The examiner., 1886-07-24
THE AcApIAN WILD MAN.
a FaithIess Womansa WOrlk-Thirty
Years Of Silence.


FaithIess W0mansa WOrlk-Thirty
Years OF Silence.
Down in the rich alluvial delta of Louis
lana there winds to the sea slow brown
bayou called the Terrebonne, from the fer
tility of the black loany land through
which 1t flows. Big sugar plantations lie
along its course, but near the mouth are
the homes of many Acadians, for this
settled in Louisiana.
They cultivate little rice farms and
orange groves, and live in the summer up
on their fishing and produce of their gar
dens in winter-upon the game that
abounds in the marshes. Since their
exile they, like the Bourbons have forgot
ten nothing and have learned nothing.
Their language, castoms, and manners
are identicaily the same as the day when.
With the turn Of the tide the ships sailed out
of the harbor.
And the coasts, Of their beloved land grew
misty with distance.
In among these thriving little farms is n
large tract of land, melancholy, weedy
waste. Great forest trees have grown up
in the midst of what were fair fields that
waved with golden rice Fences and
boundaries long ago rotted away. The
bitches are choked with grass and young
willows grow along their line. The whole
is matted with the tangled growth of tho
lavish vegetation brought up from this
fertile soul by the tropical suns and wild
rains. Sometimes at dusk you will catch
a glimpse of bent figure skulking away
from the door of a ruined cottage whose
chimneys have fallen in. whose roof is
green pulpE mass of iichen, and whose
walls totter forward to fall The neigh
bors will explain that it is only old Allan
din. the wild man.
IL you will lie in wait about this hour of
the day, concealed in the underbrnsh, you
may catch q closer glimpse of him. He
looks 20, but is not really so old. His once
tall form is bent, 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 wrinkled. pallid face
through the rough hair, with O glare like
a cat. His hands are like 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,
and he creeps silently away every night
into the forest swamps. This is the story
the neighbors tell:
Thirty years ago there was no more
prosperous farm in the parish than that of
Etlenne Allandin, and no moro respected
man than its rich young owner. He was
alone in the world with the exception of
some distant cousins, but his friends were
many, and he was betrothed to q pretty
young girl who was to marry him in the
next March,
His face was plain. except for his splen-
did dark eyes, but he had warm, gentle
heart, and was fine parti, so that he
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.
The wedding day approached, The
happy bridegroom made ready the mar
rage corbeille 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 early that lovely March morn
ing and arrayed himself carefully in his
black, shiny clothes, casting tender.
amused chances at the little feminine
garments lying on that pride of every
Acadian woman's heart, a plump, strong
bed with ruff1ed pillows. He was making
up parcel of these garments ready to be
carried to the bride when an embarrassed
and sympathetic delegation came to in
form him that the bride had disappeared.
She had eloped with handsome young
good-for-naught who had been refused by
her parents, and had left not word for
her betrothed. Allandin stood like man
stunned; then he turned every one out,
shut himself in with his ruined happiness
Soon the neighbors whispered that the
new house was empty, and Allandin had
gone away to the swamp. From that
day he never spoke 10 any human being.
ALI day the man hid in his house, and with
nightfan went to the forest, and like q
wild beast sought his food. Crawfish,
lizards, field mice, and birds, eaten raw,
were his sustenance. His hair and beard
grew long and tangled, his clothes fell to
pieces, and blanket became his only
garb. In all these thirty years he has
never spoken, and now he knows no
human language