Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1877 — An Eccentrie Wanderer. [ARTICLE]

An Eccentrie Wanderer.

For fifteen or twenty years an oddlooking genius, dressed from head to foot in leather, has made irregular jour-, neys frdni this neighborhood to some place or places in the northern part of the county. Nobody knows who he is,where he comes from, where he goes, what his nationality is, or what is his age . and name. He generally travels by unfrequented roads, and. .whenever spoken ,to al ways pretends that he does not Understand lhe language. We say. pretends, because only a few davs ago he met a young lady in a sleigh In Truinbulj and asked her in very good English her destination and what were the contents of the sleigh. The suit he wears is always the same, and apparently is mgde pr boot legs ripped open ana coarsely sewed together. His boots are a wonderful accumulation of leather, one patch being fastened upon the other till they are simply huge, unwieldly masses. His hat looks like a boot leg cut oft' and a top sewed in one end, and a piece to serve for a frontpiece on the other. Everybody along tite roads knows him, and the same title, “ The Leather Man,” is always given him. He gets his food by begging, and always appears to have a first class appetite. Taken altogether, he is a very singular combination, aha very many people would like to learn more of him He sometimes comes along at intervals of a couple of weeks, and then again will be absent for weeks ana occasionally months. Bridgeport (Conn.) Standard.