Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1883-09-26
LA TARPIAUDE.
BY GEORGES PRADEL.

g really do not know" said Jalras,
S'Why / should tell you these things,
for you will probably not believe me,
and nevertheless it would be easy for
you to find out that have not changed
one word of the story, which everybody
has heard, and which / first related to
the Judges.
4" am from Bordeaux found ling,
brought up anywhere and anyhow. Ny
first recollect1ons are about a mother
who used to kiss me and father who
beat me as If / were without feeling.
Then I don't remember anything more.
Mother was dead and father had gone
away somewhere. Some charitable folks
put me In a Brothers school, where
they taught me to read and write. That
was all. / was thick headed, but grew
up soidly. When I left the school I
was strong AMI muscular. / became a
boatman; then hired myself out as q
laborer on those great fat-boats which
unloaded the merchant vessels along the
Gironde.
Rolling hogsheads and casks, car
rying heavy packages-that was my
trade and hard one; but it pays well.
life, if you like, but an honest one. I
never injured anybody. I earned my
bread and spent my money as fast as I
made it. Perhaps was a little too
ready to strike, for [ am quick temper
ed, but had an open heart and an
open hand. And even if I did fight
sometimes for a mere tr1he, I did so
without any real hatred, and never re-
fused to do favor for friend.
" must confess that I like to drink a
little once In while, but not too much.
No one ever saw me do as some men do
-stagger from one cabaret to another.
and lie down to sleep it off in all sorts OF
disreputable places. But l liked to
have little spree with friends, and I
liked the company of the young girls
who served the mild VINE, and whose
eyes were soft and genle I was Just
twenty three; and was no more afraid of
work than / was of fun.
"Wen there came a hard winter that
year. Even at Bordeaux the snow fell
thick AID fast; and the wind dashed ones
face like whip. As / was going along
close beside wall my foot struck heap
of rags-regular tatters, and a cry came
out Of the rags. ---- .-.s
$50 stopped down and picked the
bundle up. It was one of the good
Gods own creatures freezing to death
there In the snow. I carried the thing
under gas lamp and looked at it. It
was a little girl about twelve or fourteen
years old, and as pretty-as pretty as
owe.
"She had lost consciousness. I car
ried her into a drinking place, and
started to rub her, and shake her, and
make her swallow a few mouthfuls of
hot wine.
Well, sir, when she opened her eyes
when she looked at me with those
great pupils of hers, black as tar and
soft as velvet, it was all up with me. I
belonged to her, body and soul. I
secured room for her IN the lodging
house where I lived. The little one
made me afraid of her, somehow-she
made me feel In a way I had never felt
before. It was just like when one be-
gins to go mad.
"Well, next day, when she had had
good sleep, saw her again and talked
to her. Where did she come from +?
She had come from everywhere; she
had been travelling with band of gyp-
southern foIk-who went through
the country giving gymnastic exhibi-
tons. One day she ran away, because
the man who called himself her father
had threatened her terribly. She had