The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-12-13
A STRANGE STORY.
AFACr OR FICTION FROM FLORIDA.

/ a - 1GAASUA ~
AFAcr OR FICTION FROM FLORIDA.
from the New York Timesl
An old lawsuit has come to an untimely end i
Florida. During the war, when the Fedora
fleet was menacing Tampa Bay, certain FREQ
Halsemann, an old planter Of Hlllsboro county
anxious, like the rest Of his tribe to be lie
alone" thought that the famous everglade
would be the safest place to stay and accordingl
disappeared into their tangled recesses. He too
with him his wife and their youngest child, DO
five years old. The wife and mother got sepa
rated in some way from the two Others and luck
lily happened to wander back to her home. Tire
years went by. The war was over. The olde
sons had returned from service in the Confeder
ate army and were working the plantation Oh
| shares with their former slaves. During all thl
time nothing had been heard Of the missing pair
They were mourned for as dead.
one day, IN the spring of 1861 man aDpa
rently about Thirty years old, leading by the han'
q boy OF five, ran joyously up to the verandah 0
the plantation house, and began series OF vic
lent kissings OF the aged mother in Israel who
With the aid OF large type and spectacles, wa
| reading her Bible there. His demonstrations o
| affection were interrupted by the screams of tn
old lady and the blows Of the eldest son. Boil
struck the intruder painfully. He tried to speak
but was obliged to devote all his energies to thu
task OF finding soft spot to fall upon at the enc
| OF the parabola which the sons last well-aimet
/ Il
wiidered and bruised, just in time to be knocked
down again by select assortment Of younger
| sons and negroes. whom the sound Of the scuf1lt
had called to the spot. AS lie fell, something
tumbled from the pocket of his ragged coat. Ii
was picture of the widow. The dead planter
had carried it with him when he plunged into the
swamps
There was general cutlery, and demand fol
al explanation. The story Of the new Gomez
was in brief, this: He was Fred. Halsemann
Tn, Ior;p rl hi1iuu oc6
he had fallen into a foaming spring. When he
cambered out. his son ran away, as if in fright
He ran after him with surprising speed. The
chic, when caught screamed for its father. II
was long before he could be persuaded that the
young, fresh, vigorous man who climbed out Of
| the spring was the aged, decrepit, white-halred
man who had fallen into it q moment before. The
father at first could not appreciate the change.
He saw that his hands were no longer wrinkled,
that his beard was brown instead of gray, that
his step was tirmer and his eye keener, but the
suddenness Of the Transformation dizZied him.
All ut once the truth flashed upon HIM. He had
fallen into the Fountain of Truth which Ponce
de Leon sought in vain amid the Florida swamps
He FASTENED back and plunged his son into the
spring. 1t was an unlucky deed.
The tradition about the fountain has always
been that its wonderful waters changed age to
vigorous manhood and made already-existent
youth immnabe SO long as life lasted. The
tradition proved true. He had become young.
His son stayed so. The boy was five years old
when the potent waters touched him, and he
showed no signs of growth beyond that age, in
mind or body, during the three years they spent
lost in the labyrinth. They lived mainly on ALI
gators, which. when young, are very good eating.
When they killed an old one it was their custom
to plunge it, while spark Of life was still LETT,
into the Fountain of Youth. Thus it became
young again, and their fastidious palates were
the two got cut OF the wilderness in which they
had been so long lost. They happened to come
out near the old home, and FASTENED to it.
This was the mans story 1t is not to be won
dered at. perhaps. that lie told it to . circle CT
scoffers. The picture was taken from him. His
accurate recollection Of the life of the missing
planter was accounted for Oh the hypothesis that
he had met HIM in the swamps and had heard
the details from his lips He was accused of
stealing the picture. 1t began to be whispered
was told to go. He went, taking the boy with
him. He reappeared in q week af.erward, at
Tampa. alone. The child, he said, had died OF
fright and want. He began suit for possession
OF the Halsemann plantation. When the trial
came off he rested his case on three points The
resemblance Of the boy to the child v no had dis
appeared in 1e6l: his own ready recollection of
the minutiT OF Halsemann's life and his ability
to pilot anybody to the Fountain Of Ponce Dc
Leon.
The first two points were admitted but the re-
semblance was attributed bv the defense to 3
chance coincidence, and the knowledge of the
past. to presumed intimacy between the planter
and the pretender, while both were lost III ever
glades. When men meet each other, under such
circumstances, they tell everything. The most
trivial details are eagerly related and heard for
the sake OF Willing away the monotonous hours.
So the argument ran, fairly enough. The third
point was fatty denied. Acting on a suggestion
of the court, the claimant went with large party
in search of the miraculous spring. After some
weeks OF wandering, they came back without
having found it, still this failure did not absolutely
disprove the claim. The most prac,iced woods
men have often gone astray in southern Florida.
When the case went to jury, the latter dsa-
greed. so did the next one impaneled, and the
next. The last of the three, however, came very
near giving verdict for the plaintiff.
This was mainly due to the admirable manage
ment Of his counsel at that time, Hon. John A.
Henderson, the Democratic candidate for Con-
gress at the recent election. The claimants
gratitude to Henderson was the indirect cause OF
his DEATH This OCCURS 4 on the I'd of Novem-
Der. During the scuffie at the polls, where he
was distributing Democratic ballots. he was shot
through the body. Somebody lifted his head.
He gasped, :" I ~ and died. The present
possessors OF the estate, whose title has been
settled by his death. aver that at the last moment
remorse overlook him, and he tried to say. Il am
not Halsemann, but was too weak to finish the
sentence. On the other hand his friends declare
that with his last breath he asserted the justice
of his claim, by trying to say,'I am Halsemann.'
This, however, is all conjecture. The puzzle re-
mains without an answer: Was he Halsemann,
or was he some other man?
The finest glassware in the city. cheap, at Nav
ra's, ia Canal street.
While Brooklyn preacher is pitching into thea
ters we observe that the builders Of the new
Globe playhouse in Bosten have, to some extent,
initiated the pew system. One hundred seats
have been sold outright in kind OF fee simple.
to be held by the buyers, their airs and assigns
forever. The price paid was $1,000 per seat. I'm
like pew holders, these owners of seats will have
no voice in the management OF the establish
ment though we should be delighted to learn
that one of the privileges of the little estate is
right to hiss, whenever the doings behind the
curtain really demanded Kissing: Our American
public is the politest in the world.
We suffer ourselves to he bored to the very
verge OF deliquium; we stand bad Music, bad
music, bad acting and bad lecturing with pa
thence which doesn't argue so much our polite
ness as orr phlegm. The average American
auditor will bear and forbear forever. He knows
thing to be bad, but he will not take the trouble
to express his opinion. He is defrauded of his
money and all he does is to stay away in future
But we do not want him to stay away. We want