River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1899-11-09
FOUND BY ACCIDENT.
The Strange Case of Harvey w.
Rogers, of Buffalo, N. Y.
Left His Comfortable Home Twenty
Three Years Ago and Has Since
Been an Absolutely Aim
Iess Wanderers.
Especial washington Letter

! Students of mental philosophy are
often baffled when they try to explain
some of the peculiar workings of the
human intellect. There are ample evil
dences of the fact that some men have
dual natures; and many men of re-
search and profound thought believe
that every human being is so endowed.
| Some Investigators claim that each
! lobe of the brain is in some degree IN
/ dependent of the other, and that good
/ impulses come from one lobe of the
brain, while bad impulses come from
! the other. Some scientists assert that
| if subjects could be found, who would
| permit surgical operations, so that one
lobe of the brain might be removed,
/ in that manner they could discover
which is the good and which the bad
! side of the human thinking machinery.
Lapses of memory are well authenti-
| Gated, and intellectual freaks abound
| in the daily experiences of observant
men.
Twenty-three years ago last Septem-
Der Harvey w. Rogers, railroad sta
ton agent at Hamberg, suburb OF
Buffalo, n. Y, left his position, home,
| friends and a comfortable fortune to
go to the Centennial exposition in
| Philadelphia. He has since been
wanderer up and down the country,
| from one extreme to the other, but has
never returned to his home. Not once
! in that time did he communicate with
! his relatives, and they, hoping almost
! against hope that he was still alive,
| have been steadfastly searching for
| him for more than score of years.
| Their diligence was rewarded ohe day
recently, when a meeting between
Rogers and his family was effected at
the office of his attorney in this city.
| 1t was through the efforts of the lat
| ter that Rogers sisters were enabled
! to find their long-lost brother and that
| they came here from Buffalo to meet
him. Their recognitions were mutual,
and while the women wept for JOY, the
! old man was so overcome by emotion
that for few moments he could hard
ly speak.
The story of the eventful life of the
| old man, now 60 years of age, is an inter
! esting narrative. His father was a
well-to-do farmer in Erie county, and
possessed a fine tract of land in what
| is now a growing suburb of Buffalo.
! When Rogers was boy the land was
reckoned to be worth about $50 an
acre; now $4,000 would scarcely pur-
chase that much of it. When a young
man he enlisted in the Ninth New York
! cavalry, and served throughout the
| civil strife. There the romance of his
nature developed. The home life was
to him rather shiftless and aimless, and
| he became imbued with the spirit of
wanderer. However, he returned home
after the war was over and went to
work for the railroad.
His father died, some of the estate
was sold, and by economy Rogers man
aged to acquire a considerable sum of
money. He kept an account in the
savings bank, loaned money on mort
| cages, had a good position as station
agent and became well-to-do. Still he
! was never wholly contented.
During the centennial year he start
ed for Philadelphia, fully expecting and
intending to return after spending a
| few weeks at the exposition. He took
with him only enough funds to pay
the expenses of an economical trip, for
he was never a spendthrift, but rather
frugal and modest in his wants. Weeks
went by, and finally they lapsed into