"He Sassed the Mayor"

Our research into the life of Felix Conrad continues.  The previous post, "The Sergeant Conrad Episode," related Felix's attempt to lead a band of Eighth Ward residents in cutting the protection levees during the Flood of 1890.  That post relied exclusively on the version of events found in the Daily Picayune.  Today we will examine the story from the point of view of other newspapers.  We are keeping our fingers crossed for the discovery of Felix Conrad's long-lost diary.  In the meantime, we will forge ahead with available archival sources.  It turns out that we could have scarcely wished for a more fascinating patriarch to commence Our House Story!  

When we left off, Conrad's defenders had written a long letter to the Daily Picayune portraying his actions in a positive light.  The coverage of the events by the Picayune trailed off after Conrad had left the scene of his confrontation with the mayor.  Other papers include the events of later in the day on that Thursday, April 24.  The Daily States and the New Orleans Times-Democrat differ on a few small details but agree on the broad strokes of the story.  After Mayor Joseph Shakespeare returned to his office in City Hall, he met with his advisers to decide the best course of action for saving the flooded parts of the city.  With the important work of saving the city out of the way, the mayor called Chief of Police David Hennessey to order the suspension of Sergeant Conrad.  [Some papers give his rank as sergeant, others as corporal.  The Police Department rosters show that he achieved both ranks but do not give dates for either].  


No sooner could Chief Hennessey pick up his telephone to relay news of the suspension than Conrad walked into the chief's office.  Chief Hennessey delivered the punishment to the just-arrived Conrad.  In the words of The Daily States, "Conrad visibly wilted under this severe address and hurriedly said: 'I did not deserve that.  I only told the Mayor that we would all be drowned.'"  Chief Hennessey stood firm, himself unable to disobey orders from the mayor.  "Conrad walked away muttering to himself 'that's d--n hard, d--n hard on a man,'" The Daily States continued, "He was very much excited and tears came to his eyes as he slowly marched out of the chief's office."


The New Orleans Times-Democrat leaves out the censored profanity from Conrad's parting words but agrees that his "eyes filled with with tears as he walked away."  The Times-Democrat attributes slightly more eloquence to our beleaguered Felix, quoting his explanation to the chief, "I do not deserve this.  I only tried to make the Mayor realize that we were all being drowned out.  I never for a moment intended any disrespect to him."


The bawdy scandal sheet The Mascot gave Conrad no such credit in its edition of April 26.  Although I chuckled with delight when I found the cartoon below in the Louisiana Division of the New Orleans Public Library, if only because it is the first picture of any kind I have found of Felix Conrad, I doubt the man himself took any pleasure in seeing the papers portray him in such a way.  The editorial deserves quoting at length:

Sergeant Felix Conrad possesses an excellent faculty for getting into trouble, and the wonder is that after his many escapades and rackets, that he still lives to display his gold buttons and burly shape upon the thoroughfares and buldoze [sic] those that will let him do it.  If one would take Conrad's history and write it up, [ahem - ed.], his rackets and escapes from death would read like a chapter from a dime novel history of some hero of the wild and woodly west.  Conrad, it might be remarked, comes from the Third district, being a manly product of that classic precinct, the rear of the German portion of the Eight [sic] ward, whereat the bull-frogs nightly hold reunions and the sad-eyed cows make noise.  He has quite a pull out there, in a political sense...

Conrad, now that it is too late, sees the error of his ways and repents, while his friends are leaving nothing undone to induce the Mayor to relent and leave up on Felix.  Our artist has pictured the mighty Felix as he appeared after he had been informed that Shakespeare was getting even with him.  The most effected [sic] think that Felix was badly treated by the Mayor and are rallying to his defence. 

The accounts from the Times-Democrat and the Daily States explain the comically large tears Felix cries in the cartoon.  Those tears seem to overflow the ring of levees within which he stands.  Felix's "burly shape" features prominently in the image, apparently with good reason, for he was once known as the "biggest on [the] force."  So while the Mascot surely earned its reputation for exaggeration, one would probably have been hard pressed to dispute the characterization of Felix Conrad as "burly."  The headline below, from 1921, gives the proof.

New Orleans Times-Picayune, March 27, 1921

With such an endless supply of material, we cannot wait to share more with you about the live of Felix Conrad, the man who began Our House Story at 2463 N. Villere!