Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-02
EATING NUTS AND ROOTS.
He Has Talked to No One, and Has a
Long Growth of Hair.
TAKEN FOR FITZSIMMONS ONCE,
But He Fled in Haste to the Hills and
Eluded His Pursuers.
A STRANGE AND PATHETIC NARRATIVE

|
noon at Si1-Mile Ferry, a suburb of Home
stead, on the p, v. s. c. r. r. Con-
stable Charles Stewart, of Alderman
A. J. Kuhn's office, made the capture.
Some boys who had been roaming in the
vicinity caught sight of him and chased
him into thickly wooded ravine, where he
suddenly disappeared from view.
A guard was stationed over the thicket
where he was seen to enter, and word was
sent to Squire Kuhn's office, when Consta-
| BILE Stewart, was sent to the scene, and,
boldly entering the wood where the wild
man was in hiding, he dragged him from
his lair. The poor, unfortunate creature Of
| fered no resistance whatever and readily
entered the constable's buggy when ordered
to do so. He was then driven to the Home
stead lookup and placed in a cell, and was
Immediately furnished with warm meal,
which he ate in q most voracious manner.
In Half-Famished Condition.
The poor fellow was in half-famished
condition and he gave evidence that he ap-
preciated the kindness of the constable
much in the same manner as would home
less dog when thrown a bone. At first it
was difficult to get the unfortunate man to
speak, but when persstently questioned
last night by DISPATCH reporter the fol-
lowing facts connected with his strange life
were elected
He said his name was Steve Fahrenbach,
and that he came from Freiburg,
Germany, nine years ago, and
worked on a farm up to last April, when he
lost his position, and becoming discouraged
in his vain attempt to secure employment
and having no friends or relatives on this
side of the Atlantic, he retired to the ravine
where he was found by Officer Stewart. He
has been living in the woods since last
April, and has subsisted during that time
on roots, nuts and apples that he gathered
on the surrounding farms. Occasionally he
would, in the dead of night, enter a garden
and dig up with his fingers potatoes and
other stray vegetables that had been left in
the ground, take them to his den and roast
them over a wood fire.
The Life of Hermit.
In all the time he has been leading this
a human being nor uttered a single word.
He gives evidence of being man of educa-
tion and refinement, and converses in Ger
man, French and English. He said that he
was unable 20 recall the proper words to
express himself, it being such long time
since he heard the sound of human voice.
His head and face is covered with long
growth of hair, which gives him wild and
uncanny look. The man is about 80 years
old, feet inches in height, weight about
16O pounds, blonde hair sprinkled with
gray, light brown mustache, long Roman
nose, low forehead, sound pearly teeth. His
clothes are tattered and torn, greasy and
very much soiled.
His hands and feet are very much FROST
bitten. His feet were hardly covered by
truding through them. In the ravine where
he has been in hiding for the past ten
months his only shelter was an improvised
hut of the humblest architecture, consisting
of two rough logs, one piled on top of the
other and huge pieces of bark resting on the
upper log and the ground below it, forming
an angle of about 45 degrees. This served as
a roof for his miserable hut, and in it he
would crawl and sleep throughout the day,
and at night he would roam the neighbor-
hood in quest of food.
He Was Taken for Fitzsimmons Once.
It has been known that strange being
was seen at times haunting the valley, he
having been seen for moment or two and
then as suddenly disappearing. Last fall,
shortly after Fitzsimmons had made his
escape from the county Jail, it was thought
that he was in hiding in this vicinity, and
a posse under Squire Oeffner went down
into the hollow and searched for him in the
abandoned coal pits. When this was
broached to the wild man this evening" he |
remembered it well, and said he fled to the |
hills and remained there for three days.
Constable Stewart has theory that the |
man is fugitive from justice and has be-
come demented in his endeavor to elude the |
officers of the law.