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artO/iru-M 17, f905 mm ■.'.'jwirtwiwi : :;. -v#>\ 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. I