The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-12-21

north and south. At the time
write of it had ali the requisites of a
thriving town, including population
which dripped with self satisfaction.
This very comfortable commodity was
SO dense and universal that it fairly COW
cred the place like fog.
Hillsford's most remarkable citizen was
hermit, an unkempt and eccentric in
dividual, who lived in a cabin high up
on the North mountain, and was known
as "Old Weaver" In winter, when the
foliage was less abundant, his small
dwelling could be seen from the village,
little speck of crude architecture, the
smoke from which curled sometimes into
the very sky. 1t was pointed out to WIS.,
itors, who were told, without loss of
time, of the hermit, his civilization defy
ing habits and unspeakable appearance.
But it was difficult to exhibit the man
himself. He came down to the village
at infrequent intervals and then tarried
only long enough to procure some simple
necessities and departed without holding
speech with any one. The townspeople
had tried to break into tho privacy of his
home without avail. They had been re-
pulsed with looks and gestures which
inspired fear and helped to confirm the
opinion that "Old Weaver was crazy and
had better be let alone"
And surely no man in his right mind
could live the life he lived. His hair and
whiskers showed no respect for the pre-
vailing fashion in hirsute trimming, and
his clothes were a slap at all decent gar
ments. He rarely spoke at all, but when
he did his words were briefness itself.
In summer they who went near his
cabin sometimes found him sitting out
side reading the Bible, an occupation
from which they could not easily divert
him.
This caused some to decide that he
was "a religious crank" and helped to
dissipate the theory that he had COM
mitted some terrible crime. Hillsford
was full of wonder about the hermit's
past life and antecedents, but as there
was absolutely no way of finding out it
was obliged to remain in cruel ignorance.
All it knew about him was that several
years before the time speak of he had
arrived in the village, purchased piece
of land on the top of the mountain,
reared a cabin and begun a life of solitude
perfectly incomprehensible to the people
of the valley.
At last they mostly settled down to
the belief that "Old Weaver had been
crossed in love-" Everybody knew that
love, if it did not run smoothly, could
upset people completely. This gave him
exceptional interest in the eyes of the
young and sentimental, although the
most imaginative among them could not
picture him as having ever been per-
sonage capable of inspiring the divine
lunacy.
Never were they fully sensible of his
value as romantic figure until after he
bad been written up" for a New York
journal. A newspaper correspondent,
on his summer vacation, wandered into
Hillsford, and, of course, soon heard
about the hermit, since he was all there
was outside of the usual and uninterest-
ing in the place. He at once spun out a
column and a half of solid nonpareil,
mostly speculation, tinged with senti-
ment, about the curious recluse.
This had a good result. 1t dignified
the old man in the minds of the Milford
ians. 1t lifted him from the rank of O
crazy old mountaineer to an eccentric
hermit, with extraordinary sentimental
possibilities behind him.
~.
It was often said that Weaver would
be found starved or frozen to death some
time. So every winter there was talk of
''looking after him" by those in author
ity, but it ended in talk, as he was not
exactly the kind of man to dictate to.