantation of Mr. J. B. Armant, of St. James Parish, and Mr. P. M. Lapice, of the same parish, has erected a magnificent sugar house and refinery on the largest scale, with the apparatus of Derosne & Call in its most improved form, and these experiences will decide the question of superiority iu point of efficacy between the two systems. (J. P. Benjamin in De Bore's Eeview.)

Avequin first explained the action of lime as a defecating agent and discovered the presence of "cerosin" on the stalks of cane.

In 1849, Mons. Melsens, Professor State Veterinary and Agricultural College, Belgium, took oiit patents for the use of bisulphite of lime in clarifying cauo juice. Soon after, the Melsens process was tried by many planters in Louisiana.

In 1854 Thompson's Bagasse Burner was introduced on Gossett & Johnson's plantation, at 19-Mile Point, on the right bank of the Mississippi Eiver. It was claimed for this burner that the green bagasse from the mill, without the aid of wood or blowers, would furnish ample steam for running engine and other purposes.

In 1855, Mr. F. D. Richardson, of St. Mary Parish, patented a process fur drawing the masse cuite from the kettles by means of a pipe rivetted to the bottom and penetrating the wall, enclosed by a stop valve, which is raised when the kettle is to be emptied.

The first steamboat that ever floated on the Mississippi entered the port of New Orleans in January, 1812, being the steamer New Orleans from Pittsburg. The growing sugar industry soon availed itself of this method of transportation and up to a few years since, steamers transported nearly all of the sugar and molasses of this State to market. Now the railroads transport by far the greater part.

Since the war, so many new inventions and devices have been tried that it would require more space than can be spared in this article to enumerate them.

Mr. John Dymond, of Belair, was the first planter to adopt the scales for weighing his cane. The Cora Plantation had erected the first nine-roller mill. Five or six rollers had been common before the erection of this mill. Crushers and shredders are now extensively used for preparing the canes for the mill. Various devices have been patented for transferring cane from carts to cars and from cars to the carrier. Filter-presses, both mud and juice, are now universally used. Crystallization in movement is practiced upon several plantations. Variously constructed sulphur machines are to be found. Superheaters are used iu many sugar houses.

Diffusion was first introduced in 1873, but was not successful; was again experiijiented witli by the government in 1886, and since that time eleven batteries in Louisiana and Texas have been erected and are now in successful operation.

THE PROGKESS IX AGRICL'LTURE

has been very marked in recent years. The first record of tlie use of guano as a fertilizer was in 1853. To-day thousands of tons of commercial fertilizers are used annually. The large turn and disc plows invert the soil with its cover of cow peas. Improved disc and other cultivators are used by nearly all of the planters. Stubble .shavers and diggers supplant hoe labor in the stubble crops of cane. Fertilizer distributors deposit the fertilizers upon both sides of the row at once. Improved lister or double mould-board plows aid in reducing the cost of bedding land. Heavy double rollers compress the dirt on planted canes. Harrows of every kind are available in our markets.

The cane cutter or harvester has not yet materialized, although a standing prize of $3,500, by the Sugar Planters' Association, awaits the successful inventor.

THE GROWING OF SUGAR CANE AND ITS MANUFACTURE INTO SYRUP, SUGAR AND MOLASSES, AS AT PRESENT PRACTICED IN LOUISIANA.

Sugar cane is a gigantic grass of the genus "Saccharum." All cultivated varieties are classified under one species, "Saccharum officinarium." Cane goes to seed in tropical countries, but the seed are small and often infertile, with much adhering pappus and are very difficult to germinate. They are never used for planting the crop, but are germinated in experimental work for originating new varieties (seedlings). The cane crop of the world is propagated by planting the stalks, as in Louisiana, or the tops of the stalks, as is practiced in many tropical countries.

The stalks are made of Joints and at each joint is a bud or eye, which develops by planting into a stalk. Each stalk soon tillers until a bunch of stalks is produced.

PREPARATION AND CULTIVATION.

The ground is thoroughly broken with disc or mould board plows, drawn by four to eight mules; rows five to seven feet wide are thrown up with two-horse plows. An open furrow is made in the center of the row with a double mould board plow. Into this open furrow are deposited two to four continuous lines of canes. These are covered by a plow or cultivator, followed by hoes, and

the ijrocess of planting is completed. Two to six tons of cane are iised to plant an acre. As soon as the cane begins to sprout, the rows are oS-barred on each side with a two-horse plow and the dirt covering the cane partially removed in order to hasten the process of germination. When a good stand of cane has been secured the dirt is returned, the middles of the rows are opened and the process of cultivation begins. This is accomplished with plows, cultivators and hoes, and continued until the cane is large enough to shade its rows and prevent the growth of weeds and grass when it is laid by. The ditches are then well opened and the quarter-drains cleaned. This is the final act in cultivation. Cultivation is best accomplished by the use of cultivators, the disc to straddle the row of cane, and the "diamond toothed" to split out the middles.

Cane is planted at any time between September and April, that the conveniences of the planter and the weather and condition of the soil will permit. It is usually laid by in June or early in July. After "lay by" the cane grows rapidly, particularly if frequent showers at short intervals conspire with warm weather.

In Louisiana the general harvest begins in October, and lasts till January. On account of the severity of our winters, cane must be harvested in the fall and early winter, or be killed by the frost. It is therefore only about eight or nine months old when worked in the sugar house.

There are two processes of extracting the juice from the cane, by pressure and by diffusion.

PRESSURE.

The juice from the sugar cane is usually extracted by passing the canes through heavy iron rollers driven by powerful engines. A combination of from three to nine rollers constitutes a sugar mill. The more numerous the rollers, other conditions being the same, the greater the quantity of juice extracted. Many sugar houses have in front of their mills, crushers or shredders, which prepare the canes for the mill. Frequently after the canes have passed through the first set of rollers (usually three) they are saturated with water or steam and then passed through another set of rollers. By this process, known as "maceration," a larger extraction of juice is obtained, and it is universally practiced in large mill houses, giving extractions of 75 to 84 per cent of juice on the weight of the cane.

The second process is by

DIFFHSION.

Beets have always been treated by the diffusion process to extract the juice. Recently the same process has been used with sugar cane. The process, briefly

told, is as follows: The canes or beets are cut up into small pieces by specially designed knives and carried into large cast-iron cells, known as diffusors. There they are treated with hot water under pressure. Ten to sixteen cells constitute a battery. The juice is driven out by force from cell to cell over fresh chips, until it contains nearly as much sugar as the natural juice in the plant, when it is drawn off and sent to the juice tanks to await the treatment described further on. When water has passed over the chips a sufficient number of times to remove nearly all the sugar (a fact determined by chemical analysis), the cell is opened from its lower end and its contents dropped on a carrier, which conveys them away. When the cell is again closed below it is at once refilled with fresh chips from the top. In the continuous march of diffusion work, one cell is being emptied and one being filled all the time, the rest being filled with chips and closed, through which a constant flow of juice is circulating. To each cell is attached a heater or "calorisa-tor," and through this the juice is made to flow in its passage from cell to cell, and while passing is heated by the steam circulating in the inner pipes.

CLARIFICATION.

The juice obtained by mills or diffusion is subjected to the following treatment : If white or yellow sugar be desired the juice is treated with the gas obtained by burning sulphur. This bleaches it. It is then drawn into large copper vessels, holding from 400 to 1,500 gallons, with steam coils at the bottom, called "clarifiers." Here it is treated with milk of lime until the acidity of the juice is neutralized and then heated to near the boiling point of water. This treatment brings to the surface a heavy blanket of impurities, which is brushed off into another receptacle and finally sent into a filter press, where the juice is expressed and the solid impurities remain imprisoned between the plates of the press. When the filter press is full of this solid substance, it is emptied and made ready for fresh work. Super-heated-clarifiers are used also in many factories.

After cleaning the juice it is evaporated quickly to a syrup containing about 40 per cent of sugar. This evaporation is performed in open pans, or in closed vessels, in each of which a partial vacuum is maintained. Direct steam is used in the former, while exhaust steam from the engines, pumps, etc., serves the latter. These closed vessels are called "effects," single, double, triple or quadruple, according to the number used. The principle is this: Exhaust steam is made to boil the juice in the first vessel where 10 to 15 degrees of vacuum (20 to 15 degrees of pressure) are maintained; the vapors from the first vessel are made to heat the juice

in the second vessel where a vacuum of 25 to 28 degrees is held, etc. The vacuum in each vessel can be regulated at the pleasure of the operator, according to the number of vessels used. By this process the evaporation is performed at a minimum expense and at a temperature considerably below the boiling point of water, and thus escaping the danger of caramelizing sugar, which is frequently done in open vessels at high temperature.

By either of these processes a syrup is obtained, which is sent to the vacuum strike pan, where it is granulated. This pan consists of a closed vessel with three or more interior coils, situated one above the other, through which the steam may circulate. To this pan is attached a vacuum pump, which removes the air and vapor (as fast as formed) from the pan. The vapor is then condensed by a constant stream of water flowing through the pump. When the proper vacuum is obtained, usually 26 to 28 degrees, the syrup maker takes his first charge of syrup, turns heat into his lowest coil, and begins again the process of evaporation. By gradual charges enough syrup is concentrated to begin the formation of the grain. As the pan is filled, the different coils are opened and additional steam turned on. After concentrating the syrup to a sufficient density small grains begin to appear. These are examined at short intervals by removing a small quantity on a proof-stick, and when sufficiently numerous the process of building the grain begins. This is done by carefully feeding them with fresh syrup taken in, in small quantities, at short intervals. Finally the grain has grown to the proper size, the pan is full, and a strike must be made. Before the latter is performed full heat is turned in on all the coils, the grains are hardened and the entire mass cooked to the proper density. Then the bottom of the pan is opened and the stiff semi-fluid mixture of sugar and molasses, called "masse cuite," is emptied into a large mixer, where revolving paddles keep it from solidifying. From this mixer it is drawn into centrifugals which, revolving at the rate of 1,200 to 1,500 times per minute, throw out through the fine sieves the fluid molasses and retain the sugar.

The molasses is caught in the lower basket and directed to a large receiving tank. After the molasses has been removed the sugar is washed with more or less water, or pure sugar syrup, according to the quality of sugar desired. In this way brown, yellow clarified or white sugar may be obtained, at the option of the operator, and are called first sugars. Frequently, when yellow clarified sugar is desired, the wash water contains a small quantity of some salt of tin to give the sugar a desirable yellow tint.

The yellow clarified and white sugars thus made go at once into commerce. Sometimes the latter is granulated before offering it on the market. The instrument used is called a granulator and consists of a large, hollow revolving cylinder, so arranged that the sugar conveyed into it at one end is carried slowly through it, and during its passage is heated to expel the last trace of moisture. It emerges as granulated sugar and has the advantage of not caking, even in the dampest climate. The brown sugar made as above, formerly went into consumption as such, but now goes almost entirely to the refinery.

The molasses thrown off by the centrifugals, in the above operation, is drawn up again into the vacuum pan and cooked either to grain with fresh syrup and cen-trifugalled or to such a density that when a small portion of it is drawn between the thumb and finger it will string out into a fine thread before breaking. When this density is obtained the mass is emptied either into crystallizers with motion made from paddles, where it grains quickly, or into iron wagons and rolled into a hot room, where a constant temperature of 110 to 115 degrees F., aids the granulation of the contained sugar. This process is called cooking to "string" and its sugars "string sugars," in contradistinction to "grain" and "grained sugars." In a few days, the mass either in the crystallizers or in hot room, becomes charged with crystals and the latter are separated as before by centrifugals. It is almost impossible to obtain other than brown sugars by this process, and of course they go to the refineries. They are known as "second sugars," or seconds. The molasses from the second sugars is again subjected to the same treatment, and the sugars therefrom are called third sugars, or thirds. Sometimes fourths are made. The final molasses finds its way to the markets under the name of centrifugal molasses, either in barrels or in tank cars. It is black, thick and uninviting, containing but little sugar, and it has very little value.