Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1859 — A Female Robinson Crusoe. [ARTICLE]

A Female Robinson Crusoe.

The Cleveland Herald republishes a letter •Tom Racine, Wisconsin, to the Chicago Herald giving an account ot a “female It d>inson Crusoe,” in the person of a Cleveland lady, a Miss Richardson, who is represented as having been shipwrecked in May 185f>, on a desolate island near the N.-rth-wes coast of Lake Superior, and having lived alone there ever since. The story is either entirely false, or else has been spoiled in the w riting o .t, lor it is narrated in such a silly manner as to show improbability in almost evp-y paragraph. Miss Richardson is represented as being twenty-three years old, and, at the time of the shipwreck, as going out to Green B iv in the bark Mary, Capt. Edwards, to marry a Mr. Daniel Ashnell. V* hen the bark struck the rocky shore of the ’eland the captain and crew immediately leaped overboard and were all drowned except the mate, and he was killed immediately after by the falling of a spar. This fright- ■ ened Miss Richardson so that she put on i her life-preserver; took her two trunks, “ • lot of provisions, blankets, buffalo robes, : tools, and other things convenient for setting | up a Robinson Crusoe lile,” and swam ash re with them—a distance ot half a mib'—amid rough breakers,and • broken and j igged rocks." A ; ter narrating to the letter writer how she husbanded her provisions, built a low hut for shelter, and fashioned a dress out of buifalo robes, she goes on to say; I he forest supplied me with wood as long as the weather continued pleas nt, I got uiong well. During the early p.rt. of the first winter I suffered terribly; hut by means of constant exercise, regularity in mv diet, and a steady hope ot release, I m in tged to live -through it. In the same mm tier I passed three < ntiie years. 1 lave kt pt a journal of n.y life during this unhappy period. and this indeed w: s the only literary pursuit in which 1 had the opportunity ot indulging. My books-—even my Bible—were , lelt upon the wreck. During these .three j years, I saw but seven ve-sels. T ley all passed by, and either did not see n.y signals, ; or would not regard them. My anguish on tncae occasions wag indescribable. The j thoughts of home, and of the Iriends who } were now no doubt mounuing lor me as one i among the dead, would rush upon me with I overpowering lorce, and my misery won d seem too heavy for me to bear. I wander ! now that my reason sustained itself. I At length—l know not on what day, hut, j according to my calculation, on the goth of February, my Island was visited by a band or Menominee Indians, six in number. They had crossed on the ice from Me Brit ish shore, and were as much surprised at seeing me as I Was delighted to look again upon a human lace. We could not understand each other, hut they made signs for me to go with them. I was in their power, but 1 was w illing to go, and I conceived by this means I might, finally obtain release and be restored to inv triends. They returned with me to the British shore, which I fancied was not more than twenty miles from my Island, and then by short and easy stages, they conducted me to a French trading pas', where for lhe first I time I found myself in the company o' civil- j ized men. I was received with the greatest kindness, and soon forwarded to Fort Will- 1 isms, the commander of which post enter- ! tained me hospitably till the lake opened, j when he sent me across to Marquette, Iroin which point Capt. Marvin h s conducted me hither. At the Soult I learned that Mr.J Ashnell had returned to Cleveland, and I am I now on my way thither. The geography of the wh le narrative is | absurd, and it is evidently a desperate effort on the part of the Chicago Her .Id, Democratic paper, in the first!year <>f its existence, to gain some kind ol notoriety.

OC?~The Bedford Independent reports a shooting affair near Bloomington, on Tuesday evening, between a fdanv generaly nicknamed. “Fool Jacobs,and a young mail named Phi Ili ps,_ ill which the latter was dangerously, if not fatally wounded. J.ic >bs appears to be a notoriously hard case, having been frequently arrested on suspicion oi a connection with the horse thieves ai d counterfeiters that used to in est that r* - gion. He has a brother in the Penitentiary. Misconception. —As a canal-boat was passing under a bridge, the captain gave the usual warning, “Look out!” when a little Frenchman, who was in the cabin, o eyed the order by popping his head out of the w mdow, which received a severe thump by coming in contact with a pillar of the bridge. He drew it bkek in a great pet and exclaimed, “Dese Americans say look out when dey means look in by gar!” Sharp Shooting. —ln Richim nd, last week, Captain Travis, said to he the greatest pistol shot in the world, snot at a percussion cap box, ot the diameter of a half dollar, held between the thumb an I finger of his servant., at the distance of lourteen paces, and sent a bullet through the center of it. He also fired at a hilt unne placed be ween his own feet, with only the width of the com seperating them. The coin was struck in the center, without detriment o Captain T.’s boots. Qi7“The Snelbyviile Banner s tys that the body of an inlant was found buried in a field near that place, on last Friday, and an inquisition revealed the tact that it was the child of a girl name Murphy,only seventeen years old, tbat it had been born a.ive, alid came to its death by violence from its motner. A warrant is out. tor her arrest. (tv’Tiie colored people of Chicago, at a forma! in*et:ng, on Monday evening, which w is very numerously attended, adopted resolutions declaring it. to be the imperative dutv ot every free colored man in the United Stati s, to emigrate to Hayti, and appoint d a committee to open a correspond ice on the subject with that Republic. OO” hCi Mb'- :Ml pod 'sirioii named J mes Adams, who had. ic>\ weeks bemre, perlormed the great feat of wsi Iking seven uiflen in titty-five minutes, undertook on 'l'm silay evening to walk lour m'les in ball an hour, ut a gymnasium in New York. lie failed hy one minute and a hall. t.i A new marvel has been i Hoovered ai N rtli Fairfield, Ohio, in the shape of u living coli. or centaur, having the body ol a horse, hut a he .d resembling that of a human being.