New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-04-25
JEAN-AH POQUELIN.
BY GEORGE w. CABLE.


BY GEORGE w. CABLE.
In the first decade of the present centur.
when the newly established American go,
ernpeut was the most hateful thing j
Louisiana-when the Cre0les were sti
kicking at such vile innovations as the trid
BY Jury, American dances, antIsmugglln
laws and the printing Of the Governor
proclamation in Engllsh-when the Anglo
American flood that was presently to burs
in crevasse of immigration upon the delft
had thus far been felt only as slipper.
seepage which made the Creole tremble TO
his fOOting-there stood, short distance
above what is now Canal street, ant
considerably back from the line of villa
which fringed the bank on TchOupitOula
road, an old colonial plantation house hal
in ruin.
1t stood aloof from civilization, the tracts
that had once been its indigo fields giveI
over to their first nOxious wildness, and
grown mp into one OF the hOrridest marshes
within circuit of fifty miles.
The house was of heavy cypress, lifted
up ON pillars, grim. solid and spiritless, its
massive build a strong reminder of days
still earlier, when every man had been bis
own peace officer and the instruction OF
the blacks daily contingency. Its dark
weather b. aten roof and sides we're hOisted
up above the jungly plain in distracted
way, like q gigantic ammunition wagon
Stuck in the mud and abandoned by some
retreatiug army. Around it was q dense
growth of low water willows, with half a
hundred sorts Of thOrny or fetid bushes,
savage st aDgers alike to the Language OF
flowers" and to the bOtanist's Greek. They
were hung with countless strands of dis.
cOlOred and prickly smilax, and the impass.
able mud below bristled with cheruur de
trise of the dwarf palmetto. Two lone tor
est trees, dead expresses, stood in the center
Of the marsh, dotted with roosting vultures.
The shallow strips of water were hid by
myriads of aquatic plants, under whose
coarse and spirlIless flowers, could one have
seen it, was b harbor of reptiles, great and
small. to make one shudder to the end of
his days.
The mouse was on slightly raised spot
the levee of a draining canal. The waters
of this canal did not run; they crawled, and
we're full of big, ravenipg fish and alligators.
that held it against all comers.
Such was The home OF old Jean Marie
POquelin, once an opulent indigo planter,
standing high in the esteem of his SMALL.
proud circle Of exclusively male acquaint.
ances in the old city; now q hermit, alike
Stunned by and stunning all who had ever
known him. 1.-THE last of his line." said
the gOssips. His father lies under the floor
OF the st. Louis Cathedral, with the wife of
his youth ON one side, and the wife OF his
old age on the other. Old Jean visits the
spot daily. His half-bcOther-alas. there
was a mystery; no one knew what had
become Of the gentle. young half brother,
more than thirty years his junior, whom
once he seemed 80 tondly to love, but who,
seven years ago, had disappeared suddenly,
once for ALL aud left 10 clue to his fate.
They had seemed to live 50 happily in
each others love. No father, mother. wife
to either, no kindred upon earth. The
elder bold, frank, impetuOus, chivalric
ADVENTURE; the younger gentle, studiOus,
book loving recluse; they lived upon the
ancestral estate like mated birds, one
always on the wing, the other always in
the nest.
There was no trait in Jean Marie Poaue.
liz. said the old gos-lps for which he was
70 well known am ing his few friends as his
apnar, mt loneliness for his little brother"
",yscuues SAID this" and Jacques SAID
that;' he "would leave this or that, or
anything to Jacques" for Jacques was %
scholar," and jacques was COED" OF
"wise,' or just or ar-sighted," as the
nature of the case required; and "he should
ask Jacques as soon he got home" since
jacques was never elsewhere to be seen. |
1t was between The rowing character OF |
the one brother, and the bookshness of the |
other, that the estate fell into decay. Jean |
Marie, generous; sntls mar, gambled the |
slaves away one by one, until none was left. |
man or woman, nut one old African mute.
The indigo fields aud watts OF Louisiana !
had been generally abandoned as unremu |
nerative. Certain en,erprlsing men had
substituted the culture Of sugar; but while
the recluse was too apathetic tn take SO act
i've q course, the other saw larger. and, at
that time. equally respectable profits, first
in smuggling, ana later in the African slave
trade. What harm could he see IN il! The
whole people raid it was vltaiiy necessary,
and to minister 10 vital public necessity
good enough, certainly and 80 he laid up
many a doubl""n, that made him none the
worse in the public regard.
One day old jean Marie was about to
start upon voyage that was to be longer, |
much longer, than any that he had vet |
made. Jacques had begged him hard for
many days not to 60. hut he laughed him
I'll, ana finally said. kissing him:
added tit yfrere"
"Nc," SAID jacques, IL shall go with
'ou"
They left the old hulk of house in the
ole care of the African mute, and went
way TO the Guinea coast together.
Two wears after. OLD Poquelin came home
without his vessel. He must have arrived
/ his house by night. No one saw him
ONE No one saw his little brother"
umor whispered that he, too, had returned,
ut he had never been seen again.
A dark suspicion Tell upon The old slave
raider. No mater that the few kept the
lany reminded of the tenderness that had
yer mar ed his hearing 10 the missing man.
he many shook their neads. lyon know
e has a quick anu fearful tempef;' ana
why does ne cover his loss with mystrryi'
Grief would ont with The truth" Lock
his face" said the charitable few; ''se.
lat expression vi true humanity" The | 1
ANY did look in his face, ANA as he looked
theirs, he read the silent question: | 1
Where Is thy brother ADei2" The few | :
ele sieDcei. his former friends died off
nd the name oI Jean Marie Prqu. lin b. Il
Ime a symbol ot wilchery, devliisn crime | :
I'd hideous nursery tictIons.
The man and his house were alike b
unned. The snipe aud duck hunters
sock the mar. h, and the wroucutters | .
IAN Oned the canal Sometimes Ihe | b
lrdier boys who ventnred out there snak :
Ooting heard a SLOW thulDping of oar- :.
cks on the canal They would look AT i
Oh other Tor u moment halt IN cuus .erua ] =,