The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-06-02
THAT FnoRrnA nYsrrRY.


what Has Become 81 Conan. the
New jersey GeoloRastP
"Wednesday The NouNIvG NEWS pub
lshed dispatch from jacksonville. Fla.
that Prof Conan, assistant state ccolo-
eist of New Jersey. had disappeared in
Florida. having gone 70 that state in
January last 20 hunt for phosphate de
posits az the head OF the St Iucie river.
near the south end of the peninsula,
Frof. Conan reached Jacksonville on
the afternoon of Friday, Dec. 30, and
went directly 10 the Acme hotel on West
Bay street, where he took a room and
spent the night. The next day he wrote
/ that he had had talk with some parties
who had made him a pretty good business
offer, and possibly he might take up with
~ later but, he added in the letter, Il
haven't time TO write you the particulars
now, but will do SO from Titusville.' On
saturday, Dec. 81, Mr. Conan went 70
| Iltusville and there purchased a small
boat and acomplete outfit for his trip up
the st. Lucle river.
A letter written by hf,n on Jan II, 1893.
and mailed at some point down in that
section, was received by his wife about a
week later, but since then his family and
| friends have neither seen nor heard any
thing of him.
The New York Sun contains an account
of a previous disappearance of Prof
| Conan. The account is as follows: About
ten years ago Prof Conan was one of the
| best-known students in Cornell Univer-
slty DE was fast making name for
| himself in geological and archaeological
studies, and was highly esteemed by the
| faculty as well as by all his classmates
and friends. He disappeared one day as
suddenly as if the earth had swallowed
| him up. His chums his classmates and
the Nom bprg of the faculty. oil
TO find the slightest trace of him. His
friends were written to, and his relatives
came to the university to learn about
him, but where he had gone no one could
discover.
There was no reason why he should have
disappeared. He was in the front rank
of his studies there were no entangle-
ments, financial or otherwise to embar-
rass him, and it was the generally ac-
cepted theory that he had either lost his
life in climbing about some of the cliffs
in that section in search of specimens of
natural history or that he had been
| drowned in Cayuga lake. from which
bodies are seldom recovered, or perhaps
that he had committed suicide Several
years later his roommate, who had be
come prominent in the geological survey
at Washington. was talking to we'll
known Harvard professor, and in the
conversation told him the story of Co
mans disappearance. A few weeks after
that the Harvard professor went to
Lower Florida in search for paleonto-
logical specimens. COman's chum was
astOunded soon after tOreceive a dispatch
from the Harvard professor saying: ~
have found your college chum, Conan.
What shall do with him?" The answer
was flashed back Send him to Wash
ington as soon as possible"
The Harvard professor had found Co
man living on one of the reefs of Florida
as far away from civilization almost as it
was possible for man to get. He was liv-
ing in a mere shed, which covered some
/ provisions and other supplies that the
| government had left for sailors in case of
/ Shlpwreck. The man was ragged and
/ torn, his hair was long and unkempt, and
/ he was unusually silent and mOrose. He
| refused to enter into conversation with
| the Harvard professor, and il was only
after much difficulty that he was per-
] suaded to take his caller on a journey up
/ the coast for twenty miles in a little sail
! boat.
! On the way up a storm arose, the boat
! was capsized and the two men were in
! imminent danger of death. The strange
/ skipper of the boat showed himself a man
! equal TO the emergency He took knife
between his teeth plunged far under the
! water, cut certain ropes and stays that
We're a hlndrance, and then he aud the
! Harvard professor foated for hours on
| the boat together until they were rescued.
! During that time the Harvard professor
! succeeded in drawing Conan out. He
found him a man Of unusual scientific at
tainment and at last he faced him and
| sternly said: You are no ordinary man,
| ard | want to know whe you are"
1t took another hour or two to get the
/ mans name from him, and it resulted in
sending the dispatch to COman's former
! roommate in Washington In due time
| Conan arrived in Washington and was
| warmly welcomed by his old friends. He
said, among other things, that he had not
! eaten piece of beefsteak for nearly four
! years. He paced up and down the room
in evident mental distress, and finally
when his chum bluntly asked him why it
was that he had disappeared he owned
up and said that it was because he was in
love and had got the idea that his affec-
ton had ceased to be reciprocated by his
sweetheart.
1t was the first intimation that any of
his friends had ever had that there had
been a spark of romance in his life 1t
was soon learned that the young woman
in question was still alive, and as much
in love with him as before he disappeared.
She was sent for, and a pathetic meeting
was the result
In time his friends secured for him
place in which he might earn his living
by scientific work, and soon he became
the assistant state geOlOgiSt of New Jer-
Sey. A marriage followed and the friends
of Conan never tired Of telling the ro-
nance of his life and rejoicing in his
restoration to his friends and the place
which his attachments, which were Of the
very highest character, entitled him to
fill