The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-12-21
cold Billy" Fisher to Undergo an
Examination as to His
Sanity.
ACCUMULATED LARGE FORTUNE
Valuables Found in Home of Aged
Outcast Who MOurns For
Sweetheart of Other
Days.

| hclIpI IISSI liz wv saw Lilo
is the Transformation Billy Fisher ha:
undergone during the half century he lived
in Ardsley.
Now his relatives have taken charge o!
\ him and will endeavor to have him ad'
judged insane, so that the fortune he has
boarded during his years of solitude may
! pass into hands more capable than his &c
manage it. He will appear before a COM
| mission ct White Plains and will endeavor
to demonstrate that he Is not insane
Friends Will appear there also to testify
that he is merely eccentric and not mental
ly deficient.
| Love is responsible for his misery-lost
love.
The girl of his heart, the girl whose af-
lection he won. the girl who possessed
every virtue and beauty of character he
| had conjured up in his dreams of an ideal,
was drowned in the Hudson on the eve of
her wedding day.
1t was a terrible blow. and it undid
Fisher.
1t dried his heart of ambition and filled IT
with a bitterness. a cynicism that led him
hated the world and all there was in it.
ROMANCE OF HIS LIFE.
The residents of Ardsiey have woven
many a pretty story about their odd resi-
dent. and most of them are founded on fact.
They tell how. years ago; whenever June
10.the wedding day which never came,
lolitd a1ohIlu uc olAllI hN' ~ NSCk ~A~
sat for hours in his cottage conversirS
with the spirit of his lost sweetheart; how
on summer evenings. his hands behind him.
he used to walk back and forth in the lane
which n few years before he and his fiancee
had traversed. whispering love and prom
ises; how he used to spend hours in the vii
lage cemetery. wandering among the myrtle
beds or sitting with bowed head In a bough
hewn chair. which long ago fell tc pieces,
and how every morning In the summer
fresh wreathS of flowers were f0unC on the
little mound.
They tell also of a vast fortune which.
they ever, he inherited from his mother,
and Of thousands of dollars in greenbacks
which We're eaten by the rats, which even
yet swarm in his howell
But these ar. Are all echoes i, OF years and
They have all been told and retold, and
now are being rehearsed still again. be-
cause of the new incident which has come
The privations to which he has for years
subjected himself have Wrecked him phys
formerly cited as manifestations of a
broken heart are now put forth as evil
dences of insanity.
With the rescue a short time ago of
Fisher from the unsanitary novel which he
called home. and the discovery of several
thousand dollars beneath the floors and in
hidden corners, numerous relatives APP
that Fisher had not a relative in the world
and the hermit thought so himself.
ve ane eSI the conditions h the ho oH.aS Which
had been described aszdlfhy almost be-
yond belief, and the result Was that the
place and taken to the home of John F.
King. Mr.. King was also ,made his tenn
porary guardian:
In the grimy bed on which Fisher slept
the searchers found $3.50 in old coins. In
a small tin box. concealed In a hole in the
wall. they found $500 IN so bills.
fortune in gold. silver and bills. and bank
books showing deposits In several savings
banks, the interest on which had been ac-
MOTH EATEN GARMENTS.
In a small closet, moth eaten and brown
with dust. they found remnants of the her
top hats. patent feathers and all the other
articles which go to make up a well-dressed
They were of the style Of the early ff-
In a haircloth trunk they found a few
valuable trinkets and a rude but elaborate
sketch of a young girl. Fisher protested
at this invasion and described the open
ing of his private strong boxes as sacrb
lese.
.'That picture is a likeness Of 'Lizabeth.
L,zabeth Odell." said he. with tears in his
faded red eyes. II drew 1t myself from
memory and from the image Of her that
used to appear before me years ago. right
here in this room.
She was beautiful-yes. very beautiful.
You know she end / We're 70 pc married;
yes. the date was June 10. 1855"
June 10, 1855 was get for the wedding OF
Fisher and Miss Odell. On the afternoon
before. while sailing to Ardsley in her
private sloop, Miss Odell was
rowned.
Fisher Immediately retired from the gay
cites of the village life.
He made frequent Journeys to New York.
and sailed on the river. W years later
his mother died. and soon thereafter. he
retired to a small dwelling which he had
bought some time before. That was in
1858.
Between that time and q few weeks ago, |
ba u-ac ranooyad tn the home Of rela-
tives. he did not appear in the village
streets more than a dozen times.
About five wears ago be donned one OF his
old dress suits and went to the Ardsley
chapel to morning service. is.
For thirty years he did not once venture
The storekeeper called every three days
to get his orders and receive his pay in
gold. His old friend. Mr.; King, called on
him frequently, and occasionally recalled to
dresser in tho town. |