The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1875-12-15
A STRANGE TALE.
A aoa Of n es.,....
ING the Forests like a wild
Ase@st-.- Hts E'ate.--9ItstnIxen
fOra Deer nnd Killed by
q Hnnter.

= Hnnter.
New York Herald n7st
Moscow, Pa. Oct. %. 1875
Among the scattered families inhah-
ting the wild region skirting the Poceoo
range OF Mount sins, In the northern mart
OF Monroe county, this StSte..is thar Of
German named Gotleib Scheibel. He
came into the section some Eve wears AGO
and settled near. the border Of InzsTna
and Monroe counties, in the midst of a
wilderness almost primitive, and com
mencsd, with the energy aud industry
characteristic Of his race, the liberal hew-
ing OF farm out of the wild tract he had
purchased. His family consisted of him.
self, his wife, three rugged sons and
fourth boy, Of a finer cast of features
than the rest and with very little resem-
olance to the family. This child was
about four years old when the family
settled in this region, and, being of a
weak mind. was allowed every freedom
that pertained to the isolated life the
family led. The boy developeda strange
passion for the woods and spent most Of
his time roaming about on the mountains
gathering berries and nuts. During the
past two years his excursions became
more extended rs the forests were clear
ed away, in the Immediate vicinity of his
home, by Sheibel and other German
families who moved in the vicinity sub.
sequent to the formers occupancy. The
boy was called Johnny, and since he be-
gan to extend his visits deeper into the
wilderness, would, sometimes, he absent
days at a time, sustaining himself by
eating nuts, berries and roots, and sleep
ing in caverns and hollow logs, or in the
open air in warm weather He often on
his return home related wild stories.
Once he reached home with his flesh
lacerated and his body almost denuded
of clothing, bearing young catamount
which he had attempted to capture, and
finally killed with club after terrible
struggle. It was useless for his friends
to attempt to keep him at home, and so
for Years he roamed the forests with only
the many wild animals that still haunt
this wilderness for his companions, the
lamp of reason burning too dimly to
show him the danger of the life he was
leading.
1t was while away on one of these sol
itary visits to the woods he loved so well
that he was made an actor in the
SHOCKING TRAGEDY,
following which the history of the waif
became known. On Sunday morning
last he took a small basket and started
off into the forest. He said he was go
ing to bring in some beech nuts for a pet
squirrel which he had captured when it
was young, in its nest, and which he
sometimes took with him. into the woods.
He had not returned Monday noon,
bat the fact created no apprehension in
the minds of his relatives, who were busy
husking corn in field some distance from
the house on that day. About one
o'clock in the afternoon, man in a
hunters garbs appeared in the field and
startled the family with the announce
ment that little Johnny was dead, the
hunter himself having shot him in mis-
take for deer. The body, he said, was
at the house, he having carried it from
the spot where the shooting occurred,
about three miles away, in the mountain.
Scheibel and his wife accompanied the
hunter, who gave his name as James
Phillips, to the house and there, lying
on the floor, riddled with buck-shot and
covered with blood, was the dead body
of the poor haIf-witted boy. The grief
of the honest German and his wife was
not demonstrative, but touching in the
extreme When the first burst was
over, Phillips gave the following
DETAILS OF THE SHOOTING.
he, with two others, were camped on
the south branch of Bright's Brook,
a few miles north of the German clear
ing. aud early on Monday morning they
started out to hunt deer. Phillips was
driving ridge with the hounds and
started deer, which made off in the di-
rection of the great swamp which borders
on the counties Of Luzerne, Monroe and
Carbon, and is known as the Shades of
Death. The hounds followed it, and he
FASTENED to get a runaway" in a. ridge
a mile or so away, where he thought the
deer would eventually be chased by the
dogs. He reached the point and had
been there bat a few minutes when he
heard the cry of hounds some distance
away, but evidently coming nearer and
in his direction. Almost at the same
moment he discovered peculiar agita-
ton in some laurels about 100 yards
away to ms 1AAkCA
spot moment he came to the conclusion
that the motion of the bushes was caused
by a deer, and without a moments fur
Their thought he fred his buck-shot barrel
into the clump. The movement ceased,
and Phillips walked to the spot and pulled
aside the bushes. What was his horror
to see. stretched upon the ground, IN an
open space among the bushes, the body
Of boy, with blood pouring from his
side. into which several buck-shot had
entered, killing him instantly. A bas,
ket nearly filed with beech nuts, stood
near, and the boys hands were full of
wintergreen berries, which he was pick
inc when the fatal shot was fired,
phillips had heard from local hunters OF
the eccentric Johnny sheibel, and he
had no doubt that the boy he had killed
was the poor haIf-witted child. Knowing
that the German clearing was somewhere
in that locality, he took the body in his
arms and started to find it. As luck
would have it he reached it without dltti-
Guilty.
STORY OF SHAME.
AT an investigation held on Tuesday
hv the Justice of the Peace, to whom
-, ~. 81 oy,d osknd for an exam