Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1873-10-18
THE PIXIES PENANCE.

Where they came from no one knew.
Among the farmers near the Bend there
was ample ability to conduct researches
beset by far more difficulties than was that
of the origin of the Pixies; but charge
OF buckshot which a good-natured Yankee
received one evening, soon after putting
questions to a venerable Pike, eXerted a
great depressing influence upon the spirit
of investigation. They were not blood
thirsty, these Pixies but they had good
reason to suspect all inquirers of being at
least deputy sheriff's, II not worse, and a
Pixies hatred of officers of the law is equal
led in intensity only by his hatred of man
ual labor.
But while there was doubt as to the faith
erland of the little colony of Pixies at Jag
gers Bend, their every neighbOr would
willingly make affidavit as to the cause of
their locating and their remaining at the
Bend. When humanitarians and optimists
argued that it was because the water was
good and convenient, and the Bend itself
caught enough drift-wOOd, and that the
dirt would yield little gold when manip-
ulated by placer and pan, all farmers and
stock owners would freely admit the valid
ity of these reasons; but the admission
was made with a cOuntenance whose in
dignation and sorrow indicated that the
greater causes were yet unnamed. With
eyes speaking emotions which words could
not express they would point to sections
of wheat fields minus Their grain-bearing
heads; to hides and hoofs of cattle un-
slaughtered by themselves; to mothers OF
promising calves, whose tender bleatings
answered not the maternal call; to the
places which had once known fine horses,
but had been untenanted since certain
Pixies had gone across the mountains for
game. They would accuse no man wrong
fully; but i'm country where all farmers
had wheat and cattle and horses. and where
prowling Indians and Mexicans were not,
how could these disappearances occur?
But to the people owning no property
i'm the neighborhood-to tourists and ar
tists--the Pike settlement at the Bend was
rs interesting and ugly as Skye terrier.
The architecture of the village was OF
original style, and no duplicate existed.
OF the half-doZen residences. one was COM
posed exclusively of sod, another of bark,
yet another of poles, rooted with wagon
cover, and plastered on the outside with
mud; the fourth was of slabs, nicely split
from logs which had driffed into the Bend;
the fifth was of hide, stretched over
frame, strictly Gothic from foundation to
ridgepole; while the sixth, burrowed into
the hillside, displayed only the barrel
which formed its chimney.
A more aristocrati, community did not
exist on the Pacific coast. Visit the
Pixies when you would, you could never
see any one working. OF churches,
school-houses, stores. and other plebeian in
stitutions, there were none, and no Pike
bemeaned himself by entering trade or
soiling his hands by agriculture.
Yet unto this peaceful, contented neigh
borhood there found his way visitor who
had been everywhere in the world with
out once being made welcome. He came
10 the house built of slabs, and threatened
the wife of Sam Trotwine, owner of the
house and Sam, after summing himself
uneasily for a day or two, mounted pony
and rode off for doctor to drive the i'll
ruder away.
When he returned he found all the men
n the camp seated on a log in front OF his
own door, and then he knew he must pre-
pare for the worst-only one OF the great
influences of the world could force every
Pike from his own door at exactly the
same time. There they sat, ysllow-faced,
bearded, long-backed and bent, each look
ing like the other, and all like Sam, and,
as he dismounted, they looked at him.
How is she?" said Sam, tying his
horse and the Doctors, while the latter
went in.
"Well," said the Oldest man. with de-
liberation, 81 wimmin's all thar, if that's
any sign"
Each man on the log inclined his head
snghtly but positively to the left, thus
manlfesting belief that Sam had been cor
iiSeuy and sufficiently answered. Sam
~ i,i'llsen seemed to regard his information
III ABOUT the same manner
suddenly the raw hide which formed the
aOSr aUS Oh Sans house wa. pushed aside,
anu anu woman came out and called Sam,
aiia ne disappeared from his log.
rs: ras ne entered his hut all the women
H''eu sorrowfal faces and retired; no one