Show I MONTE 1OOF TOE PLAINS He Spent Money Like a Prince but No Man Knew j I S I HisHistorYS I I 1 S San Saba correspondence of Globe I Democrat In the mountains von the I I frontier of Texas onehears of strange j characters Bold and daring men come < here to make fortunes others come to j escape from thfc memory of their misfortunes J mis-fortunes and others in search of adventure i I ad-venture No one ever knew what I brought the man Carleen to the San Saba He was a mystery and almost his every act was clouded in mystery from the hour that he set his brogan shoes into black mud of Mehardville until one fine day ten years later when he bid his cowboys farewell and I I they said as tle strage disappeared over the hills toward San Antonio IThere I goes the strangest character i that ever struck Texas Mr Carleen was a Frenchman betraying be-traying his nationality in thb pronunciation pronun-ciation of the score or more English words he had picked up on the road from New Orleans to the prairies of the Lone Star state When he appeared ap-peared for the first time in the streets I I of the little frontier village where he afterwards became so well kndwn he I was dressed as a common laborer I smoked a short pipe and carried a I j j stout stick The cowboys lounging I about the Brindle Steer saloon sized him up and rendered verdict that a good average job of t sheep herding would just about fit the degree of ten derfootedness that was manifested in his language manner and carriage After Af-ter a few moments conversation the r j I winks that were exchanged between the loungers indicated the superior satis faction that they experienced over the correctness of their judgment bur their organs of vision were suddenly ex panded beyond all capacity of closing without an extraordinary effort when the newcomer with little ceremony and few words invited the whole crowd to refresh themselves at the bar of the Brindle Steer He did want a job of sheep herding and he began to ask questions as to wages and about the price of lambs and ewes and rams while the barkeeper was giving him change for the big yellow doubloon that he had selected from a handful of loose coins to pay for the drinks Something like respectfulness on the part of the crowd toward the stranger which had succeeded the curiosity head he-ad aroused grew into admiration when Mr Carleen accidentally dropped a silver mounted revolver from his coat pocket and carelessly picked It up with the indifference of an old plainsman plains-man All were apparently eager to answer an-swer his questions and grant him information in-formation upon every subject with such promptness and pleasure as to please the Frenchman immensely Carleen lounged about the hotel for I several days getting acquainted twith I the people and making himself immensely im-mensely popular by his liberality People Peo-ple thought it rather strange that such a man would go off into the irtoun tains to herd sheep for 40 per month but those who were most intimate with I the stranger said they thought he simply sim-ply wanted to learn the business There were others however who did not hesitate hes-itate to express the opinion that the Frenchman was a stage robber and that he had come out into the moun ains to hide Mr Carleen soon demonstrated that he was not a slow man He developed and executed his plans with the rapid ity that distinguished the greatest of all of his countrymen While every thing about him appeared to be shrouded shroud-ed in mystery he acted as if he had nothing to conceal He appeared to live for the purpose of astounding and mystifying ifying those wno were watching him In the course of eight or ten days the news came to town that the mysterious I Frenchman after a few days herding had expressed himself as being tired of following the flock for wages He I had purchased 10000 head of sheep and paid for them in good San Antonio paper so the story ran Next he bought the famous Los Floret grant containing 100 sections of grazing lands and soon afterward Mr Carleen cameo I came-o town confirming all these stories I and making arrangements to put a barbedwire fence around one of the I largest pastures in Western Texas Could it be possible that the man was going to actually fence in 64000 acres I of land This happened back in the I early 70s before the cattle kings and big syndicates began to string barbed wire around whole counties The Frenchmanspent the night in Menard ville and long before sunrise on the next morning he was on his road to San Antonio accompanied by half a dozen cowboys driving a herd of ponies I in front of them S Ten days afterward a traveler reported re-ported on the San Saba tha an army was moving across the prairies of Western Texas It was an army but an army of laborers stonemasons carpenters painters machinists and teamsters The Frenchman was returning I re-turning with 200 teams and more than 500 people Menardville went on a boom and the Los Floritas ranch only ten miles away presented a scene of bustle and activity which made the natives stare in wonder and amazement amaze-ment Mr Carleen had leased l hundreds hun-dreds and thousands of square miles of grazing lands and around alj this vast scope of country he began to erect a wire fence He instantly broke ground for the purpose of establishing a home place on the banks of the San Saba Hundreds of laborers were set to work quarrying rock while other hundreds were engaged in digging for the I foundation of his house It took him two years to complete this immense I structure It covers at least a half an acre of ground and is five stories high and altogether one of the most beautiful beauti-ful and astounding pieces of architecture architec-ture in America today The walls are of pure white marble while great columns of bluish granite support a magnificent porch extending around two sides of the entire structure Artists came from Paris to exert their skill on the ceiling and walls During the time that he was building1 this palace away out here on the frontier I of Texas Carleen never said a word of his family op for that matter a word of his own history His tongue ran like a bell clapper on all subjects but one and that one was Carleen His agents had purchased cattle all over Eastern Texas and as a consequence conse-quence at UIP end df a year or more his immense estate was well stocked At that time he was regarded as one of the greatest cattlemen cattle-men on the frontier The strang man did not limit his extraordinary ex-traordinary improvements to the palace that he erected He kept a large fQrce in his quarries and a little army5 1 of masons were employed for several years in building long lines of stone fences These structures were not erected after the manner of such old tumbledown affairs as one Often sees in some of the older states The walls were of solid dressed stone and there were great stone pillars around the entablature en-tablature of which were trailing vines clusters of grapes and festoons of flowers exhibiting in the highest style of art the skill of the sculptor BetweEn Be-tweEn these pillars swung massive iron gates These are not yet ruins but here on the wild hills of the San Saba where wolves howl at night and deer sleep beneath the shade of the oaks miles and miles of these macniceht S walls may be seen winding over the undulating prairies and through the I green valleys while up there on the I mountain stands white agalnstthe western sky that gigantic pile of tone and mortar of which io man can say whether it is a monument to the genius I or folly of the Frenchnfan Carleen He was certainly of great advantage to 1 I this particular part of Texas He brought an abundance of money into the country and lie gave thousands of S people employment As long as he I prosecuted his gigantic schemes this was the most prosperou portion of the I state At one time more than 1000 people peo-ple were employed on the ranch He I kept the road open to San Antonio a i distance of nearly 300 miles and relays of horses were established every ten or 15 miles He had a daily mall and the road was lined with teams hauling supplies sup-plies and machinery to the famous ranch Carleen was very fond of the society of educated men and accomplished accom-plished women and for a long time the I I big ranch house which he called the i palace of St Cloud was crowded with people who appeared to be there in i search of pleasure to the exclusion of everything else The Frenchman liked San Antonio delighting to call it Old Sanantone and he went there very frequently He painted the place carmine when he got j there and it is well remembered that 1 S he never lackedfor friends to help him One time we heard that he tli or > r > ed 100000 in gold at the El Moro but if it was true it never caused him to change the expression of hs features Sometimes Some-times he extended his trips to pld Mexico Mex-ico and upon one occasion it was rumored I ru-mored that he went to London and Paris I < S > < > < SHe > S-He had been pursuing his strange career about seven years living like I a Monte Cristo and exciting the wonder of all western Texas as if he were a I Cagliostro in league with the devil when one rainy evening just before I Christmas a lady descended from the overland stage in Menardville This I woman carried a crucifix in one hand I and a Bible in the other She inquired for Carleen and then asked for a room I in which she might appeal to God undisturbed un-disturbed On the next day she went to the palace of St Cloud and as she entered at one gate Carleen went out at the other He never stopped until he was safely ensconsed inside of the White Elephant at San Antonio He never denied that the little woman was his wife but that there was some terrible terri-ble secret between them which nearly congealed the mans blood every time he thought of it and made the womans face repulsive to I him was beyond any question I He at once planned into I the wildest kind of dissipation and his I best riders and fastest ponies were kept busy for two weeks bearing messages 1 between San Antonio and the ranch At length some mysterious affairs as I existed between the two people were i I arranged in some way and the little I woman returned to Galveston and I sailed for Europe still muttering prayers pray-ers and carrying her crucifix 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 He evidently labored day and night to drive something from his II I I mind The great house was crowded I with people who were bent upon pleasure pleas-ure alone and strange rumors circulated circu-lated as to games of cards where not only millions but beautiful women I were lost and won Carleen began to give away money He made one of his I neighbors a present of a large pasture and a fine herd of cows To another he gave a large band of graded polled Angus An-gus steers To a favorite cowboy he gave a whole drove of fine horses and at the feet of a beautiful singer from San Antonio he threw a check for 100000 in gold The daughter of a gamekeeper who handed him a cup of cold water from one of his own springs was rewarded with a band of sheep He attended 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 pros-perity he had stocked a 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 partic-ularly hilarious mood he mounted his I norse ana invited every one about his I house and the country to help him I slay these zoological specimens His I guests heated with wine and his cowboys I I cow-boys always eager for a frolic were of course ready for such fine sport The I slaughter lasted three whole days Elephants Ele-phants lions tigers and leopards were hunted down and shot with Winchesters I Winches-ters to the music of hounds and the blast of horns Deer antelope and rare birds were spared and after the royal I sport was ended the gates of the park were thrown open and these allowed I to run wild There were plenty of people I peo-ple who believed that the mysterious spendthrift had found Bowies famous lost silver mines of the San Saba I Others thought was some European prince who had inherited a limitless fortune and there were others who insisted in-sisted that the man was either capable of converting the baser metals into gold or else he had been a great pirate oran I or-an old world bank robber Toward the end people did not care to be intimate 1 with the strange man though hundreds I hun-dreds were indebted to his liberality for I their fortunes Carleen realized the situation1 andjOne 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 was next heard from in London in company with a woman of great beauty and shortly afterwards a few lines floating about in the newspapers news-papers told the story of the suicide In the great English metropolis of a rich Texan who had left a million on deposit de-posit in the Bank of England It was CarleenJohn Carleenand he died as he had liveda mystery An l so ended the greatest of all Texas mysteries He came a mystery lived ten years in a cloud of mystery and disappeared in mystery |