River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1886-04-15

Louisiana there winds to the sea
slow brown bayou called the
Terrebone, from the fertility 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 this was
one OF the streams along which they
settled in Louisiana.
They cultivate little rice farms and
orange groves, and live in summer
upon their fishing and the produce of
their gardens in winter-upon the
game that abounds in the marshes.
Since their exile they, like the Bour-
bons, have forgotten nothing and
have learned nothing. Their Ian
guage, customs, and manners are
identically the same rs 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 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 rot
ted away. The bitches are clicked with
grass, and Young willows grow along
their line. The whole is matted with
the tangled growth of the lavish vcge-
tation brought up from this fertile soil
by the tropical suns and wild rains.
Sometimes at dusk you will catch
glimpse of "A bent figure skulking away
from the door of a ruined cottage whose
chimneys have fallen in, whose roof is
a green pulpy mass of lchen. and
whose walls totter forward to II fall
The neighbors will explain that it is
only old Allandin, the wild
If you will lie in wait about this hour
of the day, concealed in the under
brush, you may catch a closer glimpse
of him. He looks 20, but is not really
50 old. His once tall form is bent. and
he walks with the quick creeping move
ments 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 a wrinkled, pallid face
through the rough hair with 4 glare
like cat. His hands are like rough. /
knOtted claws, and his whole body has |
a growth of coarse hair upon it. His /
only covering is pair of brown blan- /
kets, through which a hole has been
torn to admit his head, and he creeps /
silently away every night into the for
est swamps. This is the story the /
neighbors tell:
Thirty years ago there was no more I
prosperous farm in the parish than that /
of Etienne Allandin, and no more re- /
spected man than its rich young owner /
He was alone in the world with the ex-
ception of some distant cousins, but his /
friends were many, and he was be- I
trOthed to pretty young girl who was I
to marry him in the next March.
His face was plain, except for his I
splendid dark eyes, but he had a warm, I
gentle heart, and was a fine palfj, so I
that he would not have asked any par I
ent round for twenty miles for their /
daughter in vain. According to old /
Acadian usage he built a new house that +
winter, spening loving care upon the /
nest that was to hold his little mate
The wedding day approached. The +
happy bridegroom made ready the T
marriage corbeille, as was usual, only .
his gifts were the most splendid ever
seen in that simple neighborhood. The 1
wedding gown was of real white silk,
the veil, wreath of wax orange flowers, I
with the white shoes and gloves had +
come all the way from New Orleans. {
He rose early that lovely March .
morning, and arrayed himself carefully I
in his black, shiny clothes, casting ten
der, amused glances at the little FEM.
nine garment lying on that pride of /
every Acadian woman 5 heart, 4 plump.
strong bed with ruilled pillow. He +
was making up a parcel Of these gar
ments ready to be carried to the bride .
when an embarrassed and synathetic /
delegation came to inform him that /
the bride had disappeared.
She had eloped with a handsome F
good-for-naught who had been refused .
by her parents, and had left not a
word for her betrOthed. Allandin +
stood like a 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 4
that day he never spoke to any human /
being. All day the man hid in his I
house, and with nightfall went to the +
forest, and like Il wild beast sought T
his food. Crawfish. lizards. field mice,
and birds, eaten raw, were his susten-
ance. His hair and beard grew long
and tangled, his clothes fell to pieces, /
and blanket became his only garb. I
In all these thirty years he has never I
spoken, and now he knows no human +
language. His only sounds are a
few inarticulate cries, and he shuns his
kind like hunted animal. The SYM
pathetic Acadians have never disturbed +
him, and at nights when they hear a +
faint echo from the swamps OF a wild /
human cry. they look sadly at each I
other and say: ''C'est ie paur' AHandja I
qdr'