The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-05-29

| Wholly shaded from tie sunlays by inward
sl1ntlnG trees and travcrsed by a bright and
swiftly running thread of water that rose
buhbling at the head Of the dell. With no
other feeling than a slight thrill of gratlted
expectation the stranger perceived, where
the shadows lay broadeSt and blacklist across
the glade, very small but neatly built
frame cottage, with a man, apparently OF
extreme age, sitting motionless in the door
way AS the intruder approached the spot
the old man rose and, with elaborate cour-
tesy, and French, the sound of which had
rant ring of past century, babe him wei
come.
Tho visitor had difficulty in restraining
some manifestation OF surprise at the aspect
OF his venerable host In the old mans
dress there was nothing extraordinary; it
| was quito modern and commonplace. But
the man himself-though when he arose his
tall form showed but a slight bend of the
shoulders, and though, as presently APP
| peared ms intellect vas as clear as cryS-
| tal-had about him an indeiinabe air of
remote antiquity 1t will not do to tax the
readers credulity by stating how old tho
| hermltr-for such he may fairly be called
seemed to the visitor to be. 1t must suffice
TO say that his age was evidently far beyond
the years of any OF Gen. George Washing
! tons numerous colOred nurses whose deaths
have 50 far been recorded in the newspapers.
| Ai' was "Abheal u SlLS OItI
Benteman-a perfect type of the ancient
patrlarchs. His eyes had lost little of their
brightness and his uncovered head was
crowned with abundant hair that fell in
white waves upon his shoulders.
The first greetings over, the visitors nat
ural impulse was to question his host about
himself; how he came to he living there in
| solitude among the woods and the various
other Inquiries which the old mans remark
| DeIsOnalItV all To
| 10 put these questions direct was not to be
| Thought Of and the visitors curiosity was
| baified whenever he tried to reach the sub
Ject IN an indirect way. On every other
topic, however, the hermit spoke without
| hesitation. In the same stately French with
which he had first saluted the stranger he
| discussed not only The affairs of the parish
and the State, but general politics, litera-
ture, art and science No subject seemed
unfamiliar to him; and yet TO the visitor
| CHANGING back into the cottage neither book
nor newspaper was anywhere visible. But
the subject on which he evidently dwelt
| with the greatest pleasure to himself was
the literature of ancient Greece; Latin lit
erature he appeared to regard with some
| contempt, speaking of it as merely imita-
tive. He recited with genuine fire page
| after page of Homer and Aschylus; and
what was much more surprising, he quoted
| numerous passages from Greek writer's
whose works the visitor, in common with
the rest of the world, believed to have per-
iShed.
There are two subjects which stranger
visiting st. Landry finds it impossible to
keep out of his conversation for any length
of time-unless indeed, he should happen
to be blind-the beauty of the scenery and
the beauty of the women-but especially
! the beauty of the women. The scenery is
! there and speaks for itself; it requires no
| explanation. But to the traveller from less
| favored regions it seems that the astonish-
ing proportion of women who are beauti-
ful-not merely pretty, but beautiful
| women with features in nowiSe surpassed in
any ''stone idcal' ever embodied by sculp-
| tor-does require some explanation. How
comes it that these Acadian ladies have the
| faces of Greek goddesseSf
A testing remark on this topic drew from
| the hermit an explanation of the mystery
which, it may be said with confidence, has
never before found its way into print, and
which may be appropriately called "A Lee
| gend of st. Landry"
The visitor vsutured to observe that the
secret by virtue Of which st. Landry man
aged to produce and constantly maintain its
crop of beautiful girls ought to be more
| generally known; that in the interest OF the
| human race st. Landry ought not to keep
| the Secret-t to itself.
"Ir you desire to know the secret, ;" the old
| man replied, Il will tell it to YOU But it
will be of no practical value to the world.
You doubtless share the prevailing idea
| that the earliest settlement of white people
| in this district of Louisiana is of recent
| date-that is, OF comparatively recent date"
he added on a sign of dissent from his
visitor-'that the settlement was made in
the last century. That idea is erroneous.
There was, it is true, an influx of settlers
n of xyhn fssl l.
came from Acadia. But they were not the
| first; they were not the first by many CEN
| turtles"
The surprise of the visitor at this startling
statement may be imagined; nor did it di-
! minish while the hermit unfolded the tale
| that follows:
1t seems that when Ulysses, weary of the
inaction that succeeded his wars aud wan
| behring's, grew restless in his disenchanted
isle, and set forth at length with his old
comrades ''to sail beyond the sunset and the
| baths of all the Western stars" in search of
| the fortunate islands, he passed between the
| pillars of Hercules and steered rightou into
| the ocean i'll the direction where he believed
those isles to be. But either his calculations
were inaccurate or else the gods with whom
he had so often striven were still unpropi-
| tiated. At all events, he failed to make any
port in the Hesperides; yet, undismayed, he
sailed right onward INFO 1.-The bountiful, in
| finite West" Many days and weeks and
months he sailed; for the Greelcgalley was
a vessel inferior not only to tie Cunard liner,
but to the galleon iii which Columbus, ages
| later. followed in his track At length-so
runs the hermit's tale-tho galley beached
| its keel on the shore of Southwestern Lou
isiana; and then, indeed, the weary marin
ers decided, unlegretful of the Hesperides,
of the isle where blows tho fire with the
enchanted stem, and even of old Greece.
that they would not wander more.n Along
the banks of the great bayou and beneath
! the slumberous shade of oaks and magno-
| las. they settled down into a peaceful life:
and there in the remote West they founded
n colony, as Alexander long after founded
! colonies in the remote East--oae of which,
according to the general belief, still holds
its own and worships its old gods among the
almost inpenetrsble valleys northward of
Jelalabad-in Kaffaristan, 1.-The Country
of tho Pagan"
From tins colony, founded by Odysseus
himself, the people OF the surrounding dis
! trict largely derives thoir descent, accord
| ing 10 tho hermit's story; and no simpler or
more satisfactory explanation could be found
| TO account for the classic faces, the classic
grace OF the ladies of st. Landry.
| When the stranger babe farewell TO his
singular host the shadows were beginning
! to lengthen, but the day was still warm