Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1903 — JUDGE THOMPSON’S TRIP. [ARTICLE]

JUDGE THOMPSON’S TRIP.

■hinks He Will Turn His Face HomePC ward Soon. ■ Dear Journal: —Our daily routine ft to read, eat and sleep. This was varied on last Friday by a trip on a fti-sail boat. Our crew consisted of ftol. Croker, the Shaws, of Sioux City, ■a., the Kanes, of Devil’s Lake, N. D., ■he Johns, of MeDdota, 111., and our Brio—in all fifteen. One sailor tried ho manage the craft. We started for K!at Island, distant twenty miles, at ft a. m. against a breeze. We took fthree long tacks, running back with ■he wind and in three hours were fthree miles from the point of departure near the shore. || We cast anchor, landed, made a fire land ate a basket dinner on the white ■sand. Then we gathered up the shells lon the shore and at 2 P. M. were ■lightered aboard for another sail. ■We tucked and run again. In an honr ■we struck a dead calm and drifted ■with the tide to where we first started. ■We blamed the boat and sailor, while ■he cast the blame with true justice on Ithe wind and the want thereof. We ■were in position to hear what the ■waves were saying for a few sunshiny I hours. The water is shallow and the I only boats we saw were those catch-j-ing oyeters. The point curious to us at Cat Island was a whale that was stranded the day before. We had the boat ride but we did not see the whale. These gulf towns are all in fact summer resorts. The houses are owned largely by those who live in New Orleans. We called at the court house, but none of the officers were in, for it was house cleaning time. The are placed at intervals and pot segregated as in our northern Cities. The distance between them ranges from one fourth to a half mile. A little square store room will hold a small stock of everything like our village sale and only place of traffic. The people live off the tourists and the population in summer is double what it is in winter. The water is too cold for bathing purposes, but from March to November the surf bathing must be fine. Our house looks right square out on the beach and at the end of a long walk are four or five bath houses on stilts. You will note that our hotel advertises hot (in summer) and cold (in winter) baths, but they are all in the sound. No such conveneince is in the house. This is a quiet place. The cooking is a cross between French and Mexican, very hot for our stomachs. We will leave here in a day or two and may turn toward home. We have fat pine to burn and no coal famine is in any of these coast towns. lam glad our home city is trying for a Carnegie library. Would not Milroy Park do as a location? The corner where the old church stood belonging to the school would not be so convenient. If such a building is secured all our library work should be united? S. P. Thompson. uJJay St. Louis, Miss. January 26,1903.