The People's vindicator. [volume] (Natchitoches, La.) 1874-1883, 1881-09-24

That's Willie.
ON the morrow he shall 90
With his ma to neighbour snow;
The piano leg he'll cut,
Daub the furniture with smut,
scratch the big new sofa. too,
Draw across the glass screw, IS
And our nrighbor Snow'n be mad,
But you bet, I'll not be sad
It's my Willie.
Courier. Journal.
LAGNIAPPE.
Why do wear dogs tooth set in
gold for a watch charm? All, boys, it
Is to remind me OF an infrmity that has
brought Jack Campion trouble ever
since he learned to talk.
TO begin at the right end: / was just
twenty-five when my father bought me
a plantation up in the swamp, where
fortunes are still to be made in spite of
the changes of war.
You Northern folks don't know much
about life on the banks of the old Missis-
sip, that's q fact.
Strange that nature should make it
easy in the swamp to do everything but
live! Some people say you must be
half alligator and half niger to get along
there; but as for me, l was always tough.
Cotton and corn grow higher than the
head OF q man on horseback; the soil is
so fertile that Northern farmer in the
midst Of his stony fields would call the
tilling it receives mere child's play; and
in addition to these blessings, your
brains at some seasons are nearly jOlted
out of your head by "the chills.''
The mosquitoes are great black fe]-
lows that do their work with silent and
concentrated venom; no irrelevant
buzzing about the ears OF the victim. As
for the deer.flies, many q time l have
come home from long ride when my
horses patient sides would be stream
ing with blood. Then the buffalo-gnats
they are small enough to slip through
the meshes Of mosquito bar, but quite
large enough to keep you in fever.
The funniest thing about it is that l
never knew swamper, born and bred,
who wouldn't stick it out that his native
place was perfectly healthy, and be an
gry if you differed from him-sometimes
saying this while his teeth were chatter
ing SO ho could hardly talk.
My house stood behind the green
levee, which from the river made the
trees look as if they had no trunks. s.,
At night the fog fell and fell upon the
low muddy banks, like some one card
ing cotton, and / could see the head
light OF some steamboat now and then
looming up through the dusk like q
great red eye, and hear the wild cries,
halt musical, half uncouth, of the roust-
ab"uts. Then came the whistle-low
and hoarse at first, and deep as the
bass notes Of tremendous organ, and
rising and shrilling into wall of agony.
How unutterably melancholy it used to
sound, dying hopelessly on the dead,
unchanging flats beyond! Plenty Of
sport, too, up there for hunting man
herds Of deer, foxes, wild hogs, and
humber game, such as 'coons and pos
sums. ~ 9}s
But il you want to know what desola.
ton is, Just look at a bit Of irreclaimable
swamp land. Nowhere else does the
gray moss grow in such hoary abun.
dance upon the cypress-trees, and the
bayous that stretch their arms landward
are full of odd.looking marsh grasses
Maybe the sun is shining through the
clouds with yellow glare, making q
sicKly, feverish light among the sickly,
feverish smells and vapors that hang
about the stagnant water. Sometime:
you see snake sliding sluggishlJ
through the underbrush, scarcely leav'
ing q trail in the oozy soil; or often you
come across an alligator summing him
self on a log, and tumbling into the poo
with a slump il he hears noise close
BY. ...'*
I tell you, even il you haven't much
poetry in your nature, there is some
thing awful in the silence Of such spot
II speaks so plainly OF death and disease
and decay. e -
Well went to work with q will, de-
termined to be 4 model planter. Among
other transactions, snapped my rife
with Jules Bastien, an aged and dried
up creole, for . stout-built Texas cob.
"vait q meenit, !" said jules, MODELLING
to the bach Of his cabin. ~ geeve yoi
lsgniappe; trow heem cen. -
Lagniappe, let me explain, Is wha
the vulgar American calls . boot" H,
returned, bringing with him BROW
paper bag that might have c0ntaine.
chincapins or pindars. Then, ss i
squirmed slightly, I was struck by tn
fear that this present might prove to b
crawfsh, and that Jules would force tn
repulsiye delicacy upon mo. I wa
/ comforting myself with the thought tina
/ could toss them into the nearest mud
hole on my way home, when out Of tn
aperture popped brindled head, a
eyes and ears. ss sa.a
= Eet easa flne leetle puppy dogue,
remarked Jules. vTake heem; he kee
OF de tief by night"
I thanked t6e old fellow, and wa
really grateful; for l had no dog. and
iancied that Lagniappe 80 christene
him-would prove coed company.
As time developed him, he became
character-study. He was part bull-do
and part hqdnd, with more than . XtTpn
dash u Cur, I Suspected. The bun-do
Strain uhafla I'm hold On HE gfil
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