Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1885-02-06
A ChfIfan Hermit.

From the San Francisco Call.
Some two or three weeks ago Capt. NJ. M.
Robbins, in the employ of the Pacific Coast
Steamship company, gave an interviewer
from the Call remarkable story about au
adventure in Chill. The captain, whose boy
hood was passed in Pittsfeld, Mass, left the
bark w. Robinson at Iquique, Peru, on the
occasion mentioned, and, with four other men
of the same vessel, made his way overland to
Valparaiso. 1t was during the long tramp
that the adventure occurred. The captain,
now master of the steamer Santa Cruz, is
quoted
AT about in the afternoon one day when
we were getting pretty well down into Chilli,
we found ourselves empty stoInached and
stranded at the base of promontory that
jutted well out into the sea. We hadn't
come across house or man for several days
past, and there wasn't crumb left in the
provision bag, the last scrap having been di-
vided that morning. While climbing among
the rocks we found spring of water to which
the path and finally came in sight of the
queerest looking man ever saw.
" He was haggard, dried up old body,
whose age might have been anywhere from
80 to 100, and he sat on the plateau, a little
back from the edge of the cliff, nursing his
of way. He had nothing on his head, and
his hair and beard, which evidently hadn't
been cut for many years, had changed thro'
age from white to moldy sort of yellow and
made him look like hermit in a picture
book. His only clothing was ragged sheep
skin, loosely hung upon his shoulders, and
bits of sheepskin bound around his legs and
feet. 1 can't describe to you how ghastly and
miserable the poor old man looked, with his
withered flesh, dim eyes and toothless gums
as he sat there muttering to himself and ig-
norant of the fact that we stood within few
feet of him. guess all felt creepy sen
sation, for several minutes must have passed
before one plucked up courage enough to
touch the old boy on the shoulder. He slow
ly glanced up at us, took one Indifferent sort
of look and then turned to sea gazing again.
Then some one made remark in English,
which seemed to give the old fellow galyan-
ic shock, for he reused himself all of a sud-
den, struggled on to his feet and appeared as
though on the point of trying to run. Then
he shook his head in a weary fashion and col
lapsed to his original position.
Our Spanish talker now asked him some
things in that language. He didn't say a
word, but fumbled around under his sheep
skin until he got hold of an old razor and mo-
toned US to sharpen it for him. 1t was of
English make, and had the dullest blade you
ever saw, with hicks all over it. One OF the
boys mad a small oilstone in his kit, and we
the razor. After another failure to get
word from the old man, we began chatting
in English, growing over our bad luck in the
grub line, and wondering if neighbor
couldn't put US in the way of eating square
meal. When a tolerable edge had been got
on the razor, the old man stood up and mo-
toned US to follow him. He hobbled along
the beaten path which hid him inland until
it suddenly ended where a large sheepskin
hung the face of a low cliff. Lifting the
skin he showed us hole in the soft rock be-
hind it and signed for US to crawl in. We
hung back little, but felt rather ashamed
of showing any superstitious fear, and did
crawl into what was an artificial cave
1t was, perhaps, some IL feet square and so
low that we couldn't stand up AT the far
end another sheepskin divided this cave from
an inner one, and when one of us was about
to lift this the old man stopped him and NUT
tered angrily something we couldn't under
stand. Then he pointed out to one chap
here some brushwood could be got: and
handed another one rough crockery pot to
get water in. There wasn't the least trace of
furniture in the cave, where we sat the
ground, and nothing, in fact, bnt two or three
pots of crockery and iron, and a few rude
wooden p1atters. While fire was building
in the outer cave the old man went into the
inner cave and returned with small supply
of jerked meat and dried fish. There wasn't
a scrap of bread and not enough of the other
stuff to go decently around, but we made as
much as we could of it and filed in the chinks
with cold water. The poor old boy wouldn't
est anything, but after supper he seemed to
get good deal of satisfaction out of pipe
that one of US passed to him. Not a word
did he speak, mind you, but he sat there star
ing at
AS it had got quite dark outside, our lin
guist asked if we might stay in the cave all
night, and the old man nodded his head in
assent. Shortly after this he passed into the
inner cave and didn't come out again. We
bunked on the bare floor around the fire, and
were tired enough to sleep as though it was
feather bed. About o'clock in the morn
ing we were aroused by awful groans from the
inner cave, and gasping sounds that made
our flesh crawl. After chucking some dry
brush the fire and raising blaze, we pull
ed away the sheepskin and found the old man
writhing with pain on d rough pallet. He
seemed to be suffering intensely with cramps
and stretched his hands out to US. I thought
I heard him say, F' Forgive me, o Lord -
We covered him up well, and went into the
larger cave where we sat for a few minutes.
When we went back he was dead.
In the morning, after burying him, we
searched the cave. In the way of food we
ing else worth noticing except Bible under
the head of the bed. This Bible was printed
in English, and had been read to rags. On
the fiy-leaf a name was written, and you can
imagine how startled was to read the words
s' Pittsfeld, Massachusetts" j" and above them
the well-remembered name of bank officer
who had stolen a lot Of money and ran away
from home when I was boy. Capt. Rob
erts and his party experienced many hard
ships, but finally reached Valparaiso in safety.
The Rev. John F. Gleason, of Norfolk, was
dismissed February 3 at his own request to
take effect May 1. The council warmly COM
mend him to the churches for his ability as
preacher and his faithfulness and success as
a pastor. His pastorate of nearly nine years
has been eminently successful.
The Millerton Iron company will start
their furnace in about week for the pur-
pose of trying an experiment with Effect
stack Their present stack is 80 or 80 feet
high and they have temporarily raised it to
AZ feet. If the experiment proves success
full the company will tear down the present
stone stack and erect in its place a boiler
iron stack 60 feet high, capable OF making 5o
tons of iron per day.-Connectlcut Western
News.
The First Baptist church Of Norwich has
new scheme for raising its church debt.
They propose to organize committee OF fifty
who pledge themselves to pay $50 per annum
in semi annual installments of $40 until the
Sd, 900 now due is paid up. Thirty persons
have signed.
Michael Burns, of CRANKY, was killed on
Tuesday by a bull which he was leading INTO
its stable His body was terribly mutilated
The bull was shot.
Apropros of the bill introduced in the
House Wednesday by Mr.. Couch, of Stoning-
ton, is story told of ex-Judge William D.
Shipman. On a certain third of July, day
and night had been like a section of pande-
monium, and as the judge YVES passing the
United States Hotel the next morning after
sleepless night, friend asked him how he
liked the proceedings Like them" sald
died before he discovered the internal coun-
try"