Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 February 1875 — An Anecdote of Adoption. [ARTICLE]

An Anecdote of Adoption.

Says the French Civil-Code: “A man may adopt > a his child and constitute as Ms heir, with reserve of one-third of his property to the heirs at-law, any person wh > shall have saved his lite.” Adoption is allowed in other cases, to-wit: when a person reinaves a child from theFound,-. ling and educates him satisfactorily until ne is twenty-one, at which age the foundling most give his ennsent to the adoption; and again, when a man pleases to" recognite" a child as his own. Adoption would seem, however, to have some lucrative aspects, for not a week passes without the ZVrite* A/Tlc/mm publishing advertisements from people who offer round sums for the honor of being adopted by noblemen in distress; and the least one can say of such advertisements is that they bear on the face of them! potentiality of so much hard swearing that it is a wonder the police do not look more closely into them. i •*

Now, one day there appeared in the papers an advertisement offering 10,000 francs a year for adoption by an authentic duke or prince; and this bait sent naany a funny-looking old gentlemen ringing at the door of a house near the Bois de Boulogne. It may be supposed that most of them failed’ to satisfy re* quirements, for they came out chopfallen; but at last there arrived a weazel-headed, shrunken little body, crowned with a shockingly bad bat, and this one, on furnishing his name, was ushered, with marks of astonishment and respect, into the presence of the advertiser—a young man of about thirty, with intelligent features spqiled by a restless expressisn es the eyes. This gentleman passed for an American, but he was in reality a Frenchman, and one of a class not uncommon in all countries where compulsory military service flourishes. He had never done anything criminal but, objecting to waste the seven best years of his life in the army for one sou a day, he had at the age .of twenty decamped to the United States, and in the course of ten years had been so lucky al Petroleumville that he had amazed a million dollars. Then he had been seized with that desire of home which gnaws all Frenchmen in foreign climes. Englishmen and Germans find their country everywhere; a Frenchman outside France always feelsws though he were among barbarians; and so Charles Gredon set sail again for France, secretly repenting of his flight, and knowing that his fortune would yield him no pleasure if he were obliged to spend it in exile. However,it was not safe for him to use his real name, for a deserter can only plead limitation at the end of twenty years; accordingly he dubbed himself Wiggins, and proceeded to search for some countryman who by adoption could enable him to slip back into the stat civil by a side-door. His ambition to secure a title was only a thing by the way, conforming to the maxim that when a bird borrows plumes he may as well take a peacock’s as a goose's. So Charles Gredon, alias Wiggins, eyed the little body in the bad hat as though to take stock of his anatomy and judge how long he was likely to last. "You are the Due de Pontbrise?” he said, motioning him civilly to a chair. " Yes, and Marquis de Vieuxcreneaux; that would be the title of my eldest son if I had one, but J haven’t.” “ I should like to see your parchments.” “ I have them all in my pocket. Our family was ruined by the revolution; we picked up again under Charles X., but unhappy speculations under the reigns of Louis Philippe and the late usurper stripped me of all I had recovered and brought me to my present plight, which is wretched enough.” “ And you would be ready to adopt me for 10,000 francs a year?" “ Pardon me, I should like the capital of that income, 200,000 francs, down. There are ten chances to one that I shall die before eight years have passed, for privations have undermined me, and by living at the rate of 25,000 francs a year I should at least spend my declining years amid luxuriesinrixea to mv rank?” "Yes, and these luxuries would be giving you a taste for life. y m AvouW contrive to five beyond your eight years and then come to me for another 200,000 francs," remarked Wiggins, who had not resided among the Yankees for nothing. "If I live beyond eight years I will ask you for a room in your house, with good and dutiful attentions, nothing else," answered the Duke, with quiet dignity, “ You may take it or leave it, Monsieur Wiggins. ' I am not over-anxious to sell my title, and before even entering upon negotiations I must request undoubted proofs of your honorable character." The parleying, placed on such a respectable footing as this, proceeded with mutual esteem and gratification. Wiggins in guarantee of his honor produced his check-book: the Due de Pontbrise drew out a pound and a half of documents on sheepskin and vel-lum-patents of nobility, deeds of sale and transfer, baptismal certificates, etc. Then references were exchanged, then the pair lunched and finally was broached the delicate question as to how the adoption should be effected. The Duke pronounced himself against “ recognition.” “ Much better,” said he, “ that you shoald save my life before witnesses." " I think> so, too.” "And meanwhile please give me a 1,000-franc note to buy clothes befitting my station," added the Duke, “ and before I risk my life vou must give me your note-of-hand at thirty days for the 200,000 francs in question.” Mr. Wiggins could not help thinking that his prospective father laid down his conditions in a rat: er high-handed way, but he attributed ibis to the natural instincts of nobility and inwardly rejoiced at it. He disbursed the 1.000-franc note and then, reddening little: ‘ You will excuse my asking one question, M. le Due; you have never been in jail*’’ "Monsieur Wiggins!” exclaimed bis grace, rising, with a siern frown. “ I beg pardon,” stammered the French Yankee, "it was only a formality ” Some three weeks after the above incidents a pleasant party of five took a boat at St. Clo d to go and fish for gudgeon on tbe Seine. There was the Due de Pontbrise, fresh shaved, and clad in a fine country suit of gray; our W iggins in a Panama; a brother American, enriched in oils; and a brace of genuinely ennobled Frenchmen, whose acquaintance Wiggins had picked up at one of those Parisian clubs to which moneved foreigners obtain such easy access. The oily American and the two French nobles had frequently dined with Wiggins of late, and had always met at his table that venerab.e Due de Pontbrise, whose conversation, at once festive and polished, sparkled with those recitals of the ‘‘grand siecle” which are only to be found in the mouths of old nobles and in dictionaries of anecdotes. The Duke appeared to have taken a great fancy to Wtggiua, and it was touching to behold how Wiggins reciprocated that affection.

Even as the party started now upon that I boat trip Wiggins could not restrain the impulses of his heart, which led him to offer hig arm to the old Duke asthe latter made his way to the seat in the stern, and then to cover up his grace’s thin legs filially with a fur rug. Bui when the boat had into mid-stream, propelled by its four ours, what should the valiant but imprudent Duke do but "stand.up suddenly to admire the view of the forest on the heights above the river: “Monsieur le Due, I do beseech you not to stand up while the boat is moving," exclaimed Wiggins in pathetic entreaty. “Do not feat for me, my young friend,” answered the Duke paternally; “I cannot swim, but my feet are. steady, and the scenery is really ——” Heighho! before the incautious noble could get out the adjective which was to qualify the scenery a sudden lurch of the boat caused him to flounder Headlong into tbe tide, the soles of his new boots swirling upward like a pair of corks. “Great heavens! can anyone swim?” shouted Wiggins in horror. " No,” chorused the oily American and the two Frenchmen. "Then I can’t cither, but I’ll hazard %iy lite,’’ yelled Wiggins, and he took a heroic header. At this moment, however, a cry far out-topping the dismay of the previous shout sprang from the throats of the three men in the boat, for at St. Cloud thi river takes a bend, and round this bend Was seen a steamer from Paris bearing straight down upon the drowning Duke and the devoted Wiggins, who was clutching him bv the hair. Another three weeks and the scene is a sick ro:)uu the dramatis personal Wiggins in bed, with his head shaved, a Sister of Mercy and two policemen. One of the policemen has a painful communication to make. “ Monsieur Gredon," he says, sympathetically, “you are well enough now to be told that you are in custody for desertion. You let out the fact that you were Charles Gredon while raving in fever and the hotel people communicated with us.” Wiggins sighs: “ You have not yet told me how 1 come to be here. 1 jumped into the river, but I am a good swimmer enough.” "Yes, but a steamer passed over you, luckily without hurting your old friend in the gray suit, who swam away and has never been heard of since.” "Never been heard - of since!” bawls Wiggins, collecting his senses; “ but he had a note-of-hand tor 200,000 francs of mine, and he called himself a duke.” “Ah, there are plenty of dukes of his sort in France," answers tbe policeman philosophically.— Pall .Vail Gazette.