The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1879-06-05
ANOTHER HERMIT.
A Young Man Of Lebanon Turns his
Back upon Civilization and
Enters q Cave.
Twelve Months Residence in a cave.

Lebanon is q little city situated
at the terminus of the Tennessee 81
Pacific Railroad. The terminus of
the Tennessee & Pacific Railroad
is about thirty miles distant
from Nashville. Lebanon takes its
name, 1t is said, from the immense |
cedar forests that surround it. 1t |
is small place of, perhaps, 1000
souls; its citizens are intelligent,
progressive and pious; its manufac-
tories and other industries are well
patronlzed at home and abroad; its
women are the fairest in the land,
and yet, Notwithstanding all these
happy ,combin atoms so essential to
the peace and welfare Of any COM
munity, it can furnish more sensa-
tions to the square inch than any
other place of equal size in all this
broad land of ours. 1t is the city
of sensations as well as schools.
Right on the heels of the great
Caruthers trial came the startling
intelligence that William Moseley,
citizen of that county, had com
pleted his twenty fifth year IN cave
within q few miles of the town, and
now, right on the heels of this,
comes the report that young man,
well known in the community, has
been living for year or more in a
cave situated within half a mile of
the public square.
Finas Ellis is a young man Of
perhaps twenty-five years of age,
and was born and reared within
one mile of Lebanon. Three or
four years ago he suddenly became
very morose in his department, and
finally refused to speak to or even
recognize his most intimate ac-
quaintances. He quit his home,
and all the entreaties of his family
failed to induce him TO return. He
refused to work, and very soon be
came vagabond and wanderer on
the face of the earth. His days
were spent in roaming around the
woods and thickets, and under the
care of night he would steal into
town and find shelter and lodging
in the court house or in the door
ways of the business houses. Dur
ing the winter months the police
kindly furnished him a warm berth
at their quarters, and, occasionally,
would divide their luncheon with
him.
This state of things continued
until last spring, when Ellis sud
denly disappeared from the commu
nifty. His disappearance caused nc
serious apprehensions, and few evel
thought of him except those who
were in the habit of seeing hin
about town at night, and they soou
ceased to make inquiries concerning
khim, believing, as they did, that hs
had either crawled into some hols
and died, or had wandered away L
greener fields and pastures new.
Recently he was discovered in {
cave on the Nix farm, situated
about a half mile east of Leb
anon. He was discovered by some
workmen, whose dinners he had ap
propriated while they were engaged
in taking rock from a quarry hard
by.
Ellis informed the workmen,
whose dinners he had surreptitious-
ly appropriated, that he had been
living in the cave twelve or thirteen
months. His bed consisted of a
few rags, weeds and straw, and his
food such scraps as he could obtain
from some colored people in the
neighborhood. When discovered
by the workmen his clothes were
in strings, and they were recog-
nized as the same which he had
worn three years before. He was
heseeched to quit his cavern home
and return to his family, or at any
rate, to go to work and do some
thing for himself, but he positively
refused to leave the cave, and re-
questlng to be left alone, returned
to his bed of rags, where ne still
remains, knowing and caring moth
ing for the opinions of the world
and desiring 70 intercourse with
his fellow creatures. He has ex-
pressed a determination TO spend
the remainder of his days in the
cave in which he has taken up his
abode, and, as no one seems dis
posed to interfere with him, it is
likely that he will be permitted to
do so. His mother, brothers and
sisters live almost in sight OF the
cave, but they never mention him,
and have given up all hopes Of ever
rescuing him from the life he has
chosen to Lead Nashville Banner