Wisconsin herald, and Grant County advertiser. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1844-1845, 1845-08-09
A WESTERN CHARACTER"
BY MRS. cLAvERs. Aur HoR OF "a NEW HOME.


BY MRS. cLAvERs. Aur HoR OF "a NEW HOME"
20! Joy that in our embers
Is something that doth live,
That nature yet remembers
VIVA. was so fugi,ive"' WORDSWORTH
in wandering through the woods.
where solitude seems to hold undivided
reign, so that one learns to fancy COM
panionable qualities in the flowers, and
divided sympathetic intelligence in
the bright-eyed squirrel, it is not I'M
common to find originals odd enough
to make the fortune of a human men,
agerie, such as will doubtless form at
no distant day, new resource for the
curious. If any of the experimental
philosophers of the day should under
take collection Of this nature, | rec
ommend the woods of the West as a
hopeful field Of search. Odd people
are odder in the country than in town,
because there IS nothing like collision
to smooth down their salient points,
and because solitude is the nurse of
reverie, which is we'll known to be the
originator of many an erratic freak
There is a foster relationship, at least,
between solitude and oddity, and no.
where is this more evident than in the
free and easy new country. A fair
specimen used to thrive in a certain
green wood, not a thousand miles from
this city! veteran who bore In his
furrowed front the traces Of many a
year of hardship and exposure, and
whose eyes retained but little OF the
twinkling light which must have dis
tinguished them in early life, but which
had become submerged in at least a
twilight darkness, which scarce allow
ed him to distinguish the light of can
die. His limbs were withered, and al
most useless; his voice shrunk to pi-
ping treble, and his hands but imper-
fectIy performed their favorite office OF
carrying tumbler to his lips. His
tongue alone escaped the general de-
cay; and in this one organ were con-
centrated las il is with touch in cases
of bindness,) the potency of al! tne
rest. If we may trust his own account,
his adventures had been only less vari-
ed and wonderful, than those of Sinbad
or Baron Munchausen. But we used
sometimes TO think distance may be the
source of deception, in matters of time
as well as of space, and so made due
allowance for faulty perceptive in bis
"reminiscences.
His house was as different from all
other houses, as he himself was from all
other men. 1t was shaped somewhat
like bee hive; and, instead of ordina
nv walls, the shingles continued in un'
interrupted courses from the peak to
the ground. At one side was stick
chimney, and this was finished on the
top, by the remnant of stone churnt
whether put there to perform the lie.
climate Office of chimney-pot, OIL
merely as an architectural ornament,
cannot say. 1t had an unique air, al
any rate, when one first espicd il after
miles of solitary riding, where no tree
had fallen, except those which were
removed in making the road. A lux
urient hop-vine crept up the shingles
until it wound itself around this same
broken churn, and then, seeking further
support, the long ends still stretched
out in every direction, so numerous
and so 1.-THE, that every passing breeze
made them whirl like green-robed fair
les dancing hornpipes about the chin,
ney, in preparation for descent upon
the inhabitants below.
At the side opposite the chimney,
was sort of staircase, scarcely more
than ladder, leading to the upper
chamber, carried up outside through
want Of room in the little cottage; and
this airy flight was the visible sign Of
a change which took place in the old
mans establishment, towards the latter
part Of his life. A granddaughter
the orphan Of his only sen, had come
to him In utter restitution, and thi.