The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1858-12-09
Death OF Oncs Noted Circus Per.
former.

NJ. Willis has been on visit TO the Northern
Neck OF Virginia, and writes some interesting let
tcrs TO his "Home Jour nall One Of them con.
tains very prettily written Incident attending
mis- visit to saw mill 10 Miidlcsex county. He
| says:
The miller was very sickly, grave. iucommu.
NEGATIVE looking man, who crossed over from the
| tumbiedown shaniy under which his rough mschi
merry was doing its work, and. applying key to
| the paddock ofa stone hut near by invited me in
The single room was Of wigwam sizs and propor.
fions. and the furptsre consisted of one Iorg and
| rude bench, few ragged bedclothes bundled %
In the corners tea kette,one plate knife and fork
and broken trying pan. gun stood in the cor.
ner, and on the foer lay q wild duck, which had
been shot that morning on the mill poui oues-
ton ~ to the number of kinds Of this bird so
p'entnui,y 10 the region round about, (of which
ne sa,d there we're thirty, naming, among others,
the biue-wing. the canvass.back, the dipper. the
biack-duck, the ball colt, the butter duck,
the summer duck, tn red head, and the NAL.
iard) led to ccnversation as to the climate,
ETC., etc, ana was very much struck with the
quiet justness of his remarks aud their phraseoIo
gy. aud. withai, knowledge Of the world which
10 only got commonly by much travel and ob.erya-
non Under his souched hat was a physiog.
nomy very nobiy cut and his frame, spte of his
heavy and tattered clothes showed the yery finest
OF herculean proportions. took very great fancy
to my new friend as we sat over the smor lderipp
logs of his huge fireplace, and specuIated not a
ltt.le as TO bis probable history. And who do you
| suppose he was' No less person than Mcknight.
the once famous Hercules of "Turners Circus. !"
who some years ago, used to astonish the wcrld
oy resisting with bis own legs and arms the pull
OF our horses letting 4forty two FOUNDER be dis
charged upon his breast, lifting unheard of
weights, and many similar wonders of
skill and strength. In one of these horse epcoun.
.ets ne mad strained some vital portion of his
| ioins ana mad come to Virginia TO go into sickly
| retirement as the overseer of a saw-mili
But the sight of that mapnjfcently uouldad
man. as he lay stretched, the next morning. oa the
rough bench where had sat and conyersed flor
as we passed, on our return, We learned that he
had died, few hours after we had left him. was
the impressive picture in which these introducto-
ry remarks will explain my peculiar interest
Inink moment OF the poetry-I may even say
| the subimity-of such sceuei
The saw-mili, half in rnin5, stood in the heart
| of an oyergrown pine wilderness the winding
| road, for miles on either side seeming. to the
traveller, like the interminable aises Of a tall
coumned and dimslighted cathedral. With the
death cf the miller the wheel had stopped and
| the absolute hush was despened by the nnrniTled
stilluess of the large pond, which reflected like
the reality itself, the oyerhanging woods eccIo.
sing it-one single sign of life alone visible the
| pull OF caught fish upon the dead mans pole
| which. with its bated hook and line, no had left
| stuck In the timbers Of the bridge, 1t was day
OF Indian summer, without cloud in the sky or
| breath of wind; and the intense light which
struggled down through the tops of the immense
|
edged fragments Of broken mirror.
Aud, amid these effective surroundings stood
the old stone hut, with it's doors open aud its Il
gone ont, and, on its long slender bench of rough
plank, the body of the fine hermit.like tenant-his
team and their black drivers remaining for that
| day at their more remote homes, and he living
cold and alone In the solitude of the wilderness
Ny friends, like myself were struck with the
exceeding nobleness and beauty of the dead mau's
features as he lay asleep. ThecIear sallowness of
| the skin gave the face su aspect Of ancient mar.
Bile, and the projecting forehead, the fuely
chiselled nose with its expanded uostrils and the
1rm and well cut lips below, aided in producing
the effect Of some admirable conception of statua
ry-the homely circumstances Of the laying out,
| Ia that rnde and desolate looking hut, adding
not Q little to its impressiveness. Aud then the
| height and breadth of the enormous chest of the
dead man, as he lay his back clad only in his
torn shirt and rough trowsers, his feet tied
together with coarse rope and his hands crossed
| care!essiy upon his breast, completed picture,
which, accidentally it formed part of the
sights upon the road in days journey, will
hereafter be Of the most vivid in my recoliec.
| ton.
Mcknight, if l was rightly informed, was a
Rhode Island man, and has left wife from whom
| he had been separated some years. As he was
living here in apparently forgotten obscurity and
secusion, it s possible that this may carry to his
family also, the fret of his death-the result
should state of suffocation In the congestion Of
fsser) And so ended the life of man who was
gifted with points of superiority, which, to a
knight in the days of chisalry, would have been
was we'll endowed, also, in disposition and natural
powers of mind, should presume from his couu-
tenance, the formation OF his head, and his conver.
eatiop. Peace to his manesi"