The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-09-03

norton or lHc CibyJ III ClucIiy uSSLO, ~
griffe in color, writes d New Orleans
correspondent Of The Cincinnati En-
guirer. His dwelling was q rickety old
shanty, dating from the ancient days Of
New Orleans; its single roof, rotten
and covered with moss and weeds, and
the house seemed about to tumble in
njeces. 1t contained but two rooms.
divided by a thin partition of planks,
divisions, merely for the eye, not for
the nose II ear.
The front room seemed an old Curl
osity shop. 1t was stored with broken
furniture, lumber, and odds and ends
of every description, but apparently
worthless and yalueless. The most
conspicuous piece of furniture in this
room was an immense rusty iron safe,
which took up more than half Of it.
Here in q capacious and venerable
rocking-chair sat day after day an old
lady, shriveled up into parchment. and
of the august age of 163. She was the
mother of the owner Of the house,
Francois Lacroix, the negro nurse.
His life was one of absolute privation,
for he allowed himself only the barest
necessities. No n had ever known
him to spend a cent, beyond what was
needed to keep him alive, for food and
dress, and even his dress was Of the
shabbiest and meanest description.
For ten months of the year Francois
Lacroix lived this life Of sordid want;
but for the remaining two months he
was absent from New Orleans on bust
ness.
Those who visited Paris any winter
between 1860 and 1870, If they knew
aught Of Partisan life, must have heard
of the millionaire creole planter, Fran
co.'s Lacroix. No 6ouIeUdrdeW was
more thoroughly Partisan than he, or
carried more people Of 1.-THE gay cap
itall'' with him. A man Of unbounded
wealth, he rushed headforemost into
all designations and fairly electrified
even Paris. His mistresses dressed
more ~gorgeously than those of any Rus
sian prince; his dinner was gr~anderthan
those of Lucullus; his horses the finest
in France. He threw away his money
with recklessness that told Of 8 Forsu-
natus' purse. gambled it away, spent it
on cocottes, and lived at rate that few
in Paris could initiate. To have main
tanned this style would have required
an annual income Of 5000, 900 francs.
Lacroix only fingered two months in
Paris, and disappeared as mysteriously
as he came. Not for good, however;
for next year he returned to live "
again the same life, eight weeks Of PRO
figacy worthy of Sardanapalus.
AS Paris always contains a larg- pro-
portion Of Louisiana creolcs, the dis
guise if any was really attempted,
could not long be maintained, and il
became known that Francois Lacroix,
the creole planter Of Paris, Francois La
croix, the negro miser in New Orleans,
were one and the same person. BY I'm
dustry and parsimony he had built mp,
perhaps, the largest fortune in 1.-The
Crescent city, Twenty-Five years ago
his income was $3.50. 600 in rents alone.
and he held more than $1,000, 900 OF
real estate, including some Of the finest
and most renumerative property in the
city. OF his income. q few hundred went
tor his home expenses during the ten
months Of his life In s'the Crescent
city, the remainder for his two months
Of Paris
Year after year this went on, even
during the war, and long after It. La
the height Of republican rule Lacroix
came to the front IN q titanic tax ssrug
gle with the republican state govern
ment on the question of taxes. just
about ten years ago, ia 1915, bis i'm
Q fortune, estimated at " q mil
lion, disappeared SO suddenly that p
might almost believe It was q case OF
Cinderella, when the golden coach be-
came q pumpkin again. Lacroix's pro-
perty was seized for taxes and sold. He
was offered the money BY . hundred
persons to redeem 1t, but refused Il TO
every sherifl's sale he went, where the
property sold al one-hundreth its value.
He: stood callous and unregardful Of
what was going on, smiling whenever
apiece sold at an unusually low iigtarc.
One week he was q millionaire. the
next . pauper.
It seemed impossible to understand
th;o no,,yso 49, 49,. $500 MANY who