The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1872-05-10

Cure for q Heartache.
Some days ago there died in San Fran
cisco one of the most singular resi-.
dents Of the Pacific Slope. His name
was William Hewer, and he was English
by birth and a surgeon by profession.
The Golden City has long been known
as . kind of Mecca for eccentric people |;
but of all the oddities who have ever
found their way thither, DR.. Hewer was
perhaps the most remarkable. He was
Timon and Shylock and Kotzebue's
Stranger rolled into one. For fourteen
years no living soul had been allowed to
enter the room he occupied. In itheap-
parently lived a life of AFFECT poverty !;
and in it were found, after his death,
cash and securities to the extent of
Thousands, besides q rich store of pre-
cious gems.
This strange man was born at Exeter.
England. in l7Ss. He studied medicine,
and got his degree from to Royal Col.
lege of Surgery, Ec ;,burgh, in 1910.
Soon after. he obtained q commission
in an artillery regiment. He was a man
of fine powers, delicate imagination,
warm sympathies, and keen sensitive
ness endowed him with the suscepti-
bility both topleasure and pain, common
to the possessors of such qualities, and
which makes the issue of their lives so
critically doubtful. Hewer fell in love
with q beautiful girl, who at first re-
turned his passion, but who seems to
have been as capricious As she was fair.
A few years of happiness followed. and
then came bitter sorrow. Mrs. Newer
went off with friend of her hus-
bands, an officer in the same regiment,
and the husband was never thereafter
the same man. He beclme a nissan
thrope and a wanderer on the face of
the earth. Withdrawing from society,
he lived for the most part in gloomy Sc
clusion, enlivensd at times by outbreaks
of furious revelry. Only one thing be-
sides drink alone appeared to have
charms for him and that was to ship
as surgeon on vessels bound for long
passages. 1t was in this way he came
to San Francisco. He arrived there in
the Agincourt just alter the time of
Capt. Suffers memorable discovery, and
when the whole Western world was
aglow with the rage for gold.
The current passion of the hour took
possession of Hewer, and thenceforth
never left him. The vacan. place in
his heart was ever after filled by an al.
most insane avarice. He began to lend
money for usury on diamonds. watches,
and other valuables, and he boarded
up his treasures with the Jealous cum
ming of a magpie. Virtually he became
q pawnbroker, although he disdained
the appellation. and would Aaughtily
resent its being applied. When stray
Englishmen of education turned up in
San Francisco, the recluse would some
times emerge from his den, and embark
with them in frantic orgies that neither
age nor shame ever restrained. When
thus excited, he would occasionally ex-
hibit huge diamonds and pearls, Yerba
river gold of the finest quality, and
strange, old-fashioned jewels. Inthese
accumulations he took the greatest
pride, and although il was notorious that
he possessed them, oddly enough he was
never robbed. Probably he took un-
usual precautions to guard his property,
and, in truth, quite magazine Of arms
was found in his room at the last
The scene in that room when Hexer's
body was discovered would make . ter
rible and impressive subject for paint
er. The old mans body, clothed in
quaint, parti-colored rags, was found
bent backward over an old chair-the
dead eyes open and staring upward, the
white hair sweeping the ground. He
had been gloating over box of trink-
cts, and there was burnt-out lamp BY
its side. All around was strange med
ley of filth and 6nery. Broken epit-
toons and rich bits Of carpets, dried
herrings and diamonds; pieces Of old
brass and iron, and silver-plate en-
blazoned with armorial bearings; strings
of onions and of pearls, beer bottles
and Etruscan vases, pawn-tickets, COM
missions, uniforms, and foul platters
were all mingled in wild confusion.
Besides al these, there was one oil
picture-that of . young and lovely
woman-she, no doubt who was the
original cause Of all this wreck and
waste-the sign and token Of . per-
verted nature, . crushed heart, and .
1~oI>~ 1.f~