The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-07-07
THE INDIAN PASSION.
A CURIOUS STORY OF SAVAGE LIFE
PaEFEnRED TO CIVILIZATION.
Huntington HawkarA.l

PREpEnRED 70 CIVILIZATION.
Huntington Hawkeyel
Years and years ago D well-born
Young Frencht1an left his own country
and lived in pioneer fashion on the
western frontier of the United States,
in small settlement called Fort Dear.
born. He traded with the Indians, lived
maritally with sduaw, and saw spring
up about him q family of yellow-com-
pfexioned children. The eldest, O
bright, handsome boy, was separated in
infancy from his savage mother and
sent to France. where he was received
by his fathers family, and educated TO
all the manners and ideas OF q wealthy
Partisan. He lived abroad till he grew
to manhood, and was as highly eduoa-
ted and wonted TO as dainty refine
ments of life as had he been o prince
of the reigning house.
At twenty-one he returned to Fort
Dearborn, then no longer known by its
original name, where he became the
leading lion and the most perfect gem
tleman OF the rapidly increasing com
munity. His clothes were always
ordered In Paris; his horses and car
riapes were the most costly and elegant
the State had ever seen his manners
and his dark beauty were the alteration
of the bellies and the envyo of the beaux,
through all the wide country for which
the former had just become the metrop-
oils. He was eourted by all who wished
to draw about them the mystic circle
called society, for the Indian trading
| father had gained o vast fortune and
the savage mother dying had ceased to
| live In peoples memory.
Finally, this dark young Brummel
| married one OF tho bellies of the young
city, and although still wearing Paris
ian clothes. and still driving high step
ping steeds and drinking rare foreign
wines as other people drank water,
seemed to settle into quite o domestic
and proper young husband. A daughter
was born to him, upon whom he Law
| ished unlimited love, and for whom he
dreamed the most ambitious dreams.
Yet it was noticed that with every re-
| turning spring. time the young husband
and father became strangely reckless
and distracted. He took for weeks no
interest In his usual pursuits, and alb
sented himself for days and nights from
bis family. It was known that he spent
these days and nights somewhere away
from the town, although 1t was not
known till long afterward, that he
spent them In airnless moody roaming
over the open prairie.
For four or five years this inexplica-
BILE moodiness possessed him. He tG-
counted for 1t to nobody, and became
enrAged If questioned concerning It,
| Then one spting day when the prairie
| stretched away into q sea OF golden
mystery and hither and thither were
almost one, he disappeared entirely,
leaving his young wife, and his many
friends tormented with the strangeness
of his taking off. He remained away q
| b,. Nraf, n
to his family and friends as IL be had
not left them for day, gave no expla-
nation Of his conduct, and for another
year, until another spring time, lived
as sober and commonplace life as any
young Benedict In the Town. But with
the spring came the same disappear.
ance, with return two years later.
This time he remained with his family
only few weeks, and the strange rest
lessness and noodiness never left him
while he remained.
After bis next disappearance he never
returned, and nothing was heard OF him
for years. Then, after many years,
during which his wife had obtained a
divorce and married prominent bust.
ness man of the city, he was heard OF
far beyond the Western rivers, living
with his mothers tribe pomadic saw
age life, and in blanket, feathers and
war paint, declaring himself happier
than he had ever been in Partisan
broadcloth and gloves OF the most ex-
quisite fit. The daughter took her step
fathers name and, grown to woman.
hood, married and then divorced q hus.
band, whose name is 80 common in that
Western city, that 1t might be like
Smith, Jones, or Brown without affect
ing It's dignity In the least.
Some years ago, certain tribes OF
western Indians sent q deputation TO
urge their wrongs upon the Great
Father at Washington. Their leader
and spokesman was chose because OF
his superior and commanding intel
ligence, and because Of his perfect COM
mand of the language in which the
Great Father clothes his ideal. This
Indian leader, who had been educated
in France, passed through the western
town, now grown to be q famous and
populous city, and during his stay here
In sought out his daughter. She refused
to see him, and it Is said for better rea-
son that anger for bis desertion Of her
mother, whom, by the way, he had left
with all his fortune. For, every spring,
when the warm earth is pierced
through and through with sharp young
blades OF fire. 3hest grass, and the golden
mists sweep low like dreams upon the
wide prairies, she, too, Is possessed Of q
strange unrest, q yearning, and pain,
that she would die rather than confess:
Then she struggles with the awakened
nature within her, and would flee her
father as she would dee,a pestilence,
lest she follows him.