The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-27

lures. Sometimes he extended his trips TO
old Mexico and on one occasion it was
rumored that he went to London and Paris.
WOMAN WITH A CRUCIFIX.
He had been pursuing his strange career
about seven years. living like Monte
Cristo and exciting the wonder of all
western Texas, as if he were a Cagliostro
in league with the devil, when one rainy
evening, just before Christmas lady
descended from the overland stage in Me
nardville. This woman carried crucifix
in one hand and Bible in the other. She
inquired for Carleen. and then asked for
a room in which she might appeal to God
undisturbed. On the next day she went
to the palace of st. Cloud and as she en-
tered at one gate Carleen went out at the
other. He never stopped until he was safe
~ ensconsed inside OF the White Elephant,
IN san Antonio. he never denied that the
little woman was his wife, but that there
was some terrible secret between them
which nearly CONCEALED the mans blood eve
cry time he thought of 1t. and made the
woman's face repulsive to him, was be-
You'd question. He at once plunged into
the widest kind of disslpa lion, aR4@hls
pest riders and fastest ponies were kept
busy for two weeks bearing messages be-
tween San Antonio and the ranch. At
length such mysterious affairs as existed
between the two people were arranged in
some way, and the little woman returned
to Galveston and sailed for Europe, still
in one hand and her Bible in the other
FROM this time on to the end of his career
IN Texas Carleen was never the same man.
lie evidently labored day and night to
drive something from his mind. The great
house was crowded with people who were
DenL upon pleasure alone, and strange ru-
morS circulated as to games of cards where
not only millions, but beautiful women,
were lost and won. Carleen began to give
away money. He made one of his neighbors
q present of a large pasture and fine herd
OF cows. To another he gave large band
of graded polled Angus steers. To a ia
vorlte cowboy he gave a whole drove of
line horses, and at the feet of a beautiful
singer from San Antonio he threw check
for $lCO,C00 in gold. The daughter of a
gamekeeper who handed him cup of cold
water from one of his own springs was
rewarded with band of sheep He attend
cd a school exhibition and at the close of
the exercises he presented each and every
one OF the little boys and girls with a check
for 5000.
During the flood tide of his prosperity he
had stocked fine park of several hundred
acres with the rarest specimens of wild
animals from every known nook and corner
Of the globe. One day, just before the
final crash, when the Frenchman was in a
particularly hilarious mood, he mounted his
morse and invited every one about his house
and in the country to help him Stay these
geological specimens. His guests, heated
with wine. and his cowboys, always eager
for a frolic. were, of course, ready for such
fine sport The slaughter lasted three whole
days. Elephants. lions, tigers and leopards
We're hunted down and shot with Win
blast of horns. Deer. antelope and rare
birds were spared, and after the royal sport
was ended the gates of the park were
thrown open and these allowed to run wild.
There were plenty of people VINO believed
that the mysterious spendthrift had found
BOWie'S famous lost silver mines of the
San Saba. Others thought he some
European prince who had inherited a limit
less fortune. and there were others who in
sisted that the man was either capable of
converting the baser metals into gold or
else he had been great pirate or an old
world bank robber. Toward the end peO-
pie did not care to be intimate with the
strange man. though hundreds in
debted to his liberality for their fortunes.
Carleen realized the situation, and one fine
day he walked out of the great palace of
St. Cloud, and turned his back upon the
country with SO little ceremony that those
who knew him best were most aStonished.
He stopped in San Antonio long enough to
make a firm of lawyers familiar with his
affairs. He next heard from in London
in company with woman of great beauty,
and shortly afterward "A few lines floating
about in the newspapers told the story of
the suicide in the great English metropolis
of rich Texan who had left million on
deposit in the Bank of England. 1t was
Careen-John Carleen-and he died as he
had lived-a mystery And so ended the
greatest of all Texas mysteries He came
a mystery, lived ten years in cloud of
mystery and disappeared in mystery.