The record-union., 1897-07-26
A NAMELESS WANDERER.
TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE OF AN
INSANE MAN.
He Suffered Incredible Hardships
in the Ice and Snow OF
Labrador.

One of the most terrible episodes in
fiction, an episode which remains nv
eted in the minds of all who have ever
read it, is that of Mrs. Shelley's Man
Monster in Frankenstein," wandering
over the ice bound shores and Islands
of the northern seas. Once more truth
eclipses fiction, for Mrs. Shelley
MANI Monster was supposed TO be
semi-supernatural being to whom all
sorts of abnormal and impossible traits
might be attributed. But stories from
British North America report the stac-
cato appearance here and there IN the
most destitute and icy parts OF that
destitute land of at least two human
beings belonging to the Anglo-Saxon
race, who have been wandering ABOUT
apparently proof against such hunger
and exposure as would be fatal even
to animals born in that region.
Frederick Irland, a correspondent OF
Forest and Stream" was the first to
draw public attention to one of these
lost men. In a letter published in the
issue for December a. 1895, he told
how an apparently demented stranger
had strolIed into the camp which he
and a small party had pitched in a lit
tie known wilderness in New Bruins
wick. He could give no lucid account
of himself, save that he was trying to
get to Grand Falls, where he had
friends.
but great goodness, mani! ex-
claimed Mr.. Irland, Grand Falls is on
n 0fNT mil
straight line and a hundred from here
the way you'll have to 60"
This information did not seem to dis
turb him. How long had he been
out?" He didn't know, but remembered
having been in the American war. lie
had with him no matches, no compass,
NO blankets, no food. His sole eartnly
possession was a rusty ak, which ne
said he had picked up in some stream
he had crossed He was not hunting
or prospecting or cruising. He did not
seem particularly hungry. He ate the
breakfast that was offered him With
out comment, but took off his hat and
said grace by himself.
To the question as to what he had
eaten the day before he answered, "A
quail" Now, there are no quail in that
region. He spoke with an uncertainty
of utterance which made it difficult for
for him to pronounce his own name,
but Mr. Irland thought it sounded like
Dorns or Torrance. He was not Socia-
Bile. and the only wish he expressed
was that the teamster should not swear.
He seemed to be all the time in sort
of trance.
After having spent a few hours in the
camp he disappeared, bound, he said,
for Grand Falls, with one hundred
miles of wilderness between him and
his destination.
IDENTIFIED BY HIS SISTER
In the following September he was
seen by two canoists padding down
the shore of Upper Millnoket Lake, In
the extreme northern part of P1scata-
ouis County, Me. They took him down
10 their camp, warmed and fed him and
tried to extract his story. He said he
was on his way to Moosehead Lake,
seventy miles away, to get work, but
he was lost and wanted to be put on
his way again. He had been wander
ing around for twelve days without
ANYTHING TO eat. He knew it was
twelve days, because he had counted
1hirty-six meals he didn't have. His
name was Cairns. Beyond that nothing
intelIigible could be extracted from
him. He had left the camp after two
days, ostensibly to go to Moosehead.
A portrait of the man which Forest
and Stream published in January,
1896, drew forth a letter from Miss
Ada Cairns Of Cumberland, Ohio, who
wrote that she had recognized in the
lost man her brother, DR.. Elmer
Cairns, who some time in the fall OF
1854 had disappeared from home.
She begged that if any future sports
men ran across the man they would
letain him and have him sent home to
his family. Last July, DR.. Robert J
Morris, of this city, thought he had
run across the track of the lost man
in Labrador In a fisherman's cabin
at Coal River, Newfoundland, he had
been told a strange tale of a wandere1
who some years previous had appeared
at Mingan, on the Canadian Labrador
coast. He was clad in old thin cloth
ing, torn shoes, held together with
strings, and he carried only a small
axe. He brought no provisions with
him, and took none away. He would
mot stop but an hour or two and ther
went his way. DR.. Morris interested
many of his friends in making further
researches and it has now been proved
beyond a doubt that the Lost Man Of
, Labrador was a different individual
from the Lost Man of New Brunswick
The latter, so far as known, may be
still alive. The former died in 1894.
But it is well to take up the story
in its proper sequence. DR.. Morris
Ehfmsef has never seen the man. The
, weird tales which he tells We're gath
cred from trappers and from cores
pondents. Put into their proper Sc
quence they run as follows:
HIS FIRST APPEARANCE.
So far as known the strange man was
first seen by Thomas Sweet, fisher
man, on the Salmon River. on the Ca
madam coast. One April morning il
1898 he arrived at the fishing station il
a most pitiable condition. His clothes
were torn, his boots worn out.