Year: 1860




Our readers are familiar with the case
of the confidence man c. W. Dean, who
recently came down Red River, and OBJ
tanned money from cotton house upon
false order for which he pretended to
have brought down OIL the boat with him.
One day last week this Dean had his ex-
animation before Recorder Monroe, and
was committed for trial; the evidence
against him being clear and positive
Ever since his arrest Dean has conducted
himself in such a good d-humored, cava-
lierly manner, that the officers around
lookup and prison have been more or less
captivated with him, at the same time they
know him to be william, to the marrow of
every bone in his body. He is not phys
ically a tremendous or fearful looking
man, but carries himself with such a
Jack sheppardish GOODNESS and Dick
Turpinish gentility. that the police unan-
imously agree upon him as zone of EN-;
as splendid ''son of gun" as ever
roamed at large in defiance Of the Pen
itentiary. 1t was this Dean who had
the Chief Of Police and his specials out
on the celebrated Opelousas swamp hunt
for murderers, week before last; and the
blood hounds used on that occasion were
his, he having brought them down Red
river with his other goods and chattels. "


Among these goods and chattels, Ito
return or rather come to the subject Of
this notice. was young and pretty wife;
the wife's twin sister, and little brother
of the twin sisters. The wife, Mary
Dean, is not more than Is years of age );
the sister, Martha, being twin, is,
of course, the same age; and the
brother is little boy eight or ten
years old. While the sisters are pretty
and interesting, and the boy intelligent,
they are as innocent and unsophisticated
trio as ever disaster put in the path Of
villain or threw into the distresses of
strange city. The sisters are not only
green" but even 'soft, to humiliation !;
having been reared by poor parents in a
comparatively barren and desolate part
of the country, and having never been
taught much more than to keep their
faces clean and their hair tied up


Since Deans arrest the sisters and
their little brother have been living in
hired room on Annunciation street,
furnished with cooking stove, beds,
and other things bought by Dean on his
arrival here with them; but at the same
time they have been without a cent of
money, or anything to eat; and they
l1ece had their food all the time, only
from daily donations of money from the
special police, who could not help sym
pathizing with them in their deep dis
tress and utterly forlorn condition. All
this is bad enough, but the worst is yet
to be told


When Dean was committed for trial
last week, by Recorder Monroe, and
ordered to be returned to prison, his
young wife was in Court, and had a
final conversation with him, before he
stepped into the Black Maria. She
showed hatshe was Ikea bird, paralysed
and helpless under the gaze of snake
As Dean left her, his parting inj junction
was this, or words to this effect: You
go back home, all of you, where you
come from, and wait for me. I'll be in
prison some time; may be a few months.
or may be year; but when [ get out II
come for you, and I'll find you; if you
don't 60 home, I'll find you wherever
you are; I'll find you if you're in hell.
Go home, and stay there till [ come!'


Dean was trotted off to prison; and
the poor wife communicated to the police
her distress in this, that she had NO
means Of getting back home with her
Lois nd h,n tlar and of flic ch
lated her story, which she had been
afraid to tell up to that time. The
story was told with every appearance OF
sincerity, and was corroborated in the
most conclusive manner by the sister and
brother. The story is hard one to be.
lieve; it sounds more like an invention
of romance than an actual occurrence in
real lite.


; Mrs Deans statement was, tlat hel
family had lived in poverty on a small
patch of ground in one of the upper
parishes Of this State, bordering on Red
river; that her father died some years
ago, and that last year her mother died
They went to live with brother who
lived in the vicinity and was married.
This brothers wife treated them with
such severity that they decided upon
seeking the protection of another brother
who lived or lives somewhere near Mar
shall, in Texas Their only valuable
property was horse and wagon and &
lot OF bedding and cooking utensils; with
which, and some little money and lot
Of provisions, they started off for Texas
the boy driving. On the fourth day Of
their foolish pilgrimage they encountered
their evil genius.


As they we're crossing a prairie, not q
great distance west of Shreveport, they
met man on horseback, who stopped
them and asked them where they were
going. They told him, with all the
, honesty of innocent country children
that their parents were dead, and tina
they were on their way to Marshall, il
t Texas, where they expected to find then
big brother and to put themselves unde
his care. The man drew revolver, anc
cooking it, said that if they were looking
| for brother, he was looking for wife
and was bound to have one, out of 1ha
5 very wagon. The sisters and the brother
= terrified, incapable of resistance, and fa
off from any human aid, did not know
what to do, and had nothing to say.
When Dean (fOr it was no other thai
he) told the girls that one of them mus
{ be his wife, he added that it didn't matte
: which of them he should take, and lef
D it to them to decide which would hav,
/ him. Thoroughly frightened, they wer
incapable Of deciding, or of giving hin
r an answer, one way or another. He thel
n settled the matter by making the sister
. "pull straws'' for him He stated tha
a whichever pulled the short straw shoul
1 be his wife. He prepared the straws


and holding them between his thum
and finger, with the innerends concealed


offered the outer ends to the girls. Hi