Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1906-07-19
The Immortal n NJ
From the Chicago Tribun

TioII TUE NElc1SO tribune
Jacob Newman Free, the immortal \
NJ has reached the end of his travels
He was finally adjudged insane and will
spend the remainder of his days in tn,
state hospital at Toledo. He is now -
year old.
mus passes a character known in nearl,
every siIable town in every state in tho
west. For moro than half a century he
lived as the birds live. No town or star.
could claim him as its own. In each h,
was at home and among friends. II is his
claim. and 1t is not disputed. that h,
knows more people personally than any
other living man.
For nifty years he has travelled up and
down ana across the country, riding free
on nearly every railroad and living with
out expense In the best hotels the towns he
visited afforded.
sun IN his possession are a hundred slips
reading. Good for ]. ~" His most treas
ured possession is a slip of paper signed
by the leading officials of many of the
biggest railroads in the country. 1t reads:
me Immortal j. N: pass him forever.
day. " "ooN
Hotel men in the towns he visited did as
nuch. He was never known to have NOR.
IMAM a few cents at IL time, but in fifty
years of his wanderings few landlords
nave been bold enough to present him with
II ~ iNSOIdtu d HOtel kepner
offered to throw off half the bill when he
iearhed his guests identity. "The I'm
mortal j. N" Slared at the landlord tbep
'cciar-ng he would ALLOW no one to outdo
nim In generosity, and said he would
throw OFT the other half.
He seldom stopped in cities of moro
man 10000 population. believing that in
ne large cities his personality would be
ost. lhere are few newspaper offices in
The country outside of the largest cities
where he Is not we'll known. Some years
ago he Travelled all over the country ram
eackins the files of ~ewspape for his own
obituary. He has been reported dead more
than once.
he is an apostle of TRUTH pressure"
.hu keeper OIL the secret of the veil" For
.nirty years he has been promising to .,ift
he veil" and put ION the pressure, wber
ever he stopped in the course of his mirra-
ions his trst announcement was that men
allied him crazy and that he was about ..to
put the pressure on" This pressure" was
some mysterious force which he alone b.
pelltVed, prevented from crushing out or
existence all the life of this continent.
No one has ever doubted. that he was in
sane. He himself boosted of it. But his Is
an insanity that up to now inspired only
friendship and sympathy. But behind his
insanity and his fifty years of aimIes.
wandering over the country is a tragic
story.
In youth he was an infant phenomenon
AT = years of age he read almost all of tho
bible, and during his teens he acquired a
reading and speaking knowledge of no los.
thirteen languages. During the gold
craze in '49 he went west and started a
stage line. Within two years he had ac-
cumulated a fortune of $50, 600. A partncr
him and then u. N" moved bac,.
to Ohio and began the study of law. With
n a few years he stood at the top of the
par of Cincinnati.
One day he was Defending a murderer +,
whose innocence he strongly believed. AS
i result OF his %eloquence the man wac
The same day his client con-
that he was guilty. u. "" rushed
back to the courtroom and started to ax-
plain. but the strain and excitement had
'eea too much for him. He was stricken
with apop!exy. Within a short time bo
his physical health, but never
ais mental po:se.