The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1879-02-06

sistiny that it was sin to throw aside a
boot or shoe so long as it would adhere to a
human foot. His head gear was constructed
on a like economical principle. For q long
time he wore the large tin dipper in which
he cooked his mush while travelling. But as
it failed sufficiently to protect his eyes from
the sun, he constructed hat OF paste board,
with an immense peak in front, and bent
down at the sides to shade his face from the
heat; thus securing an article that combin-
ed usefulness with economy, and which be-
came his permanent fashion. The same
close economy Johnny carried in all the
phases of his life, extending it to his diet,
which was as meagre as his clothing. He
believed it to be sin to kill any creature
for food, o,ding that the soil produced
everything requisite for human subsistence
INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES.
Among his other eccentricities was that OF
bearing pain with more than Indian forth
tude. Very often he would thrust pins and
needles into his flesh without tremor His
nervous sensibilty seems to have been less
acute than those of ordinary mortals for il
he had cut or sore, his method of treat
ment was first to scar it with red hot iron,
and then cure it as burn. This fortitude,
together with his strange appearance and &C.
centric actions, lead the Indians, among
whom he wandered .unmolested, to regard
him as great ''medicine man" and to treat
him with much kindness. During the war
of 1872, when the frontier settlers hunted
down by the savage allies Of Great Britain,
Johnny travelled night and day, warning
the people of approaching danger. Visit
ing every cabin, he delivered this message ::
''The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and
hath amounted me to play the trumpet in
the wilderness and sound the alarm in the
forest for behold the tribes of the heathern
are round about your doors, and devour-
ing flame followeth after Them" Denying
himself food or rest, he traversed the bor-
der Gay and night, warning ali settlers until
the danger was past. 20
Thus this strangely clad, eccentric charac-
ter wandered for years through the border
and settlements, caring for his scattere d
nurseries and spreading the tenets Of his Pc
culiar faith. Leading blameless and moral
lie, he likened .himself to the primitive
Christians, literally taking no thought for
the morrow. It was this CONJUNCTION that
made him at all times serenely happy. Upon
ne occasion an itinerant preacher was hold
ing forth on the public square in Mansfield
in long and somewhat tedious discourse
upon the sin of extravaganza frequently
emphasizing his text by the inquiry, ''Where
now is the barefooted Christian travelling to
heaven?" Johnny, who was lying on his
back in some timber, taking the question in
its literal sense, raised his bare feet in the
air and Moderated, ''Here's your primitive
Christian - to the discontinue of the we'll
dressed missionary.
In 1888 Johnny took solemn farewell of
all the families in this part of the State, fol-
lowing his vocation for the next nine years
on the border of Ohio and Indiana. In
1S47 he died in the cabin Of settler near
Fort Wayne, at the age of seventy two
years, forty-sx OF which had been devoted
to his self-imposed mission. the physician
who was presentat his death was heard to
inquire what was Johnny Appleseed's relig-
ion; he had never seen a man in SO placid
state at the approach of death, and SO ready
to enter upon another life.
HENRI,