279 Search Results for "lafayette"
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Hoyt, Henry and Herman
- From: agentriff
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Description:style="font-size: 10pt;"style="font-style: italic;"
Blues legend Henry Gray (center)
with Hoyt Harris and Herman Fuselier
Downtown Alive! Lafayette 2 October 2009
DTA! is a free event. The Fall 2009 Series features Grammy nominated artists and performances by renown and up and coming musicians from a variety of genres ranging from Cajun, Swamp Pop, Blues, Southern Rock and more.
- 1 month ago
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CAJUN ACCENT IN THE NEWS
- From: gervis1
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Description:
This video was posted 10/17/08 on You Tube Videos.It has received over 32,000 hit by people who like this man's Cajun accent.It was part of a news story aired by KATC TV 3 Lafayette,Louisiana.I don't believe this gentleman would appreciate people laughing at the way in which he speaks English.
- Blog post
- 1 month ago
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Watch True Blood TV Show Onlin
- From: davemarketer
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Forget about Sex and the City. Watch True Blood TV show online, the HBO unabashedly sexual series. This show centers on Sookie Stackhouse [Ana Paquin], a telepathic waitress who works at Merlotte’s in the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana.
When Sookie meets Bill Campton [Stephen Moyer], a 173-year old vampire, the possibility of a peaceful co-existence between vampires and humans is put to the test. That tolerance is stretched almost at breaking point when they fell in love. Add to this murky brew the unsolved murders of several fangbangers, human women who have affairs with vampires, and we have another classic from show creator Allan Ball, who once explored similar dark territory in Six Feet Under.
Whereas Six Feet Under bordered on the prim and grim, Ball gave full reign to his death fixation by injecting True Blood with oftentimes animalistic, life-infusing sex. One of these jaw-dropping sex scenes involved Sookie and Bill making rough sex in the middle of a graveyard. Viewers who have not seen the show can download True Blood online and see for themselves.
True Blood is peopled with interesting characters. Aside from Sookie and Bill, there’s Sookie’s brother Jason [Ryan Kwanten], who is often shot in the buff, humping away at some unfortunate women who almost always turn up dead. And there’s Lafayette [Nelsan Ellis], who part-times as Jason’s gay drug pusher, and Sam Merlotte, Sookie’s boss, who also happens to be a shape-shifter.
Ball had a brainwave about the series after he came across Harris’ Dead Until Dark, the first installment in the vampire series. He read the entire series and became interested in bringing Harris’ vision to the small screen.
The books had two other adaptation options when Ball approached their author. But in the end, Harris chose to work with him because she liked his enthusiasm and felt that Ball understood what she was doing with the books.
When the series premiered in September 2008, True Blood garnered a very modest 1.44 million viewers. By November, however, this figure jumped to 6.8 million a week, which included repeat and on-demand viewings. The series is now HBO's most popular series since The Sopranos and Sex and the City.
If the saying sex sells is anything to go by, then Ball and HBO certainly did find a goldmine in the show. Watch True Blood TV show online now.Discover how you can instantly watch satellite TV on pc for pennies. Also read another article on how to watch satellite TV on PC.
- Blog post
- 3 months ago
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local storm
- From: bolug88
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took this last night near the house by incredible pizza.
- 5 months ago
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City Council Says Noserings Re
- From: DavidBarry
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Description:
City Council of Vermilionville
Special Session.
________
BY order of the Mayor a special session of the City Council was held on Saturday the 4th day of June A D 1870.
Present : W. O. Smith, Messrs. Landry, Wise, Brandt, and McBride. Absent Messrs. Monnier, Salles and Gagneaux.
The meeting was called to order, and On motion, W. B. Bailey, was appointed Secretary pro tem.
The Mayor explained the object of the meeting , when upon motion the following resolutions were adopted :
Resolved, that a committee of two be and is hereby appointed to receive in the name of and for the Corporation the sale of such portions of the lots on Lafayette street, belonging to Hon. A. Mouton and Aureline Schnecksneider as will be necassary for the opening of said street. The Mayor appointed E. E. Mouton , Esq. on said committee, and on motion his Honor the Mayor was added to the committee.
Resolved, That a committee be and is ereby appointed to wait on the Hon. Police Jury of the Parish at its next regular session, and request the Hon. body to aid and assist the Corporation of Vermilionville, in opening aroad Southwest of the town to that portion of the Parish called "the Cove."
The Mayor appointed Messrs. J. H. Wise and J. J. Revillon ; and on motion the Mayor was added to the committee.
Resolved, That fifteen days after the passage of this resolution, hogs will be allowed to roam at large within the limits of the Corporation, provided that they have rings in their noses. All hogs running at large without nose rings in their noses, will be taken up by the Constable, and (after notice to the owner, if the owner be known, and he pays a fine of one dollars per head, he will be allowed to reclaim his property,) will be sold to the highest bider by said officer.
On motion the council adjourned.
W. B. B AILEY W. O. SMITH
Secretary, pro tem, Mayor.
Found in the Lafayette Advertiser 6/25/1870. - Blog post
- 5 months ago
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Lafayette Vs. New Iberia-1899
- From: DavidBarry
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Description:
Well here we are, late June in 1899. Six months till the Turn of the Century, and that little village once known as Vermilionville, is now Lafayette, Louisiana. And it seems Lafayette is in a relatively heated battle with New Iberia over which city will be the home for the new Southwestern Louisiana Institute. As you'll see, New Iberia wants it just as bad as Lafayette, and for obvious reasons.
This is from the Lafayette Advertiser on today's date, 6/24 in 1899.
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL.
"IN FACT."THE LOCATION.
The Weekly Iberian published at New Iberia filled three columns of its last issue in bringing to the front the advantages of New Iberia for locating the Industrial School there, to the detriment of the other competing towns.
Taking the words of the Weekly Iberian as unvarnished Gospel, the paradise of old must have been located near New Iberia.
Our contemporary is exactly right in booming its town but it has been unfortunate, very much so, in the beginning of its statistical diatribe against it competitors.
We let our readers judge for themselves.
"An exceedingly important question for the Board of Directors to decide in connection with the Industrial School is that of location. In fact it is perhaps paramount to the matter of mere dollars and cents."
In other words, gentlemen of the Board, if we are not able to come up with our dollars and cents, we have the very best location, the most desirable portion of the district and must be, gentlemen, paramount (vastly superior) to the matter of mere dollars and cents; at least this is what The Advertiser gathers from the above few lines of the Weekly Iberian.
Further, reducing it to its simplest form, it means: We (Iberia) would like to have something (Industrial School) and in return will give you nothing (best location from our standpoint.)
And the Weekly Iberian goes forth to show conclusively what constitutes the best possible location, viz: Density of population, accessibility, health and future prospect of the place in which the school is to be located. And of course, all of these are to be found in New Iberia, and in the greatest degree as the statistics from the U. S. Government" Compendum of the Eleventh Census" will prove. And the Iberian shows in a tabular statement the density of the population of each parish competing for the Industrial School adding in a charitable-type manner, that the figures have for all three parishes been computed on the basis of Iberia's increase, which is treating them very liberally.
And the liberality of the Iberian begins to crop out in giving six wards to the parish of Lafayette, while there are eight, and in giving us a population of 20,755 souls.
Now, notwithstanding the liberality of the Iberian we would submit that from the official books of the Parish, Lafayette is credited with 3,449 resident property tax payers and that the population of the parish is near 27,000; a difference of 6,245 in our favor, which brings us nearly to New Iberia which claims a population of 27,296.
As to the ACCESSIBILITY, Lafayette has the four or six passenger trains of the trunk line of the Southern Pacific and is the terminus of the Alexadria Branch, which brings her 22 miles nearer than New Iberia in a direct communication with a densely populated (unreadable words) to reach Ruston, ...there's a number of unreadable words for the rest of this paragraph, but from what I can gather the Advertiser is pointing out the difficulty in transportation that one would find if attending a college in Ruston. Their highlighted point of contention being the number of car changes that one would have to make to go to Ruston as opposed to attending a college in Lafayette. There was also mention of using the Bayou Vermilion to reach Lafayette. Utilizing the Bayou Vermilion for basic transportation would be unheard of today, but keep in mind, this was 1899.
The rest of the article is quite legible and we can pick it up with the Advertiser touting Lafayette's health advantages...
"... sides a parish Board of Health, we have an ever-alert city Board of Health; we are fanned by the salt, health giving breeze of the Gulf farther distant inland from it than New Iberia but not subject to malarial germs emanating from marshy lands. As for drainage we are nature placed on a more elevated position than our Iberian sister, as the letter hereto appended shows.
SOUTHERN PACIFIC COMPANY
Maintenance Of Way Dept:
Houston, Tex., Dec 1 1898
Mr. Amb. Mouton
Lafayette, La.
Dear Sir --
In reply to your letter of the 29th, I would advise that the elevation of the base of our rail front in front of the passenger depot at Lafayette is 40,05 above the mean level of the Gulf of Mexico whilst the same elevation in front of our New Iberia passenger depot is 20,35 making a difference of 19,7 between the elevations of New Iberia and Lafayette.
Yours truly,
J. S. MAHB,
Engr. M. of Way
Lafayette parish is very healthy, with no undertaker having been known to prosper here.
The FUTURE PROSPECTS of Lafayette are indeed very bright. We have now the finest water works and electric system in operation, a cotton compress, a cotton oil mill, an ice factory, three sugar refineries, five rice mills, twenty-seven cotton gins and one of the largest brick factories in the state; two banks, one high school, numerous private schools, seven churches, twelve first class hotels, four livery stables and other things too numerous to mention.
In the near future we will have a foundry, a soap factory, a cotton mill and other industries.
We will add that the hammer of the carpeneter can be heard in Lafayette from the rising of the sun to its setting and that new and up-to-date residences are going up as if by magic, and that in less than ten years she will treble her present population. Can New Iberia say as much?
Further, within a radius of eight miles of Lafayette city we have the following towns: Broussardville, (now Broussard)Royville, now Youngsville) Carencro, Scott, Duson and Breaux Bridge-in the parish of St. Martin-with a population far in excess of 15,000.
And now, in conclusion, we have a strictly law abiding people, less crimes being commited in this parish than possibly and other parish in this State.
Every inch of land in this parish is cultivatible and the soil being light and fertile is better adapted to the purposes of the Industrial School.
We have the best roads.
A company has just been organized to develop a gas mine located between Lafayette and Breaux Bridge.
We have a grove of Magnolia trees containing one hundred and fifty acres within one mile from town, with valuable springs, the finest in the state of Louisiana, and Lafayette will offer the greatest inducements both in location and in "the matter of mere dollars and and cents," and no one will be found to exclaim
"In Fact," etc.
Well we now know that all all of Lafayette's hyperbole was not made in vain. I wonder if USL would have been anywhere near the party college it became known as in the sixties and seventies had it been located in New Iberia. - Blog post
- 5 months ago
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Vermilionville 1869-Layin' Dow
- From: DavidBarry
-
Description:
This was posted in the Advertiser for several weeks in the Spring of 1869.
AN ACT
No. 111.
To amend an act entitled “an act to incorporate the town of Vermilionville, in the Parish of Lafayette,” approved March eleventh, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Louisiana in General Assembly convened. That the limits of the town of Vermilionville be and are fixed as follows : Beginning at a point on the Coulie west of the town, at its intersection with the street running east and west in the Mill’s addition, between lots twenty and twenty-three, in the plan made by John Campbell, United States Surveyor, March nineteenth, eighteen hundred and fifty six, and running east to the intersection of said street with Jefferson street, thence South Jefferson street to Mrs. Charles Mouton’s line, and following that line to the western limits of A. Mouton’s field, inclosure or ditch, and following that ditch south to it’s intersection with the line of Third street; thence following westerly the said Third street and its continuation to the Coulie, west of the town, and following the middle of said Coulie to the point of beginning.
Sec. 2 Be it further enacted, etc., That the City Council of Vermilionville shall consist of a Mayor, who shall be President of the Council, and seven Councilmen, a majority of whom shall constitute a quorum. They shall be elected, and in case of a tie, the tie shall be determined by a new election between those only who have received the tie vote.
Sec. 3 Be it enacted, etc., That the Mayor shall be the conservator of the peace, and invested with all the powers of a Justice of the Peace, with Jurisdiction, civil and criminal, in all infractions of the municipal laws and regulations, over all persons violating them within the corporate limits.
Sec. 4 Be it further enacted etc., That the City Council shall have power to pass all such ordinances that may be required to suppress all riots, unlawful assemblies, affrays and tumults, and all breaches of the peace, to arrest offenders, to remove nuisances, to prevent vagrancy, to enforce the payment of any fines unpaid, by imprisonment, not exceeding five days ; to levy a poll tax, not to exceed one dollar per annum on all male persons over twenty one years of age who shall have resided within the limits of the corporation three months prior to the levying of said tax ; to establish a quarantine against contagious or infectious diseases, and designate and fix the limits of the quarantine at such points beyond the corporate limits of the town by such lines and quarantine stations that will be likely to afford the proper protection from any violation of their quarantine regulations ; to determine what animals may run at large within the limits of the corporation, and prohibit others from so doing ; to fix the price of bread and meat in the town, taking as a basis the current prices of flour and beeves ; to prevent the stoppage or obstruction of any street, sidewalk, public place or square, and open such ditches or canals that may be found necessary for the proper draining of the town, upon complying with the law intended for the protection of property owners in cases of expropriation.
Sec. 5 Be it further enacted, etc., That all male inhabitants of said town above the age of sixteen years, and under fifty years, who have resided within the corporation three months, shall be subject to work, or furnish an able hand to work in their stead on the streets of said town, ten days in each year, when ordered by the Council, under penalty of not more than two dollars for every day they may refuse or fail to work, when duly notified to do so.
Sec. 6 Be it further enacted, etc., That the City Council may, by enactment of proper laws, authorize the Town Constable to cause to work on the streets or sidewalks or public places within the limits of the corporation any person sentenced to imprisonment in the parish jail ;
provided that while said prisoner shall be thus employed, all expenses incurred for his detention and board shall be paid by the Council.
Sec. 7 Be it further enacted, etc., That the Town Assessor shall as soon as the assessment roll is completed, deposit it with the Mayor, who shall give public notice thereof during thirty days by advertisement in a newspaper published in said town, or by three notices posted at three different public locations within said town, during which time any person aggrieved may apply to said Mayor to have his assessment corrected, and in case of disagreement between the taxpayer and Mayor, said taxpayer may appeal to the City council from the opinion of the Mayor ; Provided, That after said thirty days notice no objection will be received against the assessment, which shall then have force and effect of a final judgment.
Sec. 8 Be it further enacted, etc., That the Mayor shall only have the right to vote in case of a tie in the Council, and shall have the right to veto any resolution or ordinance passed by the Council ; Provided, The veto of the exercised within three days of the passage of the law, if the Mayor be present at its passage, within three days after having been notified of its passage, if absent ; and said ordinance or resolution shall only become law, if passed, notwithstanding the veto, by a two-thirds vote.
Sec. 9. Be it further enacted, etc., That the collector of the taxes shall have the powers, and means to enforce the payment of the corporation taxes, licenses and the fines imposed, whether as residents or non-residents, as are given to sheriffs in like cases.
Sec. 10. Be it further enacted, etc., That the town Constable shall attend the Mayor’s Court, the meetings of the City Council, serve and execute such citations, subpoenas, write warrants, and judgments and orders that the Mayor’s Court or City Council are authorized to issue, and may do and perform all and singular, the duties imposed by law upon Constables in the State, and shall receive the same fees and emoluments as are allowed by law to Constables.
Sec. 11. Be it further enacted, etc., That the Town Constable may appoint a deputy who will be vested with all the powers of said Constable, who shall be responsible for all the acts of said deputy, who will take the oath required of the Constable.
Sec. 12. Be it further enacted, etc., That all officers shall continue in office and shall perform the functions of their offices until their successors shall have been duly qualified.
Sec. 13. Be it further enacted, etc., That all laws contrary to the present act be and the same and hereby repealed.
Sec. 14. Be it further enacted, etc., That this act shall take effect from and after its passage.
(Signed) CHAS. W. LOWELL,
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
(Signed) OSCAR J. DUNN,
Lt. Governor of the State of Louisiana.
(Signed( H. C. WARMOTH,
Governor of the State of Louisiana
A true copy:
Geo. E. Bovee,
Secretary of State.
- Blog post
- 6 months ago
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Vermilionville-1873
- From: DavidBarry
-
Description:
When I started digging for the story of Vermilionville, Louisiana, I decided I'd just type in Vermilionville into Google and just keep hitting it and see if something good comes up. I looked at every item whether it looked promising or not. After a long and exhaustive search I finally hit what I thought was pay dirt.
A publication called Scribner's Monthly commissioned the services of a traveling writer (kinda like Mark Twain) by the name of Edward King to make a "Record of Journeys in Louisiana, Texas, the Indian Territory, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland:"
"Alright," I'm thinking. He's going to start in New Orleans then work his way through Louisiana towards Texas. This of course would take him into Vermilionville. Right? Wrong. The following is from the book itself. Right after this disclaimer:
"This work is the property of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text."
THIS book is the record of an extensive tour of observation through the States of the South and South-west during the whole of 1873, and the Spring and Summer of 1874.
The journey was undertaken at the instance of the publishers of Scribner's Monthly, who desired to present to the public, through the medium of their popular periodical, an account of the material resources, and the present social and political condition, of the people in the Southern States. The author and the artists associated with him in the preparation of the work, traveled more than twenty-five thousand miles; visited nearly every city and town of importance in the South; talked with men of all classes, parties and colors; carefully investigated manufacturing enterprises and sites; studied the course of politics in each State since the advent of reconstruction; explored rivers, and penetrated into mountain regions heretofore rarely visited by Northern men. They were everywhere kindly and generously received by the Southern people; and they have endeavored, by pen and pencil, to give the reading public a truthful picture of life in a section which has, since the close of a devastating war, been overwhelmed by a variety of misfortunes, but upon which the dawn of a better day is breaking.
The fifteen ex-slave States cover an area of more than 880,000 square miles, and are inhabited by fourteen millions of people. The aim of the author has been to tell the truth as exactly and completely as possible in the time and space allotted him, concerning the characteristics of this region and its inhabitants.
The popular favor accorded in this country and Great Britain to the fifteen illustrated articles descriptive of the South which have appeared in Scribner's Monthly, has led to the preparation of the present volume. Much of the material which has appeared in Scribner will be found in its pages; the whole has, however, been re-written, re-arranged, and, with numerous additions, is now simultaneously offered to the English-speaking public on both sides of the Atlantic.
To the talent and skill of Mr. J. WELLS CHAMPNEY, the artist who accompanied the author during the greater part of the journey, the public is indebted for more than four hundred of the superb sketches of Southern life, character, and scenery which illustrate this volume. The other artists who have contributed have done their work faithfully and well.
NEW YORK, November, 1874.
I've lived for a time in the New Orleans area, so the places he described were quite familiar too me. I saw myself as calibrating my instruments with his, so that when he got to Vermilionville I should be able to extract a veritable 3-D image of what it was like in 1873. His desciptive is that good.
Along with an excellent review of the French Quarter, the American Quarter, French Market, the cotton trade, and the levee systems, he takes us out to what we now know as West End. He writes:
"On Sundays the shell road leading northward from Canal street past the Metairie and Oakland Parks, by the side of the New Basin, is crowded with teams, and the restaurants, half hidden by foliage, echo to boisterous merriment. But on a week day it is almost deserted. Schooners on the canal glide lazily along; ragged negro boys sit on the banks, sleepily fishing; while the intense green of the leaves is beautifully reflected from the water. Arrived near the lake, you catch a view of dark water in the canal in the foreground, with a gayly-painted sail-boat lying close to the bank; an ornamental gateway just beyond; a flock of goats browsing at the roadside; and afar off, a white light-house standing lonely on a narrow point of land. You may step into a sail-boat at the lake, and let a brown, barefooted Creole fisherman sail you down to the pier where the railroad from New Orleans terminates; then back again, up the Bayou St. John, until he lands you near the walls of the "old Spanish fort." There you may find a summer-house, an orchard, and a rose-garden. From the balcony you can see a long pier running into the lake; the sun's gold on the rippling water; the oranges in the trees below; the group of sailors tugging at the cable of their schooner; the pretty cluster of cottages near the levée's end; the cannon, old and dismounted, lying half-buried under the grasses; the wealth of peach-blossoms in the bent tree near the parapet; and a bevy of bare-legged children playing about their mother, as she sits on the sward, cutting rose-stems, and twisting blossoms into bouquets.
As evening deepens, you sail home, and, in the dining-room of the restaurant near the canal, look out upon the passing barges and boats gliding noiselessly townward; hear the shouts of festive parties as they wander on the levée, or along the cypress-girt shore; hear the boatmen singing catches; or watch a blood-red moon as it rises slowly, and casts an enchanted light over the burnished surface of the water-way.
A promenade on Canal street is quite as picturesque as any in the French quarter. There is the negro boot-black sitting in the sun, with his own splay-feet on his blacking-block; and there are the bouquet-sellers, black and white, ranged at convenient corners, with baskets filled with breast knots of violets, and a world of rose-buds, camelias, and other rich blossoms. The newsboy cries his wares, vociferous as his brother of Gotham. The "roust-abouts" from the levée, clad in striped trowsers and flannel shirts, and in coats and hats which they seem to have slept in for a century, hasten homeward to dinner, with their cotton-hooks clenched in their brawny hands. The ropers for gambling-houses--one of the curses of New Orleans--haunt each conspicuous corner, and impudently scan passers-by."
Mr. King also made mention of the rail line's terminus near there. The rail I'm referring to is on the eastbank side of the Mississippi River. Trains that departed for Brashear City (now Morgan City) crossed the Mississippi by ferry boat at Algiers over to the westbank side. But Brashear City, at that time, was the end of the line for the railroad's westbound trek. King makes note of the benefit that a railroad would have for all of Louisiana including Vermilionville.
As mentioned, this was the year 1873. Later, upon reflecting what I had read, it dawned on me that almost exactly 100 years later in early 1973, I sat with my cousin, both of us perched on bikes, looking eastward on the brand new pavement of a yet to be opened Interstate-10 east of Lafayette. Reading that gave me a sense that I was part of an historical continuum.
Now let's skip ahead as our reporter departs Louisiana for Texas.
"The route from New Orleans to Brashear City is, in the delightful months of April and May, one of the most beautiful in the South. The railroad which connects at Brashear City with the Morgan steamers sailing to Galveston, and along which the tide of emigration constantly flows, traverses weird forests and lofty cane-brakes, and passes over bayous, swamps, and long stretches of sugar plantations.
Crossing the Mississippi by the great railroad ferry to Algiers, the traveler soon leaves behind the low, green banks, studded with neat, white houses embowered in a profusion of orange groves; and is borne out of sight of the black lines of smoke left upon the cloudless sky by the funnels of the river steamers. He passes Bayou des Allemands, and a low country filled with deep, black pools; hurries across the reedy and saturated expanse of Trembling Prairie, dotted with fine oaks; rattles by Raceland, and its moist, black fields, to La Fourche Bayou, on which lies the pretty, cultivated town of Thibodeaux.
He next passes Chacahoula swamp, a wilderness of shriveled cypresses and stagnant water; Tigerville, with its Indian mounds; the rich Bæuf country, along the banks of whose lovely bayou lie wonderful sugar lands, once crowded with prosperous planters, but now showing many an idle plantation. He passes immense groves, from the boughs of whose trees thousands of Spanish moss beards are pendent; and through which long and sombre aisles, like those of a cathedral, open to right and left. He wonders at the presence of the bearded moss on all the trees, and his commercial eye perhaps suggests that it be made available in upholstery; but he is told that the quaint parasite already does good service as the scavenger of the air.
At Brashear City he finds a steamer for Texas at the fine docks built by the enterprising proprietor of the "Morgan line," and notes, as he passes out to the blue waters of the Gulf, the richness of the vegetation along the shores of the inlet. An afternoon and a night--and he is in Galveston.
The coast line of Texas, bordering upon the Gulf of Mexico from Sabine Pass to the Rio Grande,--from the Louisiana boundary to the hybrid, picturesque territory where the American and Mexican civilizations meet and conflict, is richly indented and studded with charming bays. Trinity, Galveston, West, Matagorda, Espiritu Santu, Aransas, and Corpus Christi harbors, each and all offer varied possibilities for future commerce. The whole coast, extending several hundred miles, is also bordered by a series of islands and peninsulas, long and narrow in form, which protect the inner low-lying banks from the high seas.
The plains extending back from the coast in the valleys of the Sabine, the San Jacinto and the Colorado, seem in past centuries to have formed a vast delta, whose summit was probably near the Colorado, and whose angles were formed by the Sabine and the Nueces. Great horizons, apparently boundless as the sea, characterize these plains; the wanderer on the Gulf sees only the illimitable expanse of wave and alluvial; the eye is fatigued by the immensity, and gladly seeks rest upon the lines of ancient forest which cover the borders of the Colorado and the Nueces. Beyond these plains comes the zone of the prairies, whose lightly undulating surface extends inland as far as the Red river, while the mountains on the north-west crown the fertile knolls of rolling country.
These mountains are portions of the Sierra Madre, which is itself but a spur from the grand Andean chain. Running to the north-west in the State of Coahuila (once a portion of Texas), the Sierra Madre spur bifurcates to enter the Texas of the present, and continues in a north-westerly direction, under the name of the San Saba, in whose breasts are locked the rich minerals which the Spaniard, during his period of domination, so often and so vainly strove to unearth.
The Texan coast sweeps downward and outward by a wide curve to the Mexican boundary. Approaching it from the sea, the eye encounters only a low-lying level of white sand, with which, however, at all hours, the deep colors of the gulf are admirably contrasted.
The great sea highway to which I have previously alluded, from Brashear City, on Berwick's Bay, on the Louisiana coast, to Galveston, is well known and fascinating to the modern traveler. The enterprise and liberal expenditure of a citizen of New York, Mr. Charles Morgan, has covered the waves of this route with steamships, which, until recently, furnished the only means of communication between Texas and the rest of the United States. The Morgan Line was not merely the outgrowth of an earnest demand; it was the work of an adventurous pioneer; and although its importance, in view of the grand railroad development of Northern Texas, can henceforth be but secondary, its founder will always be remembered for his foresight and daring. The improvements in the channels from Berwick's Bay outward are also the work of the owner of this line. They comprehend the dredging of a great bar which once obstructed the short passage to the Gulf, and when completed will be of infinite importance to the commerce of the whole south-west. Thousands of tons of shells have been dragged out of the dark-blue water to make room for the prows of the Morgan fleet, pointed toward Galveston and Indianola.
Since I live in Houston now, I found it fascinating to hear his descriptions of arriving in Galveston and Houston. Houston at the time was very small. But it had the best network of railroads already, and it was clear that Galveston would not stay the dominant entity that it had been. I also enjoyed learning of the nicknames the citizens of each town called each other in friendly rivalry. The people in Galveston referred to the folks in Houston as "mud turtles," because of the Buffalo Bayou's regular flooding. Meanwhile the people in Houston called the Galveston residents "sand crabs."
We live very close to downtown and it is interesting to walk around the most historic part of the downtown area. But don't think that I'll be opening up any Houston city directories are seeking platts from the Clerk of Courts office over here. A staffer at the Houston Chronicle has a blog site called "Bayou City History," and he does a real bang-up job with it. Very thorough.
Before I give you the link to this voluminous, free-of-charge E-Book, I should make note of something. Any "history digging" that you do, especially pre-1965, you are going to inevitably face the difficult subject of skin pigmentation. As you read about the journeys of Edward King, keep in mind that this was not so long after the closing of the Civil War. You may find the way non-white Americans are described as not so flattering. Even from an east-coast reporter's point of view.
To put in my perspective, I'm fifty years old and I never shared a classroom with a black student until I was in the fourth grade at Lafayette Elementary. That's how long it took for that to occur. I do believe, however, this read can be a good starting point in understanding the complicated evolution of race relations in the United States since the Civil War.
So with that said, I present to you the journeys of Edward King, for Scribner's Monthly, in its entirety. http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/king/king.html#p50
- Blog post
- 7 months ago
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Goodbye Fun Shop
- From: DavidBarry
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Description:
Was very sad to hear the news about one of my favorite businesses on Jefferson Street that will close it's doors forever in the middle of April. The Fun Shop. When I first delved into the history of businesses on Jefferson Street over the years, I thought it might have evolved from Harry's Costume and Religous Shop. But that was not the case. Harry's occupied 320 Jefferson starting around 1955, and if the city directories are correct, 318 and 320 Jefferson for the bulk of the late fifties. Harry's Costume hopped across the street to 311 Jefferson by the early sixties. They had finally closed shop by 1973.
The Fun Shop was first listed in city directories starting in 1967 at 411 Jefferson, across the street from where it is now. It moved across the to 310 Jefferson by 1983 and has been there ever since.
When I was a kid, about ten or so, is when I discovered this "special store" with the "special" types of things that ten year old boys really go for. One of those is fake vomit. Boy did it look real when you got it wet! And the reaction from the girls at Lafayette Elementary was priceless (besides I felt it was my duty to try to distract them from the fact that Paul McCartney might be dead.) Ah yes, good old fake vomit.
Let's see what else? The ever popular hand buzzer was a real hoot. No one usually saw that one coming.
And there was that "snappy gum," that looked like Wrigley's Gum, but gave the victim a slight mouse-trap effect, when they pulled out what was assumed to be a stick of gum.
And of course there was the "itching powder." What happened with that cannot be discussed here.
So how about you? I'll bet everybody reading this has been in the Fun Shop at one time or another. What were some of your favorite items, and how were they, umm, deployed.
Will you be making one more stop at The Fun Shop for old times sake. I sure will.
- Blog post
- 9 months ago
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gervis1
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Bam! Slam, Lafayette High vs W
- From: Nateyes
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Description:
- 9 months ago
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Lafayette High Girls vs Westga
- From: Nateyes
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- 9 months ago
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Crawfish or Crayfish?
- From: DavidBarry
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Description:
Like most Lafayette folks, I grew up eating crawfish every year. Either boiled, in an ettouffe, or however they were cooked, they were still craw-fish. Never have I ever referred to them as crayfish. On top of that I have always assumed crayfish was probably the official yankee term for the the edible crustaceans. Not so, as it turns out. I took a look at some archived pages in the Advertiser from May of 1958, and found that of the four seafood restaraunts in Lafayette that mentioned them, they were evenly split between crawfish and crayfish. At the Half Shell Restaraunt and the White Hut Restaraunt they were crayfish. Meanwhile over at Robert's Cafe and another restaraunt, who's name was obscured, they advertised deep water crawfish. And, ironically, when looking on the net for information on this, the one with the skinny on the subject was in Illinois. Here's what they had.
Nature Bulletin No. 405-A February 6, 1971
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
George W. Dunne, President
Roland F. Eisenbeis, Supt. of Conservation
****:CRAWFISH OR CRAYFISH?
Crawfish, or Crayfish? There are heated arguments about which is the
correct name. The name crawfish was used in 1817 by Thomas Say, the
first American zoologist to study these animals. Crayfish was coined by
the English scientist, Thomas Huxley, about 50 years later. In this part
of the country they are also commonly called "crawdad", "crabs" or, in
the southern part of the state, "mudbugs ". Whatever you prefer to call
them, there is hardly an acre of water in Illinois (unless it is the depths
of Lake Michigan) or any acre of wet land, where these small
freshwater relatives of the lobster are not found. About a hundred
species are known in North America, of which a half dozen are
abundant in this state.
From head to tail, a crawfish is crowded with a large assortment of
appendages with special uses for each. In front are a pair of big saw-
toothed pincers for defense and capturing food; then four pairs of
walking legs, two with small slender nippers and two without, also used
for clinging, digging, handling food, and grooming the body. About the
head are three pairs of "feelers" for exploring and warning of danger; a
pair of beady black eyes on the ends of moveable stalks; three pairs of
"jaw-feet" and three sets of jaws that chew sidewise. The flexible 6-
jointed abdomen ends in a flaring tail made up of five hinged scoops
used for catapulting the animal, when alarmed, backwards in a
smokescreen of mud.
As a rule, mature crawfish mate in winter and, in early spring, the
females lay 200 or more shiny black eggs which are glued under her
tail. These eggs hatch after a month or two and the young are carried
there for another month before they let go of their mother's apron
strings. Because the shell will not stretch, a crawfish must shed its shell
and grow a bigger one, a dozen or more times before it is fully grown.
After each molt, while it is still soft and flabby, it pumps itself up with
water so that the new shell will be larger. Called "softshells" or
"peelers" then, they are extremely helpless and hide until the new shell
hardens. This is when they make the best bait for bass and other game
fish. Most crawfish are mature after two years and 6 or 7 years is
extreme old age. The length of our native adult ranges from 2 to 5
inches, depending on the species.
Crawfish play an important role in Nature. Feeding on a wide variety of
plants and animals, either dead or alive, they are the most efficient
scavengers in fresh water. They make a superior food for about half of
our fish especially for members of the bass family. The raccoon and the
mink like them as much as anything else, and all sorts of water birds
prey on them. Even the chimney-builders, that spend most of their time
in the cool darkness of their burrows, must come out to eat and be
eaten. Too few people realize that crawfish make fine eating: whether in
salads like shrimp or lobster, in the famous crawfish bisque of the
Creoles, or just boiled with a little seasoning for about 20 minutes.
Connoisseurs eat the liver, as well as the meat in the tail, and down
South they chant an old rhyme:
Yonder comes a man with a sack on his back -- Got all the crawdads
he can pack. "Well, for me, that settles it. Crawfish forever! And, I think it would be a safe bet that no one below the Mason-Dixie line would ever call them crabs.
- Blog post
- 9 months ago
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