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FLOWERS COLLECTION
Sea Shore Camp Grounds, Biloxi.
Shell Road at Biloxi.
Biloxi, THird Oldest American City
^ ^ One of South's Most Unique Municipalities ^ ^
Back Bay—“Old Biloxi’’ Was Situated on the East End of Back Bay.
By PAUL LINCOLN.
t" ::irr.f Sonny South
' ir.oxr keeps open hnus>’
® jj the year round. In winter
s' e entertains her friends
from the north and w'ost.
and in summer she is the
resort of the -whole coun
try round about. The
place has long been a fa
vorite with Kew Orleans
people. T n other time? i‘
was called the Saratoga of
the South. Society still
has an affection for the
old place, its quieter ele
ment finding here the life it seeks; fisu-
ctmen wanit no better sport than that
found on the gulf coast—“the garden
spot of America,” as it has been called —
and for the religionist the midsummer
offers the assemblage of one of the
most notable gatherings in the country.
Driving, every month in the year, af
fords the most delightful pastime to
every class alike—the drives of Biloxi
are said to have no equal in the south.
Tor 30 miles the smooth shell roads are
as level as a floor, and the bathing
season Is all the way from May unt.l
October.
OLD AND NEW BILOXI.
The new-looking, prosperous town of
nearly 8,000 people which greets the vis
itor does not suggest in its spick-and-
span appearance the ancient place (as
wo count aige in America) which In real
ity Biloxi is. being the third oldest i|
the United States, the oldest in the state
of Mississippi (the first white settlement
v,as made at Old Biloxi), and the first
capital of all the region then known as
Louisiana, and how long before the Bi-
lex* Indians may have made their sei-
tlrment here history does not record.
They were a tribe belonging to the Sioux,
end tiie word Biloxi means "Broken
Pet.” Beyond this and the fact that
they seen to have been peaceable and
friendly, little is known.
It was early in the year of 1699 that
D’Iberville, holding a commission from
Tonis XTT. landed at Ship island, 12
miles out, and began his excursions in
land and up the Mississippi river, in
quest of the most favorable location for
the colony he was deputized to establish.
Finally settling on the northeast side of
Back Ray of Biloxi, now included in
the town of Ocean Springs, he erected
n fort which he named in honor of Count
Maurepas. Font Maurepas was completed
in April, of that same year, and mass
was celebrated by Father Donay, a
Franciscan priest, being the first relig
ious ceremony held in Mississippi.
There was another Franciscan priest
who sailed in that same company with
I'VIberville, whose fame was to live not
in his works done in the new world,
but. alas! in .the shrinking of his mortal
body as it parted with the soul on the
very verge of these coasts. Ship island
Is 15 mi'es long; on the eastern end of
it is the Fnited States quarantine sta
tion, and on the western is old Fort
Massachusetts and the government light
house. Two-tliirds of the lumber and
timber exported from hereabouts is load
ed from Ship island, lighters carrying it
from the mainland to tiie harbor.
Nearly every nation known to ce.nimerce
is represented in the vessels that an
chor, from forty to sixty at a time, in
the harbor, which is one of the finest
on the coast. But there is something
peculiar about Ship island—and that has
t do with the story.
A MORBID PRIEST.
Tradition has it that during the long
and stormy Voyage the priest, a man
of noble birth and great consecration,
succumbed to a ‘fatal illness, and fpel-
lne his end near, was seized with an
uncontrollable horror of having his body
eaten by (be sharks which swarmed the
V'ntei^s should he be buried at sea, or
pi eyed upon by birds if his grave was
made in the sands. Choosing rather
the latter fate, if it must be one of the
two. he begged to be put away on the
land, but with his last breath implored
hraven that no bird of prey be allowed
to come near his resting place. At that
time countless buzzards soared in num
bers above Ship island, and they vex
ed his dying gaze like the restless
shapes of troubled spirt's; but the body
o' the holy man was buried as he had
r< quested, on the sand-covered point,
where the old fort now stands, and it
Is said never since that time has one
cf these birds been known to light on
that end of the island. It has come
drwn from one century to the next,
and is borne out by pilots of the pres
ent day, the marine hospital surgeon,
the sergeant at the fort, and others,
who claim that while buzzards are nu
merous on the other islands near by,
r.r ne ever light near the spot where
he priest was buried.
Standing on Howard avenue, and look
ing up and down, it is difficult to adjust
the imagination-difficult to think of this
representative and modern little Ameri
can city as at one time an English
and another a Spanish town—at least,
under English and then Spanish rule, as
it was between 1763 and 1798. When
Bienville became commandant in 1720,
he determined to change the site of
’he town, for another 6 miles away, a
cording!v. Old Biioxl was abandoned unci
*
new Biloxi established where it now
stands.
For three years then, until the re
moval in 1723 to New Orleans, Biloxi
was the capital of Louisiana, enjoying
Ji’l the importance and prestige attaer.-
i*'g to the seat of government. But, af
ter this, up to the time of the English
pi ssesion forty years I.i’cr. it sank into
the obscurity which Inevitably follow
ed; and not until less than twenty-five
years ago was it anything but a small
and unimportant place. About that time
it awoke to the activity which now bids
fair to give it the position its advantages
entitle it to.
A long sleep it had. and during ail
that time many relies of early days re
mained undisturbed. Oniy recently, a
most interesting find was made in som ;
ancient arms supposed to be those of a
Spanish soldier or pirate.
SPORTSMAN AND STUDENT.
A man digging at the corner of Jack-
son and Oouevas streets (Couevas was
tjie name of the Biloxi patriot who re
fused to pilot the British vessels into
New Orleans, and instead sent a runner
'to Andrew Jackson, apprising him of
the approach of the British fleet) turned
up with his spade a derringer of the.
fashion of those used by the Spaniards
200 years ago, a sword rusted beyond
any plating, and a pistol of moi'% modern
date, but still of some antiquity.
The student of archeology finds this
part of the coast rich in interest and
discoveries made from time to time; and
the delights offered the sportsman all the
Lighthouse at Biloxi.
year roun*! are as deep as they are
continuous There is no sport so fassci-
na/tlng ds fishing, find "the waters of
the sound are literally .’alive with fish.
-lri.,,j. «iui crab. Wit? Che >prin;, fains
and freshets the large game fish are
driven to salt water, and countless num
bers of shrimp and mullet thrown in the
waters off the mainland; the return ot
•the salt brings a great variety of game
fish. The most abundant are the speck
led trout, which weigh as high as seven
pounds. The Spanish ma<<Jterel come
next, good game, and of fine flavor; then
there are the pompano, blue fish, sheep-
head and’ a variety of pan fish, such as
flounders, croakers, spade fish and moon
fish, and the brook trout, black bass and
salmon, •the favorites with so many fish
ermen.
The man-eating shark, the shovel nose,
“jack fish” (taransj. and other large fish
lend to sport, affording the element of
danger they do. The red fish would be
classed with the tarpon rather than the
others, weighing as much a sixty pounds,
having a tough, leathery mouth, and be
ing game to the last. Though the tarpon
—also called the silver fish, or ‘‘grande
ecaille,” from the size of its scales—
must be r-.rtked the gamest of all fish.
Summer is the season of the tapon, and
in Ship Island pass it is no uncommon
sight to see hundreds of these great fel
lows, some of them weighing 150 to 200
pounds, and to land on* such is sport
worth going after.
Six feet long is considered a. big tarpon,
but the one which was shown at the
Mississippi fish exhibit at the Louisiana
Purchase Exposition measured 7 feet 2
inches, and was brought in by a man
fishing from the Biloxi Yacht Club
wharf. The fish is taken with rod and
reel, and considerable dexterity is required
to land him—he is so strong and the
bony structure of his mouth so hard
Sardines or mullet either makes excellent
bait, but owing to this peculiar hard
ness, scarcely one fish in five is hooked.
Even when the hook is fastened in iln>*
bony mo,Ah, it is no easy ^ matt r to
handle so much weight, and at the same
time control a momentum surprising to
a novice, as the powerful creature jumps
6 feet <mt of the water and makes one
rush after another in his effort to get
away.
The fish, exhibited at St. Louis was a
famous catch, and game as could be.
When it felt the hook It leaped tnto the
air, taking 200 feet off the reel, and
then made a break for open water, dart
ing in and out the anchor chains of the
schooners lying alongside, and giving the
fisherman a hard two hours' chase, lead
ing him a distance, all told, of nearly 5
miles. It is manitieent sport with game
brave enough >to justify the most blatant
pride.
Tiie Mississippi sound was called by a
prominent -statesman “God Almighty's
meat house.’’ and it is carrying out the
figure when the mullet is spoken of as
“Biloxi's bacon,” and the cast net. witli
which It is brought in. the faithful table
servant—Sr more commonly, the “life-
preserver.” In the days before tne great
oyster industry, mullet and crab formed
the chief dependence of the people. The
crab, humble as he is, has never been
despised-^ many million crabs are shipped
every year from Biloxi to ail parts of
the vo intry—but it is chiefly for home
consumption that both are esteemed.
Biloxi's oysters, famed the country over,
the industry constituting the very back
bone of fho place—but that is another
and a long story.
The Biloxi Yacht Club has a hand
some club house, erected- two or three
years ago a* a cost of $3,500. It is
CONTINUED ON LAST PAGE.
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