Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-10-31
From the New York Tribune,
A Pennsylvania Hermit.

pEOm Ine new 1Ork tribune,
A Pennsylvania Hermit.
For thirty years he has lived in a
cave, near Digman's Ferry, Pike
county, Pa. The excavation is six
feet by eight feet. Name, Austin
Sheldon. Mr.. Sheldon we should
say, only hermits do not care for
that sort of handle. Birth place,
Wales. Age, about seventy years.
Diet, berries and fruit. Has WON
the same suit of clothes for twenty
years. Never shaves, is deaf; reads
the Bible most of the time. Never
has a lamp, and sleeps upon straw.
Charms birds. Owns an acre of
real estate around the cave. Never
works. Says he expects to be buried
in the cave, when his time comes,
Such is the natural history of the
Pennsylvania Hermit.
In the early days of Christianity
hermits were as common as the huck-
leberries upon which they lived
There was st. Simeon Stylites, who
was, if We may say so, posted up.
There was Peter the Hermit, who
made great noise in his time. For
other celebrated hermits, 0ide the
miscellaneous works of DR.. Gold
smith and the ballads of good Bish-
Op Percy. As general rule, her
mitS were men who were disgusted
with mankind, or with whom man
kind was disguised. Some OF them
had failed in business, paying only
two per cent. some of them had ex-
perienced IAN unrequited passion for
the wrong woman; and some of them
giving away to emotional insanity,
had killed somebody.
Much as we admire goOd-felIow-
ship and social intercourse, we are
little sorry that the solitary
style of retreat should have gone so
much out of fashion. We are ac-
quaiDted with a number of persons
who may turn hermits Tomorrow
without one word of protest from
us; and the hairier their shirts, the
harder their couches, and the more
vegetable their diet, the better we
shall be pleased. What beautiful
hermit, for instance, the Hon. Benja-
min F. Butler would make, living
all by himself with only one spoon,
and only inficting speeches, like st.
Anthony, upon the birds, or the
fishes. How pleasing it is to think of
all Credit Mobilier men, each resi-
ding in a hole, fogging himself eV-
cry morning, and goingto his straw
every evening after light supper
of green apples and gingerbread?
Is there any man of ordinary sensi-
bility who finding himself in a
scrape, whether moral or financial,
would not, rather than run the
gauntlet of the newspapers, rather
than hear his dishOnored name
by the newsbOys, betake him
self TO the woods or the rocks, or to
a lodge in some vast wilderness-to
the centre of some great valley, to
the top of some tall mountain
''anywhere, anywhere out of the
world?" Which of US is so fond of
the sound of other voices or of the
SIGHT of other faces, or of the backs
which are so contemptuously turned
mon rs, that he does not now and
then hunger to be alone? Hermits
we suppose, have the same feeling,
2nly more so. They owe money and
ire tired of duns; they love a good
lame and have lost it; they have q
objection to noise,
md the world is so very loud; they
,layed heart and soul for a prize,
md, have missed it; light dazzles
hem; and busy hum bothers them;
he shouldering of the crowd annoys
hem-they want to be alone. The
ashton now is to turn hermit by
wing in the loneliness of a grest
ity, setting up a cell in the ninth
tory of some lodging-house or great
Caves, as a rule, are
,layed out. Rnstie eremites are uns
.arthed. are interviewed by screw
.uger reporters, and beset by sight
eers. Whoever would 'twoo Soli-
ude as BRIDE" as Mr.. Emerson
leatlv puts it, must seek her in the
municipalities. She's Philadelphia
II New York woman, and there is
10 publicity so public as the priVs-
v of the rural districts.