The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1888-03-10
ENFORCED ADDITIONS.
A Connecticut Hermit Bathed By
the Board CT Health.

| A Connecticut Hermit Bathed By
the Board CT Health.
Over in the town of Clinton. a few
miles east of here. says the Boston
Globe, there exists q character AZ
strange in his way as ''ths leather
man," or any other of Connecticut's
freaks. Jabez Hurd is his name, and
Jabez is a hermit. He was at one time
in very comfortable c'rcumstances as
Connecticut farmers go, and may be
how for ali any one knows Of him or
his affairs But Jabez does not believe
in the cardinal principle that cleanli-
ness is next to godliness. Some of h s
neighbors do. however. and thatis row
it came about the other day that he
was given bath by Clinton's Board of
Health.
There's a bit of romance in Jabez'
life. and that romance was what led mp
10 his becoming the hermit that he Is.
Many years ago he met and loved q
handsome young widow. who. so-say
the Clinton folks, was far and away
handsomer than any woman who had
ever lived in Clinton. He courted the
widow. and as he was good-looking
man himself. he won her. That was
where he made the mistake of his life.
so say his friends. With married life
trouble began, for the widow with the
pretty face and the perfect form turned
out to be perfect shrew, and she
made Jabez' life burden. He couldn't
tame her by ordinary methods. and
was averse to trying the heroic meas
ures resortei TO by Petrucho. as re-
ported by ono w. Shakespeare some
years ago. She ruled the roost with
an iron hand, and made her husband
understand perfectly that she was the
senior and ruling member of their mar
ital partnership.
Jabez stood this sort of thing as long
as he could well do so. and then, find
ing life with shrew wasn't worth liv-
ing. he deserted her. He chose for his
home the commodious barn belonging
to his brother. refusing that brothers
offer of home in his ample house,
and made the well-tilled hay-mow of
the barn his bed. For long time he
kept out of sight of every one, and
maintained. as he has since continued
to do. absolute reticence about his af-
fairs. He would hold verbal commune
cation with no one, but by written
message expressed a willingness to eat
of the food from his brothers. table if
it was left in the barn for him. Every
one in Clinton knew, of course, why
Jabez had abandoned all the gayety of
life in that town. There was no secret
about that. In fact, it was talked about
so much that the shrewish wife immed-
lately left town. aud just now no one
knows just where she is.
Jabez' brother. after the life in the
hay-mow had continued for some time,
objected to that sort of thing. He tried
to induce the hermit to return to CIV
ilized form of life in his own house or
that OF his brother. But Jabez
wouldn't listen to such appeals. and
declined absolutely and with much
vigor to leave the barn for more COM
portable home. Finally proposition
to build for him a cabin hut near the
barn met with his approval. and he
agreed to occupy it. So the hut was
built. and there for several winters and
summers Hurd has lived. refusing to
hold communication with any one and
apparently satisfied with the purely
animal existence he passed. His meals
were obtained from his brothers
house. Tue v.ctuals were left. how
ever. just outside the kitchen door, and
Jebez would sneak up from his hut
grab the food as if he were stealing it,
and sneak back to his cabin and de-
YOUR it.
That cabin wasn't the pink OF neat
ness On the contrary, it was exactly
the opposite. So much the opposite, in
fact. that it became source of much
annoyance to the good people of Gin
ton. Finally complaints about the hut
and its equally dirty occupant were
made to the Board of Health of the
town, and they were asked to abate the
one nuisance il possible and wash the
other. The board, after due delibera.
ton, for Jabez was powerful man,
decided to try and fumigate the hut
and give Jabez bath,
The absence from town of Jabez'
brother, who had put up W til so many
years Of his idiosyncrasies. gave tho
Board of Health an opportunity to get
in their fine work recently. and they
awaited themselves of that opportunity.
They went in body to the pretty farm
on which the Objectionable hut was
situated. But consultation Of war
was held when they got there and it
was decided that the safest and surest
way 10 capture the dirt-intrenched
Jabez was 10 decend upon the hut as
skirmishers. This plan was carried
out and. as tho sequel shows, was sue
cessful. The advocates Of cleanli-
ness approached the hut from
various directions, and at such rate of
speed as would enable them to reach
the hut at about the same instant.
When the host descended on the hut
they captured Jabez in all his filth, and
Immediately wished they hadn't done
any thing of the kind. They had ex-
pected to find nuisance, but the one
they found surpassed any thing they
had dreamed of or hoped for. The
filth of years was there and Jabez was
revealing in it
Heroic measures were necessary. and
they were taken. Jabez was made q
prisoner, and then the Board of Health
cleaned out the hut and fumigated it
and chloride-of-limed it so that it
should be filter place for Jabez to
I;yo ;, duripo NJ fho ~ MAR ~ In ,,ara;ot