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• <-uuc.no IrULLLL- If’.M VOLUME XL1II—NUMBER NINE. JItlanta, Ga., Week Ending Jlpril 29, 1905. 50c PER YEAR—SINGLE COPY 5c. • 9 ••• • ••* # ••• # ’•* #•*••• Famous Plot to Liberate Napoleon; Wanton Cruelty of Bloody Fevered Breams of Emerald O’Reilly; Absinthe; Recalled by Old New Orleans Homes Wierd Revenge of Founder of Lottery; • .#• • ••• • ••• e • •• • • •• • ••• • ••• • o ••• • ••• • ••• • ••• • ••• • ••• • ••• o ••• • ••• • • ••• ••••«•• ••• • .*• • ••• c ••• • ••• • ♦*•#••• • ••• • ••• • •« ••• t ••• • ••*§•»••••• 9 ••• • ••• O ••• 9-«•#•••••«•• -••••••••«■ 9 1 • *•*• *•* • ••• • ••• o ••• • ‘•■n ••• • ••• • • **• o ••• • o • ••• o IH By PAUL LINCOLN. Written for C/>«» S«*xr»y South PA NISH, French. United -.j Tifwhat ever flag floated over the old city of New Orleans, her people have ever dis played one marked char acteristic. they are in tensely loyal and patriotic Old traditions, old-time glories, old customs, old families, old houses, all have been faithfully cher ished, whatever the domi nation she could be de . when all was done, for un- loyalty and most of all to her- pended o swerving self. So it is that certain shabby and de caying old buildings, which in other (ities would have been razed long ago, io make way for new and modern ones, have been allowed to stand; they repre sent the pasi, which in New Orleans is always a vital part of the present. When one of these has to go it is not until rendered necessary through the unrelent ing push of growth or actual state of disuse. As with the “Napoleon House,'’ whicli some months ago was condemned. Olcl Beauregard Mansion in New Orleans. It stood at the corner of Exchange alley and Customhouse, now Iberville 1 and in its last days was used for a grocery and liquor saloon. 11> other words, when it was designed a residence for the hero of Austerlitz, Pix- ehange alley, which has one end in Ca nal street and the other opposite the famous old St. Louis hotel, was the live ly scene of trade and bustle; here were .-e coffee houses most frequented by the merchants and planters, and in these familiar haunts, over their wine or ab sinthe. they met to disc*nos business of private concern or the broader questions of the day. AN AMBITIOUS PLOT. The Emperor Napoleon had devoted adherents in New Orleans, among them Mr. Nicholas Girod, who in 1814 had been mayor of the city. These loyal and enthusiastic Frenchmen, in IE2I. conceived a plan for liberating the exile at St. Helena, and the “Napoleon House” was part of it. The scheme was well laid, and there Is every reason to believe, would have been successful in execution but for the flnal disappear ance of the star whicli went out in da rkness. The plan of the conspirators was to steal upon the island some dark night, surprise the garrison, and letting the emperor down by mi ans of a chair, sail away with him to (he friendly shores Headquarters of Do i Alexandra O’Reilly. Exchange Alley in Which Napoleon House Was Situated. of Louisiana. Accordingly they had built a clipper yacht of the first speed, wonderfully fast it is said to have been, called the "Seraphine," and manned it with a band of Barataria desperadoes— noted cut-throats, who were to overpower the garrison—under one Captain Bossier. All being now in readiness the expe dition sel forth, but laid proceeded no further than the mouth of the river when it was met by an incoming mer chantman, bringing news of the death at St. Helena on May 5th. of the noble exile, who, it Is believed, was not un aware of the efforts at work for his lib eration. The house which had a curious wrought iron belvedere, or watch tower, and was very good for its day, was occupied by Mr. Nicholas Girod himself after the disappointment of his cher ished scheme, and from one vicissitude of fortune to another came at last to the level of a common barroom. The Bonapartist faction long gone, and the sentiment w hjcli had actuated the erec tion of the house sleeping now with other memories of that time, it was not longer preserved, the more that the old street in which it stood is not now the center it once was, and unless it were to he preserved as a relic the common usage, to which it had sunk were inevita ble. 11 had stood nearly a hundred years, but at last had to go. Another house still standing at the corner of Bourbon and Bienville streets, famous as a resort since it was founded in 1752, and once the idling place of La Fltte, king of Barataria and all the southern coast, is the “Old Absinthe House,” as it is called. A plate on the corner gives the date of its founding, but there is no record of the countless glasses of the fatal green beverage which have been passed over its coun ter. When the French soldiers, returning from the Algerian war in I847, brought with them the habit of drinking ab sinthe, a custom soon disseminated, in France, it was not long in finding its v ay into French society in New Or leans. Wormwood (absinthium) came, too, from the old world, where its orig inal use was medicinal. The drink, a hitter, highly aromatic, and emerald col ored liquer. is made from redistilled al coholic. spirits, in which absinthium, or wormwood, and other bitter herbs and roots have been steeped. The wormwood having strong tonic properties, the other ingredients as well, the effect Is Im mediate, magical and—deadly. The vic tim of absinthism is ns certainly doom ed as the criminal whose death sentence admits of no possible reprieve, and a more abjectly miserable wretcu the whole gamut of the drink habit does not show. DOMAIN 'IF ABSINTHE. It is a' curious old building, with dul* green wooden shutters and solid, nail- studded outer doors. An outside stair way leads to the second story, the nar. row, shuttered windows offering but dim suggestion of former din and bustlo, and the doughty feet that passed up and down and in and out when the place was a cabaret, or tavern. Even the bold La Fitte lias left no trace of him self, but just hearsay. The ceiling of the nttle old saloon is long and very low, and the original old water fountain, there since the first ab sinthe was made, shows Its marble base worn hollow by the thick glasses of the thousands that have come and gone. It was a famous place in days gone by. if not the fashion now—you would not quite wish to go for it, maybe, but would tather send for your glass of the famed concoction, as do the tourists, the actors and actresses and different visitors. It is only three blocks down to the old French opera, which was erected some half dozen years later, and how many eyes have been made to sparkle, how many lines to "go trippingly on Uta ■ongue,” by the delicious green liquor it were impossible to tell. LON O’REILLY’S HEADQUARTERS. Still another house which dates back to the time of the Spanish succession is that on the corner of Ursuline and St. Claude streets, a house with strong pil- lyars and a wide verandah, and about it an old garde nof oleanders and magnolias and orange and banana trees, a house the sight of which is yet hateful to the French Creoles, as they recall the cruel ty and wickedneses of Alexandra O'Reilly whose headquarters k was in 1769. When Louis XV secretly gave Louisiana to his cousin, Carlos III of Spain, it so incens ed the loyal Louisianians that they re fused to accept the situation or even be lieve it could be true. Hon Antonio de Ulloa, when he arrived to take possees- sion of tiie colony, was not received, his authority was not recognized, and he in time was expelled from the shores. Then It was that O'Reilly came crueller, more vindictive, and even less possible to be borne. With all the pomp and show of one representing majesty, heralded by music, with bearers of silver maces preceding him, and a rnagniflicent staff following, and with 3.000 Spanish soldiers lining up on either side of the Place d'Armes, O'Reilly’s credentials were presented and accepted, the French flag lowered and the Spanish raised in its place—and the lieutenant general of the armies of Spain was duly installed in his new office. Taking possession of one of the hand somest houses in the little city, he gave audiences seated on an elevated canop ied chair, and received what he regard ed as “the submission of the people. It was a smooth and a misleading tongue hat O'Reilly had. Issuing invi tations 'to a grand levee to be held in the viceregal hotel, the following guests, the wealthiest and most prominent men in the city, were included, and, as in policy bound, .presented themselves: La- frenlere,, Attorney General Masan Cheva lier of St. Louis; Marquis; retired commandant of Swiss troops, Noyan; re tired captain of cavalry, Bienville, son in law to Lafreniere; Caresse and oth ers. The levee was held on the 21st of Au gust, and 'O’Reilly was particularly gra cious in the reception of his guests, but they ,on being escorted into an adjoining room, were accorded a. second and very different reception; the apartment was filled with Spanish bayonets, and casting off his friendly guise, O’Reilly proclaim ing his visitors conspirators and rebel*, gave orders that they be marched to prison. HAND OF THE TYRANT. The trial was conducted in a room of the barracks, and Lafreniere,. Marquis Noyan de Bienville, Caresse. and Milliet sentenced to be hanged, while other of fenders were given imprisonments of varying lengths. The whole city arose in protest and appeal, but O'Reilly was unyielding. The sentence was modified only in that, since the only hangman was a negro, and he disqualified from of ficiating upon whites, death should bu by shooting instead of hanging. Accord ingly on the 25th day of October, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the prisoners, with arms tied, were conducted from their place of confinement to a position in the barracks yard, the sentence being read to them in English and in French, they were shot to death, Lafreniere him self giving the command to fire. It was a dark day in New Orleans. Many of the people, to avoid witnessing the evil deed and hearing the sound of the fatal muskety, tied into the country; others shut themselves in their houses, and no signs of life were in the deserted streets. The old house that harbored the cruel Spaniard is but an ugly remind er. and it is one landmark none will grieve to see razed. HOUSE OCCUPIED BY GENERAL BEAUREGARD. Down in Chartres .street, between Ursu- line and Hospital streets, and immediate ly opposite the archbishropic, the oldest building in Louisiana, is the old home of General P. G. T. Beauregard. The house in which he died is on the fash ionable Esplanade avenue, but this was at one time his home, unci ,s hi; -tic also from 'the fact that General Jack- son, the hero of Chalmette, and the Mar quis de LaFayette were each of them guests here. It is melancholy, each new evidence we have that “Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water.” In New Orleans the places associated with General Beauregard suggest not so much his career as a great soldier, as the lottery, with which In his later years he was connected. For about 2 hours' work each month, and the use of his name in endorsement, he received a sal ary of SI 0,000 per year—and a blot on the memory of him which can never be effaced. Tt was Charles T. Howard's money that operated 'the Louisiana state lottery, and when he applied for membership in the Metairie Jockey Club he was blackballed because of it. The Metairie race course Had been for 30 years the most famous in the United States, and. to be refused adniitance into his circle of exclusives stung the man who offered for it. He vowed a vow; lie would buy the Me tairie race track, and his tomb should stand in the middle of it. Fate, as some times happens, proved his colleague; tho club becoming involved, lie bought up the obligations, secured judgment and tiie race course became his. True to his word he had constructed in the middle of it a handsome monu ment. a large, open vault of granite, and seated within, impressively visibly through the iron gates which enclose it. a statue representing “Time.” with a fin ger held against the lips—the face said to have been modeled from that of Charles T. Howard himself. It is but fair to say that the money which he accumulated from the people lias been largely turned back to them through educational and philanthropic channels.