Litchfield enquirer., 1875-04-29
From Scribner's MOnthly.l JEAN-AH PoouELiss.

JEAWsA6 POV0EGbW.
 In the first decade of the present eeilta-
 ", wh6nfl4a newly established iAmefiean Government was the most hateful thing in Louisiana-when the Cfeoles were still kicking at such vile innovations as the trial by jury, American dances, anti-smug- gling laws, and the printing of the Gov ernor's proclamation in Enelish-when the Anglo-American flood that was pres ently to burst in 6 crevasse of immigration upon the delta had thus far been felt on ly as slippery seepage which made the Creole tremble for his footing-there stood, short distance above what is now
 Canal street, and considerably back from
 the line of villas which fringed the river
 bank on Tchoupitoulas Road, an old colo
 nial plantation house half in ruin.
 It stood aloof from civilization, the
 tracts that had once been it's indigo fields given over to their first noxious wilc ness, and grown up into one of the horridest marshes within a circuit of fifty miles.
 The house was of heavy cypress, lifted up on pillars, grim, solid. and spiritless, it's massive build strong reminder of days still earlier, when every man had been his own peace officer and the insur- rection of the blacks daily contingency. Its dark, weather beaten roof and sides were hoisted up above the jungly plain in distracted way. like gigantic ammunl- tiOn wagon stuck in the mud, and aban- donded by some retreating army. Around it was a dense growth of low water will lows, with half hundred sorts of thorny or fetid bushes, savage strangers alike to the language of flowers" and to the bot anists Greek. They were hung with countless strands of discolored and prickly smilax, and with the impossible mud below bristled with cheUdur de frise of the dwarf palmetto. Two lone forest trees, dead expresses, stood in the center of the marsh, dotted with roasting vul- lures. The shallow strips of water were hid by myriads of aquatic plants, under whose coarse and spiritless flowers, could one have seen it, was harbor of reptiles, great and small, to make one shudder to the end of his days. ==-
 The house was on slightly raised spot, the levee of draining canal. The waters of this canal did not run; they crawled, and were full of big, rayening fish and aligators, that held it against all comers .F Such was the home of old Jean Marie Poquelin, once an epulent indigo planter, high in the esteem of his small, proud circle of exclusively male acquaint- ances in the old city; now like hermit. alike summed by and stunning all who had ever known him. ssThe last of his ine," said the gossips. His father lies under the St. Louis Cathredal, 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 brother 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 fondly to love, but who, seven years ago, had disap- peared suddenly, once for ail. and left no clue of his fate. Izs EksnEre
 They had seemed to live so happily in each others love. No father, mother, wife to each other, no kindred upon earth. The elder bold. frank, impetuous, chiv- alfic adventurer; the younger a gentle, studious, book-loving recluse: they lived upon the ancestral estate like mated birds. one always on Fhe vitles fh2 sbther aluaya
 There was no trait in Jean Marie Po- quelin, said the old gossips, for. which he was so well known among his few friends as his apparent fondness for his '''little brother" Jacques said this,', and Jacques said that;" he''would leave this or that, or anything to Jacques" for Jacques was a scholar" and Jacques was good" or "wise, 2 or 'just," or liar sighted, as the nature of the case requfr- ed; and Che should ask Jacques as soon as he got home, since Jacques was never elsewhere to be seen.
 It was between the roaming character of the one brother, and the bookishness of the other, that the estate fell into de- cay. Jean Marie. generous gentleman, gambled the slaves away one by one, un til none was left, man or woman, but one old African mute. -e=--.-
 The indigo fields and vats of Louisiana had been generally abandoned as unremu- Certain .enterprising men had the. culture of, sugar; but while the recluse was too apathetic to take 30 active a course, the other saw larger, and. at the same time, equally respectable profits, first m smuggling, and later in the African slave trade What harm could he zee in it? The whole people said it was Vitally necessary, and to minister to vital pnblic necessity good enough, certainly, and sohe laid up many donb- loon that made him none the worse in the public, regard. 2 Oh8 day old Jean Marie was dabous H-to start upon. voyage that was to be longer, much longer, than any that he Shad yet made. Jacques had begged him, hard for many days not to go, but he laughed him of, and finally said, kissing him:
 ''Adisu tt trsre.'' 1-. z1--z --.5..s1-a .
 ''No, said Jacques, "I shall go with you"
 They left the old hulk of house in the sole care of the African mute, and went aNay to the Guinea coast together.
 Two years after.-zold Poquelin came home without his vessel. He mnst have arriged at his house by night. No one saw him come. No one saw tshis little runior whispered that he, too, had returned, but he had never been seen
 A dark suspicion fell upon the old slave trader. No matter that the few kept the many reminded of the tenderness that had ever marked his bearing to the missing man. The many shook their heads. -"You-kn he. has a quick and fearful temper" and sswhy does he cover with mystery?" ssGrief would out with the truth" Look at his face, said the charitable few; ssseea that expression. of true humanity" The many did look in his face, and, as he looked in theirs, he read the silent question: Where is thy brother Abel?" The few were silenced. his former friends died of, and the name of Jean Marie Poquelin became symbol of witchefy, devilish crime, and hide0us nursery fictions.1 ii I mum UI 2
 The man and his house were alik4 summed. The snipe and duck hunters forsook tue lnafsh and stheF wooacutters abandoned the canal Sometimes the hardier boys who 1ventured out there snake shooting heari . slow humping of pr locks on the canal They would look at each other for a moment half in con sternation, half in glee, then rush from their sport in wanton haste to assaa. with their glbes the unoffending, withered old man who, in rusty attire, sat in the stern of a skin. rowed homeward by his white s 70 iJean,ah Poquelin! 0 Jean-ah! Jean. an POquehn! .5.l-s sss 4ass54 15s .-zis |.
 1t was not necessary to utter more than that. No hint of wickedness, deformitv- or any physical or moral dement,; merely the name and kl,< faro rf skH