News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-08-12
HERMIT JOE'S ROMANCE.
A GOLDEN DELUSION BY WHICH
TWO LIVES WERE WRECKED.
A Lover Seeks Wealth and Finds
What He Thinks is a Cavern
Filled with Gold.

A Lover Seeks Wealth and Finds
What He Thinks is a Cavern
Filled with Gold.
"Hello, Joe. You seem to be out of
your bearings. How do you happen to
be in the cityl"
The stranger stopped abruptly, gazed
upon the gentleman with a stare that i'm
piled he did not remember him, mumbled
an unintelligible sentence, and then am.
bled down the avenue and was soon lost
to view.
He was an old man, with wrinkled
brow and stopped shoulders and long
white hair and beard He was dressed
in a well-worn suit of clothes, but which
was neatly brushed, as though the owner
still took some interest in his personal
appearance. There was a restlessness in
his eyes, though, and a general demeanor
of manner that limited that his intellect
had been impaired.
'Who is he2' said the gentleman who
had addressed the old man in answer to
a query from Chronicle reporter. ''He
is known up in the mountains as Hermit
Joe' His has been a long. sad life, with
a peculiar romance woven through it that
shattered all his prospects, and to-day
you see him a frail broken-hearted, old
man"
TT is over thirty years since the ro-
nance of his life began. His father had
a 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 a young
girl whose father was what would be
called n magnate in that section years
ago. The girls friends would not listen
to her marrying Joe, because he was poor,
and the engagement was broken off.
Joe used toponder over the fact that
the marriage was prevented solely be-
cause he was poor, the gentleman said.
But for months he plodded along doing
the drudgery of the farm work as though
he had abandoned all thoughts of we'd
ding the girl whom he loved
suddenly he mysteriously disap-
| peared. No one knew whittier he had gone
for months after his disappearance. One
day party of hunters, who had known
him, discov, red him living in hut up in
the mountains a hundred miles from his
fathers farm. He was morose ard 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 meagre subsis
tence by hunting and hShlng.
''But Joe's romance was only half be-
gun, continued the gentleman. Gary
one morning in the spring, two years
after he had left home. he suddenly re-
appeared. He was a different man. He
had sold lot of skins he had cured, was
well-dressed, and seemed to fairly beam
with happiness.
''He had several heavy packages in his
pockets, which he guarded so zealously
that curiosity was aroused as to what
were their contents. He was so impa-
tient that he had not been there an hour
until he hurried off to the village, near
by. He entered the only jewelry store
in the village and accosted the proprie-
tor with the announcement that he had
been working for the past two years in u
gold mine he had discovered, which he
knew was the richest mine in the world.
He would be the richest man in the
State-in the world-he exultantly said,
and then whispered to the jeweler that
at last he could we'd the girl for whom
he had labored increasingly for two years
slowing away geld nuggets.
cat 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
awestruck, 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 deceptive yellow
Jumps are iron pyrites. They are worth
fess.'
''For for minute Joe uttered not
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 goldT he tremu-
lousy asked.
"'Yes, was the reply.
Then farewell, friends; happiness
has forsaken me forever.
''That was all he said. Slowly he left
the store, and as 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 ret eat in the mountains
His disappointment had been so sudden
| and his grief so intense that his mind
seemed to weaken under the great
strain.
''He did not even stop to see the one
he had loved and worked so hard for,
but seemed to feel that all was lost to him
forever. She, it is said, was true to him
and died few years ago of brok n
heart Joe has ever since dwelt in his
hut in the mountains, which of late years
has become an object of curiosity to peo-
pie visiting that section of the country.
''He has grown too old to exc out a
subsistence, but lives on small income
his father left him. His mind has be-
come SO weakened that he now imagines
the cave near his hut contains great
mass of wealth, but that the world has
conspired to ignore him and his imagina-
tive tons of gold nuggets. "-Phtsburg
Gb,oDjcle