The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-05
ABOUT 1.-THE DARNED MAN. :"
THE P ATHETIC STORY OF HIS LIFE
 AND WANDERINGS.
AmpIified From Various Sources-Hts Death by the Waysidc and Place of Burial.


 Burial.
 About three months ago a sketch of
 the ''Darned Man" was published in the
 Sunday Republican. For the benefit of
 new readers, or of any who did not see
 that article, it's purport may be briefly
 recapitulated: The "Darned man" was
 8 native of western New York. Tn his
 youth he was engaged to be married.
 On the day set for his marriage, after
 he had donned his wedding suit, his af-
 fhanced died. From that time the be- reaved lover wore that gray suit and no other for period of probably fifty years For some reason that remains a mystery, he traVeled continuously from
 his home to the sea near Boston and
 back again, to and fro, for the rest of his life. He was fed and sheltered by kind-hearted people all along his chosen route. He never tarried long in one - place, and asked only for needle and thread with which to mend his clothes
 In time every portion of his garments was mended with thread or yarn of va rious colors, and this gave him the sou
 briquet of the "Darned man." Very few knew him by any other name. He died from exhaustion and extreme old age thirty-siX years ago.
 Since writing the sketch referred to, have received from different sources ad- ditional information concerning it's sub ject. Mrs. H. G. Loomis, of Palmer, Mass, writes: q was greatly interest ed in your article on the old Darned man in Sundays Republican. My younger days were spent in a Connect- cut town through which the aged trav- eler used to pass on his pilgrimages from the grave to the sea- My mother, who Is now four-score years of age, dis tinctly remembers him. As he jour neyed to and fro he regularly called at the house of her father, yet so silent was he that not until reading your arti- cle did we ever know his real name or from whence he came"
 From newspaper clipping kindly sent me by Mrs Loomis. I excerpt part of letter written to the Willimantic Journal, December 22, 1S63 by D. c. Lillie. of North Easton. He says: ''When I was a boy and lived in Scot land, Conn.,, twenty-five years ago, ; into my grandfather's house, take seat by the broad, open fireplace, and par take of the hospitality furnished him. He was then about fifty years of age, thin in flesh and poorly, thinly clad. He came once year, and generally ear ly in the spring. He was a silent but welcome visitor. For years he had come there, and would sit and warm his thin, tl,1 f,o IIo would say nothing except to tell my aunt to put in little more tea or to make it strong He wore coat, and but one, and that was completely cOv- cred with darns. How I would think, the cold, bleak winds must pierce and chill his emaciated frame. We knew not who he was, nor from whence he came. We looked upon his sad counte- nance, knew his innocence, and we pit led him. We school children would stare at him, and he was known to us as the alarmed man Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since then, and the school children that stared or laughed or pitied are scattered over all parts of the earth, but none of them, I think, have entirely forgotten the old darned man."
 In 1868 a Connecticut paper, name un- known, contained the following: "The old alarmed man, the eccentric pedestri- an who for the last half-century has travelled continually through Windham county, Conn, Rhode Island and the western part of Massachusetts, back ward and forward, with the ceaseless- ness of a pendulum, was found dead in the streets of Sterling, Conn, one day 1 last week. The poor, harmless way farer had a history, but no one was ever l able to draw it from him.
 About the same time a Boston paper that I cannot designate told the story | as follows: "Old Darned Coat" the so- briquet of the poor wayfaring man | whose death in Sterling, Conn.,, on Fri day night has been announced in the | papers had a history not without tinge of romance. Many years ago, | when young man, he was engaged to | be married to young lady, and the day for the ceremony was fixed. but sudden 1y the intended bride sickened and died. | The untimely event cast shadow over the poor mans life; his reason in great measure left him, and he had since been the prey of melancholy and dispair The identical coat in which he was to have been married he continued to wear as long as he lived and the patches and darns with which it was covered on ac- count of occasional rents gave rise to the name by which he was so familarly Darned Coat" He pre- served the ring which his bride was to wear, and wore it himself till it was al most imbedded in the flesh of his finger; and, as he wandered along the road, his most frequent attitude was with his eyes fixed upon the ring, apparently wrapped in the deepest study. His life has been spent in travelling over the roads in the western part of this state and eastern part of Connecticut, find- ing temporary home among kindly people, until death restored him to her whom he so fondly and constantly loved
 In referring to the above extract a contemporary newspaper observes: 'oThe old coat should be preserved, and Barnum has few articles in his museum which if the story of the old mans love and constancy could go with it, would attract more attention than that" Mrs c. H. " Thomas, of Danielson, ] Conn, writes and incloses a poem W nhich twas written years ago and was suggested by the death of the Old l Darned Man whom I often saw in my