The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-15

replied our aged friend; che thought o.
maxim sure o. Harry, but he failed that time
altho' fear me he's got him SAFE emo" Dy
| this"
"Then there was Nelly Nicholas, may be
"No. ;, / answered; "who and what was
she %
40 I" was the answer; "she was witch,
an lived not far away from the brook She
was a little, wiry-loolting woman, WIN Ierret
ewes and long bony fingers. Everybody bore
fear of her. for she had marvellous powers
wi, spirits. an sich, and could tell what was
to happen, as we'll as what happened in the
lane no matter how dark things were kent
AM she used to turn herself into a white
rabbit, and so about the lane after dark,
pryin' into mems houses, so much so that it
used to be a regular thing, when was a lad,
to ask, Have you seen the white rabbit to-
nightP
but surely, you're only joking now !' l
''Net at all, sir, replied he.
And do you really believe she assumed
such shapes f'
"Ay, ay," replied the oldest inhabitant,
San wiser heads than mine believe it like
wise" (The ''white rabbit" is commonly
talked about by the old people in the Evil
lage" to this day.)
Then we had wizard as we'll as a WITCH"
continued our informant; IAN him | remem-
Der well. His name was Kit Rhodes. He
went about with his hair hanging down in
sort o. pigtail, an was dressed in very queer
colored clothes. He was a fearsome fellow,
an If anything offended him he would swear
great OATH an forthwith some misfortune
would fall upon them; either they would be
hurt in the pit, or some OF their i'll deeds
would come to daylight, an they get punished,
so Kit Rhodes was always feared and respected
by every thief in the lane. There was Devil
Lees, too, and his imps, great big rodney
fellow, as hard as groundsel toad. He was
fearsome chap, was Lees, and his imps in
their younger days weren't much better"
"What were his imps ?'' l inquired.
"Oh, replied the old man, laughing at my
ignorance, "his sons, to be sure; an they
were queer lot altogether. remember once
they had meetin' down at Tommy Bill's to
get up spree. There was Lees and two of
his imps, and Billy Moore, and Old Huss, with
two or three others, whose names | forget for
the moment. Well, these started off all jolly
drunk to WolverhamptOn, an Devil Lees
pointed to watchman, an said Come on,
lads, let's finish him for a bit of a lark, so
they all set on him, an in a very few minutes
they laid him dead on the pavement weltering
in blood. They were found out, but nobody
proving which of 'em struck the deathblow,
they got off with short imprisonment"
"Dick Ormes was another strange chap in
He'll Lane, ," continued the "oldest inhabitant,"
who was by this time getting excited by his
narrations. "Dick had only one leg, an he
lived in cot, with his dog, pig, an COW, an
| led happy life. One night Dick found out a
| mystery. He was walking about late, an he
saw strengthening being walking about,
| an as he got close to it he found it was a
woman without head He looked at it in
horror, but ina moment it passed away. Dick
reused the people, an they used to watch an
in few nights they saw this headless woman
again, an they found out from Nelly Nichols
that it was the ghost of woman who had
been robbed and murdered by the He'll Lane
gang"
''Were the robberies so serious as that ?'' ]
asked.
Say, ay, sir, " replied the patriarch, "yon
little brook has been Redeemed with mems
blood many's the time. The robbers used to
lie by the brookside, an when travellers
passed along the road they used to spring
from their hiding-place after the manner Of
Old Catchem, an fell them at blow. When
they had robbed them, they tossed them over
the little bridge into the brook, leevin' them
to crawl away as best they could.
"But yet we had preacher, thoug h he was
a strange one, sure enow. They called him
Jack the Barber, he being hair-cutter all
the week, an preacher o. Sundays. While
he was hair-cuttin' or Shawn he had all his
thoughts on his sermons, an such like, and
he always spoke a word IN season to his Gus
toners. One day a stranger called to be
shaved, so Jack lathered his face, held back his
head, an, just as he was beginning to scrape
him VII the razor ye said to the man, My good
brother, are you prepared to die p The man
looked hard at Jack, then at the razor, an
bein' half terrified, he rushed, all lathered as
he was, out of the shop, and ran up the lane,
shoutin' at the top of his voice, Murder
murderl Jack followed at his heels, but
could not catch him, an never saw his new
customer again. Once as l heard JacE
preachin' in the lane, he told us as how Goo
made the white men, and Satan the black, an
when Satan's work was finished, an he saw il
was so much worse than t'other, he grew
savage an struck the black Adam with hi
fist hattening his nose an thickening his lips
an so the poor niger has remained ever sim
An once, when the pudders were gettin' low
wages, he preached agin' the iron-maisters
takin' up his text like the verse, He shal
rule them with a rod o. iron.' One day Jacl
told the folk he had faith enow to walk on thu
water, and he went down to the He'll Lane
Canal, which had just bin cut, an stepped il
under the bridge, an bein' no swimmer, an
the water deep, poor Jack got drowned.
''There used to be notion among the col
liers of those times that it was i'll luck to worl
on New Years Day; but when the ShrOpshir
colliers began to settle in the lane, about fftl
years sim, they laughed at the He'll Lane foil
for havin' such a notion, an for two New
Years Days they would work. On the first
Shropshire girl fell down the shaft, an wa
knocked all to bits; an on the second ther
was fire i the pit, and all but two or thre
got burnt So the Shropshire folk believed