The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1900-12-12
HERMANN BINS
HAS PER|SHED.
Was Long Known as the Her.
nit Of Want0ng Mountain. !.
NEVER MA9E ANY FRIENDS.
During The War Of the Rsh.!lian ns Had
Been 1 Brgadlsr General In the
Confederate Army.
NEVER maze ANY FRIENDS.

Trenton. n. J., Dec 1e.-Several persons
who have viewed the body of an old man
found In the Black Swamp. near Norris
town. Identified 1t as that OF Hermann
Bins. known as the Hermit of wantorg
Mountain.
searchers started Immediately for the
cabin OF the hermit on the Succasunna
slope OF the mountain. They found II in
ashes and say II had probably been burn
ed for two months or more.
The death Of the old hermit, formerly
confederate brigadier general, Is there
fore shrouded in as great a mystery as
marked the nearly two-score years that
be lieved in his mountain hut.
Only on rare occasions has the old man
been seen or heard OF for several years
past. when some hunter would come upon
his hut or meet him searching for game
in the forest.
Hundreds. however. have made pilgrim
ages to the foot OF the slope and listen
ed enchanted to the hermit playing on
his violin.
MADE NJ FRIENDS.
Those events In his life which drove
Bins into voluntary exile were not learn
ed until ten years after he built his cabin
in 1866. When he was first seen on the
mountain he wore a uniform of gray
with the shoulder straps of a br.gadler
general.
He made friends with none. rarely re-
piled when addressed and kept out OF
sight when curious persons. after great
toll, managed TO find his cabin. He had
his dog. a gun and a violin for COM
panions.
When his presence became better
known there were often scores Of men
and women who trampcd at nightfall
to the base of the slope where the cabin
was concealed and listened cnraptnred to
the sweet and often weird music OF the
violin. He was a master of the instru-
ment.
The secret of Bins life was revealed
by William Becker, a G. A. X. veteran OF
Morristown. Becker made s. trip South
ten years after Bins first appeared on the
mountain, ana looking over some Con-
federato records In the Atlanta MusAura
he found the name OF Brig. Gen. Bins.
The Hermit OF wantong Mountain care
10 his mind instantly and he began max
iug inquiries.
lie learned that at the outbreak of the
civil war Bins had been a prosperous
planter in middle Georgia lie went 10
the front, leaving a wife and two chill
dren.
HIS LONELY LIFE.
He soon won promotion IIis two chill
dren died while ho was lighting and
shortly after his wife suocumbed to ex-
posure. His house was burned and plant
alton destroyed by Gen. Sherman on his
march TO the sea.
When Bins returned after the war he
found the graves of his loved ones and
his ruined home.
He had no relatives, so he disappeared
from the scenes filed for him with sad
ness and his friends did not know what
had become OF him.
The hermit has been seen but little for
the past II years and none has thought
Of him recently until two hunters found
his body III the Black Swamp.
How or where the hermit hiss been liv-
ing since the burning OF his cabin will
never he known.
Nothing has been seen of his dog and
the old violin from which he gained solace
Is believed to have been destroyed with
all else of the hermits belongings in the (
fire which drove him from his mountain |
fastness, probably to death through ex-
posure.