Terrebonne County Louisiana Archives News.....An Excursion!! (part 4) May 10, 1873
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The Thibodaux Sentinel May 10, 1873

Superintendent Boyd of the State University, to whose indomitable energy and 
perseverance, the existence of this admirable school is indebted more than to 
any other individual, received our party kindly and proceeded to escort us 
through the various departments.

The principal rooms and parlor are ornamented with fine paintings. The most 
noted is the famous painting of Julio, representing Gen. Lee, giving his orders 
to Stonewall Jackson on the eve of Battle. This it was hoped would be secured 
for the Institute but Col. Boyd thinks it doubtful whether money enough can be 
raised to pay for it. As I looked upon this magnificent painting and reflected 
that in all Louisiana means could not be obtained to place permanently in this 
noble institution of learning, this beautiful specimen of art illustrating the 
last meeting of two of the noblest, greatest, purest heroes of this or any age 
or country, in a position to be seen daily by the young men who will receive 
their education in this University, silently imprinting upon their minds, 
impressions of virtue and honor that time can never efface, I turned sadly away, 
saying in my heart, “poor Louisiana! It was not always so. Ruin, poverty, and 
sorrow reign supreme in thy devastated borders.”

In the same room are fine paintings of Gen. Graham of Rapides who is looked upon 
as the Father of the University, Gen. Sherman its first Superintendent, and ever 
warm and devoted friend and patron, and of several other persons whose names are 
more or less connected with the Institution.

In another room I found Prof. Lockett, at work upon a map of Louisiana which is 
undoubtedly the best map of this State ever made. At a glance you can tell the 
nature of the soil, the trees &c. of any spot or Parish in the State. After a 
critical examination of the Lafourche district I considered it, with one or two 
trivial errors, as near perfect as human ingenuity could devise.

The Professor was making a smaller map for exhibition, as the one I examined is 
some eight by ten feet in size.

The museum contains a great variety of Birds, animals, and insects from the head 
of an elephant to a bug just big enough to bite, and the Surgeon Dr. King in 
charge, was busy explaining the different varieties and specimens.

I noticed a striped serpent that he had in a glass jar, filled with alcohol, 
that was moving about in the liquid. To my inquiry he stated that “the snake 
ought to have been dead by that time, but they sometimes lived a good while in 
Alcohol.”

I had frequently heard of creatures living outside of a quantity of Alcohol but 
never saw one living in that liquid before.

The Doctor’s dissertation on serpents may have been interesting to my 
companions, but I am not very strong on snakes and turned my attention to an 
examination of Ostriches, birds, Squirrels, and Kangaroos.

The Library contains a large collection of Works on almost all conceivable 
subjects, and is admirably arranged for a reading Room. There is a chemical 
Department which is arranged for practical experimenting by the students and is 
doubtless a valuable assistant to students of Chemistry.

The students are ordered to collect all sorts of plants, flowers, &c. and 
arrange them according to classifications in Botany.

The cooking apparatus was worthy of a visit and is of itself a curiosity.

The dining room is large, commodious, and airy. It is ornamented with statuary 
so that a student cannot raise his eyes without meeting the head of some famous 
individual from Homer to Henry Clay.

Formerly the State supported about 100 students, called beneficiary Cadets, but 
owing to the depreciation of State Warrants, and a failure by the last 
Legislature to appropriate anything, the Beneficiary Cadets were all discharged 
in March, and none now remain except those who pay their way, of which there are 
about forty. Col. Boyd is quite confident of keeping the University moving, and 
predicts a bright future for it. 

A great mistake, in our opinion, has always been committed by the citizens of 
Louisiana, in sending their children out of the State to be educated. Home is 
the best place to educate the children. It costs less, and they do not return 
after graduation, filled with customs and addicted to habits which give them the 
appearance of strangers from foreign lands.

There is no place where a better and more healthy climate is to be found, and 
there are few more earnest and devoted Teachers, than are those in charge of the 
Louisiana State University. Give Col. Boyd and his assistants a fair show and 
they will soon have a college that will equal the best in the country. It is 
emphatically a Louisiana Institution and as such deserves the support of all 
friends of our State who have any regard for her name and record. The graduates 
of this University are second to none in everything appertaining to practical 
life. Our future is fated to be one of rough trials and struggles and the youths 
who are growing up to take our places, in a few years, should have an education 
eminently practical, and not ornamental. Such a course of instruction can be had 
at the State University in Baton Rouge. But it is time to leave and our party, 
bidding the Colonel adieu retired, impressed with the kind reception we had 
received, and grateful for the valuable information we had obtained from the 
Superintendents of the University and the Asylum.

[To be continued.]


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