Masked Observer discovers mystic mythology on Dauphin Island Updated Feb 13, 2021; Editor’s note: The Press-Register holds exclusive global rights to reportage of the Masked Observer, a mysterious denizen of the leisure class who covers the local scene. DAUPHIN ISLAND — As Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville strode down the avenue named for his brother last Saturday, he smiled. Not for all that his family’s legacy had bequeathed the people of southernmost Alabama, and the entire Gulf Coast, centuries ago. But for a new tradition born under the veil of Mardi Gras night: the Massacre Island Secret Society. Fear not that your humble Observer has lost his mind, or his awareness of the time/space continuum as it exists in, arguably, the most anomalous Carnival season ever. He’s well aware that the tattooed Bienville died more than a quarter millennium ago. And yet, in order to gift the present dwellers of Dauphin Island their first sundown parading society, a revelrous resurrection was needed.