The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1871-06-10
PERCY CORBIN.
A True story of western Ken.
lucky.

lucky.
The small town of Dycusburg. in Ken
lucky, is situated on the Cumberland
river, and is. perhaps, one of the oldest
settlements in Western Kentucky. There
is an old legend connected with the
place, which is so weird and thrilling thai
we reproduce it. feeling that its nara
ton will not fail to excite in the reader a
deep and wonderful interest. The town
itself is shelved in by range of bold
and rugged hills, which form semi cir
Gle, commencing and ending with the
river, and among these hills there are
several recesses OF grottoes, filled with
stone rubbish and the decayed trunks oi
fallen timber. while on the suburbs oi
the cluster of houses which constitute
the village there yet stand the ruined
and blasted relics of large old oaks
whose gnarled boughs aud stormed rifted
trunks indicate that they have been
scathed by many lightning's blade and
have braved many thunders crash
They stand there as the hoary monu
ments of antiquity, and tell of the ages
that have rolled by them. each leaving
its impress upon their wrinkled bodies
just under the frowning side of one OF
the barren hills, and removed some dis
tance from any regular road or beaten
path, there stands a cabin, now crumbling
with decay, which was the first structure
erected in the neighborhood for the hab
itation of the white man, and which, no
donbt, often sheltered from the pitiIess
storms of winter the settler who built it,
and, perhaps. many time afforded pro
lection to his wife and little ones from
the savage wolves and snarling pantbers
that often howled and screamed among
| the tangled mazes of underground which
stll fringes the marsh close by This
babitation is now occupied by an old
woman whose life is to many a mystery.
and whose history is only sufficiently
known TO be involved in obscurity. She
mas small, cramped features, large eyes.
thin visage aud emaciated form, which.
combined with woful, haggard look,
are not little calculated to excite
painful interest in the mind of stran
ger who meets her. Her voice is truly
an unnatural one. and sounds as if it
proceeded from iron lips rather than
those of flesh. Its cold, keen, sepul
chral tone falls upon the ear like metal
upon the floor OF vault Strange sto
ries are told of the old woman. but more
of this anon. A diugy dress, tattered
with long wear, torn in many places by
repeated contact with briars and bram-
bles, together with an old brown shawl,
constitute her usual dress, while long
used red handkerchief, with the ends
raveled into shreds. affords the only pro
lection for her head, even when she wan
ders forth in storm and rain She occu-
pies the hut alone; and whenever a visi
tor attempts to invade the precincts of
her loneliness she sinks away into the
if she wished TO avoid the scrutiny OF
the human eye.
Near this dilapidated hovel there
stands small brick tenement, whose
walls, so long untenanied, have begun to
so rickety many of the old oak shingles
having been blown off by the wind, that
rain and hail and snow invade the inmost
recesses of the building, and, indeed, so
complete is the havoc wrought by time,
that the ruined walls now afforo almost
the only protection from either wind or
rain. No one. or at least but few, ever
visit this mouldering tenement, and those
who are familiar with its history would
greatly prefer breasting the coolest blast
and braving the most angry storm than
to taking advantage of the partial shelter
it affords. Everything about it seems
bleak aud desolate. Nature, it appears,
has forever Withdrawn from the spot her
gifts of evergreens aud flowers. A gray,
rusty, looking vine, creeping along the
ruined wall, furnishes the only appear
ance of aDythink like ornamental shrub
berry about the premises, and an old rose
bush standing in the southeastern corner
of the chimney, which produces but one
rose and that blood red, is the only flower
that has ever been known to blossom
there. A dark splotch upon the remnant
of the decayed oak floor. on which the
rays of the sun or moon fall at certain
hours of the day or night, with au indis
tinct and mottled radiance, tells perhaps
the secret of the utter loneliness Of the
deserted spot.
The story goes that young man, who
passed by the name of Percy Corbiu,
came from Virginia years ago and con |
structed this habi.ation. There was
something mysterious about him which
has never yet been explained. His pol
ished manners, cultivated mind aud hand |
some features indicated clearly that he
was OF high birth aud excellent educa
tibn. A young man SO gifted. so calcu
lated for an ornament TO society, aud |
with the fields of pleasure or ambition
1 4. a 10. H., fhns |
lated himself from the world to take up |
his permanent abode in this then wilder
ness without some extraordinary ipcen
tive No one has ever been able to learn !
ANYTHING, however of his history; and I
his brief career, SO peculiar aud melan
cbol, in its character. reuains yet TO be
accounted for. The old settlers say that
when he came to this State bis face was
bright, his eye of a mild
blue, indicating a gentle disposition, but
at times possessing wild and unnatural
expression, which was anything but
pleasant TO the beholder. while his lips,
from their compression, evinced both
courage aud resolution. He was often
seen wandering alone, musing abstracted
ly, DO doubt, upon some dread secret
which lay at the bottom of bis heart. a
faithful dog followed him wherever be
went by day and guarded him when be
slept at night. Towards the close OF his
short life, though the eountry-had become
much more densely settled than when he
arrived, he was rarely seen even by his
nearest neighbors, and when seen was
,ften roaming over some distant hill, i
mounted on the beautiful black mare
which it was supposed had borne him
rom his distant home-on the Chesapeake
He would often take long tiips. and even
he old negro woman, who was the sole
.~........4~ oaanaank nf hia duallinn | /.