The Columbus journal., 1885-01-14
A NEW YORK HERMIT.

VIEW uOnN
Thomas Williams. the strange Man Who
Lives In q Hole on the Bank OF the
Niagara Rivera Beggar, But Not .
Miser.
81 am the most unfortunate man you
ever saw, and the poorest. have not
the grease spot of a relative on earth;
am fi~fty-four years old, and have seen
more misery, want, sickness and suffer-
ing than any man living. Ihave been an
outcast for nine years. During that
time I have walked five thousand miles
in search of peace. l went from Pres
colt, Canada, to Ogdensburg. thence
to Utica, New York, Camden. Phila-
dclphis, Erie, Pa, down to New Or
leans, from there to Pensacola, Fla.
and back to New York. l have lived
all summer in a sandhill at Point Al
bino, and am now building this house
10 live in this winter" With these
words the most singular man within a
radius of hundreds Of miles of Buffalo
began q conversation yesterday with .
stranger who found him at work. He
stood on the bank of the Niagara River,
about a quarter of a mile from the Ca
madam terminus of the international
bridge. There, close to the waters
edge and not a foot above high-water
mark, he has dug a hole in the ground
about six feet square. He is building
a hut of pieces of fence boards and
d%rift-wood, to be afterward covered
with sand and earth. His tools r q
potato-hook, an old hammer, a piece
of bucksaw blade stuck in a handle,
and a broken shovel. He was dressed
in pair of patched and ragged overalls.
held up by a single suspender made of
cloth, over a shabby coat buttoned into
the overalls like a shirt. His hair and
beard were long, gray. and matted
thickly. He wore an old battered straw
hat and was barefooted. All the pos
sessions he had, apparently, were a few
apples, two empty, blackened tomato
cans, some pieces of carpet, a pair of
old pantaloons, a ragged coat, two
pairs of unwashed stockings, two pairs
of shoes, and a box made of a piece of
stove pipe. His clothes were fastened
together with wooden pegs, and all
about him seemed the result of an in
genious study of vagrancy. The charred
remains of a stump lay upon a pile
of earth thrown up from the hole. At
his feet huddled a bOny sneaking
dog, whose long, gray hair was
full of thistleS. and reSembled its
master in its y~ellowish hue of dirt.
Yet the man was neither crazy, fool
ish, nor very much depressed by his
condition. He rather gloried in his
poverty. The bent of his converse
ton was to gain the sympathy-the
coppers-of his callers. Next his hut
passes the main roadway, over which
the farming neighborhood OF Fort
Erie passes to and fro.
Il have not used soap in four years."
said he, looking at his soiled hands.
There is potash in all soap which, if
taken, is deadly poison. 1 got some
into my system once, when a silver
burnlsher, and it nearly killed me. I
was a mass of boils, was paralyzed and
lost my hair. 1t was then that l made
the discovery which cured mel went
and lived in the ground. All Diseases"
said he, dropping the saw and using
his hands to make gestures. "come out
of the earth, either through rich food
or drink-as our substances come from
the earth. I dug a hole in the ground
like this and lived in it, sleeping on
the sand. l tell you l could feel the
disease leaving me like a fever when it
cOOls. l am now as sound as a man
can be. I am nimble, can dance, and
do dance, can run, and have walked
thousands of miles. l am V sick.
1 shall live a good many years yet,
and 1 want to-"
What do you do to pass away the
time?" was asked.
Il study myself. 1 know myself, my
weaknesses and my sins. l have got rid
of the tobacco and rum habits entirely.
1 cook my W food, and | know how
to do it. / do not like to beg, but do
when l can not pick up a living. lido not
read much. All l know of letters is
What 1 have learned from scraps of
paper and from hearing men talk. l
have composed a few songs, words and
music. Of course 1 can not write
them, but l sing for my friends and
play the bones or whistle"
'.Are you not afraid of freezing
here? In the winter the ice will pile
up all owe your hut"
mo, l guess not. As for cold, l
stand that. Cold weather is healthy.
l have slept out here since Monday,
and we have had frost nearly every
night. l put on two pairs of stockings,
the other pantaloOns, and lie in the hole
under the carpets. 1 shall have a stove
in here as soon as 1 get the house
There will not be room, will there?"
"Oh, yes. 1 build a stove of my own
by turning a kettle upside
down and connecting it with a draft
and a mud chimney. l build the fire
under the kettle. Here is a box l have
used as a cooking-pan. 1 made it out
of a short piece of stOve-pipe, and fas-
tened a sheet-iron bottom on it by
pounding the edge over with sticks.
Strange to say it will hold water. l
use it now as a treasure-box, and keep
knick-knacks and a song-book
it. l like minstrel songs. No, l
think I will have no trouble here on ac-
count of the weather. l wish 1 had a
Bible and some books to read. Idon't
much on the Bible-think it is like
sauce on turkey. 1t will not
make s square meal of itself. Still, l
don't know about it."
"How came you to be alone and liv-
in this way?"
s.Well. my father was an Irishman,
who married again after my mothers
death and moved away into the woods
of Indiana, on the fresh-water rivers,
so-called. He did not like my STEP
mother, nor me either. My mother
died in giving NE birth, and 1 always
my father hated me for it. At
my rate after my steP,mothsr died, ne
,-J 1,f< ~,A vui%I, N cfr,n~n MAN