The interest which
this poor creature excited, both here and at Niagara, was astonishing.
His very exit (than which nothing could be more natural) was considered
somewhat mysterious, as his body was not found; and some time subsequent
to the event, a fellow of a waggish disposition happening to be
accidentally in that part of the country, and bearing, it is said, a
singular resemblance to Patch, was stopped by a Rochester-man on the
road, and questioned on the subject. The stranger immediately saw a fair
opening for fun, and, _after some hesitation, reluctantly confessed_
that he was actually _Sam himself_; but that, for particular
reasons, his being alive must be kept a profound secret, until a day he
named, when he would make a public appearance in Rochester, and that he
trusted to the fidelity of the person who had discovered him not to
mention the circumstance, meantime, to any living being. _As a matter
of course_, it was speedily confided, in like manner, to the whole
population; and on the appointed day, crowds assembled to laugh at the
credulity of one another. A poor tradesman of the town had taken
wilfully the same fatal leap, only on the day preceding my visit.
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