USA > Louisiana > Orleans Parish > New Orleans > Standard history of New Orleans, Louisiana, giving a description of the natural advantages, natural history settlement, Indians, Creoles, municipal and military history, mercantile and commercial interests, banking, transportation, etc. > Part 40
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teachers in the Art Department of Neweomb College. Miss M. M. Seebold, although she modestly styles herself "amateur," is enlisted heart and soul in painting, to which she devotes all her time. She is a pupil of Molinary, and was one of the first women in whose behalf the rigidly exelusive rules originally adopted against the admission of ladies to the Association were relaxed. Miss Secbold is distinetively a flower painter, although she often diverges into other lines. Her canvases meet with warm appreciation and bring good priees.
Miss Jenny Wilde is known as the Carnival Artist from the fact that her time and talent are chiefly devoted to the work of designing the floats and tableaux of one of the most prominent earnival organizations. Miss Wilde is a granddaughter of Richard Henry Wilde, the Irish-Ameriean poet, who had made his home in New Orleans a short time before his death.
Marshall J. Smith, who has been already mentioned as one of the original pro- moters of the Art Union, studied painting first in New Orleans under Clague, and afterward in Europe, where he spent two years, working in various studios in Rome and Munich, traveling and visiting the most noted galleries. On his return to his own country he opened a studio, and for a time devoted himself exclusively to art. Subsequently he became engaged in the insurance business, and painting has sinee oeeupied a secondary position in his active life, if not in his affeetions.
W. H. Buck, a Norwegian by birth, was also a pupil of Clague and painted mueh in the style of his master. He went to Boston and studied for a time, with the effeet of produeing some variation in his manner. Buek was little more than an amateur, although his pictures found purehasers. He was a cotton-weigher by occupation.
There remains to be spoken of the work of Professors William and Ellsworth Woodward, a work which, without question, is destined to prove the most potent faetor in the development of the art spirit in New Orleans, and the creation of an art center whose influenee shall be felt throughout the South.
The work was begun in 1884-85, and seems to have received its first impulse from the bringing together of a vast number of paintings, drawings, seulptures, etc., by the Cotton Centennial Exposition of that year. The impulse led to the organiza- tion of drawing classes in Tulane College and High School, which held a session each afternoon in the gallery of the Government and States building. The follow- ing year free drawing classes were established in connection with Tulane, free to all, and attended by hundreds of men and women, overjoyed to avail themselves of sueh an opportunity. The elasses were under the supervision of Professor William
f
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Woodward, and were continued until the removal of the University to its new build- ing, opposite Audubon Park. From the decorative art classes, composed of women, grew up an Art League which for several years eondueted a "supply store" and "art pottery," a cabinet-maker's shop, reading and exhibition rooms, etc. In this work Professor Woodward was aided by his brother, Ellsworth, who had been seeured as an assistant after the experienees of the first year had demonstrated that the newly opened field promised to yield a rieh harvest. When, in 1887, President Johnston, of Tulane, was engaged in the organization of the H. Sophie Neweomb Memorial College, the art department of the new institution was eonfided to the eare of the Woodward brothers, who continued to work together, both there and in the free drawing elasses, until the enlargement and removal of the Memorial Col- lege to its present location compelled a division of labor. Professor Ellsworth then assumed entire eharge of the Neweomb art elasses, having as assistant Miss Gertrude Roberts, of Boston, while William remained with Tulane, where he now oecupies the position of Professor of Drawing and Arehiteeture in the College of Technology and the University Department.
At Newcomb, Professor Ellsworth Woodward has inaugurated and is earrying forward with ever growing success, a great work, for which ample facilities are afforded by the large and handsome building designed expressly for art purposes. The work falls under three heads: The aeademie and collegiate art studies, which enter into the general plan of a liberal edueation, and in which the objeet is educa- tional, rather than teehnieal; the Normal Art elasses, for which the studies are graded and planned to extend through a period of four years, finally fitting the student to teach art as a profession; and the studio classes, which are eondueted on a plan similar to those of the other art sehools of the country. A noteworthy development in this department is its pottery, which originated a few years since, and has already become an art industry of riehest promise. In this department Professor Woodward is using every means to make the work in every sense native to the loeality. Only Southern clays are used, and experiments are constantly being carried on with new specimens brought to the attention of the director. The stu- dents are eneouraged to seleet their models from objects about them, and the result is that many humble flowers, weeds, insects and members of the great family of crustaeea have been pressed into the serviee of beauty. Specimens of the Newcomb pottery have found their way to Northern cities, where they have elieited much admiration, both for originality of design and beauty of coloring and finish.
The Woodwards are natives of Massachusetts, where their early life was spent.
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They are both graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design. William, after his graduation, spent a summer in Julien's art school at Paris. He paints landscapes and portraits, both in oils and water-colors, and has recently exhibited a number of exquisite fruit pieces. Mr. Woodward is an ex-president of the Artists' Associa- tion, president of the Louisiana Art Teachers' Association, and vice-president of the Louisiana Chautauqua, Ruston, 1898-9.
Ellsworth's studies at the School of Design were supplemented by a term of study in New York and another in Munich, where he was under the instruction of Professor Carl Marr. He is a rapid worker and a master of technique, and his an- nual vacation is a season of fruitful production, whose results are displayed to the public in the studio at the college.
The following extract from a letter from the artist, George H. Clements, to Professor William Woodward, may be taken as an unsolicited expert opinion of the brothers and their work: "As the first days of surprises and contrasts have passed, I am able to recall the delightful impressions of my recent vacation in Louisiana. Among them stands distinctly my visits to you and your brother in your cozy workshops, where I was greatly pleased to see such work as one finds in the most advanced centers of art. I think Tulane and Sophie Newcomb so handsomely equipped in their art departments that their gifted pupils will have nothing to un- learn in the future, which is a rare advantage to be found in any but a few well- known cities. I was so sincerely pleased with your water-colors, in particular, that I wish you might exhibit with us in the Fifty-seventh street gallery. The New York Water-Color Club is an association of the most talented specialists in the country. It seems to me their exhibitions are equal to the best in Paris, and equal to any other I have seen abroad, therefore you will be in excellent company."
With Newcomb and Tulane to spread abroad in the community a practical knowledge of the principles of art, and to furnish a yearly recruited band of finished artists, and the Art Association to foster the art sentiment and to supply inspiration and incentive by placing before the public examples of the best work of the world, it seems permitted to hope that the next casting up of accounts in matters of art may show a large balance on the credit side of the ledger.
CHAPTER XVI.
FLORA OF LOUISIANA.
BY REGINALD S. COCKS
T HE geographical position of Louisiana is such that its flora could hardly fail to be of extreme interest. Traversed through a large portion of its territory by the Mississippi River, it is on the border land of two very distinct floras, "the eastern and western," of which this river forms a very natural division line. From its position again at the mouth of the Mississippi we find that the seeds of many plants which usually live in more northern States are washed down and de- posited on its banks, while on the other hand, the winds and currents of the Gulf wash to its shores many plants belonging rather to more southern climates. When, furthermore, we take into consideration the fact that its climate combines in a remarkable degree the two factors of humidity and warmth, which more than any- thing else are conducive to a luxuriant vegetation, we can hardly be surprised to find its flora exceedingly large and varied.
The surface and soil of Louisiana can be divided into four distinct divisions, each characterized by its own flora. Firstly, there are the cypress swamps, which comprise a great many square miles of Louisiana's territory. The flora of this re- gion is characterized, of course, by the presence of the cypress Taxodium distichum L .; and it is worth noticing that in these cypress swamps there is usually little or no undergrowth of any kind, the ground being often absolutely bare for many miles. Secondly, there are the pine barrens, where, though of course pines are the pre- dominating feature, there is an abundant undergrowth and profusion of wild flowers. In fact, it is in this region that the botanist finds his choicest specimens. 'Thirdly, there are the large open lowland prairies, whose vegetation consists mainly of rank grasses and sedges, though not unfrequently interspersed with flowers of the brightest hue, such as Asclepia paupercula and several varieties of the Hibiscus family. Fourthly, there are what is called the hummock lands, covered by a variety of timber trees, as oaks, magnolias, sweet gums, etc., and with a luxuriant under- growth of creepers, shrubs and flowers of many kinds.
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Probably the earliest investigator of the flora of Louisiana was the historian Le Page du Pratz. Over one hundred years ago he made a report upon it to the French government and sent home for their inspection three hundred species of plants supposed to be of medicinal valuc. Speaking of the flora, he wrote that "the flowers are so varied and so beautiful that the perplexed collector cannot make up his mind which to take and which to leave behind." He was much interested in the so-called Spanish moss, Tillandsia usneoides, which forms such a feature of the Louisiana forests. Not imagining it to be a plant, he calls it "an excrescence," and attributes its early name, Barbe Espagnole, to the likeness which the Indians de- tected in it to the beards of the Spaniards. The first book devoted entirely to the botany of the State was a "Flora Ludoviciana," published in the year 1803 by a French gentleman, C. C. Robin. To him belongs the honor of having been the first to describe very many of the native plants of the State. A few years later this book was enlarged and in many ways improved by Mr. Rafinesque. From time to time after this we find various scattered notices of the flora of Louisiana, but it was not until about the year 1850 that a serious attempt was made to explore the bo- tanical resources of the State. In the year 1851 there was published in The New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal a catalogue of all the flowering plants known at: that time in the State. This catalogue represented the joint labors for twenty years of Professor Riddell, of New Orleans, Professor Carpenter, also of New Or- leans, and Dr. Hale, of Alexandria. It enumerated about sixteen hundred species of flowering plants, but omitted the large and important families of the grasses and sedges. In the troubled times that followed in the succeeding two decades, not only was the study of the flora of the State absolutely neglected, but also the large collections which represented the labors of these three gentlemen were in a great measure ruined or lost, so that the work of exploration had almost to be begun anew. The most prominent workers in the State since that date have been Pro- fessor Featherman, a professor at the Louisiana State University, who about the year 1871 sent to the Smithsonian Institution a report upon the botany of the State, which, however, was never published; Dr. Joor, lately of Tulane University, who died in the year 1892; and the Rev. Father A. B. Langlois, now of St. Martinville, La. To the latter gentleman more perhaps than to all the others we owe our pres- ent knowledge of the flora of the State. Gifted with the power of the closest observation, this indefatigable worker has devoted all his leisure time for many years to the study of the botany of the State, with a success that has fallen to the lot of few. His name will be always indissolubly associated with the study of botany
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in Louisiana. He published, in the year 1886, a provisional catalogue, not only of the flowering plants, grasses and sedges of the State, but also of the flowerless plants, including the ferns, mosses, fungi, etc.
As a result of the labors of these gentlemen, and perhaps of some few others, there are at present known to exist in the State about twenty-two hundred different species of phanerogamic plants growing without cultivation, and no doubt this number will be increased when the whole State shall have been thoroughly ex- plored.
No part of the flora of any region is of more general interest than its trees, of which there are in Louisiana about one hundred and thirty different kinds. Fore- most of these, both in its economic importance and in the number of individuals, is the Long-leafed Pine, Pinus palustris Miller, known also in Louisiana under the names Southern Pine, Yellow Pine, Hard Pine, Heart Pine, and elsewhere by a variety of other names. Some idea of the importance of this tree to the State of Louisiana may be gathered from the fact that during the year 1892 it was estimated that 275,000,000 feet were sawn up in the different mills throughout the State. Besides the Yellow Pine, there are three other pines found in more or less abundance in different parts of the State. These are the Loblolly Pine, Pinus tada L .; the Short-leafed Pine, Pinus echinata Miller; and the Cuban Pine, Pinus heterophylla Ell.
Of hardly less importance than the pine is the Cypress, Taxodium distichum L., which forms such a feature of the Louisiana swamps. The curious so-called Cypress knees have long been, and still are, an interesting puzzle to botanists.
The Oak family is well represented throughout the State by fifteen different species, prominent among which might be mentioned the Live Oak, Water Oak, Red Oak, Spanish Oak, Post Oak, Chestnut Oak, etc. The Live Oaks, especially in the vicinity of New Orleans, have long been famous for their size and beauty.
The Magnolia is represented by five different species, and the Hickory by seven, including the well-known Pecan. Of the Sour Gum or Nyssa, known also by the name Tupelo, three kinds occur in abundance in the swampy regions. Without attempting to give a catalogue of the trees of the State, it is hardly possible to omit the names of the Liriodendron, or Tulip tree, the Beech, the Elm, represented by five different species ; the Ash by four, the Hackberry by two, the Maple by four, and the Chestnut by two, while the Sycamore, Sweet Gum, Walnut, Red Bay, Lin- den and Mulberry are all more or less plentiful. Several trees, though not native, have become so completely naturalized as to deserve mention. Amongst these are the
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Fig tree, the Crape Myrtle, the Paper Mulberry, the Umbrella tree, Melia azederach L., and perhaps even to a certain extent, the Orange tree.
Of equal value to the trees of any region are the grasses and forage plants oc- curring in it, and of these Louisiana has a bountiful share. There are known to the writer something over two hundred different kinds of grasses, with habits so various that the season is indeed short when some species is not available for pas- ture. How large a number of species of grasses two hundred means may be better understood when it is stated that in Great Britain, which has been explored botani- cally in a way Louisiana will not be for many years to come, there are only one hundred and twenty. Amongst grasses particularly characteristic of Louisiana may be mentioned the Wild Rice, the magnificent Giant Millet, Chaetochloa magna, which frequently attains a height of seven or eight feet, and the various species of "plume grass," Erianthus.
Hardly second in importance numerically to the grasses are the sedges and rushes, of which there are about one hundred and seventy kinds occurring in the State. Though of little use economically, in which respect they differ greatly from their near relatives, the grasses, they form such a feature of the lowlands of Lou- isiana that even the most casual observer could hardly fail to be struck by their abundance and variety. Cladium effusum, or Saw grass, the giant of the family, frequently attains a height of eight or nine feet, and its dark chestnut brown spikes are very conspicuous in the prairie swamps around New Orleans.
Outside of the grass family the order next in importance from an economic standpoint is perhaps the Leguminosæ, or Bean family ; for to this family belong the majority of plants, exclusive of grasses, useful for forage purposes. This family is well represented in Louisiana by about one hundred and twenty species. Of these, the most important is, perhaps, the well-known Lespedeza striata, or Japan Clover, which, though not a native of the State, has become so extensively natural- ized that it shares with the Bermuda grass and Crab grass the honor of being the most valuable pasture food in this region. Though composed principally of herbs, there are some few trees belonging to this order found in the State, among them the Red Bud or Judas trce, Cercis canadensis ; the False Acacia or Robinia; and a very handsome tree naturalized from Mexico, Parkinsonia aculeata, now thoroughly at home in certain parts of the State.
The largest order of plants in Louisiana is the Compositae, or Thistle family, of which there are over three hundred different species. Though very few plants of this large order are of much economic importance, it contains so many showy
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flowers, especially those which bloom in the autumn, that it deserves more than passing mention. The Goldenrods, of which we have in Louisiana about twenty-nine different kinds, and the Asters, about the same number, are the two largest represen- tatives of this family. To this same family also belongs what, in the writer's opin- ion, is the handsomest wild flower in the State, Stokesia cyanea, which, though very common in the pine barrens, and of a magnificent purplish blue, a rare color, has not so far been honored with a popular name, and is by no means so well known as it deserves.
Of edible berries and wild fruits, Louisiana has a fair share. It is sufficient, perhaps, to mention here the Muscadyne grape, the Blackberry, the Huckleberry, the Pawpaw, two or three kinds of Plum, the Persimmon, Hickory and Pecan nuts ; while on the other hand the poisonous plants are few in number, two only, perhaps, being deserving of special notice-the Poison Sumac and the Poison Oak.
With brilliant flowering trees and shrubs the State is abundantly supplied, as anyone can testify who, at the end of February or beginning of March, has seen the woods a blaze of color with the bright yellow Jesamine, Gelsemium semper- virens, the snow-white Dogwoods, Cornus floridana, and the quaint Daddy Graybeard or Fringe tree, Chionanthes virginica. While, as should be expected from the large amount of standing water throughout the State, there is a very great abundance of Water Lilies and other water-loving plants.
In conclusion, it might be said that, though perhaps the flora of Louisiana lacks the tropical beauty of that of Florida, or the stupendous grandeur of the for- ests of California, yet in the diversity and variety of its plant life it is second prob- ably to no State in the Union.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW ORLEANS.
BY B. R. FORMAN, JR.
N THE following sketch of the bench and bar of New Orleans, but a brief men- tion has been made, on account of the limit of space, of some of the distinguished. figures. For the same reason many who would be entitled to an extended notice in a complete work upon the subject have necessarily been omitted.
For the preparation of the biographical sketch of Judge Martin, acknowledg- ment is made to the admirable life of Judge Martin by Judge W. W. Howe, prefaced to Gresham's edition of Martin's history. For the preparation of the other sketches numerous authorities have been consulted ; Appleton's Encyclopedia of American Biography for some; the eulogies in the Louisiana Annuals for others, and other authorities.
The quotations from Charles Gayarre relative to many of the subjects of these sketches are taken from an article of that author entitled "New Orleans Bench and Bar in 1823," published in Harper's Magazine in 1888.
For much of the information contained in the introductory sketch acknowl- edgment is made to an article in the New Orleans Book of 1851, by Mr. Henry J. Leovy, of the New Orleans bar, entitled "Louisiana and Her Laws."
In the early days it was a question whether the laws of Louisiana were the laws of France or of Spain. Until 1769, when Don O'Reilly took possession of the colony in the name of Spain, the laws of Louisiana were the laws of France. The Fif-
. teenth Article of the charter of the Mississippi Company provided that the "Judges established in the aforesaid places shall be held to judge according to the laws and ordinances of the Kingdom (of France) ; and to conform themselves to the Pro- vosty and Viscounty of Paris." Crozat's charter contained the same provision. When O'Reilly took possession, however, he issued a proclamation establishing the laws of Spain and giving a synopsis of them in the proclamation itself, because the "limited knowledge which the King's new subjects possess of the Spanish laws might render a strict observance of them difficult." The question that arose after the
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cession to the United States was whether the proclamation of O'Reilly had repealed the laws of France. Jefferson seems to have held one opinion and Judge Martin another. As both systems of law took their origin from the same source practically, the difference was not great.
It was not until 1828 that the Legislature of Louisiana abolished the Roman, French and Spanish laws previously in existence. As late as 1819 the Legislature had ordered the publication of such part of the Spanish Partidas as were still in force.
The people of Louisiana, under the rule of Spain, were governed by the Fuero Viego, Fuero Juzco, Partidas, Recopilaciones, Leyes de las Indias, Autos Accorda- dos, and Royal Schedules.
The Civil Code of Louisiana to-day is founded on the Code Napoleon. Many of its articles are but translations of that code. There are amendments of the dif- ferent Legislatures to different parts of it; the original compilers, Messrs. Brown and Moscau Lislet in 1808 and Messrs. Livingston, Derbigny and Lislet in 1825, made various changes, yet substantially it is the Code Napoleon still, and it is the boast of French and of Louisiana lawyers that that code has never been surpassed in any country in the world.
The original Louisiana Code of 1808 was taken from the projet of the Code Napoleon. The Code of 1825, which was revised in 1870 (the Revised Civil Code of 1870 is the present Louisiana Civil Code) was taken from the Code Napoleon itself.
From the earliest time the Roman Corpus Juris Civilis and its commentators were cited in the courts with the Spanish law writers during Spanish times, and since the cession to the United States the French commentators on the Code Napo- leon and Pothier have been constantly resorted to.
When it is considered that in addition to being a civilian, which, whatever the merits of the controversy between the learned in the civil and in the common law with regard to the merits of their respective systems, implies beyond dispute an acquaintance with a greater body of law than a common law lawyer has to apply himself to, the Louisiana lawyer has to acquaint himself with the Federal jurispru- dence followed in the Federal courts, derived from the common law and of a totally different system, it is seen that the Louisiana lawyer must necds be learned in the law to a degree that is unessential to his brother lawyers in other parts of the coun- try. It is this acquaintance with two systems undoubtedly that has broadened the minds of the New Orleans lawyers and helped to render so many of them distin- guished in proportion to their total number.
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