Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1855-01-23
EVENING STAR.
THE ROMANCE OF LAW,

FRENCH PEASANT GIkL AND HER SON.
In IVA. according to the records of q
parish in the little city of Pau, Jean
lcard, director of the public stage
otherwise, postboy, was joined in mar.
rage by the aid of the holy sacraments,
to Madeline Riviere. In I775, a son was
born OF that marriage, and, in l777, a
daughter, Jeanne Icard, the heroine of
eur love-case. Little Jeanne's father
died when she was eight years old, and
it is supposed that her mother died when
she was quite young. At any rate she
had no friends to watch her so sharply
that she could not fall in love with Jean
Ferrie. The Ferries were a family of
tanners, who had their vats in the south
Of France, at Saint jerome, in the De-
partment of Arriegc. Jean added to his
tanning business that of q trader in
horses and mules, and used to 60 to
Spain, now and then, on trading expe-
dition. Whether Jelnnette and jean
not" were married or not. is the rg.nt at
issue one thing, however, is tOlerably
certain, and that is, that they had issue,
son named after his father, Jean. For
some reason, our Jeanne did not choose
to nurse her boy herself, and lie was put
out to nurse on a farm, some ten miles
of: He was visited occasionally by his
father and mother. Soon his nurse died ,
and h was put with another. Before
very long his father was killed on the
the road from Toulouse to Spain, while
attempting, perhaps, to smuggle some
mules across the Pyrenees.
Little Jean grows up; his mother goes
to Bordeaux is engaged in the estab-
lishment of NJ. Catalan, silk merchant,
and there she becomes acquainted with
NJ. Dulux, also in the employ of NJ.
Catalan. She had adopted her maiden
name, if she had ever departed from it,
and for some reason she thinks it pru-
dent to conceal her former marriage or
liason from M. Dulu1. Little jean,
therefore, did not see his mother very
often, and he was kept in the mountains
with one and another of the farmers. He
was then taken to Bordeaux and placed
in college to be polished. Our Jean,
however, does not take to city life very
kindly; in two or three nights, he finds
out how to let himself down from q win
dow and run back to the back to noun
tains.' lie was soon found by his moth
er's agents, and placed in the country
again to learn Latin with man by the
name of Anniere. One of Catalina s agents
is sent by and by to see how he gets on,
and finds that Annicra, who had been
reporting him to be getting along pros
perouSly in the abstrusitie5 OF 1 attn
grammar, has been teaching him nothing
at all except to skip about the mountains
like goat. In fact, Ferrie himself says
that he was "as ignorant as a goose
Lie was theii taken to Bordeaux, and put
to a hatter's trade.
Meantime, the young widow, or 9TH
erwise, began to find out that she was
still pretty, with her dark eyes and hair,
her piquant nez TetrOnSSee, and her
plump, round form, and she, with pru-
dent eye to the main chance, entered
into liaison with M. Dulu1, who PROM
ised to be well to do in the world. In
1907 they came to New York, and set
up milliner shop in Pearl street. He
lived with her here. excepting a visit or
two to France, until 1917, when he went
to France, and from some cause or other
did not come back again. Jeanne was
getting to be forty, and her temper was
never very smlable. Soon after their
arrival here, learning that their peculiar
mode OF life was not Ia mode in this
country, with laudable desire TO con-
form to its customs, they were married
civilly and religiously, and in all poSsi-
bic forms. Soon after Dulux left her,
she sent TO Bordeaux for her son.
lie was then so near the age for con-
scription, that he had to be brought off
in double bottom fiat boat about ten
miles to eludc the vigilance of the GUS
tom house officers. lie landed ia Phila-
delphia, and came to New York 10 live
with his mother. But the old lady s
prudence has been developing itself un-
til Jean finds that, while the hatter'S
boy got white bread in Bordeaux, the
rich woman's son only gets black bread
in New York. From fondling him, and
from calling him mon fills and mon gar
| con, she came at last to slspping him In
| the face. Jean was now some twenty
five years old, and he could not stand
this. Sometimes maternal authority eX-
| tended so far as to make the blood run.
So Jean went to benevolent barber, and
took up his abode. Madame was exceed
ingly indignant at this; she wanted
to put him to some high trade, like a
merchants. Jean was with her and
away by times, and at last be went to
Cincinnati. The old lady was now left
alone. Her brother had died long ago in
the disastrous expedition which Napoleon
sent to St. DoRinick. We hear some.
thing about a niece, in 1874, with her
from France, girl of ii, with dark hair
and eyes. But this is apocryphal. She
was living lonely life. She had grown
old. Her nose had become decided
pug, and she was little, dried up, knot
ty woman, with only her black eyes, and
even they were continually searching for
money,
In the street, she wore an immense
| straw bonnet with a shovel front. and