Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-03-17
THE ACADIAN WILD MAN.
a Faithless WOmsn's WOrk-Thirty
Years of silence.
Fro1a az ~ York So.

from me " ct0 york sun.
Down in the rich allnvial delta of Louis
lana there winds to the sea slow brown
bayou called the Terrebonne, from the fer
tilty OF the black loamy land through which
it flows. Big sugar plantations lie along its
course, but near the mouth are the homes Of
many Acadians, for tins was one OF the
streams along which they settled In LOUIS
lana.
They cultivate little rice farms and orange
groves, and live in summer upon their nsnlng
and the produce of their gardens in winter
upon the game that abounds In the marshes.
Since their exile they, like the Bourbons.
have forgotten nothing and have learned
nethlng. Their language, customs. ana man
ners are identicaliy 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 a
large tract of land, a melancholy. weedy
waste. Great forest trees have grown up in
the midst Of what were far fields that waved
with golden rice. Fences and boundaries
long ago rotted away. The bitches are
chokeG with grass. and young Willows grow
along their line. The whole is matted with
the tangled growth OF the lavish vegetation
brought up from this fertile soil by the tropi-
cal suns and wild rains Sometimes at dusk
you VIII catch a glimpse of a bent figure
skulking away from the door of a ruined cot
tage whose chimneys have fallen IN, whose
roof is a green PUPPY mass of lichen, and
whose walls totter forward TO a fall. The
neighbors win explain that it is only old
AhaDdin, the wild man.
III you will lie in wait about this hour OF the
day, concealed in the underbrush. you may
catch closer glimpse OF him. He looks 70,
hut 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
dark mi frn1 a
pallid face through the rough hair with
glare like cat. HIS hands are like rough.
kn0tted claws, and his whole body has
growth of coarse hair upon 1t. His only COW
ering is a pair of brown blankets. through
which hole has been torn to admit his head,
and he creeps 81 emily away every night INTO
the forest swamps. This is the story the
neighbora tell
Thirty years ago there was no more pros
perous farm IN the parish than that OF Etienne
Allandin, and no respected man than its rich
young owner. He was alone in the world,
with the exception of some distant cOuslns,
but his friends were many, and he was be-
r0t6ed to pretty young girl who was to
marry MIN in the next March.
Hls face was plain. except for his splendid
dark eyes, but he had warm, gentle heart,
and was fine parti, so that he would not
nave asked any parent round for 20 miles for
Jheir dau inter In vain According to old AGA
dian 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 marriage cor
BELLE, as was usual, only his gifts were the
most splendid ever seen in that simple neigh
borhood. 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 wav from New Orleans.
He rose early that lovely March morning.
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 w0man's heart,
plump, strong bed with ruffled pillows. He
was making up a parcel of these garments
ready tobe carried to the bride when an en-
barrassed and sympathetic delegation came
to inform him that the bride had disappeared.
she had el0ped with handsome Young good
for-naUght who had been refused by her par
ents, and had left not a word for her betroth-
ed. Allandln stood like man stunned; then
he turned every one out. and 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 to any human being. All day the man
hId in his house, and with nightfall went to
the forest, and like a 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 Ian
guage. His only sounds are a few inarticu-
late cries, and he shuns his kin like a haunted
animal The sympathetic Aoadians have
never disturbed him, and at nights when they
hear faint echo from the swamps of a wild
human cry, they look sadly at each other and
say. "C'eef Ls Il1gtle' dHsn65gl ,1 ~