Evening star., 1903-08-22

w utIitNti an ullhtillpts "S'''i'S' ~''N~''
man puts in an appearance in the streets
of New Florence Pa, little mountain and
railroad town ten miles west of Johns own,
the loafers on the stoops of the general
merchandise stores and at the depot unani-
mously express themselves:
Another one of them there herm!ts of
Laurel Ridge
This observance finished they renew their
task of waiting for the next meal, while the
man OF the mountain goes about trading OFF
his huckleberries or bags OF nuts TO the
storekeepers and then quietly sinks out
along the main street of the village IN the
direction of his rocky fastness.
For hermit is no novelty to the people
of New Florence, or to any of the inhabi-
tants of the mountain -encircled valley of
the Ligonier which has the chestnut and
laurel ridges of the Alleghanies for Its
boundaries.
This valley. except in the extreme south
ern and northern ends, is free OF rallroads
and all other marks of modern hustle ana
commerce The stretch of land between
the two steel evidences of modernlty is as
primitive and inaccessible as 1t was nifty
years ago. for the mountain roads are not
a whit better now than they were then.
1t is a stretch of country In which the
simple life can be lived with ease. Equally
well any one, tired of the clatter or the
world beyond the mountains. can imnure
himself from il all with ease. Many have
done it, many are stiI doing It, and that is
why a hermit from Laurel Ridge. where
nearly all of these people build themselves
miserable cabins out of logs and stray
boards picked up around deserted sawmllIs,
excite no interest among the inhabitants or
New Florence to which town the hermitS
wend their way over mountain tran ana
road whenever they want to market the
wild products of the thousands of unoccu-
pied and uncleared acres about them.
These solitary men of the mountains have
come from everywhere. Somehow. in some
mysterious way, men who want TO be alone;
for some cause or another, hear of Laurel
Ridge and the Ligonier valley. AS q re-
suit some have journeyed hundreds and
others thousands of miles to hide them
selves on the mountain slopes and to look
out upon the valley below from small clear
ings in front of their novels
Thomas Patterson is one of these men
who Travelled far to reach Laurel Ridge.
1t has been many years now since Patter-
son went into the mountains. In the bright
est days of A. T. Stewards commercial su-
premacy Patterson came into the region
and brought with him his wife and family.
They arrived in New Florence a refined,
fashionably dressed and evidently comfort
ably fixed family, and everybody was sur
prised when the man set about making
preparations to go into the mountains
lou cannot live in comfort there" the
residents of the town told him.
81 don't want comfort he responded.
" on VIII De exposed 10 all sorts or
weather and danger" they went on.
80 much the better" he answered.
And you will be far from neighbors"
II want to be left alone" was the re-
sponse
So Patterson went into the mountains and
took his wife and child with him. He is
still there-he and his wife and their half
dozen chldren-living in a two-room cabin
that is all but ready to tumble down, and
through whose leaf-stuffed sides the win
ctr h oil ,ad
energy. 1t is a miserable existence that
they lead-ths man who was once the head
of A. T. Stewards silk department. and his
wife, who has hinted in her infrequent
communicative periods that If her relatives
knew where she was a titled man would
come over from England to make his peace
with her. But neither the husband nor the
wife have even limited why they became
hermits, nor do they want any of their old
time associates to find them out All they
ask is 10 be let alone. They are content
with their life of loneliness precariously
sustained through their knowledge of berry
patches in the mountains and eked out by
charity pittances received from the county
authorities,
But the man who Travelled farthest to
become hermit of Laurel Ridge was a
Russian.
One day some three or four years ago
man with the stamp of the foreigner
stepped off a west-bound train at New
Florence and gave his name as Kostka-
V. Kostka.
II am from Russia" he said ''I have
heard that quiet can be secured here. 1
have come with my family to live here"
Having introduced himself he set about
looking for a place in which to live He
found 1t in a mountain twelve miles away
from the town. This he bought paying
cash for it; and here he Immediately In
stalled his family and drew the lines of
SeCluSton close about him. In fact he
wanted to be so much alone that he had
outlooks TO warn him when strangers ap-
preached, and he hardly ever went into
town for supplies, but sent his men brought
over from Russia with him. instead. But
when he did go, he would scatter money
plentifully, especially in the saloon, where
he would throw down a five-dollar bill in
payment for a drink of whisky and aston
ish the natives almost into spasms by re-
fusing to accept change.
About year after his purchase of Rtley's
Hill Kostka appeared in town with wo-
man who was known as the French gov
erness of his children: and together they
boarded train that was bound for Pitts
burg.
That was the last that New Florence
saw of Y. kostka. But II was not the
last that the town heard of him. Pretty
soon they discovered that he had run away
with the governess. and the next thing they
knew the wife had informed the Russian
authorities IN st. Petersburg that the cash
Ter who had robbed one of that city's big
banks some years before could be found
living In certain town In Canada with
the former governess of his children.
So the Russian bear reached out for "
Kostka and grabbed him, and now he is
working in the mines of Siberia; and New
Florence. and its saloon keeper especially,
still mourn the loss of the most ambitious
of all the hundreds of hermits OF Laurel
Ridge.
Through the workings of justice New
Florence found out why Kostka became a
hermit but IL is seldom that such In elli-
gence Is obtained about the other hermits
Only guesses can be made some wild and
others based on words let fall by the her
mits themselves in unguarded moments 1t
was IN this latter way that the story of
Whistler originated.
For years Whistler was known as "'The
White-haired Man of the Mountains" He
got this name by reason of his long hair and
his beard, which reached to his waist He
kept both scrupulously neat and clean
which qualities were not shown anywhere
else about his person or his hut
He was always willing TO tell anyone who
happened to stumble across his clearing
that he was a distant relative of James Nc
Nell Whistler. the artist, but when asked
why he had buried himself in such an out
of-the-way place he would grow non-com-
municatfve and show that he would be
pleased to have his visitor depart.
Only once did he fail to preserve taciturni-
" on this point. That was when two girls