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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 13, 1903)
Nebraska Guardsmen in Camp Scenes at Camp Pershing Whilo First Regiment Was There t. i' 7 DRESS PARADE AN EVENING VIEW OF THE REGIMENT. .... ' . ....... 1 THURSTON RIFLES' EXHIBITION DRILL f - 1 " CROWD LISTENING TO CHAPLAIN FIFER ON BUND AT. AMBULANCE IN USE DURING FIELD MANEUVERS. ... j ...,.--w , COMPANY A, FIRST INFANTRT, N. N. O, VisrroRS1 day at the camp. The Hermits of Laurel Ridge W (Copyright, 1903, by T. C. McClura ) 1IENKVER an unkempt, weather beaten ' man puts In an appear ance In the streets of New Flor ence, Pa., a little mountain and rullroad town ten miles west of Johnstown, the loafers on the toops of the general merchandise store and at the depot unanimously express themselves: ' "Another one of them there hermits of Laurel Ridge." This obsorvance flnlslieil, Ihey renew their task of waiting for the next meal, while the man of tlu mountains goes abjut trailing off his huckleberries or bags of nuts to the storekeepers and then quietly links out along the main street of the vil lage In the direction of his rocky faslneas. For a hermit Is no novelty to the people of New Florence, or to any of the Inhab itants of the mountain-encircled valley of the Ltgonler, which has the Chestnut and Laurel ridges of the Aileghenlcs fur lta boundaries. Tills valley, except In the extreme south, rn and northern ends, is free of railroads and all other marks of modern hustle and . commerce. The strelcii of land between the two steel evidence? of modernity Is aa primitive and inaccessible as It was fifty years ago, for the mountuiu roads are not a whit better now than they were then. It Is a stretch of country In which the Simple life can be lived with ease. Equally well any one, tired of the clutter of the world beyond the mountains, can Immure himself from It all with ease. Many have don It, many are still doing it, and that U 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 saw . mills, excite no Interest among the Inhab itants of New Florence, to which town the hermits wend their way over mountain troll and road whenever they want to market the wild product of the thousands of unoecupled and uncleared acres about them. Those solitary men of the mountains have come from everywhere. Somehow, In Borne mysterious way, men who want to be alone, for some cause or another, hear f Laurel Ridge and the Ufonler valley. a result some have Journeyed hundreds and other thousand of mile to hid of re- themselves on the mountain slopes and to look out upon the valley below from small clearings In front of their hovels. Thomas Patterson Is one of these men who traveled far to each Laurel Ritfge. It has been many years now since Patter son went Into the mountains. In the bright est days of A. T. Stewart's commercial supremacy, Patterson came Into the region and brought with him his wife and family. They arrived In New Florence a retlned, 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. "You cannot live in comfort there," the residents of the town told him. "I don't want comfort," he responded. "You will bo exposed to all sort-i weather and danger," they went on. "So much (h better," ho answered. "And you will be fur from neighbors." "I want to le left alone," was the sponse. So Tatterson went Into the mountains and took Mb wife and child with him. He Is still there he and his wife and their half dozen children living In a two-room cabin that is all but ready to tumble down, and through whose leaf-stuffed sides the win ter's storms blow with almost unrestrained energy. It Is a miserable existence that they lead this man who was onco tho head of A. T. Stewart's silk department, and his wife who has hinted In her Infrequent com munication periods that If her relative knew whero sie was a titled man would come over from England to make his pence with her. But neither tho husband nor the wife havo even hinted why they became hermits, nor do they wunt auy of their old time associates to find thorn out. All they nuk la to be let alone. They are content with their life of loneliness, pcrcariously sustained through their knowledge of berry patches In the mountains and ckod out by charity pittances received from the county authorities. But the man who traveled farthest to be come a hermit of Laurel Ridge was a l'.us slan. One day some three or four year ago a man with a stamp of the foreigner stepped off a westbound train at New Florence and gave hi name aa Kostka V. Kostka. "I am from Russia." h said. "I hav heard that quiet can be secured bar. I have come with my family to live here." Having Introduced himself, he set about looking for a place in which to live. He found It 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 se clusion close about him. In fact, he wanted to be so much alone that he had outlooks to warn him when strangers approached, 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 plenti fully, especially In the saloon, where he would throw down a $5 bill In payment for a drink of whisky and astonish the natives nlmost Into spasms by refusing to accept change. About a year after his purchase of Riley's Hill, Kostka appeared In town w'th a woman who was " known as the French governess of his children; and together they boarded a train that was bound for Pittsburg. That was tho last that New Florence saw of V. Kostka. But it 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 au thorities In St. Petersburg that the cashier who had robbed one cf that city' big bank some years, before could be found living in ' a certain town In Canada with the former governess of his children. So the Russian bear reached out for V. Kostka and gTabbed him, and now he is working in the mines of Siberia; and New Florence, and Its saloonkeeper especially, etill mourns the loss of tho most ambi tious of all the hundreds of hermits of Lau rel Rldgo. Through the workings of Justice New Florence found out why Kostka became a hermit, but It Is seldom that such Intelli gence Is obtained about the other hermits. Only guesses can be made, some wild and others based on words let fall by tho her mits themselves In unguarded moments. It was In this latter way that the story of Whistler originated. For years Whistler was known as "The Wl Ite-Halred Man of the Mountains." He got this name by reason of his long hair and hi beard, which reached to hi 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 clear ing that he was a distant relative of James) McNeil Whistler, the artist, but when asked why he had burled himself in such an out-of-the-way pluce, he would grow non-communicative and show that he would be pleaaed to have his visitor depart. Only once did he fail to preserve taci turnity on this point. That was when twa girls from a farm house in the valley un expectedly found themselve In Whistler clearing when they were berry hunting. Tho old man received them politely, and Ending that they had lost their path, took them to it again. As he bade them good by. he looked into the younger girl's fresh faco und said: "I once knew a girl like you." That wus alL Then he turned towards his cabin and was soon lost to view In the forest. But It waa enought to start a s'ory about "The Whlte-Halred Man of the Mountains." and people to this day say that he fled to his lonely home because long years ago the girl that he was to have married died before the wedding day came around. Tho old man was never married, but from tho time the story originated until they burled him several years ago, no one could get tho great artist's distant relative to verify or deny the Btory that New Florence vows mado him a life-long hermit. These are three of the hermits of Laurel Ridge. Then there is "Rattlesnake Jim" . no one knows any other name for him whs conies into town every few months with batch of live snakes, which he sells; "Smil ing Sam," of Shar non'a Run, whoss broad and never clouded smile wins him a livelihood from farmers wives' kitchens; and many others who can be run across In a day's tramp throe gh the mountains. On such a tramp many a deserted cabin will also be found, set on the edge of what was once a clearing, and where the remains of old flower beds can be seen In a few pinks growing in a weed-choked mound. These are the mute reminders of other hermits who have passed Into the Great Be yond with the secret of the causes ot their hermitage safe from tho curious ; tnquialuvs folk of the valley.