Have you Thought of Looking in the Horse Trough?

Anne Lynes Pebworth

Red Stick

At one time, many years ago, New Orleans was discussed as being the site of the state capital, but the people from the northern part of the state did not want the Catholics to have it. That's when Baton Rouge was chosen. The name is French for "red stick" which refers to the tall cypress tree which marked the boundary between the Houma and Bayou Goula Indian tribal grounds. The
tree had been stripped of its bark and the Indians hung fresh-killed game on it. A French explorer marked his map to show the red pole on the bluff: "le baton rouge."

Baton Rouge is notable for possessing two state capitol buildings and two governors' mansions. The Old State Capitol is the only cast iron building in the United States and it represents an unusual blend of Norman, Gothic and Moorish styles of architecture, which caused much criticism when it was built in 1849. And it is sturdy. Union forces camped inside the building during the war, setting it afire with their campfires. It was gutted, but not destroyed. Perhaps the building's severest critic was Mark Twain, who thought it marred the beauty of his beloved river. He recommended dynamiting the building and called it the "Monstrosity of the Mississippi."

The present capitol building, built when Huey Long was governor at a cost of only five million dollars, is the highest in the nation; it stands four hundred fifty feet. To get to the observation tower, tourists who number in the millions annually must take the big elevator to the twenty-first floor and then a little elevator up the remaining six floors. The handicapped man who ran the small elevator got my vote for the Peale Positive Thinking award. Once when I
was taking some guests to the tower, he commented, "I have the most interesting job there is. People from all over the world come to my elevator."

The present governor of the state lives in the new Governor's Mansion and the old mansion has been converted into a museum. The bedrooms of the old Governor's Mansion were decorated with possessions of some of the former governors. The old mansion was built in 1930 when Huey Long was
governor and it was patterned after the White House as Thomas Jefferson originally designed it. The mansion preceding that one was in such dilapidated condition that Long asked that a new one be built; however, the legislature refused to appropriate the money. One week-end, after calling a friend, the warden of the state penitentiary which at that time was located in Baton Rouge,
Long moved into a local hotel. By Monday, the convicts had razed the old mansion.

Probably the biggest attraction in town at that time, at least for children, was the mummy. She was once a princess of Thebes and from the looks of things had led a very hard two thousand years. Let's hope that she was better-looking in real life than her grossed-out condition when we saw her. For some reason, she was moved from museum to museum around town so we never knew where she'd show up next. For awhile she was in the old Governor's Mansion, where a friend of mine worked as a docent. One day when she was taking a group of school children through the mansion, they met former governor Jimmy Davis who was adding some possessions to his room. When the tour
ended, she asked the kids what made the biggest impression on them, thinking surely it was meeting one of the former residents. Wrong. One little boy asked if the mummy had been the wife of a governor.