The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1886-08-12
HERMIT JOE.
The Story of a Pennsylvania Farmer Lad
Who Was Disappointed i'm Love.

There occasionally appears in Pitts
burg an old man with sad eyes and
long white hair and beard whose pecu-
liar grab and aspect always attracts at
tention. In answer to a question by
Chronicle Telegraph reporter gentle
man said that the old man was Hermit
Joe.
Il was up in the mountains hunting
last fall. said the gentleman, ''where
he leads hermit life, and learned his
history. 1t is over thirty years since
the romance of his life began. His
father had small farm little this side
of the mountains, and Joe titled the soil
until long after his majority. His was
the old story of falling in love with
young girl. whose father was what
would be called magnate in that sec
ton years ago. The girls friends would
not listen to her marrying Joe because
he was poor, and the engagement was
broken of.
Joe used to ponder over the fact that
the marriage was prevented solely be-
cause he was poor. But for months he
plodded along doing the drudgery of
the farm work as though he had aban-
doned all thoughts of wedding the girl
whom he loved
Suddenly he mysteriously disappear
ed. No one knew whittier he had gone
for months after his disappearance. One
day party of hunters who had known
him discovered him living in hut up
in the mountains. a hundred miles from
his fathers farm. He was morose and
silent, refusing to say why he had
chosen the life of recluse, and merely
telling his former friends that he was
satisfied to live in his hut and gain a
meagre subsistence by hunting and fish
ing. All efforts to induce him to return
and give up his strange mode of exist
ence were unavailing and he seemed
gratified when his friends turned away
and left him at the door of his gloomy
hut, gazing dreamily down the mountain
side. HIS friends returned home and
related their meeting with Joe. His
farcical mode of living was a subject of
gossip for a couple of weeks, and then
he was again forgotten.
"But Joe's romance was only half
begun" continued the gentleman
Early one morning in the spring. two
years after he had left home, he sudden
ly reappeared. He was different man.
He had sold lot of skins he had cured,
was well dressed. and seemed to fairly
beam with happiness.
He had several hevy packages in
his pockets, which heSguarded so zeal
ously that curiosity was aroused as to
what were their contents. He was so
impatient that he hadsnot been here an
hour until he hurried of to the village
near by. He entered the only jewelry
store in the village and accosted the
proprietor with the announcement that
he had been working for the last two
years in a gold mine he ehad discovered,
which he knew was the richest mine in
the world. 1t was cavern, he said.
literally filled with-bright yellow golden
nuggets. Where was itP He smiled
and said that it was in precipitous
portion of the mountains, where no
other foot than his had ever trod, and
where no one else could discover it. He
would be the richest man in the state
in the world-he exultantly said, and
whispered to the jeweler that at last he
could wed the girl for whom he had
labored increasingly for two years stow
ing away gold nuggets.
AT last he produced the mysterious
little heavy packages, which he said
were samples of his vast wealth. The
little group that had gathered together
in the store drew close to Joe and gazed
awe-struck upon the yellow bits of min
eral. The jeweler carefully picked up
several pieces, looked at them couple
of moments. and then said: Joe, my
friend, you are mistaken. This is not
gold. These yellow Jumps are iron
pyrites. They are worthless.
For full minute Joe uttered not a
word He seemed bereft of speech.
Then he mechanically raised his hand
to his brow, as though to collect his
thoughts. Are you sure it is not gold'
he tremulously asked. Yes was the
reply. Slowly he left the store and
quietly passed along through the village
His fathers farm was now reached, but
he stopped only to open the door of the
homestead and say good-by. In another
hour he was on his way back to his re-
treat in the mountains. His disappoint-
ment had been so sudden and his grief
so intense that his mind seemed to
weaken under the great strain. He did
not even stop 10 see the one he had
loved and worked so hard for, but SEEM
ed to feel that all was lost to him for
ever. She. it is said, was true to him.
and died a few years ago of broken
heart. Joe has ever since dwelt in his
hut in the mountains, which of late
years has become an object of curiosity
to people visiting that section of the
country. He has grown too old to exc
out a subsistence. but lives on a small
income his father left him. His mind
has become so weakened that he now
imagines the cave near his hut contains
a great mass of wealth, but that the
world has conspired to ignore him and
his imaOinatiYe tons of gold nnppets.