News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-10-16
WHY HE BECAME A HERMIT
A CALIFORNIA MAN EXILES HIMSELF
FOR GOOD REASONS,
The Terrible fortunes OF Lepr0sy and its
IncnrRbilify-An Evening Drive that Dis.
closed Horrible story OF sickness. Ex-
patriafiOn and Death.

Leaving log cabin schoolhouse in
San Luis Obispo County about ten
years ago, says a San Francisco letter
writer, saddled up my wild brown
broncho for ride northward through
the passes of the hills TO the old stage
road. lost my way before nightfall in
the widest portion Of the headwaters of
theNaciemiento River. the boundary line
between Monterey and San Luis Obispo
counties. When, late in the afternoon,
I rode into a narrow ravine and found
signs of occupancy, great was my re-
ioicing. There seemed to be narrow
path trodden in the tall, dry wild oats,
leading to spring set low in the bank,
and little further in an open space. at
the head of the gulch, with cliffs behind
it, was rude cabin. Something about
it thrilled me with a strange feeling of
dread. There was a curious sickening
odor that came from it on the breeze
and startled me into wondering whether
any one lay there dying of fever or a
disease. I know now what the odor
was, but I did not know then. A
great live.oak tree stood by the path
near the spring, and as rode past it
saw board nailed to it, and on that
board, rudely painted in weak and wav-
ering letters, was the sentence: "For
Gods sake, come no nearer"
thought moment slowly. I was
young and foolish. I rode on past the
sentence, ready to turn and gallop off at
any sign of danger. On the slope of the
canon rod of garden lay, brush fenced
and watered. Quail traps were piled
by the door. This hermit had food in
abundance. A harsh, cracked voice
called out to me from the cabin door, a
hand projecting closed it, and then,
speaking through the crevice, I heard in
good English words like these: "You
must go away. Tt is death to stay here.
L am accursed. The air is poison" I
asked the way. "CIimb that mountain, !"
he said. $50, go at once" The words
were spoken with intense earnestness
and with an indescribable quality of
superhuman horror, if the phrase may
be pardoned. For hours after I had
left the place kept finding new mean
lngs In that harsh, painful cry.
A mile from the cabin bit of white
tiuttered in the grass. L dism united
and examined it. A fragment of letter
1t was: most of the words illegible, the
handwriting delicate and feminine, the
paper of the costliest. Had it belonged
to that poor leper, crouching in his
Ioathsome cabin crying. "Unclean ?"
That is one of the secrets for the here
after to reveal. Before dark I was on
the hilltop and saw the shining course
OF the river, the great peaks. height af-
ter height in vast ridges of pine and
spruce, the Pacific living low along the
western horizon. I found cattle trail
and followed it to pioneers cabin.
some time about midnight, finding food
and blanket on the haystack for the
rest of the night, but of the hermit in
the mountains said not word.
Five years later local journal men
toned the fact that a cabin had been
found in the mountains, at the head
waters of the Naciemiento, and in it
mans skeleton lay. Some refugee from
Justice, it was thought, had persisted Mt
his own hands there, or died of disease.
l met one of the cattle-owners of that
region and questioned him concerning
it. Yes, they had seen board by the
spring, but the writing was faded. No
body, papers or clothing; all had been
burned in the fireplace. They raled
the ashes over and could tell there had
been Bible, photograph album, and
packages of letters; but really it was no
consequence, they said. He was a
or a lunatic, or stage
robber, they believed. But I know that
I had seen and spoken with self-exiIed
leper, and that his torture had come to
an end because flesh and blood could
bear no more.