Thibodaux minerva. [volume] (Thibodaux, La.) 18??-1858, 1856-06-07
From the Cincinnati Commercial.


From the Cincinnati Commercial
The Wild Woman-EIer Strange Appearance
The story OF Her Capture-Romance Real
lied.
Yesterday we called at the United States
Hotel to see the "Wild woman of Wachita
Mountains" Mr.. ]. W. c. Northcott, her cap
tor, introduced US into the room where she is
prisoner. We saw tall gracefully formed,
young white girl, sanctily but neatly clothed,
standing with o stout rope about her waist and
attached to bed post. The first impression
was similar to that of being in the presence of
a fierce maniac. She stood at the foot of the
bed, partially hiding behind it, and rocking
slowly but with nervous uneasiness, from one
foot to the other, and staring fxedly upon US
with great, bright, unwinking eyes, so widely
opened that ring of white surrounded the pu
pills, which with the wild and intense glare of
the orb, gave it a strange and frightful express
ion. Beneath the eyes were deep circles, show
ing long continued and excessive excitement or
e1ertion, mental or physical. Her hair was long
and thick, hanging in heavy matted masses and
wiry tangles about her face, neck and shoulders,
and in color dark brown. Her complexion was
fair, even delicate, and her features decidedly
handsome Her mouth is small and finely form
ed, the lips thin and red, but tightly compress
ed, and her teeth even and white. But there
was not, that We could discover, any trace of
humor in her face, and We we're informed by her
captor that he had never seen her smile. There
is not trace in her face to indicate any human
passion, the only organ of expression being her
eye, and that does not seem to seek, or ever to
have known human sympathy.
The woman employed by Mr.. Northcott to be
attendant of his .pet" as he calls her, says that
she has seen the girl look pleased, even seam to
be amused, but her lips never curled in smile,
and nothing like laugh ever found utterance.
We need hardly say that she does not talk. The
only sound she makes with her mouth is kind
of mumblng, moaning, grumbling, with which,
when hungry or thirsty, she expresses desire
to eat or drink. But sometimes, her attendant
says she looks with the most animated curiosi-
ty at her (the attendant) and Mr.. Northcott
when they are talking in her presence, and seems
to wonder how they make such noises with their
mouths but they have not succeeded in inducing
her to initiate them. Her nose is handsome, and
her profile well cut and striking, but the only
indication of character in it is a kind of untam-
ed audacity. There is nothing like timidity in
her looks, only the discomposure mingled with
defiance which CLEANS in the eye of panther.
The appearance of maniac, which, to our
glance, she wore when we entred her apart
ment, gradually passed away, and there was
softer expression, and something like q gentle
glow of intelligence in her still vivid eye. Be-
coming more composed, she sat down, and her
nurse. at our request, brushed back the tangles
of her hair, showing her cheeks and forehead.
These were fair. The cheek was thin, but its
outlines quite womanly, and her brow and tenn
Piles show intellectually of no mean or COM
mon order. Whatever she is or may have been,
she is by nature gifted with capacities Of high
intelligence.
STORY OF HER CAPTURE.
The story of her capture, related by Mr.. N.
is quite remarkable. In the Spring of 1855 MIR.
Nortchott, with party of eight gold hunters,
was sojourning in the Wachita Mountains, on a
branch of the False Wachita river, camped near
an extensive and almost impenetrable thicket.
They were gold seekers, having been attracted
thither by false alarm that there was gold in
that region, which our readers will remember
had much newspaper circulation, and, as nearly
as could be calculated, their camp was three
hundred miles distant from the frontier settle
ments of Texas, and in what is Familiarity called
the Camanche country. One night in March,
it was his turn to watch, and there was bright,
unclouded moonlight In the middle Of the
night he saw a figure approaching that seemed
to be Camanche, and he lay close and at full
length on the ground The figure approached,
walking briskly, and passing within twenty
yards of him, entered the thicket, and he saw,
by the moonlight, that it was no Indian, but a
young woman dressed in robe of skins. He
was amazed beyond conception and told his COM
panions of his discovery; but they hooted at
the idea, and contended that he had seen
and that they would no longer be
safe in that locality, and so next day they pack
ed their mules and hurried off for Texas, in
spite of entreaties. They were all green in the
lore of back-woodsmen. but he had spent twen-
ty years on the frontiers, and knew what he
was about.
So strong an impression did this incident make
on his mind. that late this winter he enlisted
hardy fellows to accompany him,
and set forth on a trip to the Wachita Noun
tains, on q hunt after the wild woman. So ma
ny difficulties were encountered, and the wealth
err was SO severe, that oil of his companions but
one backed out. He pressed forward, however,
and early in in March reached the encampment
where he had seen the woman enter the thicket.
The first thing in order was to search the thick
ct, and they were not long in finding kind of
den, little cave, or rather q long and narrow
aperture omong the rocks, which he was con-
vinced must be her hiding-place. With this con-
viction, he waited and watched for her two days
and nights, when she came forth. He Says that
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now his first care was to stop up the mouth of
it, and wait for her to come back. After q few
hours she returned, and took alarm on observ-
ing that her door in the rocks was closed against
her, He had two dogs, which he set upon her,
snd after running about one hundred and fifty
yards she turned about, as if confused in her
fright, and fed towards the cave. He ran to
meet her. with q lasso in his hand, and as she
worried by the dogs, he threw it
over her neck and called off the dogs, and she
giving spring, jerked him to the ground, and
It the second leap threw herself, the moose hav-
ing by that time fastened about her throat and
shocked her. He then tied her, during which
operation she uttered such horrid screams
hat the hair stood up on his head. and he had
he most singular and awful feelings he ever
experienced. .s. ,s.s,...-. ...- -..~s
After securing the girl, he entered her den
md found there, large quantities Of nuts, ber-
les and roots, such a. could be gathered and
legged in the vicinity. The principal fruit was
! kind Of large red haws, which were therea-
,out very abundant, and she had q kind of nest
o sleep in, while everything indicated her utter
'olitude. The garment she wore was Of skins,
lueerly tied together with bits Of leather, and
llso with kind Of grass. The skins were those
# large animal, neither bear nor buffalo, Mr..
Northcott says, and the hunters could not tell
Exactly from what kind of beast they were tax