The times., 1899-10-12
THE HERMIT OF THE BRONX.
New HorlS's Zoo Society Likely to
Dispossess the Old Man.
(From the New York journal

The Hermit of Bronx Park is fast los.
ing his hold on his old home in the wood!
] on the Westche ster side of the Bronx River
His den in the rocks is on part of the lanC
granted to the Geological Society, and fol
year past the police have been discour-
aging his tenancy
He always goes back as soon as he thinks
it safe to do so, and is now getting ready
for winter by leaning old brushwood ur
against the front ofohis den. He has also
| put worn-out pair of shoes in the hole
! as an evidence of proprietorship.
| The hermit, who usually absolutely re-
fuses tc say anything about himself, once
| told Mr.. and Mrs. Loweth of Kingsbridge
! Road. that his name was Billy Lee. and
+ since then he has been known in West
Farms, where he does odd jobs, as Crazy
Billy"
He first showed himself in the village
about twenty years ago, and it was some
time before the villagers discovered that
| he slept in hole formed by some fallen
stones on the side Of hill in the Bronx
Park woods. He is brcnzed by exposure
to all sorts of weather, and is thought to
be something like sixty years old The old
hermit will not accept money unless he is
allowed to wori.for it. Nobody knows
where or how ne lived before coming TO
West Farms. and very little is known about
him to certainty.
He does net touch liquor, but enjoys to-
bacco. He is grateful for reading matter,
but has always refused to say whether he
knows how TO write, though if given a
written memorandum of articles TO be pur-
chased he brings back the right change,
and is always scrupulously honest with the
change.
or recent years Billy has made it a prac-
tice to carry all the clothing he possesses
wherever he goes and usually wears as
much of il as possible. He adopted this
method OF caring for his belongings be-
cause several times his extra clothes were
burned up by boys who set fire to his home
during his absence. He is shy of strang-
ers, and if they approach his den he viii
disappear in the woods rather than meet
them. Nobody has ever been abe to learn
much of anything definite by questioning
him, for he either simply grunts to all
questions or else will follow one answer
with another which directly contJadicts it
To d few people for whom he has wo kei
at odd times for years he has SPOKEN of
having had wife and children, and again
has denied ever having had either For
years he wore his hair long, and one day
several years ago, when he as
tonish the local barber by asking
LOT naiF cut, he telt much hurt at
the barber's refusal to spoil his scissors
by trying to make them cut through his
mass of hair. To console him Mr. Loweth
cut his hair for him, and was agreeably
surprised to find that the old hermit's
scalp was perfectly clean and well kept.
Billy spent the time of the blizzard of 1883
in his open-air home, and when on the
third day Mr.. Loweth fearing that the old
man might be frozen to death, managed to
reach the den, he found Billy apparently
none the worse for the experience. Up to
that time he could not be prevailed upon
by any of the West Farms people who took
an interest in him to sleep in a barn or
even in a cellar, no matter how bitter cold
the night might be, but since the blizzard
he has occasionally accepted shelter in a
kitchen or q barn.
During the past year, when driven away
from his hole in the woods by the police
or by his fear OF them, he has accepted
nights lodgings in the village, but his old
bed seems to be his favorite one, and it
would require a policemen on guard at the
den day and night to keep him from it,