It snowed in Covington on Mardi Gras Day in 1914, and many of the female residents went wild.
St. Tammany Farmer February 28, 1914
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ST. TAMMANY SITS WINTER IN THE LAP OF SPRING
THE LADIES GO SNOW-BALLING AND INVADE BANKS,
BARBER SHOPS, OFFICES.
PROMINENT MEN GET FACES WASHED
Trees Break Under Their Burden of Ice and Snow and Ground Covered Two Inches Deep.
Covington was deserted Mardi Gras Day. Many went to New Or leans on the Monday morning train and more went Tuesday, while the steamer Josie took a number over, in spite of the cold and threatening weather. It was quite rough on the lake, and it is said that some "cast their bread upon the waters;" that is, if they had eaten bread for breakfast. Many of the stores closed in the afternoon, and the only sign of life was the masked procession enjoyed by a few of the youngsters. who never forget that a good time is coming to them on Mardi Gras.
"Early to bed" was the slogan most of the older folks, and those who also added ''early to rise" to the motto looked out upon trees bending under an accumulation of sleet and icicles, to be in turn weighed snow snow that fell in large flakes and soon covered houses, trees and streets with a blanket of downy white two —or three inches thick.
The trees bent and creaked under the unaccustomed weight, and some of the shivering boughs broke and crashed to the ground. Chickens stood on one foot and pecked in amazement at the flakes, as if they thought it might be some new kind of chicken feed, evidently without much relish for the innovation.
But there were some human beings that had passed the age of chickens that found more delight in utilizing this scarce material. They bundled themselves up and went on the streets looking for victims to appease their appetite for emulating the pastime of the "snow girl" of the North.
There were in the bunch Mrs. B. B. Warren, Mrs. T. M. Burns, Mrs. Wallace Poole, Mrs. Lionel Adams, Mrs. A. R. Smith, Mrs. A. V. Smith, Miss Gabrielle Boudousquie, Miss Cecile Warren, Misses Anna and Ruth Frederick, and what they didn't do to those who were unfortunate enough to present themselves as subjects for disaster isn't worth recording.
Judge T. M. Burns, who thought he was playing Foxy Grandpa, slipped into a barber's chair and was just getting ready to be lathered with soap--well, he was lathered with snow, instead. Ask him what a snow man feels like. And not even money could save E. V. Richard from a like experience for they went into the bank after him. He's shivering yet. Don't ask him anything. But you might ask D. J. Sanders whether he put any more coal in the stove after the ladies left.
Oh, but there were lot of others who dare not laugh. For instance there were Emile Frederick, A. Frederick, W. A. White, Dr. Grimmer, Dr. Fisher, Whit Riggs, A.C. McCormack, P. T. Theriot, Oliver Hebert, and even the manager of the Farmer, E. D. Kentzel, who ought to know better came in for his share of the frost of the cake. The editor had just stepped through a snowbank into a hidden lake and was warming his feet and cussing his luck, when the manager came in and told him all about how he had snowed under a band of defenseless women who wanted to wash his face. We listened. and were glad we had stepped into the lake.
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