Ceredo crescent. [volume] (Ceredo, Va.) 1857-1861, 1859-01-15

tumble down skanty und6f Wdict hfS F0dS a.
chinery was doing its work. and, applying key
to the paddock of q stone hut near by, invited
me in. The single room was Of wigwam size
and proportions, aud the furniture consisted Of
one long rude bench, few ragged bed clothes
bundled up in the corner, a tea kettle, one plate,
knife and fork, and broken frying pan. A
gun stood in the corner, and on the floor lay
wild duck, which had been shot that morning
on the mill pond. A question as to the num-
Der of kinds of this bird so plentifuly in the re-
giou round about, (of which he said there were
thirty, naming among others, the blue wing, the
canvas back, the dipper, the black duck, the
ball colt, the butter duck, the summer duck, the
red head, and the mallard,) led to conversation
as to the climate, etc., ETC., and was very much
struck with the quiet business of his remarks,
and their phrascology, and withal, knowledge
of the world which is only got commonly by
much travel and observation.
Under his slouched hat was physiognomy
very nobly cut, and his frame, spite Of his heavy
and tattered clothes, showed the very finest of
hercuean proportions. took a very great fan
cy to my new friend as We sat over the smoul.
dered logs Of the huge fireplace, and specnlated
not little as to his probable history. And who
do you suppose he was? No less person than
Mcknight the once famous Hercules of ''Tur
uer's Circus" who, some years ago, used to as
tonish the world by resisting with his own legs
and arms the pull of four horses, letting forty
two FOUNDER be discharged upon his breast, lift
ing unheard of weights, and many similar won
ders of skill and strength. In one Of these
horse encounters he had strained some vital
portion of his loins, and had to come to Virgin.
ia to 90 into sckly retirement as the overscer of
saw mill.
But the sight of the magni6cently moulded
man, as he lay stretched, the next morning, on
the rough bench where he sat aud eonversed,
(for as We passed. on our return, We learned that
he had died, few hours after we hsd left him. J
was the impressive picture in which these intros
faucsDry ryrcmsrkswia askplain my pecuiiaf fhser'
est:
Think moment of the poetry-T may even
say the sublmity-of such a scene.
The saw mill, half in ruins, stood in the heart
of an oyergrown pine wilderness; the winding
roads for miles on either side seeming, TO the
traveller, like the intermediate aises Of tall
coumnc and dim lighted cathedral. with the
death of the miller the wheel had stopped, and
the absolute hush was deepened by the unrufied
stiffness of the large pond, which reflected like
the reality itself, the overhanging woods encos-
ing it-one single sign of life alone visible, the
pull of the caught fish upon the dead man
pole. which with its baited hook and line, he
had left stuck in the timbers of the bridge 1t
was day Of Indian summer, without cloud in
the sky or a breath of wind and the intense
light which struggled down through the tops OF
the immense trees, looked amid the deep shade
like the sharp edged fragment of a broken mir
ror.
And amid these effective surroun dings stood
the old stone hut, with its door open and its fire
gone out and, its long slender bench Of rough
plank, the body of the fine hermitlike tenant
his team and black drivers remaining for that
day at their remote homes, and he lying cold
and alone in the solitude of the wilderness.
Ny friends, like myself, were struck with the
exceeding noblcness and beauty of the dead
man s features as he lay asleep. The clear sal
lowness of the skin gave the face an aspect o.
ancient marble, and the projecting forehead, and
the finely chiseled nose with its expanded nos
trils, and the firm we'll cut lips below, aided il
producing the effect Of some admirable concep-
ton of statuary-the homely circumstances o
the laying out, in that rude and desolate look
ing hut, adding not little to its mpressiveness
And then the heghth aud breadth of the enor
nous chest of the dead man, as he lay on hi
back, clad only in his torn shirtand rough trows
ers, his feet tied together witha coarse rope, ant
his hands crossed carelessly upon his breast
completed a picture, which, accidcntly as i
formed part of the sights upon the road in
day journey, will hereafter be one Of the mos
vivid in my recollection.
Mcknight, if was rightly Informed, was
Rhode Island man, and has left wife fror
whom he has been separated some years. a
be was living here iu apparently forgotten oh
> scuriy and secusion, it is possible that this ma
carry, to his family also, the first news Of hi
! death-(the result L should state Of suffocatio
in the congestion of fever.) And SO ended tn
! life of man who was gifted with points of su
; periorty, which, to q knight in the days Of CHI
valry, would have been an inheritance no gol
could outweigh. That be was we'll endowed
also, in disposition and natural powers Of mine
should presume from bis countenanee, til
formation of his head, and his Conversations +
= Peace to his remains.
sSzr Tho Ceredo Crescen Mt has been resumed a