A YANKEE HERMIT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2218, 25 September 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

A YANKEE HERMIT.

(Duly Nkws.) T\ one of the Parana I',1 ', or late religious books of tin: Hindoo*, mention is made of t fores*, whifh w;i*> tenanted by "millions of hen.iiK" It was a t-omewhat Hibernian kind of solitude tlj.it these worthy OK-n of religion inli^bitofl, an'l it may be doubted whether thore was much ascetic merit in dwelhntr in a wilderness where th^ie was *o iniuhVomjictitun In Pik© Count}', Pfiin , they order the-e thinirn bet t pi," and a hermit, is a. hei imt indeed. Tlic anchorites of Hie Middle A ire.- were not <-o lonely a« Austin Sheldon, tho eminent and remarkable solit n\ , who has ju-t pa-spd awiy, n^retted by all who did not know him, at the ripe ago of S3. Fifty four years have p-one by, and a yreat, ib-al of w atei ha& flow ed under the bridges '-mc a jounjf man, of Stony Brook, Conn., disappeared from the embra< es of lin s.>rrowin<£ kinsfolk. 'They souirht him east, they sought him west, tliev sought him all the forest through, they only *aw the cloud of night, they only heard the roar of' the local crck, whatever its name miy have been. Tho who was a \illage bl teksinith to hih trade, and thrrefoie a member of the craft which Mr Longfellow was to make poetical, h'ld recently lost his biide, to whom he was warmly attached. This very naturally accounted for the withdrawal of the young man, who was no other th/m Au4in Sheldon, from the haunt* consecrated by unhappy memories. But whore had he pone, and what was he doin<r? Had hp taken his own life, or "gone to Texas," or to Europe, or become (like an English traveller still alive) a chief among 1 the Red men? Was he in Li Trappe or in the Tombs, or in some distant lunatic asylum? In 1873, tho sister of Sheldon, a lady now advanced in life, heard that a singular being was livincr, or vegetating, in a cave nine miles from the Delaware Valley. Mis habits were like those of Scott* black dwarf, for he was not only "gey ill to live tu', m as Mrs Carlyle said of her son Thomas, but he declined all human intercourse, and kicked the curious out of his cavern. However, there i* no man so remote and unfriended, so solitaiy, or =o slow, but tliePressgeNatlu.il in Arnetica. The Americans, had they lived in their times, would have '• uitei viewed " Timon of Athens, or St. Simon or St. Regains in his lock above tiie waves at St. Andrews, or would ha\ c ad. led to the tempr itious of St Anthony by requesting him to furnish a pictuie«nue account of his spiritual distress. They did interview tho heimit ot Pike County, and extracted so much of his personal history that he wa- recognised, fiom the new-paper r-poif, by hi-, -nit \ i\ ing sister. She flew to his aim*, and would h.i\e invited him to join, once mote, the family circle from which he had been absent neaily as long ar, Kip Van Winkle. But he declined to submit to her suggestions, and, in fact, prefened his hollow tiee, his crust of bread and Ji'oeity. Now he lias departed, ni d saintly memories of the holy nian a;e ciinent in the rmal speech of Pike County, Perm. Perhap* he is the oiiginal Prophet of the Smoky Mountains in a recent American lomance. The legend of Austin Sheldon, though it will never find a place in the collection of the Bollandi^ts, is very like other saintly legends. There is one point of difference. It does not appear to have occurred to Austin Sheldon to work mirr.icles. "It was an oveisight,' as the Mormon widow icmaiked on a singular occasion to Ai tennis Ward. In other ways Austin was as ■-aintly as any Mahdi or Fakir who ever passed Ins time in a cawruora hollow tree. He spent ill the da\ light houi« in study of the, Bible, ami piobahly evolved for himself the peculiu religions system of which he was the sole and iuiproselytisii)<_: adherent. In one respect he lesembled St, Thomas of Canteibuiy. When that good churchman and sturdy Englishman was massacred by Fit/ Urse and the icst. it was disco\ered that he was exceeding^ unwashed horn of old, a en cMiinstance which, mote than any otuer, excited the enthusiasm of the pious beholders. Austin Sheldon, in this respect, w.is moie than a match for our English saint. He never used water for external application, and he never touched a comb, a bru^h or a razor. "This was in accordance with a vow he had made," like that firm Jacobite, the old Scotch laird called "B"ardie.'' Again, like Thomas Becket, he " never changed his clothing," though he went further than Thomas, who confined this unflinching behaviour to his lintjii. As Dr Johnson confessed of himself, he eithei ''had no passion for clean linen," or, more probably, lie mortified himselt withal in tins uncomfortable fashion. Sheldon went about like a "»har>«_:y bear, with a few discolored lags hi'ld tog"thf r !>y «tnng and withes f i om the bushes. In England he would have found his way to the county asylum. Inthodesctt, if he had desired it, he iniuht have started a fresh Revolt of Islam, and eclipsed the memory of the Mahdi. In the United States, 'where there is pl»ntv of loom for eseiybody, they left hurt alone in his ca\e, and his eccentricities for many }uar& c.\cited only a passing remark. Sheldon's n ode of life was peculiar, but wholly devoid of the industrial element. In thp intervals, ef tovling the Bible he eleaied a sin ill patch of ground, and was a 1 uiilou ncr in a mild w iy. However, as he had no tenants, his conduct did not amount to the new Iy discovered eighth deadly 'in, " Lmdlonlism." Potatoes and cibbairr-s. ''the hai inless fiuits of the eaith, as Mr reok-mil has it, wete his humbh 1 faie lie set tiaps and eauirht rnbbits and birds, for he was not like St. Fiancis of As^i-;i a \ eiri tanan, and would nthei* 101-t a jiigoon than pteich a setmon to thos • tjuoer parishioners, " liuhfc fiov i>s of iintanu.ihle birds" He used to beg for pi-'ces of iron, and had erected a lough fotize in his hut. where he turned the imtal into knives The remn mt f % f I.is did ci itt as a blacksmith enabli d him t') s t 11 -lull waies to the euiHMs who\isit(il him, and w horn he si t sued commonly to ha\e ieeei\c<i in a vei y inhospitable manner. He never lav down in b< d, but ha 1 litted the butt ot a log with a nuht back, in winch hesat uptight, s-K cp.ni: in that position. Vt the ige of (i u 1 , f \ he '' wen*" coin ting" xnd sceiiii il to^Mukit vv,is timt to inatry and si t-tle Hue the in niphs of the I)tlaw.iie Valle\ diiluud to become yaw dve'.leis, an<i to s>n,ue the cool grot of Austin Sin ldon That of pietty Ainnsl! - m tin id\ll, so shaded with ft i n and n y thai tin- bee could scaieely tin. l a path to it, w,is cvitainh more ■itliai tiv . , .it Ic. ist to tho swain of Sicily. Seldom did not survive this disappointment of the affections. The heart at eighty still ietain>'d ited ancient flies, but the cold w.itns of woman's indiflerence toon extinguished them, and Austin I Sli.l- lon's blighted carter endiued but for threi >eai-> lo 'get Then he died, leaving onl\ a iiu moiy, and a collection of pel son il piop >rty tisenibling that of tin* Yonijhi iionani P>o m Mr Lear's j nius'.til eleg\ T!) ( . e.ise of Sheldon pn/ves that neithe. house, nor home, nor soap, no watt r, noi bi d. nor the love of woman, is a I soluti Iy indispensable to him who would livl thumgh ,i long, if not altogether a happy ki bnlliant, exi^teuce.

"'(iiMit'iMiicn of tin 1 riiv,' -ud an Tn^h liu-v.m, " it will l.t> for \uu to decide wiiotlit'i til" (Ii fend mt bo allowed t<> c niie ti>^ cult with mil lushing fn-.otpps wi'naci' ik of Ihp'iom-\ i"lii^ ni', nth. and di m tlui'eliuilpcksoutof ni) client's pycket w lth impuuity, '