Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1886-05-07

their fishing aud the produce Of their gar,
dens in winter-upon the. game that
aboands in the marshes. Since their exila
they, like the Bourbons, have forgotten
pothing and have learned nothing. Their
language, customs and manners arc iden.
tically the same as the day when
With the tnrn OF tse tide the ships sailed out
of the harbor, 49, .s
And the coasts OF their beloved land grew
misty with distance.
In among these thriving little farms is A,
large tract of land,.a melancholy, weedy;
waste. Great forest trees have grown uu
in the midst of the fair fields that waved
with golden rice. Fences and boundaries
long ago rotted away The, bitches ara
choked with grass, and young willows
grow along their line. The whole is matted
with the tangled growth of.the lavish veg
citation brought up from this fertile soil by
the tropical suns and wild rains. Some-'
times at dusk you will catch glimpse of
bent bent figure skulkng away from the
door of a ruined cottage whose chimneys
have fallen in, whose roof is a green pulpv
mass of. lichen, and whose walls totter for
ward TO fall. The neighborhood will ex1
plain that it is only old Allandin, the wild
man. 49,,
If you viii lie in wait about this hour
OF the day, concealed in the under,
brush, you may catch closer glimpse
of him. He looks seventy, but is not re-.
ally so old. His once tall form is hept.,
and he walks with the quick creeping
movements of an animal Long gray hair
hangs in filthy matted locks to his waist
and mingles with his great sweeping
beard. Two large dark eyes gaze out,
from wrnkled pallid face through the.
rough hair with a glare like a cat. His
hands arelike rough, knotted claws. and
his whole body has growth of coarse
hair upon it. His only covering is a pair
OF brown blankets, through which a hole
has been, torn to admit his head aud he
crceps silently away every night into tha
forest swamps. This is the story the neigh
bors tell:
Thirty years ago there was no niece
prosperous farm in the parish than that
of Etienne Allandn, and no more re-
spected man than its rich young owner.
lie was alone in the world with the cxcep.
tion of some distant cousins, but his friends
were many, and he was betroth eel to q,
pretty young girl who was to marry him
i'll the next March.
His face was plain, except for his
splendid dark eyes, hut he had n wa,.,n.'
gentle heart, and was fine part,, so that
% would not have asked any parent
round for twenty miles for their daughter,
in vain. According to Old Acadian usage
he built new house that winter, spending
loving care upon the nest that was to hold
his little mate.
Tho wa61inn doxy
happy bridegroom madc ready tho mar.
riage cOrbeiiie, as was usual, only his gifts
were the most splendid ever seen in that
simple neighborhood. The wedding gown,
was of real white silk, the veil wreath of
wax orange flowers, with the white shoes
and gloves had come all the way from New
Orleans.
He rose carly that lovely March morn.
ing, and arrayed himself carefully In his
black, shiny clothes, casting tender.
amused glanccs at the little feminine gar
mcnts lying on that pride of evers,,
Acadian woman's heart, plump, strong
bed with ruIlcd pillows. He was nlakiur
up parcel of these garments ready TO l,s
carried to tho bride when an embar-
rassed and sympathetic delegation came to
inform him that the bride had disap-
young good d-for- -naught who had been re-,
fused hy her parents, and had left not a
word for her bethrothcd. Allandin stood
like man stunned; then he turned every
one out, and shut himself In with his
ruined happinc S.
Soon the neighhors whispered that the
H9w house was empty and Aliandin Gar
gone away to the swamp. From that day
he never spoke to any human being. All
day the man hid in his house, and with
nightfall went to the forest, and like n
wild beast sought his food. Crawfsh,
lizards, field mice and birds, eaten raw
were Iris sustenance. His hair and beard
grew long and tangled, his clothes fell to
pieces and blanket became bis only rarb.
In all these thirty years he had never
spoken, and now he knows no human
language. His only sounds are few in
articulate cries and be shuns his kind like
a hunted animal. The sympa,hetic
Acadians have never disturbed him, and
at nights when they hear faint echo
from the swamps of n wild human cry,
they look sadly at each other and say:
"C'eSt ie paur' AHdndin cai''