tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13196976.post-8818638385490951632007-03-27T22:13:00.001-04:002008-04-15T23:37:27.054-04:002008-04-15T23:37:27.054-04:00I have a special fondness for stories of hermits and other lonely souls. <span style="font-style:italic;">The Journal News</span> has an interesting piece about The Leather Man—a mysterious fellow clad in leather who walked a regular 365-mile circuit through Connecticut and New York for decades until his death in 1889.<blockquote><img src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_GlGAz_oOsBA/RgnSwDXskaI/AAAAAAAAAgo/R_JZuWlyP70/s400/leatherman.jpg" id="border" align="right">His journey started sometime before the Civil War and his timing rarely varied, allowing locals to set their calendars by his arrival.</blockquote><blockquote>Except for some grunts and other unintelligible sounds, according to newspaper accounts, his trekking was done in silence. Legend holds that a Connecticut man once spoke to him in French, which seemed to mark the extent of any conversation.</blockquote>His headstone reads "Jules Bourglay," but that name came from a 1884 newspaper article later retracted.<blockquote>"I think he was a troubled man for whatever reason," said Steve Grant, a Hartford Courant reporter who spent a month in 1993 walking the Leather Man's route. "I think that has to be a given."<br /><br />"But, at the same time, he clearly was a harmless person. People recognized that. When you come right down to it, in the end, we're not sure who he is." [<a href="http://www.nyjournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070327/NEWS01/703270379" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Link</a>]</blockquote>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01386406270744275223noreply@blogger.com