The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1868-04-02

could jump thirtv-fvc feet at one jump
lie to select the ground. He asccndcd .
bluff near by and lcaped from the top oi
it into the mud at its base, sinking into
the So. earth up to his ears. lie ha:
got ous. For long time this circum
stance caused him to be known by the ap
pella d, of Stick-in-the-mud," term
.at has now become quite common.
lie nevc- seemed anxious to put him
So back: = favCritc method in an cmcr.
gescs was shove out sideways. He
never disrusted mself nor anybody else
and never had any mis-. wings as to his
ability or ina',ity to do anything. His
talents Tor Indifference and rcpose were
abort equal. His self possession was also
remarkable. He not only possessed HIM
self, but YVES .fequently ambitious to pos
sess other pcope. Al sza.. lie Of il
occurred when he was a'out i years oi
age. He was sent to convey two young
ladies in buggy distance Of several
miles to their father house On the
way, in. passing through broad, decr
slough, the horses became stalled, and
could not proceed 81 inch further lac
ladies' begged Hans Patrick 70 wade out Of
the slough and go for assistance. Sitting
quietly between the vo, lie leplied: "Not
if l know myself. I've got as good a
thing as l want, and 1 mean to fight il
out on this line if it takes all SUMNER
And there he sat until the father of the
young ladies came and rescued the party
He still retains in his possession the sole
Of one of the I'D tnan's boots, which he
captured on that interesting occasion
The first phrenologist that ever came to
our part of the country examined Hans
Patrick's head through a microscope
There were many persons present, all eager
to hear what the man would say, and the
boy, for fear he would crush the two dozen
bird-eggs concealed in his trowsers' pock-
cts remained perfectly quiet while the ex-
animation was going on. The phrcnolo-
gist muttered to himself, as he proceeded
This is no common head; it is huge
head, tremendous head, a sap head" |
asked him if lie thought Hans Patrick
would ever come to anything. He re-
piled: 'From the development Of a partic
ular organ here (digestive,) | think he
will come to his meals three times day as
long as he lives, or as long as he has the
meals to come to-" This gratifed me very
much, for there is no surer sign of future
greatness than good appetite. La the
afternoon, the phrenoloGs st and were
walking near pond where Hans Patrick
had been skating. he had fallen upon
the ice, and the Professor had discovered
the indentation made by his head. "Mar-
velous head" he said to me, sit is as hard
as copper" Hence the term copperhcad,
sometimes applied to men whose heads are
too hard to be affected by the slippery sur
face of fanatical opinion All the phre-
nologists who came to our place for ten
wears predicted that Hans Patrick would
become president. They predicted the
same thing of all the other boys in the
ncighborhood. None of these prophecies
have become true as yet, but you may look
for a perfect whirlwind Of presidents from
Nubbin Ridge one of these days.
In respect to looks Hans Patrick was
the loyeliest little creature l ever saw.
His complexion was white as alabaster and
his eyes glowed with a prismatic glory
that astonished the natives. We used to
let him out by contract to families when
they had child to christen. They would
take him to be christened and leave their
own at home, thus showing to their friends
what beautiful babe they had. Ladies
used to come miles and miles to kiss him.
Frequently there were so many OF them on
pilgrimage Of this kind at time tha,
half of them had to sleep in the barn and
do their own cooking. DO not think he
grew up 70 be as handsome a man as the
rest of the children. Ladies would moi
60 far to kiss HIM now; they would prob.
ably 90 farther to avoid it.
Ny nephsw's passion for hard labor was
never sufficiently strong to damage his
health. Most of the work he had to dc
was chopping wood. and he was alway:
very awkward at it. have known hin
to break half dozen axes iu single day
1t costs so much to buy axes that i uset
to let him 90 fishing in preference t
chopping wood. One day, however. We
were snort OF nanuS, DelOTe SHOIt-Haut
men came in fashion. l told him he mus
60 into the woods and chop. He said h
was willing to assist me until he could ee
money enough to run away with, and ther
he intended to leave | told him didn'
want him to chop against his will, and ask
ed him what trade he would choose
whether ne would be rope maker, soap
boiler or printer. Subsequently h
chose the latter. He made capital print
er, but while an apprentice, he was alway
averse to distributing "pi." When h
chanced to knock down line of type h
would slip it in his pocket. aud at night
on his way home, lie would throw it il
somebody's well. He broke up two o
three printing Offices before he learned hi
trade.
Many persons regard the name Of Han
Patrick lie Connor as very curious AM
significant one. 1t is not the name he wa
christened by, but was tackled on to hin
by an accident. One day he was at 10!
rolling, where the men consisted of Ger
mans. Irish and French. They were d
yided up in clans, and each clan had
great deal of cider to drink, of which bev