Folklore Pamphlets, 1921-1945

              tin pans and cans and an earthenware water jug. When anyone came to see him he just closed his door. He wanted no company. When "Old Bottles" was found dead in his shack one morning, the coroner turned his body over to the local medical college.
HORICON MARSH HERMITS-In a ramshackle log cabin on the edge of the big Horicon Marsh near Mayville lived two brother her¬ mits, Herman Stroede, 77 years of age, and Julius, aged 74. After their parents died these men lived on a small piece of land once a part of their father's farm. The farmer owner permitted them to live here. These men were quaint characters, everyone knew them. They were collectors of junk, going to the village together and bringing their spoil home in a child's wagon. Nothing escaped their hunting. Around their cabin, rotting in the rain and sun, were piled hundreds of old shoes, pails, umbrellas, old clothes, tools, old papers and tin cans and pans. None of this junk was ever sold. The brothers had a passion for attending fairs and had walked to many of them. Herman hiked to the Chicago (1893) and St. Louis (1904) world's fairs. Both men attended picnics and band concerts at Mayville. On such occasions they wore their world's fair medals. Herman did most of the work about the place while Julius "brought things home."
"BAGLEY JOHN"—A mysterious man, spoken of by this name, some years ago, lived the life of a hermit in the Mississippi River bottom¬ lands, near Bagley, in Grant County. There he had built among the tall weeds and brush a rude shack of boards and brush. He was a real "Mystery Man." He would never talk to anyone. He came to town now and then with a basket or bag to buy groceries. He made his wants known by signs or by presenting a written slip of paper to the storekeeper. For his purchases he often paid with a gold coin. Thinking that he might possess more money of this kind some town roughs tried to trail him but he always gave them the slip. He was supposed to have a gun in his shack and no one cared to approach it. He was a powerful man. He was thought to be in hiding for some law-breaking   offense   in   a  down-river   state.
"BLACK RIVER"—This recluse lived in a shelter built of stray boards, sticks and stumps in the large sandy, once pine woods region, between the Lake Michigan shore and the Black River, south of She-