The Maupin times., April 16, 1915, Image 2

OLD BUTE COUPEE
Being a Story of 'Cajan Island
People, Particularly About
Bebe and Didi.
By F. H. LANCASTER.
Pointe Coupee is very old. The
French settled it In oh, well, this
Isn't history. The town Point Coupee
is the third oldest settlement in the
United States. Comes next to Santa
Fe. And the Parish Pointe Coupee to
old, too and French, too. There is
where the Acadian settled when the
English deported him in but Long
fellow tells about that The place Is
called " 'Cajan island." It isn't an
Island, it is an isthmus. But when
False river is a lake and Bayou Sara
Is a town. They do things that way
In Pointe Coupee.
On 'Cajan iBland people keep their
names in the courthouse and do busi
ness under their nicknames. That is
the reason why there are so many
Bebes' and Cherie's. Men called
Cherle. It isn't exactly according to
grammar, but then it is a long ways
from grammar over on the island.
Long ways, yes. More than a hun
dred years.
Bebe Captain's name wae in the
courthouse, and maybe the assessor
knew what it was, but Bebe never
bothered about it. Time enough to
look it up when he went to get his
marriage license. His grandfather
had been nicknamed Captain. Natur
ally his father had become Petit
Captain, and he, Bebe Captain.
Voilal Could a man come more fair
ly by a name?
Bebe Captain kept a store where
he sold powder and shot and whis
ky, of course. That was about all
there was to sell, because the women
on the island make the cloth and
plait the hats as they use to do in
Evangeline's time, and the men kill
ducks and raise rice and cowpeas.
Well, maybe Bebe did sell some cof
fee. . But he did not make his money
on what he sold. He made it on what
he bought. Hal That is all right
Wasn't he doing business in Pointe
Coupee? The 'Cajans all raise cow
peas to sell and there is good money
in cowpeas if you know how to buy
them. And Bebe knew. Some said
be knew too well and that that was
why there was bad blood between
him and Cherle Trador. But the sage
shook his head, slowly, as a sage
should.
The sage lived next door to Ma
dame TuUy and had been known to
spade in her tobacco bed. Madame
Tutsy was a widow. M. Tutsy had
died when Didl was as tall as the ta
ble and with rice and cowpeaB and
crawfish outside, and spinning and
weaving and sewing Inside the house
and the sage over the fence Ma
dame had enough to do without bring
ing up Dldl. So Didi had brought
herself up, and gayer wag never
faced the marriage question at four
teen years of age. But though all
the Island Bhook the head over that
bringing up there were two who
thought that Didl had made a very
good Job of it. Bebe Captain held
her to be all that heart of man
could desire, and Charlie Trador swore
to have her for his wife.
Eh, blenl It Is easy to Bwear, but
Dldl raised her long luaheB and
dropped thom deftly. Then she part
ed perfect Hps over perfect teeth and
laughed the sweetest laugh in the
world. And what may a man's oath
avail in the presence of a woman's
laughter T Bebe coaxed to no better
purpose. The boys came together in
desperation.
"We want you to choose, Dldl."
"But I don't know, me, which one
to chooBe."
Simultaneously and most eagerly
they offered to pit their prowess.
Fight? Didi tossed her head. She
had brought herself up to hold fight
ing vulgar. Beside 'Cajan flBtlcuffs
not infrequently end in a funeral.
She might find out too late which
one she liked best Riding? Swim
ming? Shooting? If not vulgar, they
were all common. Didl held it stupid
to do what everbody else did. What
then? Ask her mother? Ah, hoavenl
how merry Dldl made with that sug
gestion, while her lovers stood be
fore her, gloomy and perplexed.
"You got to make your mind," Che
rle declared hotly. Dldi's eyes nar
rowed a bit, but she laughed.
"Well," she said, "I make my mind.
Easter Sunday when I see which one
eats moBt eggs."
"C'eet bont" exolaimed Cherle,
"What wake you look so happy, Bebe,
bar
Bebe did not look happy. A man
that keeps a store can never hope to
eat as much as a man that hunts and
flaues. And everybody knew that
Cherle Trador bad once eaten two
teal ducks at a sitting. He turned
pleadingly to Didi.
"I don't tlnk me, das fair."
"Pourquol?" Bhe demanded sweet
ly. Bebe blushed and stammered: "If
I don't break's many eggs aa him, I
can't eat's many,"
Cherle cut In uproariously: "You
can't eat's many fall," he taunted.
"If each man eat all eggs he break,
won't das be fair?" Bebe gnawed
ihls lip, Cherle shouted with laughter;
iDldl smiled still more sweetly.
;"Blen," Bhe said, "we fix it like das."
' It is the custom on the Island for
'all good 'Cajans to carry baskets
iwhen they go to church on Easter
morning. Some of these baskets
have fighting cocks in them, but the
majority contain eggs, gaily colored.
After church, those that have cocks
get together tor a chicken fight and
the others fight eggs. Didl, Cherle
and Bebe all had eggs in their bas
kets, and they got together as quick
ly as they could in a quiet corner of
the graveyard.
Dldl was gay; Cherle, hilarious;
and Bebe, clinging to his only hope
that he would not break any eggs.
"Me first," cried Cherle, and of
fered battle to Didl. The eggs came
together, Cherie's broke, and Didl
put her prize Into the grass beside
her and offered battle to Bebe. And
Bebe had to put a prize into the
grass beside him. "I didn't want it,
Dieu salt" he reflected sadly, and
offered battle to Cherle. Cherie's
egg cracked sharply. Only one round
and Bebe . had t two eggs to eat
against his opponents' none.
Bad? But it got worse. Every
time he fought eggs with Dldl, her
egg broke. Round after round, it
was the same thing. The wretched
thought that she was doing it on pur
pose wrung his heart His hand got
shaky, his attacks went wild. Smash
ing into the soft side instead of
lightly tapping the hard end, as Che
rle always did. And the way those
eggs piled up in the grass beside him.
He had a dozen before Cherle had
two. And who In the world could
eat a dozen hard-boiled eggs at a
single sitting?
Voila. Cherle knew he could do it
and more, too. When the fight was
over he looked at his little pile of
18 and laughed. He had eaten nothing
Bince yesterday. What Is a dozen and
a half eggs to a hungry man even if
they are hard-boiled? He slipped off
the shell and shot an egg into his
mouth.
"Why don't you go to work, Bebe?"
he Jeered.
Bebe looked at his pile of 80 and
dropped his chin to his breast
"Ain't you going eat any eggs?"
Dldl queried.
"I can't eat all dose," he admitted
wretchedly.
"You ain't going try?" BQ3 inquired
sweetly.
Bebe shook his bead. He did not
look at her, neither did he look at
Cherle. He Just Bat there stubbornly
seeing the thing through. Watching
Cherie's hand as it came and went
so rapidly cutting down that pile of
prizes. And Cherle kept popping in
eggs, and crowing over his defeated
rival. "And you can't eat t'irty eggs!
Morbleu, I could eat 60!"
Eh blen, maybe he could have eat
en 50 If they hadn't been hard-boiled.
But hard-boiled eggs have such a knav
ish trick of multiplying after they are
swallowed. By the time Cherle had
swallowed five eggs be felt like it was
ten, by the time be had swallowed ten
he felt like It was 40. And there were
eight more yet Cherle hesitated. Dldl
looked up. "Don't you t'lnk you eat
"nough?" she Inquired mildly.
"No. Mon Dieu! I eat two dozen
most every day." He got on his feet
and, standing over her, deliberately
forced down the remaining eight Eh
blen, the last one got as far as his
throat, but could go no farther. Che
rle choked unpardonably, wrapped
himself In his arm and sunk upon
the nearest grave.
Dldl got up without looking at him.
"I t'ink, me, I go home now," she
said, and looked at Bebe.
Bebe jumped up. "You want me to
go wit' you," he began dazedly.
'Want you. Das nice. Ain't you
been begging me for six mont's?"
"I fought, me, you said you was
going to see who eat most "
'And you t'lnk I want make marry
wit' one who eats most? Ha, maybe
you t'lnk I want make marry wit' one
cochon?"
"Dldl!"
Dldl had the grace to blush at that
cry of Incredulous Joy. Cherle groan
ing in the grass heard but could not
hejp it "Hog!" she called him a
hog. Hoaven knows he felt like one,
and a sick hog at that Oh, if he
only had a thousand less eggs inside
of htm he'd teach Bebe Captain bow
to put up a Job on him.
Voila. A customer coming in next
day with something to sell found
Bebe and Cherle down on the floor
together too busy to talk, and he says
they fell out about some cowpeas.
But the sage says he won't have to
wait until Bebe Captain goes to the
courthouse to get their names before
he can tell what the girl's name is.
Says Dldl kept him awake half the
night Bitting in the moonlight sing
ing. And, mon ami, if anybody talk to
you about this story and shake the
head and say: "Das ain't so," Just
you ask him: 'You been here?" And
when he say: "No, but I been on
Bayou Bienvleu." Then you say: "Ha,
Bayou Bienvleu ain't Pointe Coupee."
(Copyright, by Dally Story Pub. Co.)
Fan Ventilation.
Though an electric fan brings re
freshing coolness In hot places, it
does not ventilate a closed room, and
Langlals and Satory, French experi
menters, have found that the ordinary
fan tends to lessen the air's purity in
stead of increasing It the stirring up
of dust being probably responsible
for a large addition to the bacteria.
During dancing in a ballroom the
number of bacteria per cubic yard of
the air rose from 4,000 to 720,000. For
ventilation an ozone generator may
be used with the fan, or an exhaust
fan may be placed in a hole in the
outer wall so as to pump out the viti
ated air, when, of course, fresh air
will take its place.
Up Against It
"Qrowcher always looks worried.
Why doesn't he think of something
pleasant?"
Well, he has himself kind of whip-
sawed. The only thing he can think
of with pleasure Is money. And he
can't think of money without worrying."
Making Tomorrow's
World
By WALTER WILLIAMS, LL.D.
(Dm nflhe Sctmlofjoamailm tfllm UntmtUy 1 Miami)
THE GERMAN CITY-ITS
Cologne, G e r
many The mod
ern German city
is, in a double
sense, a factory
product It did
not "Just grow,"
as Topsy, but it
has been manu
factured. The
reason for its
manufacture has
usually been the
development of
the local factory.
This generaliza
tion must be
modified by ex
ceptions, of
course. Trans
portation, c o m
merce, music, art
and education
have contributed to the recent growth
of Borne German cities. The majority,
however, machine-made as other fac
tory products, are the results of an
Industrialism which tends everywhere
to urbanization. Examples of the old
Germany may yet be seen In the an
cient quarters of Munich, Nuremburg,
Frankfort and other towns, but for
these one may look in vain along the
boulevards and In the modern sections
of cities which have grown to great
ness in the present generation. These
are the cities of the new Germany.
Upon their stucco the paint is hardly
dry.
Outwardly Attractive.
There are two sides to the German
city the outside and the Inside. The
outside is ordinarily beautiful and
attractive. The boulevards are broad
and airy; the open places are many
and artistic; the streets are well
paved and are clean usually by wom
en sweepers; the lighting, excellent;
the sanitation, good; cathedrals are
stately, and the older ones, at least
picturesque; the newer public build
ings, though often coldly regular and
L1 is rS3
Bridge Over Rhine at Cologne.
stiff In architectural design, are spa-
clous and impressive.
People's Food Carefully Supervised.
The German lives much in the
open air. We find the gardens in the
modern cities, even In weather that
seems unseasonable, thronged. There
is much drinking of beer, but little
intoxication, much festivity, but little
bolsterousness. The German is care
ful though comprehensive In his eat
ing. The German city provides mu
nicipal slaughter houses, where meat
is prepared for Bale under strict regu
lation against taint; open air and
covered market halls, where fresh veg
etables, fish, poultry and other food
products are Bold; and has a ceaseless
supervision of bakeries, dairies and
breweries. In Berlin and some other
cities the meat from the slaughter
house 1b stamped, "unbednigt tang
llch" free of all possible taint The
city arranges for the sale of other
meat, not thus free from taint but
which can be uBed for food without
danger to health, at municipal estab
lishments called the "Frei Banke,"
where it is bought at low prices and
at certain fixed hours by the poor.
The German loves music and the
theater and bo the German city pro
vides municipal opera bouses where
the best artists may be heard, often
at prices within the reach of the poor
est-pald laborer.
Cities Deal In Real Estate.
The German city provides public
baths and disinfecting establishments.
It owns Its own street cars. Berlin
Is a notable example, but in Berlin
a heavy tax on the gross receipts of
the street-car system is levied. It
buys and holds tractB of land In and
adjacent to the city for the construc
tion of houses for business or resi
dence purposes, sells or leases this
land and thus controls the growth and
development of the city itself. This
last function of the German city is
responsible for much of the best re
lults of the municipal town planning
ind house planning in the empire.
These are some features of the Ge
GOOD AND EVIL
man city. Beyond flower pots in the
windows, let us glance at the German
city on the Inside.
The German city does not govern
Itself it le governed. True it elects
its own town council, which, in turn,
selects the burgomaster or mayor, and
has general control of municipal af
fairs. The electors, however, are di
vided into voting groups, according
to wealth, by which the man of aver
age property has only a small part in
the election. Somewhat different suf
frage systems exist in the different
German states. Indeed, It should be
remembered in observations upon Ger
many that not only is there an old and
a new Germany, but a northern and
a southern Germany, a Prussia, a Ba
varia, a Saxony, a Baden, and in the
differences between them, though not
the distances, are equally as large as
and in many ways larger than those
between Pennsylvania and Texas,
Massachusetts and California. Ger
many, however, with all Its internal
differences of social and administra
tion life, has been called, with much
appropriateness, a magnified Prussia.
Voting Strength Gauged by Wealth.
The method of electing town coun
cillors in the cities of Prussia may
serve as an illustration of how the
people of these cities do not govern
themselves. In each voting district
the total of the state tax paid is di
vided into three parts and the voters,
all males of twenty-five years of age
and upwards, are also divided into
three classes, each class electing one-
third of the council. The first class
consists of the heaviest taxpayers,
whose payments total one-third of the
whole sum of the district; the second
class consists of the next heaviest tax
payers, whose taxes also amount to a
third of the total; while the third
class consists of the smallest taxpay
ers. The first class sometimes has
only one or two voters In it the sec
ond only a few, while the third will
have several hundred or even thou-
mm.
Bands. Each class has, however, the
same voting strength. This gives, of
course, to the heavy taxpayers many
times the voting strength of the small
taxpayer.
A Berlin newspaper, in pointing out
some results of this three-class sys
tem, showed that in one voting dis
trict one taxpayer with an annual in
come of $10,000 was the entire first
class; in an adjoining and very poor
district ten men, whose taxes were
only $25 each, constituted the first
class, and added that if the Berliner
with the $10,000 income had voted in
the rich Thlergarten quarter he
"would have been In the third class,
like the imperial chancellor, Herr von
Bethmann Hollweg." Actually there
are 200,000 voters In the first class,
900,000 In the second, and more than
6,000,000 in the third. If the suffrage
system of Prussia prevailed In the
United States, Andrew Carnegie, John
D. Rockefeller and others, would In
their respective districts, ' constitute
the entire first class.
Councilors High-Class Men.
Whatever criticism may be made
of this electoral system from other
viewpoints, it has resulted, generally,
In electing to the position of town
councilors nign-ciass and public-spirited
men. This evil has attached to it
however, that the men thus chosen
have reflected too often and too ex
clusively the wishes and Interests of
their rich constituents. The new Ger
man city, as made or permitted by
them if anything Is really officially
permitted in Germany is too largely
an aristocratlo municipality rather
than a democratic community, for
show to the few rather than for use
by the many.
Publio service, giving, as it does
In Germany, a coveted social position,
attracts many Germans of the highest
character. The call to civic dutv is
one which no German refuses. The
law which punishes with a fln anv
person declining to accept the office
of councilor after election is said to
bare proved unnecessary. Germans
y
;
accept these positions, without salary,
and with no patronage, because of the
prestige and, chiefly, from a high
sense of civic patriotism.
In some of the larger cities of Ger
many citizen deputies are appointed
by the council to advise and aid it
In Berlin are about a hundred, serv
ing without pay, drawn from all ranks,
assisting in various important func
tions of government, particularly
those having to do with city social
and philanthropic work. This unusual
feature of municipal government has
brought to the service of the city
many experts who have contributed
much to the development on right
lines of the modern German city.
Mayor a Business Director.
Distinguishing features of German
city administrations are their perma
nency and the business method on
which they are conducted. The town
councilors are elected for six years,
one-third every two years. The bur
gomaster or mayor is chosen for
twelve years. In nearly every city
are public officials who have been re
elected for twenty or more years. City
administration has become a business
in which the German does not wlBh
amateurs. The mayor Is chosen as
the business director of a great cor
poration. It is not unusual to find
in a German newspaper an advertise
ment for a mayor! Some German
City, having lost its mayor, wishes the
best to be had In the empire and ad
vertises for one with experience as
mayor. Frequently as mayor of
large city Is chosen a man who is
serving with conspicuous success as
mayor in a smaller town. The Ger
man system secures a continuous pol
icy of city administration and one
in which business rather than poli
tics rules. That the system is too
often controlled by big business is a
result of the electoral plan under
which it Is chosen rather than of the
system Itself. This electoral plan is
sixteenth-century German feudalism
brought down to date.
Housing Conditions Bad.
The German city, despite the benev
olent bureaucracy of its highly organ
ized administration, has left much to
be desired in actual municipal life.
Upon looking within we find oppres
sive restrictions, high rents, crowded
quarters, the slum and the German
"barrack-house." The average Ger
man, laborer, mechanic, clerk or small
merchant, does not live on the boule
vards or near the open places. His
home is in small rooms, with outlook
upon a dark courtyard where innu
merable carpets are beaten twice
week. Flats, with congested quarters,
take the place of the detached dwel
ling ' houses which are familiar in
American cities. Clean streets but
gloomy and dark interiors, lacking air
but not lacking dust and noise, are
the rule in the larger German cities.
It may be questioned whether the
bright boulevards and the red gera
niums in the balcony windows com
pensate to the city as a whole for the
dullness, stuffiness and worse of the
average citizen's actual living rooms.
How far all this could be prevented
by municipal effort, it is impossible
to say.
When the outside of the German
city Is commended, however, and the
admirable features of its municipal
administration, the unsolved problem
of the barrack-flat" makes a consid
erable offset to the merited praise,
In London six per cent, of the popu
lation live in "dwellings" or one room,
in Berlin 41 per cent. The declining
birth rate In the German cities a few
babies are more to be desired than
many boulevards is, to a degree, the
result of the lamentable housing con
ditions. Municipal Land Ownership.
A Striking feature nf thn Herman
city is its ownership of land. Within
ten years f'ranwort has expended $50,
000.000 in buvine real estat Ann" nnv
owns more than half, of the land on
wuiuu uie cny scanas. Berlin owns
39,000 acres, Munich 15,000, and other
cities own large tracts. It Is urged
in favor Of munlcinal Invpatmont In
land that it enables the municipality
to carry out adequate plans for town
building. keenlnir factorieR tncotlmr
opening desirable streets and parks,
proviamg oetter conditions and pre
venting the land SDeculatlon
deforms and disfigures so many
towns, small as well as large. An
other argument urged in its favor is
that in this way the municipality, not
private individuals, who usually have
done little or nothing tn hi-ln u nhmit
o --
gets the benefit of the unearned in
crement wnich comes with the city's
growth. This ownership, nf Innil with
the financial profit therefrom has In
many uerman cities reduced or elimi
nated taxation and made the munici
palities rich.
Mutt Improve Living Conditions.
In any view of the German Mt tn.
day it will be found that
Of the platter has been
lously clean, but within there are yet
aeao. men s Dones. The chief problem
of the German citv'a inativ
business administration has now be
come tnat of making flowers to bloom
and lights to shine and breathAhin ir
to come in the inside where the people
live, to save the babies without losing
the boulevards.
In these benevolent and business
municipalities today, careful about
many little things handing the visi
tor a cab ticket lest he lose himself
and numbering the VerV nlffAnna nn
their roosts lest too many pfennigs are
paid tor pigeon food the chief con
sideration tomorrow will be for the
men and women, little as well as
big, who are the town.
For even the German city Is made
for the residents thereof. The resi
dent Is not made for the German city.
This fundamental fact Is Just now be
Ing realized In all its largeness by the
dwellers in the German city.
(Copyright 1314, b; Joseph a BowlesJ
fbTthef
limi
EXCESSIVE ATHLETICS HURT
Coach Courtney of Cornell Recom
mends That Universities Take
Entire Control of Sports.
Mr. Courtney, the Cornell rowing
coach, who for many years has been
actively identified with university ath
letlcB, has spoken out strongly
against the system under which uni
versity athletics are conducted. "If
athletics are not a good thing, they
ought to be abolished. If they are a
good thing for the boys, it would seem
to me wise for the university to take
over and control absolutely every
branch of sport; do away with this boy
management; stop this foolish squan
dering of money; and see that the
athletics of the university are run in
a rational way."
Besides making these criticisms and
recommendations, Mr. Courtney has
commented on the declining standards
of university athletes, as measured by
their class work, According to him,
an Increasing number of men who en
gage in university athletics show
mediocre rank In scholarship. Former
ly the university athlete of distinction
was desired and sought for upon grad
uation by business men; he was pre
sumed to have qualities that would
make him exceptionally useful or suc
cessful. Now the athlete Is no longer
In such high demand; instead, it Is
the man who has shown special ca
pacity in the more technical or scienti
fic branches of his college training.
The celebrated athlete, it begins to ap
pear, is so specialized in athletics as
not to seem promising for any other
pursuit. He is no longer the "all'
around man" that his predecessor of a
past generation was thought to be.
Very likely these generalizations are
not wholly fair to the present-day ath
lete or to present-day athletics. They
are significant, however, as indicating
t gradual change that is taking place
In public opinion.
CRIES LIKE A HUMAN BABY
But Unlike the Real Infant, Its Noises
Are Under Control Doll Is Btrilt
on a Spring.
Something new In doll babies Is
making its way into the nurseries, the
recent invention,, of a German. The
baby is built on a spring, which main
tains the body part in a distended
condition. When this is collapsed as
by a squeeze of the hand the air is
permitted to escape readily, but In
Baby With a Real Cry.
assuming its normal shape undei the
action of the spring the outside air is
drawn into the interior and in its nas-
sage a noise like that made by an in
fant in crying Is made.
PARTICULAR USES FOR FLAGS
Black Banner From Time Immemorial
Has Been Unfurled as Flag of
Piracy Red Denotes Danger.
"Strike the flag" is to lower thn pnl.
ors in token of submission.
"Dipping the flag" is lowerinir It and
hoisting it again in salute to a vessel
or fort.
A "flag of truce" is a whtt flnor
taken before an enemy to indicate a
desire for consultation.
The black flag from time Immemrv
rial has been unfurled as the flaar nf
piracy.
A yellow flag flown from a vbarbI a
a sign of disease and denotes quaran
tine. A flag at half-mast denote mnnrn.
ing. When a man Is lost at sea the
vessel returns with its flag at half
mast to announce the tidings of death.
wnen the president of thn TTnUort
States embarks In his barge the Ameri
can flag is hoisted in the bow and at
the main of the vessel.
Flags are everywhere used as thn
symbol of rank, and the office wh nun
rank lc Indicated by them are called
nag omcers.
The red flag Is a sign of defiance and
is often employed by disturbers of the
peace. It is also used to denote dan
ger. Slow Sleeper.
Bridget a servant girl, was taken
to task for oversleeping herself. "Well,
ma'am," she said, "I sleep very slow
and bo it takes me a long white to
get me night's rest