Morning journal and courier., 1881-06-29
A Carolina Romance.

A CarOI1na Romance. Being shiPwrecked, a Woman Lives as a
 Hermitess Until Found by Her Lover. Baskerville N. O. Correspondence of The Baltimore " few months ago the following statement appeared in the Asheville Citizen, written by the editor, Mr. Robert M. Furman We have just returned from our usual visit to Miss Mary Burt, the hermitess of the mountains. and as few persons ever saw or ever heard of this strange woman, short sketch embody- Ing all that is known of her may not be unin- teresting to our readers About fifty years ago prepossessing young woman appeared suddenly in small mountain village, as if she had dropped from the sky who she was or whence she came, no one knew. To all questions she replied simply: My name is Mary Burt I am a lady, aud have come here because it pleased me to do SO; other than this concerns one but myself" She had no baggage beyond a few clothes tied up in handkerchief, but was so lady like in her ap- pearance and department that when she ap- piled for work at the house of a well-to- do farmer, she was gladly received and treated in all respects as an equal. She assisted the farmers wife and daughters in the duties of the family. Ten or fifteen years passed and
 
 forgotten and she seemed to have been one of the family. About this time she was, af- ter much persuasion, induced to take charge of a country school near by, and having de- clined more than one good offer of marriage was looked upon as permanent institution. Suddenly, however, her whole character seemed to change and she became moody, melancholy and fond of solitude, and after few years teaching gave up the school pur- chased section of wild land and had rude log hut erected in one of the loveliest spots in the mountains, but so far off from all hab- itations that, particularly in winter, she of ten passed weeks without intercourse with any human being. dog, cat, few chick ems and a COW, whose milk supplies the place of tea or coffee, the only living things with whom she at such times has any inter course.
 About now comes the solution of the mys- tery, brought about by this very sketch in the Asheville Citizen, which, being copied in to Vermont paper, fell into the hands of wealthy gentleman of that State, who immediss ately went to Asheville, sought out the editor of the Citizen, when the two in company proceeded to the mountain home of Miss Burt. Entering her house, where she was as usual alone, the stranger said
 Mary, do you know me ?"
 'I cannot say that I do," she replied.
 Seizing both her hands he exclaimed:
 Mary Burt Howe, have you forgotten Robert Fletcher?''
 'I have not" she replied, ''but I suppos- ed you were either married or dead"
 Then the whole story was told to the edi- tor of the Citizen Fifty years ago Mary Burt Howe WAS engaged to be married to Robert Fletcher, but becoming jealous of his fancied attachment to another girl suddenly left her home in Maine and went to Boston, deter mined to make her own living away from all who knew her. She got place as steward ess on board sailing vessel bound for Liv- erpool, but terrific storm drove the ship out of her course and wrecked her on the coast of North Carolina. Mary the only woman saved and after many hardships land ed from small boat on Shepherds Point a tongue of land running out in Beaufort har- bor, to which the shipwrecked crew were guided by fire burning brightly. Here they found party of trading Indians encamped, who treated them with the utmost kindness The men of the party remained but a few days, shipping sailors in a trading vessel bound to the West Indies. They would have taken Mary on board, but she had such hor- TOT of the sea that nothing could induce her to trust herself again to its waves and she re- mained with the Indians, who soon broke up their camp and started for their mountain home, taking her along with them. Gradu- ally her mind recovered from the shock of the shipwreck and she determined to get back to civilization, but not to return destitute to her home, so, taking the few clothes she had managed to save, she one night left the Ind1- an camp and the next day found herself at the little mountain village where she dwe.t so long, Having traced her to the vessel on which she embarked, and heard that 1t had been wrecked on the coast of North Carolina, Mir. Fletcher mourned her as dead, until he read the account, taken from the Ctt5zen, of Mary Burt living alone in the mountains of that State. Being rich man he immediately started for Asheville, found Mir. Furman, tad 1ncf 1n1-a m long to induce Miss Burt, or rather Howe, to return with him to Vermont as his wife, but before marrying she, at Mir. Fletcher's earn est request, executed a deed of gift, by which she transferred her beautiful mountain glen to the editor of the Asheville Citizen stipulat- ing that he should take care of her faithful dog and cat as long as they lived, and go ev cry summer to fish and hunt in the wilds where she had so long resided alone.
 How Long Should We Sleep: lDr. Felix L. Oswald Popular Science Month ly for
 July.l
 The vital processes of man, like those of all his fellow-creatures, are partly controlled by automatic tendencies Some functions of our internal economy are too important to be trusted to the caprices of human yol1tlon; breathing. eating, drinking, and even love, are only semi voluntary actions and during a period varying from one-fourth to two htths of each solar day the conscious activity of the senses undergoes complete suspense the cerebral workshop is closed for repairs, and the abused or exhausted body commits it's organism into the healing hands of Nature. Under favorable conditions eight hours of undisturbed sleep would almost suffice to counteract the physiological mischief of the sixteen waking hours During sleep the or gan of consciousness is at rest, and the ener- gies of the system seem to be concentrated on the function of nutrition and the renewal of the vital energy in general; sleep pro notes digestion, repairs the waste of the muscular tissue, favors the process of cutan- eous excretion, and renews the vigor of the mental faculties.
 The amount of sleep required by man is generally proportionate to the waste of vital strength, whether by muscular exertion, men, tai activity Cor emotion), or by the process of of growth and during the recovery from an exhausting disease. The weight of new born child increases more rapidly than that of eupeptic adult, enjoying liberal diet af- ter a period of starvation, and, though an 1n- fant is incapable of forming abstract ideas, we need not doubt that the variety of new and bewildering impressions must overtask it's little sensorium in a few hours. Nurs- lings should therefore be permitted to sleepto their full satisfaction; weakly babies, especl- ally, need sleep more than food, and 1t IS the safest plan never to disturb child's slumber while the regularity of his breathing indicates the healthfulness of his repose; there is lit tie danger of his ''oversleeping' himself in moderately warmed, well-ventilated room. Never mind about mea1-times hunger will awaken him at the right moment, or teach him to make up lost time. Three or four musings in the twenty four hours are enough; Dr. c. E. Page, who has made the problem of infant diet his special study, believes that fifty per cent. of the enormous number of children dying under two years of age are killed by being coaxed to guzzle till they are hopelessly diseased with fatty degeneration.
 Prolific.
 A Canadian paper says that the wife of Benjamin Corporang, of Meteghan, Nova Scotia, gave birth few days since to two