Terrebonne County Louisiana Archives News.....Fifty Years Ago No. 37 December 19, 1896
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Savanna King savanna18king@gmail.com August 11, 2023, 1:43 am

The Thibodaux Sentinel December 19, 1896
To satisfy the curiosity of a young man who is suddenly thrown into a community 
where the customs, manners, habits, language and surroundings fo the people are 
different from those in which his boyhood days have been passed, and to acquire 
an insight into them, as well as to accustom himself to such social changes were 
the first pursuits of my life after settling upon the banks of the Lafourche.

The acquaintances that were formed with the young men and women were very 
pleasant and lasting, but alas! At the expiration of fifty years when I call 
their names, almost the universal answer received is found in the doleful 
echoes, “gone, gone.”

The people both young and old treated me very kindly; friendship and social 
intercourse were bestowed upon the young stranger that impressed his mind and 
memory with grateful thoughts. Even those whose language I could not understand, 
were equally solicitous to render my presence among them pleasant and agreeable. 
It is a sad, but nevertheless a fact that whilst the sociability and hospitality 
of the people of Louisiana today is proverbial and acknowledged by all visiting 
citizens of other states, it lacks much of that simplicity and warmth of reeling 
that were exhibited by the inhabitants of Bayou Lafourche a half century ago.

Friends never met or separated without a cordial shaking of the hand. Men riding 
along the public highway always raised their hats to friends whom they saw on 
the galleries and in the yards of their homes, who were sufficiently near to be 
recognized and their salutations were ever responded to in the same manner or by 
a wave of the hand.

A man or woman entering into a house almost invariably shook the hand of every 
person, within, accompanied by a social and pleasant greeting, and on retiring, 
the same formality was gone through with.

There was a custom prevalent at that date, that was nearly universal, 
characterizing the social traits of the citizens, at least, the male portion, 
which was that of drinking to each other’s health. When two or more men met in a 
town or village where cafe houses, as they were then designated, were open, the 
first thing after greeting was to make a drink, and if the meeting was in a 
private house, the proprietor always produced the material to cement friendship 
and render cordial the visit. 

But few persons were so poor as to not have their decanter of whiskey or other 
stimulant in their dwellings. In fact it was a prevalent opinion that liquor was 
essential to the health of everyone, and it was purchased as one of the 
necessaries of life, the same as flour, meat, potatoes, &c.

Yet the people seldom drank too much, and drunkenness was not indulged in to an 
extent that one would naturally conclude the daily use of stimulants would 
generate. Still the too frequent visits to the cafes undoubtedly brought many 
young and promising youths to ruin as it does today, and opened an early grave 
for their bodies.

The gradual decrease of this custom during fifty years has been steadily 
perceptible to any observing citizen, and when one conversant with it, then and 
now, can readily perceive the wonderful change, for the better, he may earnestly 
desire to witness its continuance.

Previous to my arrival on the Lafourche it was considered an affront to refuse 
to drink with any many who gave one an invitation to imbibe with him, but this 
feature has partially died out, and it was only with what is now called the 
“hoodlum class” that any trouble was likely to occur from such a refusal. Cafe 
houses were always open in all the little towns or villages and many were also 
found in the country. Billiard tables were a universal accompaniment of those 
places, and there were many excellent players to be found practicing upon them. 

Every man visited these cafes, they were the general meeting places of persons 
who had business to transact with each other. When one man wished to see another 
on any business “Meet me in such a cafe on Sunday” was generally the message 
sent. A great change has taken place, but when the memories of those days rise 
up before me they bring up many reminiscences as well as faces of dear friends 
who have gone to their silent homes, and I long to live again some of those 
happy and precious years of my young life.

Let it not be inferred that the bibulous habits of the people in the Lafourche 
country were peculiar to them alone because such a custom was practiced 
everywhere at that period. The warfare that has been developed against the use 
of intoxicating liquors was only begun about 50 or 60 years ago. I remember in 
the early “forties” when the Washingtonian crusade first reached my early home, 
and the great furor and accusation that it produced, the people purchasing in 
many instances, the stock of the drinking houses, and throwing it into the 
streets, in their enthusiasm and earnestness. It was about that period that 
Father Matthew came over from Ireland, preaching temperance all over the United 
States with great power producing wonderful effect.



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