The Washington herald., 1921-10-09

The Merry Tale OF the
Thirty-Six Adams. the
King of Cursers and
His Waterloo
~ LACK sAURIoL was bad man. He
x was not only bad man. but he had
IL reached that state Of iniquity where
he rIoried in his badness and took pride in
his infamy. For in his earlier days Black
sauriei had been . fumberjack and river
runner on the Ottawa. and there. having
l.bor,ously established his fame a. bias
,hs~ateur. he had come to be known as the
King Of the cursers.
Nov, In the cid days. every CRIB or raft
- ,,u,bsr that drtfted down the Ottawa car.
rssA what was known as It's professional
sursx. when one crib evsrtsok another
p>prsssntattve Of each rival crew was posted
sn ssns point Of vantage. and there. Is the
t-s noatsag worlds Of timber raced towards
. sopurnc. destination. the duly appointed
-cursers- engaged IN . duel of vituperation
Tners. sometimes for an hour at a time,
the startled river valley would echo with
.ntiphon.l voIleys Of execration and anaths-
na, with barrage after barrage Of profanity.
ingenious and far fetched, abztruse and hu'
unorous, untrammeled and diabohcal. Yet
this. oddly enough, implied no Ill feeling be-
tween the two sets Of men. 1t was merely
.Avekturous spirits, drunk with the JOY Of
sztstsnes, giving vent to that animalism
which rough work and rough life made res
tive In their bodies.
30 when Black sauriol came to the little
vtllaxs Of sancerre he came with sinister
crown on his swarthy brow and a slight
.v.xxer to his thick muscled torso. He
openly boasted that he could outcurse any
man tn Ontario. He entertained wide
mouthed groups about the doorway Of his
,oroersn BY his novel and offhanded vitu-
perattve feats. He loudly proclaimed him
sslf within bearing Of the cure, as a brim-
stoneestinE andjheIlbent son Of a succatter
And later on he stnl more loudly and aban-
donedly cursed the cures chime Of bells
But before yoa can fully understand this
chime Of balls you must know . trine more
about both the village Of sancerre and the
cure who watched over its welfare.
The village itself still Is little more than .
stanza Of old French lost on a page Of work
a4ay English prose, a nttls parish whore 1t
appears TO be always Afternoon, where the
dusty gold Of uncounted Yesterdays seems to
tint and tarnish the quiet nelds, where even
the cottage caves hang low and heavy over
the quiet windows, like tired lids over con-
tented eyes For nothing IL ever done in .
hurry in this little town that euris like .
cray and white kitten along a sheltering
elbow Of the River Lizotts-
Everything is calm and leisured, from the
springiess charetts that brings the mail to
the mail bodied Normandy geese that feed
On the terTasn psoxe behind its double row
sf Lombsrdy poplarA
For nearly three generations the busier
hswers and sowers Of the surrounding coun-
try have called sancerre old fashioned and
unprosressiye. The little vhitewashed VII
hss. in turn: has held itself placidly aloof
from the newer race which hens II In closer
and closer as the years go by.
Ths rattle Of the self binder invaded the
8n4s DQL Inc nxlNc9Ief5 OIL SauCerfc bt11i
wuns the cradle and scythe, and sun
hrovnsd girls sti1 followed them With wooden
rakss The clatter Of tractors echoed from
lsrdner demesnes, but blocky teams whose
progenitors once carried mailed knights at
AEinoourt still pulled the plows Of sancerre.
And the newer race pretended to have no
lo-e for IT'S monsrel "patos," for its herbs
and fruits and flowers. unlike any other herb
and fruit and flower In all Ontario. They
hughed at sanoerre's din1inutive inbred cat
de and sconed at his stunted old world peren-
naals whose parent roots came up the St
Lawrence over three centuries ago, and at its
vhitswash, and at its crazy chime Of bells
Yes, soove al, the chimes! For 1t was the
chimes that FIRST 81 not only Black saarisl
but also the surrounding countryside against
tss cure. Yet the actual root Of the evil
Cd not lay In the cure, who WISHED no man
ss< his enemy. He was q kindly and tolerant
man, and above an things. he desired peace
u his parish But the cure Of sancerre was
not unlike the saints who 1t Is recorded, are
not without their trivial weaknesses.
He w>s accused et being overfrugal IN his
habits of life. q certain su,tout which he
affected having been followed down the sea-
sons during its transmutation from black to
bottle green and from bottle green to q sooty
serd de Gris He was also addicted to the
- q mun. And he was known to cherish
ssrt.an eoswebbed bottles in his cellar, well
capped with resin and reputed to hold fsbu-