The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1947-08-14


brambles and thick underbrush would
nave torn up his burlap coffee sack.
He was quick and restless, his hair
long and beard dark. and had spark
ling, flashing black eyes. Though he
secured most of the old clothing he
wore by trading young trees for it
he found it hard to trade settlers out
of their shoes. Consequently he made
many long trips through the snow
entirely barefoot.
Johnny Appleseed was kind, honest
and would hurt no person nor animal.
One autumn night, when lying by
his campfire in the woods, he noticed
that the mosquitoes flew into the
blaze and were burned. Johnny got
up and put out the fire. Tt was better
that he be cold than some other liv-
ing thing burned.
| Kind TO Animals
On another occasion, after ne had
built his fire at one end of hollow
log, intending to crawl inside to
sleep, he noticed the log already was
occupied by bear and her cubs. He
moved his fire around to the other
end and slept in the snow. Johnny
did not want to inconvenience the
slumbering bear family.
He was loved by the whites and
Indians alike, Once, after he had
been bitten by a rattlesnake, he re-
lated: Poor fellow, he only just
touched me but /, in an ungodly pas
sion, put the heel of my scythe on
him and went home. Afterwards |
went back for my scythe and there
lay the poor fellow dead"
The bite did not hurt Johnny much.
He endured pain like an Indian and
would stick pins in his flesh, cauter-
ize his wounds with hot iron or per-
form any other simple operation on
himself without flinching. He scared
the snakebite with a hot poker then
treated it as a burn.
He believed in the medicinal virtue
of fennel, which he had found some
where in Pennsylvania. His over
whelming desire to do good and ben
eft others prompted him to carry a
lot of fennel seed in his pockets.
This he would frequently scatter
along the paths where he went
much TO the disgust of the farmers.
1t had pretty blossoms but spread
into an awful pest.
Disappointed in Love
Settlers believed Johnny once had
been disappointed in love. Asked
why he did not marry, he only said
women were not all what they ap-
peared to be and some of them We're
/ deceivers.
However, he related that once he
had found a poor, friendless little
girl who had none to care for her
and had clothed her, supported her
and sent her to school, intending to
bring her up in his own way and
when she was grown, marry her.
When she was Is he called unexpec-
tedly to see her and found her hold
ing hands with young man and
listening to his silly twaddle." After
that she was no protege of his, he
said.
In 1888 Johnny Appleseed went
around the country and told his
many friends goodbye. The country
was becoming thickly settled, he told
them, and the forests already We're
blossoming with his blooms. The
children whom he had bounced or
his knee and had given pretty beads
and gay ribbons now were mothers
or heads of families. Farewell and
may God bless you," and Johnny
went west.
He returned to Ohio several times
to again see his friends. The last
time was the year he died-1845
His monument? Thousands upor
thousands of apple trees to which
farmers thumb with pride and say;
Johnny Appleseed planted that"