The New York herald., 1922-01-17
HEMPSTEAD HERMIT
DIES WITH HIS GOLD
Villager Taking Hot Food to
Little Shack Finds Body
and Money.
OLD CANS FULL OF CASH
Mystery in Identity and Doubt
About Relatives Of Aged
Miser.
OLD CANS FULL OF CASH

Martin BlysdeI of Hicksyille, L. l..
went into the woods near that town yes
terday morning, carrying a kettle OF hot
soup and some bread for the hermit OF
Hampstead Plains. an old man whose
name, so far as anybody ever knew. was
Thomas Baldwin, and who for thirty
years had lived alone in the woods, his
only home a rickety old shack set In
gully more than mile from the village
1t was cold when Blysdel dropped into
the gully and approached the shack. but
no smoke curled from the length OF
stove pipe that Baldwin had poked
through the roof.
Blysdel knocked at the door and re-
ceiving no answer pushed it open and
went in. He knew the old man would
curse and revile him. He always did
but still Blysdel and the other neighbors
kept going to the shack and giving food
and hot drinks to the hermit, because
he would not fix them for himself ano
they did not want to see him starve. But
yesterday Blysdel found the old mar
seated at his table. his head buried IN
his arms. He did not answer wheI
Blysdel spoke to him and Blysdel Went
closer. He shook the old mans shoulder
but there was no response.
Dead With His Treasure.
He raised Baldwin's head and saw
that the old man was dead and had
probably been dead for several hours
He had died seated at the table ano
he evidently had been counting his
money. because in an old, battered iror
not cupped within his hand and hid
den by his breast as he lay forward or
the table was pile of gold and silver
coins of all denominations from nlcke
to a $40 gold piece. Two or three OF tht
gold coins were clutched in the ole
mans hand. just as he had been Gluten
| ing them and clinking them together
| and counting them, the only things II
the world that he cared for, when ht
died.
Blysdel let the old mans head dror
| back onto his pot Of treasure. and wen
| to Hicksville, where he notified the
! Coroner Charles Stohl, whose physician
| later said the old man had d&d ol
pneumonia and starvation.
The hermit was dressed In rags
always, and he lived in the most abJec'
poverty in his shack. His bed was o.
straw and blankets that must have beer
at least ten years old, but buried De
meath the straw Coroner Stohl founo
an old tin can packed thickly with 81
and 81 bills. ragged and dirty and soiled
showing that they had been handled
over and over again.
An old iron pot which had been hali
filled with trash and rubbish and seemed
to have been thrown into q corner was
turned over and out of the trash rolled
a. gold' piece which sparkled duly IT
the dirt and CRIME of the floor. The
Coroner examined the pot and found II
half filled, below the layer of trash
with bills and gold and silver coins.
Cash Turns Up Everywhere.
Other cans and pots were unearthed
about the house and the whole hoard
counted up more than $1,000. enough to
have kept the old man in comparativ,
comfort for the rest of his days had he
rot preferred to live in his old shack
where he could fondle and clink his
coins and handle his bills and keep his
treasure all to himself. Men like Bys-
del and others who lived on the fringe
of the woods and often saw the old man
puttering about among the trees never
Imagined that he had any money at all.
They often asked him how he lived and
he always told them he did not need
much food.
They went into the woods almost
every day since the cold weather began,
taking food for him, and always he ate
ravenously. Apparently the food they
took to him was all he had.
Very little is known in Hicksville of
the old mans history. 1t is said that he
has a sister In the West Indies but the
authorities have not been able to learn
her address. So far as they can learn
she Is the only relative the old man has.
but the authorities expect many rela-
tives to appear when 1t becomes known
that the Hermit OF Hampstead Plains