The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1871-06-15
The cold Soldier of the Revolution" !"


An old New Yorker, in relating his
recollections of the city, tells the follow
ing good story:
Many years ago, little withered old
man might have been seen seated OIL
box, standing on the sidewalk, on the
northerly side of Chatham square, just
at the commencement of the Bowery.
l had frequently noticed him in passing
along the square, and thought him the
most pitiful and disgusting-looking OBJ
ject that had ever seen. A coarse piece
of brown pasteboard hung suspended
from his neck, upon which was inscribed
in large capitals the following: al am
Poor Blind Soldier of the Revolution"
With uncovered head there he sat, day
after day, silently soliciting such contri-
buttons as the charitable public might
see fit to bestow upon HIM. His general
appearance denoted him to be very
old man, and very much enfeebled by
age. Indeed some of the Sunday papers
had said that he was hundred years
old, but if he was he was certainly a
very smart person for one of his age.
Nobody seemed to know him, or from
whence he came, but everybody talked
about him, and wondered how he had
managed to live so long. His head was
one-half bald, and the other half was
protusely adorned with long, flow
ing snow white hair. His face was
shriveled and wrinkled, and of a pallid
and death-like hue. He looked, indeed,
an object of pity, but more of disgust
Some of the papers had declared that he
o,,l h., oJf,ro
not to go near him; others said that he
was just what he purported to be, an old
Revolutionary soldier, and that it was a
disgrace to the patriotism of the country
to allow him to be seen in the streets
begging. This state of affairs continued
for months, without anybody being able
to obtain clue to his history. Some
few Stunned him as they would the
plague, but more pitied him and contri-
buted to his relief
One day 1 noticed a party of Bowery
roughs skylarking on the sidewalk just
below where the old veteran was sitting,
and hauled up for few minutes to see
the sport. They soon arrived in the vi
cinity of the man of unknown years,
when one of the heartless scamps, losing
all his love and veneration Tor things
holy and Revolutionary, seized the
whitened locks of the old man in his
iron grasp, when 10! the centenarian,
forgetting all his assumed intirmities,
sprang upon his feet in trice, and the
next moment he went bounding across
the square at rate of speed never be-
fore witnessed in that locality, leaving
his venerable locks and the outer skin of
his face dangling in the hands of the
brutal rowdy. And so this poor old
blind soldier of the Revolution turned
out to be slender youth of seventeen,
with hair as black ns night, and with
racing abilities that it would be safe to
bet on. The old Continentaler pointed
down Oliver street, with several hundred
dirty ragged urchins close upon his heels,
and shouting at the top of their voices :
stop that old Revolutioner !
how he runs !"
The roughs had jolly time over the
Revolutionary relics left in their posses
sion, and the lockers on had good time.
1t was, doubt not, the last appearance
of the young rogue upon that or any
other stage in the character of Blind
Old Soldier of the Revolution.