St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1893-10-28


ings, used to retire to his badly ven
tilated WHARF. and casting aside his
nax-woven toga lounged beside his fam
lily on the general mat in . state OF
natural freedom, until the sun once
more broke from the clouds; or failing
the vicinity of . friendly WHARF, he
went sitter IN enemy to keep himself
warm. If not dry, and consoled himself
Tor getting drenched by breaking the
sixth commandment. However, after
umbrellas were introduced to his no
ticc, and his visitors paid him in
gold for the use of his lands. he no
longer had the same excuse for staying
indoors or ''scoffing" an enemy; there
fore. he gradually settled down and
Rratified his lawless passions by becom-
ing . member of parliament
But between the stages q man eat
ing and dress suits theFe were wars and
retsliations between the Pskeha and
the Maori which took away . good deal
of the pleasure Of living in New Zea-
land.
In the northern island. of which
Auckland is the capital, the natives
were the most coutumacicus, and deeds
Of peculiar atrocity were by no means
uncommon. In the Kauri forests frag-
mcnts of human beings were frequent
ly found scattered about as they had
been tossed, after being hacked to
pieces, and. OF course, the crimes were
atonce put down to the original owners
of the land.
On the other side of the bay which
stretched between Auckland and the
kinges eountry, stood u shanty or drink
ing shop which also served as the ferry
station. The landlord and his two SONS
acted as ferrymen, and did 1t one time
. brisk trade to and from Auckland
city, while the wife scted ~ hostess;
and rs this shanty was the only house
which stood on that side of the water
1t the time, she had most of the travel
erS rs customers
Behind the shanty lay the primeval
forest, dense and uncleared. with the
kauri gums rising straight and grace
full like masts from the underground OF
fern trees, supple-jacks and wild mint,
and it Was in this scrub that most OF
the grewsome discoveries were made
Travellers wore fcrried over from the
city, and never came back again, or At
least never came back IS they went
away: SO that the mysterious murders
continued. while Tom the ferryman
and his two sons had to get most of the
return fare from the police, when they
delivered as much as they could gather
OF the disnembered travellers for identi-
Rcetion BY their friends. A melancholy
bUsiness that ferry must have been
to take over live men and bring back
chastity chunks-and the citizens won
dered that these ferrymen's nerves
could stand the constant sh ockA
One day Tom and his sons ferried
over two young men who had made up
their minds to have few days sport
with gun and rod in the forest. despite
its evil repute. They were both Eng
lishmcu and new chums, and like Eng
lishmeu travelling for pleasure were
pretty free with their money, showed
rood deal of it as well as lavish dis
play Of jcwelry. while they laughed
easily at the warnings which they re
ceivetl
They had their TASKS with them,
therefore did not linger At the shanty
when they landed. but struck straight
out for the forest, and. IS they told
Toms wife on their return, had good
sport until the rain came on and drove
them back.
It was about noon when they re-
turned on the fourth day. after wad-
ing for many hours through the
swamps. with that persistent and bone
chilling downpour satursting them -