Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1886-12-03
!. 3.
!. JENNIE I !!
sapt. Il Rne's Pretty Cracker Girl and Her Res.
l5 3. 81 ss msrkabls Career. 81 sE

oapt. Il Rne's Pretty Cracker Girl and Her Rs-.
I nsrkabls Career.
from the Atlantic Consti tuition.
I=$ When Capt. la Rue Of Sherman's
army dashed into BlankVille, at tho
head Of q party Of raiders, one fine
lsummer morning, his first impulse was
to swear and his second was to laugh.
Being a versatile young fellow OF I'M
finite resources he did both. D. The
| tired troopers saw at glance that
there was nothing in this little north
Georgia mountain village. OF the
forty or fifty houses struggling around
the public square, not more than q
dozen were occupied. The majority
OF the inhabitants had fed to the
mountains. ~
"You, Jinniel You, Jinnie!" shouted
an old woman who had her head poked
out of her cabin window.
Capt. La Rue languidly turned his
head, and then look of keen interest
flashed from his bold black eyes. "Jin-
ME is worth looking att said the
young officer, after q critical survey OF.
the young figure swinging on the gate.
Jimmie had never seen any federal
cayalrymen before, and in her anxiety
to get a good view she unconsciously
perched herself upon the gate in q po-
sition which showed off to the best
advantage.
!. ''Look at that pretty cracker girl,'
said a big fellow as he ra titled his sabre
to attract Jinnie's attention.
The girl was evidently not more
than sixteen. Divinely tall and d.
vinely fair, her lissome figure revealed
every line and curve of it's graceful
contour through the soft, clinging
drapery in which she was attired, and
which seemed to be a part OF her.
Under her rustic hat was a perfect
face. Her complexion was dazzling
and contrasted we'll with the scarlet
thread running through her lips, and
with her shy eyes of BLUSH gray. Her
hair was glory in itself. IT. rolled
down her shoulders like IL food ofn1o}t~
en- gold.
"such a GIRL" muttered Capt. La
Rue, "has no business here. II I am
not very much mistaken there is troub-
le in store for her."
The RAIDERS searched the house and
stole everything worth carrying off.
They burned the unoccupied dwellings,
and spent the day in making the vii.
layers miserable. The captain did not
find the time hanging very heavily on
his hands He made his headquarters
at the house occupied by jimmie and
her mother, and his appearance was
SO warlike that the old woman busted
herself in the kitchen, leaving nsr
daughter to keep the seH-invited guest
under surveillance. 1t was long after
midnight before the troopers RODE out
Of town on their way back to the main
body Of the army. How it came
about WAS never fully explained, but
the captains spirited charger carried
double burden, and one OF the riders
looked wondrously like jimmie!
Among the Americans who did val
liant servicein Maximilian's army, ait
er our war was over, was Capt. La
Rue. The captain had q wife who
was the toast Of all Mexico, from the
capital city to the Rio Grande. In
the American colony there weres TRANCE
runners about this beautiful woman.
It was said that she looked like all
angel and acted like a. she devil. There
were queer stores, too, about her
early life. It was whispered that La
Rue picked her up with q lot OF other
plnnder in a mountain town in (1eor-
gia, just for lark, but it turned out
serious business. 1t seems tina; the
girl took it intV her head to fell in
love with him, and she made life
burden to him until he married her
and took her to Mexico.
La Rue was killed along with Prince
Salm-Saln,, and when the princey wild.
ow sailed for Europe, Mrs. La Rue
went with her. Almost anything can
be done with a girl, provided she is
caught young. A year or two more
in that bleak and poverty-stricken
mountain hamlet would have turned
jimmie into commonplace young
woman. As it was she was thrown
into q strange circle just at the time
when she was feverishly cage, to imi
tate those who were above her in the
social scale. She stripped off The pro.
vincial husk that enveloped her. She
studied men, women, costumes, man.
ners, newspapers, theaters, eve thing
that could throw light upon thu. great
mystery called society. For s1ch
woman to learn to talk we'll in French
and Spanish, as well as in her own
tongue, was g. small matter. With
her beauty and the subtle witchery Of
her magnetism, what wonder is it
that Eugene La Rue was soon anathe.
matized by ail the prudes in Parlsi
It was some time in 1870 that
certain claim became the talk Of hotel
circles in Washington. The claimant.
q charming woman, swpre that she
was Unionist, and that Sher1nan'a
raiders had destroyed something over
hundred thousand dollars worth Of
her property in north Georgia. She
was backed up by q few decayed Fed.
eral. veterans, who advocated her
cause. She had quite an array OF re-
celpts and afidavits, but the case look.
ed doubtful from the first. Finally
from her native town during the wax
there was q startling expose. It was
shown that she was almost a pauper
had never lost any property, and had
eloped with cavalry officer named
La Rue. r..
The adventures left Washington
after this exposure, but in few years
she was back there again in the role
of q lobbyist. Her costumes were COR.
geous, her. equipage respondent and
her little wine suppers were voted de-
lighttully dangerous. In the long run,
however, the lobbying business failed.
Men were afraid to have dealings with
the La Rue woman, and she disap.
peared. ." Ia t ILL.,
t Such q career always tends down
| ward. A few years ago Mrs. La Rue