Evansville weekly journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 184?-18??, 1848-01-27
DRIFTWoOD JOHNSON.

DRIFTWOOD JOHNSON.
A very strange occurrence took place some
years since in the fourishing city of Cincinnati,
and is yet fresh in the minds of many residents
there, not by any means as old as sthe Oldest
inhabitant," who knows all things. 1t is still
told ola cold winters night around cheerful
fireside 10 many a wondering youngster, and
the moral instilled into their young minds with
greater force from the circumstance of it's "be-
ing true as the gospel" The hero of the tale
was an old man named Johnson, who had lived
from a boy in that place, and followed a Gu
rious trade for a livelihood. Early and late he
was seen down by the rivers side collecting
driftwood, and toiled at itso necessarily, day
after day, and year after year, that at last it be-
came whispered about that old Driftwood John
son was making money-that he had invested
his little earnings well and had realized large
sums by fortunate speculations but still he
chung to his old business. He was mean In
dress, and very saving-all the money he ever
spent, except for the merest necessities of life,
being for the education of a most lovely daugh-
ter, for the old man had a wife and child. At
last DrifIwood bought a very large brick house,
or built one; and much to the surprise of every
body, furnished it elegantly and brought his
daughter home from school to be the belle of
his mansion. 1t was a good way out of town,
but he said the city would grow to it, and so it
has. There was always something mysterious
about the old mans family; and his wife, who
was a very amiable woman, had a care-worn
anxious look that no one could account for
The beauty and accomplishments of the daugh-
ter, soon brought her plenty of lovers, who
sighed and pinned for her hand; but the favored
of all was a young merchants clerk, connected
with one of the most 1ourishing establishments
in Cincinnati, and soon to become a partner
His suit prospered, and he hoped to make the
daughter of old Driftwood his wife. He used
to think it a very odd circumstance that during
!, all his evening visits which were far from being
''few and far between" he never could meet the
= old man, and all his inquiries after him failed
! to elicit any satisfactory replies, but knowing
that the old man was what he generally termed
f San odd fish" he never troubled himself much
f about the matter.
On returning to his store late one night, aftel
a visit to his lady love, he was Mortified upon
opening the door, on finding the mangled anC
bleeding corpse of a man, astranger. he hat
apparently fallen from the second or third sto
ry, through the h%atchway, and been killed al
;. most instantly. The watch was called iii anC
. the poor wretch was taken to the watch house
and a physician sent for to see the body. He
had been dead for hours, and there was moth
. ing left but to endeavor to find out who The
man was, and hold an inquest over his body
1U6IG WdS uO lIdCC VI SlSnuDOuLu lm liz bNOuN
possibly lead to a recognltion-no paper, nc
+, mark on his clothes, and a bunch of skeleton
hays, a box of matches and a small dark Ian
tern we're all that he had about him so the In
quest was held the next morning, a verdict II
n accordance With the facts rendered, and thC
body buried.
m The next evening, upon visiting his intend
ed, the lover found the family uneasy at the
continued absence of old Driftwooa but he per
IS suaded them that he had suddenly been cailet
away on business, and would soon return. AID
vertisements were put in the papers, but n
70 clue to him could be obtained, and people a
last believed that he had either been murdered
or carried down the Mississippi while gathering
driftwood, and drowned In his house Their
were a number of rooms which had always bee
70 locked, and the keys of which old Driftwoo,
had always kept, and when it became necessa
1r ~ to settle his affairs, these rooms were force
open and found to contain goods to a large a
mount of all sorts and descriptions: silks, sa
tins, broadcloth, linens; shawls, watches, Jew
elry, and, in short. all sorts Of goods and valua
IL bles nfercry descrlptlon-whlch had been stO
lg len in Cincinnati from different places, at va
i'd rious times, for years. The secret was out
lie Old Driftwood had for years employed pedlar
he to sell goods throughout the Western country
ne sent them down in hatboats to points on tn
or Mississippi below Cincinnati, and all of Their
P he had himself, unaied by any ~accomplice, sto
n len.
ed The man who was found by the clerk a bleed
n, ing corpse, was old Driftwood Johnson. TIL
ng clerk, however, convinced that the daughter
the old man was innocent and unaware tn;
n her father had pursued for years a system
N burglary and thieving, married her, and she
ed now a mother, surrounded by numerous fan
EN- lily. Truth is stranger than fiction.-N. o
les leans P~icayune.