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Show AN OLD HERMIT DEAD. MV.NQ FOR MOltE THAN FOIiTY YKAKS IX THE WILDERNESS. Port Jervi3, April 2. On Monday and Tuesday a fearful slurm of enow and wind prevailed throughout the Delaware valley. Drills many feet deep formed in the Pike county mountains, and the weather waa bitter cold. On Friday persons living in the northern part of Lehman township found the cabins of a number of hoop pole cullers nearly buried with mow, and the inmatei : almost dead with hunger and cold. In a ten-loot drift, near the top of one : of tha mountains, they found the dead body of Austin Sheldon, better known as the "Hermit of Lehman." I J He had lived over forty years in a i cave in tha rock-, near the entrance of which hid body was found. Sheldon waa nearly 72 yeans old. He was discovered in his cav thirty years ago by hunters. He said he had been living there ten years, and had not seen any human being in that time. Hia cave was nine miles from Dingmau's village. Nothing was knowu of the hermit's history i until u year ago. Then some mentien of him waa made in a New York newspaper of hiB living as a hermit. Tho paragraph waa seen by par ties in Suniv Creek. Conn., frum which place a man uauied Austin Sheldon had disappeared lorty-tour years before. A brother and a sister of the missing man, botti wealthy, started to look tha hermit up. Tbey reachud hia cave one day about dusk. The hermit was their brother, but he could not be induced to leave hiBcave, even with the oiler of $25,000, and a luxurious home as long aa he lived. It was learned from the brother and Biater ot the hermit that he had lost hiB wife after a brief married lite. He disappeared the day on which Bhe was buried, and not a word had been heard from him until the item in the newspaper whb Been. His friends thought, he bad goue lo sea and died. Before he took up hia abode iu thu Pike county cave, Sbeldon says he roamed for rive years through the woods of Connecticut, Vermont, and New York, shunning civilization, At J last he found a cave in which he concluded con-cluded to live the rest ol his life. Ho did not know its locality at the time, but iound afterward that it was among the Mooaic mountains, i n Wayne county, Pa. The ureal forest that Hurrouudcd hia cave toon attracted at-tracted the attention of the lumbermen, lumber-men, and he fled deeper into the wilderness. After three months of wandering he found the cava in the wild region where he died. For over forty years he lived iu this hole in the rocks. Originally not more than eiht feet Equare, accumulation of the rubbish ol forty years reduced its I proportion so that there waa barely room to turn about iu it. Sheldon Ilivbd on game, fish, roots, and berries. At the time of hia doath bin form was much bent. The clothing that hung in rags and tatters from hia persou had been donued twenty-two yoars ago, and never taken off. It was held together by hickory withes. He never washed. A thick gray beard that hung almost to hia waist, and s hair of theBauie color hanging ovei bis shoulders, was matted witl burrs and twigs, and had no been touched with comb or brush for forty-five years. Ho never wen lar awav from his cave. A long stai and an ancient- muie tne muoi hanging from his belt -were his constant con-stant companions. It was his boaat tla'. he had read his biblo through twice a year ever since he had been in the wildtrnesB. He held daily communion with God, he Baid, and talked with the prophets of old. Sjveral times his cave had been surrounded sur-rounded with forest firea, and almost every avenue of escape cut off, but he calmly remained in his retreat reading read-ing his Bible, until removed by woodsmen woods-men thotighliul of his safely. Nearly every winter for years he ha1 been rescued from freezing nnd starving. He never made any effort to save himself, saying he was in the hands ofGud. The cave in which he lived wad permeated with bo horrid a stench that visitors could not remain in it, and the hermit himself wag covered with filth and vermin. Sheldon was an educated man. His family is among Iho leading ones of Connecticut. |