The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-04-05
A VERY CLEVER LOUISIANA STORY.

A VERY CLEVER LOUISIANA STORY.
ORANGE GROVES AND THE PLANTATION CHA
TEAU ONCE MORE TO THE FRONT-BLOOD
WILL TELL.
George w. Cable, our whilom confrere
upon more than one city paper, tells short
story with the view of illustrating the power
with which blood speaks under peculiar cir
cumstances. The De Charleu family was
founded by a Frenchman who came to
Louisiana in the service of the King. He
took ChOctaw for his bride, and had sew
eral children by her. He returned to France,
married French woman; and, taking up
his residence again on the banks of the Mis-
sissippi, discovered that his Indian wife was
dead. When the old man died himself he
remembered in his will both sets of
children, and he was rich, the King
having rewarded him with large
its two branches, was founded. In time the
sole representatives were Col. De Charleu.
the proud Creole, and old Charlie, a lazy
half-drunken fellow. showing plainly his
Indian blood. Col. De Charleu had mag
nificent place on the banks of the Mlsss-
| sippi, a short distance from New Orleans,
which was known as Bellies Demoiselles
Plantation. He was blessed with seven
beautiful daughters, who were the pride of
his heart, and for whom he was willing to
make any sacrifice. The daughters wanted
to go into the city to live, and their father
planned to take them there. But they must
! have a home worthy of their beauty and
proud descent. Indian Charlie, as the sole
survivor of the Chocraw side of the house,
owned block Of houses in New Orleans,
which had come to him by the law OF inner
| itance.
As the ground on which these buildings
stood had once belonged TO the founder OF
| the Charleu family, the Colonel coveted 1t
and no other for his city home. He would
tear the old buildings down and build upon
| it Il palace. But could he drive a bargain
with old Charlie That was the question
| He went to see his lOwdOwn kinSman, but
| found him proof against all temptations.
The Indian blood in old Charlie said: ''Sell,"
but the De Charleu blood said: mo ~" and
| the pride of the De Chafleu strain carried
the day. Al last, in order to put an end to
importantly, he proposed to exchange
the plantation, his argument running thus:
eff | go ont Of dis place and don't go to
Bellies Demoiselles, de people will say-dey
will say, old Charlie he been all doze time
tell a blame lie! He amt no kin to his old
grace gran-mnZzer, not blame bit He
don't got nary drop of De Charleu blood to
save his blame lOwdOwn old Injin soul
No, sare! What l want wild none den
No, sare! My place for yoursw The Col
onel at first rejected the proposition with
scOrn. 1t was presumption on the part Of
this Choctaw to ask him to give up the home
Of his ancestors And yet he had asked old
Charlie, who had De Charleu blood in his
veins, to sell his ancestral possessions. But
then Charlie was only lOw-down Indian.
Wait a moment. Loving his children so
foudly as to make any sacrifice for them
and finding that sudden rise in the
river had driven the mad waters through
his levee, threatening his house
with destruction, the Colonel mounted
his horse and rode into town determined to
push the trade and take advantage of the
ignorance of the ChOctaw. Charlie agreed |
to make the exchange, but as they neared |
the house they We're appalled, to see the |
mansion with its seven precious inmates dis
appear. The water had un lermned the
ground on which it stood, and then the shell
gave way. and all went down in the angry
food. The shock was so great as to deprive
Colonel De Charleu of his reason For
twelve months the Indian watched over him
with the greatest care. When the mind
became clear again, the invalid was at
deaths door. Old Charlie assured him that
they had not traded on that fatal
night, and thus put his conscience at
rest. The low-down Indian was ready
to give any promise or assurance calculated
to satisfy the pride and to render happy the
last moments of the dying man. Thus did
the blood of the old Frenchman speak after
the lapse OF generations. Charlie had lived
a kind of vagabond life, but the pride of
his cultivated white progenitor clung to
him. He might be indolent and squander
money in drink, but he would rather cnt off
his head than sell to a stranger the home
that his ancestors had bequeathed to him.
The influence of blood in this particular &
was more potent than that of habit or
association. Blood is stronger than water.
Men and women may do strange things
but when the mother or t
father can set her or his face against
her his own child. nursing a
stranger in it's place, you may rest assured c
that reason has gone astray, and that the
mind is incapable of following the dictates
Of the heart. If not this, then the brute
nature has outgrown that sweet sentiment T
which makes man something more than a !
selfish hog Were it not for pride Of race, {
lid not the past speak through generations,
by the aid of the mysterious blood current. j.
20 the present, man would make little adj
and we should seldom be called I
lpOn to applaud heroic action. !