New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-11-30
A Curious SeOFy.

|
New Orleans, was Mexican trading vesseI
commanded by an eccentric Dutch captain
| whose character haC been morDidly affected
in some respects by the recent loss of an
infant son for whom he bad almost an insane
affection. The child had died in Mexico
and letter from his wife in their adopted
home there informed the bereaved father of
the sad event, but it seemed as though the
man could neither comprehend the locality
nor the fact of the DEATH and after reading
and frantically destroying the letter it be-
came his delusion that he had brought the
boy with him on the voyage and would pres
| emily lind find him astray in the streets
| Otherwise fully master of his reason, in this
matter he was hopelessly insane, and spent
| days in wandering noodily along the water
| side of the city in search OF the supposed tru-
ant. At last, after coming aboard his ship
| very hastily one afternoon with some kind
| OF muttied bundle in his arms, and hurriedly
| locking 1t III his private cabin, he gave Or
| ders tor immediate sailing in the most ex.
cited manner, and betrayed intense agta-
| ton until the vessel was fairly under way
| Great was the amazement of mates and
| sailors to discover by and by that the
| bundle which had been so hurriedly carried
| into the cabin was a very handsome little
boy, about three years old. who, by the
time he was allowed to play on the deck
exhibited no particular sense of strange
ness or distress. Where he came from no
| one could guess. The captain called and
treated him as his own son, and appeared
unconscious OF any other relationship: and
as the deluded man was happy once more
in the misconception, his interiors did not
long trouble themselves with speculations
on the subject. Upon the arrival of the
ship at her Mexican port the crazed father
carried the child ashore to his house, and
had scarcely astonished his wife by the
introduction when he was seized with a
brain fever, imperillng his life for many
weeks. During the delir.um of the disease
he repeatedly boasted of having recovered
the son they would have made
him believe was dead. But with
his ultimate recovery came a curious
change. Regaining his full reason with his
health, he did not at first even recognize |
the boy, and it was only with great caution
that he was gradually reminded of the man
ner OF the young strangers coming For a |
time he could remember nothing about it, |
and then almost reverted to insanity as the |
facts came slowly and mlstily back to his |
mind. Leaving the child at home, he has |
tened back to New Orleans. Returning he |
sold his ship, removed to the City of Mex
leo, and from thenceforth he and his wife
adopted the lad their own, and called |
him by their name. He was reared and
with ample parental care and
fathers very respectable property, and
allowed to reach manhood without dream
OF his true nativity. Two or three years
ago the captains wife died, and was tilallv
by the youth; and not until
within a few weeks of the present writing
did the captains own death bed bring a
solution OF the mystery of more than twenty
years. Finding himself near his end, some
two or three months ago. the former skip
per of the trader, now decrepit old man,
showed to his adopted son a crumpltd and
ilscolored New Orleans newspaper, of 1851,
an advertisement of handsome
reward for the recovery of the body of a
title boy supposed to have been drowned.
he son OF the captain of New JERSEY yes
gel. a news item OF the same paper ex-
planned that the child had strayed from his
fathers ship at the wharf. and must have
allen into the water, as the police, after ex-
laustive search, could find no trace of him
lshore. 1t was also told that the bcreaved
captain was from Cape May, New Jersey,
md was returning home without hope OF |
wen finding the body of the child, which
lad Probably drifted out to sea. When the
'oung man beside the bed of death in Next
% had curiously read this-tor his educa-
ion had included a particularly thorough
curse OF English the dying man solemnly
md rem"reefuly revealed to him that he
lad been the infant supposed to be drowned, s
nd was stolen from the very gang plank of {
lis fathers vessel by a maniac. When the
kidnapper awoke from his {
Insanity, with the abatement of the brain t
ever, in his own home he had hurried back c
D the Crescent City to see what amends he e
ould make for his mad act, only 10 find c
hat the New Jcrseyman had sailed away t
] despair. dnd obtain the newspaper above t
ueted. Nnh the discovery that the child
'as supposed to be drowned. the Dutch =
ian 5 yearning for lis prize returned with c
'esh force, and he guilty determined to t
eep IT. And this, while he lay dying he g
Lated to the astounded young man beside p
i'm; living only long enough thereafter to y
less and be forgiven. Last week heavily t
earded man OF foreign aspect presented |,
lmSelf at the home of former sea captain a
| Cape May New jersey, with the old New D
rleans newspaper and the above strange s.
lstOry, and asked to be received as the long t,
,st son. According to dispatch in a e
paper, his pretensiun was de- g
led, and he has returned to Mexico where | ii
3 Is rich man, Just this unexpected | a
inclusion was needed to make the story ii
lie OF the most curious narratives of the | Il
sy, anc the reader may feel justified in as | is
lmin., therefrom that the history is not | al
1t enGed.-Neo York World is
N
Respect for old age never had a brighter | t.
ustratlon than in the case of the young
dy who always refuses to 60 to the wash OF
b when her mother or grandmother ia 40