Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1904 — Wild Man Not So Wild. [ARTICLE]

Wild Man Not So Wild.

Benjamin Brannon, the alleged wild man from the wild woods east of Fair Oaks, had his hearing Tuesday afternoon, before Squire Irwin and a jury. The prosecution sought to have him declared of unsound mind The evidence to support this charge, aside from his wild and woolly way of living, was mainly that he had charged several reputab e people with stealing some of his property, such as a knife in one case, and a sheep in another, and with making threats against them. In the case of the sheep suspect he was especially gory in his talk Threatening to “cut his heart out and show it to him.” For the defense it was in evidence that in strength of mind he averaged up as well or better than a lot of smart ellicks who had been tormenting him and making him believe that the men spoken of had stolen his property James Zea, a reputable citizen, had known him a long time and considered him sane. So also Mr. Irwin, a merchant, who often had business transactions with bim. Uncle Joe Burns, had worked with him intimately in a sort of partnership, where minds and souls freely communed together. Had slept with him in the same barn and under the same b anket, and were driven out by the same fleas, which experienced the same trouble in tunnelling through the epidermis to the real man beneath, in each case, and Uncle Joe considered him sane.

Brannon told his own history also in a sufficiently coherent though also diverting way. He admitted he had been before the courts before having been arrested at New Albany for some unintentional violation of the law and fined. He also related why he carried his revolver with him, thereby bringing in the incident of the Frenchman. The latter was associated with him as his partner in the wood-chopping business, sharing his bed and board with him. Brannon who, as previously stated, being the chopper who chopped four cords in three months, said the Frenchy didn’t keep up his end in the work, but wanted an even share in the pay. So Brannon drove him out, and soon after missed his revolver, from its place under his bed, where it was not much harder than the sticks and clods it harbored with. He followed the Frenchman’s fleeting footsteps through the snow, and the latter, being to lee ward, discovered his erstwhile tent-mate was on bis trail, and therefore he circled around and got back to the tent be fore Brannon did, and put the revolver back in its former place. And for fear that the Frenchman would return sometime and again swipe the weapon, Brannon henceforth carried it on his person. Brannon also explained the obvious unfamiliarity of his face and hands with soap and water f r many moons paat, by staling that his lard can stove smoked so badly that he might wash every hal f hour, and still be just as black and grimy. The jury heard the evidence and the arguments and very quickly agreed that the man was of sound mind, and thereupon he was released by the court.