Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-05-03
A QUEER CONTRAST.
An Unfortunate Man Who Has
Been a Prisoner
FOR sixty YEARS IN HIS OWN HOUSE.
An Oh COlOred Lady's Sight Restored
After Being Totally Blind for Sixty
iears-Her Peculiar Ex-
perience.
FOR Sixty YEARS IN HIS OWN HOUSE.

pCiiChSC'
HUNTINGDON, PA, May THAT
within six miles of the thriving and iu-
telligent town of Huntingdon a human
creature is held in confinement more
solitary than that in any prison in the
land; that he is entirely cut of from
intercourse with the rest Of humanity,
and that he has been thus immured for
sixty years may seem startling and in
credible, but it is nevertheless true. As
noperSon has been interested in inyesti-
eating the facts, or rather as private
interests have been against such inves-
tigation, the community has been iu-
different to them, and has allowed
them to pass almost unnOticed and
Comparatively UnknOwn.l
The name Of the victim whe, during
all the years of his manhoOd-for two
generatiOns-has been kept completely
out of the world as if ne were dead,
buried in living tomb, is Daniel
Haun, a name not often spoken, ard
when mentioned it is not to explain an
imprisonment that is without parallel.
Why should people speak of him whom
the Oldest of them cannot recOllect,
whom they have never seen, and in re-
gard to whom his nearest relatives give
no information, or do so with the ut
most reluctance, and only when pressed
with pointed inquiries?
Daniel Hams Prison House
is at the Raystown branch of the Juuia-
| Ia river, here a beautiful, placid stream,
! near the bank of which stands the
| Haua mansion. Nearby are barns,
| wood sheds, corn cribs and other out
| buildings, rough and black, no. adding
| much to the beauty of the scenery. Be-
yond, on the opposite side of the road,
| are a little, dingy public school house
! and asmall brick church, and, further
! still q covered bridge across the branch,
and, bounding the outlook in that di-
! rectiOn, the steep sides of Terrace Noun
| tain half a mile away. Silence reigned
| about the house. No one was to be
! seen, and my approach seemed unno-
! ticed. Knowing that Daniel Haun, to
see whom the visit was made, was shut
UP in a little room in the rear of the
! newer building, that part of the premi-
! ses was reconnOiteled for few minutes.
! But no face was to be discerned at the
solitary, gloomy window.
The Maniae's JaiIers.
Both men are aged, Peter eighty and
! Isaac seventy eight, their bent frames,
| tOttering limbs and slow movements
showing that their days of activity are
/ over Neither has ever been married.
Their accent and their appearance indi-
! cate their German origin, and they use
! German with each other and all who
| can speak the language. They are IL
| literate uneducated men, neither Of
| them being able to read or write. They
are rich men Of the township, being the
! largest landowners in it-having in the
| aggregate, 900 acres-and are reputed
| to have money or its equivalent in Gov.
! eminent bonds and other securities.
| The extent Of their wealth will not,
however, be definitely known while
one of them lives, for other brothers,
now dead, helped to accumulate it, and
when one dies, it passes to the rest, and
| the last of them will own it all.
TALK with the Brothers.
"You three, Daniel and yourselves,
are the only ones living?" yes"
How old is Daniel2" Eighty
! three
"What is the matter with him."
ale isn't right in his mind"
! How long has he been so" "Since
| 1922
"What is the cause of it ?" "He was
oyerheated one day and laid down and
took drink out of creek, and from
| that time we noticed there was some
thing wrong with him."
! "Did you ever take him to an asy-
| lum ?u "No.n
"Where have you kept him" I'm
the house."
Hasn't he been out since 1923"
Not much"
"Didn't he escape once?" Eyes, he
did get out"
when was that?p sin 1888"
"Where did he go?' Down the
river about mile, to a neighbours"
"How did you get him backw ave
went after him and cOaxed him."
"And hasn't he been out since"
NO"
you let people see him, don't your"
NO"
"Who attends to hlm?" ~ do" said
Isaac.
"Hasn't anybody seen him but your
| Selves" "Not for long time"
allow long?" Twenty years or
/
"You will let me see him to-day,
won't YOU" "No."
"How you keep him in? Do you
have to tie him."
as Daniel violent? Does he ever
offer to do you any harm?" "Wecan't
| what a man who is out Of his faculties
might do"
"Well, have you to keep him tied or
chaiped?" They both again showed
their annoyance and the answer came
very emphaticslly, ave always keep
the door locked"
land can't see him." "No."
The Solitary Prisoner.
Perceiving that further persistence
would be useless, the effort to obtain
admission, through his brothers con-
sent into the apartment where he is
confined was abandoned. Their uu-
willingness to say whether or not Dan
iel is chained may be taken IS corroe.
Grating the statements that have gained
currency and are generally believed.
1t is said that he is so confined that he
cannot get to the window to take the
limited view of the outside world that
might be afforded him. 1t Is impossi-
bic, of course, to know the condition OF
4 Z. kl1,,s Saol,,IoI and nf whom