Osage Valley banner. (Tuscumbia, Miller County, Mo.) 1879-1881, 1880-01-08
ATALE or AwlrCH.
A sistsPs Curso aud the Desoiat,on at a
Certa a Locality.
TPmiadelultia Ti,ncs

age width Is perhaps adozen Yards. while |
It's waters are very dark and extremely |
sulphurous. In il fish cannot live. while |
a frog or snake thrown into The stream
instantly turns over and honts away,
dead. IL rises somewhere near Halle
ton, and about six miles from lis source
enters deep mountain gap, which il
follows 10 its fIrihest extremity and soon
after mngles its black current with the
limpid waters Of the Nescopeck creek,
which little further on Joins the wide
snsqnehanna Tile mountain gap tray
ersed BY this stream is ouesof the most
dismal places 10 be found in the conn
try. Only u narrow stretch of sky is Wis
ible from below, and this isalmost always
filed with haze, which the sunbcains
scarcely ever penetrate. When the sky
happens to be clear it j. not sunrise in
the gap till ten o'clock, while at two the
sun goes down. Immense gray boulders
abound. The ground is covered with
ashes and trunks Of fallen pines charred
and blackened by mountain fires, which
yearly sweep over the place, and lie decay
ing sometimes one across the other. Euor-
nous snakes crawl over the rocks or
bathe in the Shiny pools The only trees
arc stunted pines which grow out from
between the rocks.
In addition to the gloom and desola-
ton infesting the place. il has, according
to the people thercabOut, been sadly
troubled with witches. One OF the stories
handed down from generation long in
their graves runs thus Much less than a
hundred years ago Black Greek was a
! beautiful, transparent stream. The skies
above ii were clear AZ other skies. Green
moss thickly covered tho ground and
rocks, and birds sang among the branches
| of the trees. The gap about this time
was the fayorito resort Of hunters. and
one individual, owning large tract of
mountain land, including the gap, had
erected a cabin in il for the accommoda-
ton of himself and friends during the
hunting season. 1t happened one day
that the owner Of the cabin got into a
quarrel with stranger over Il wounded
deer, each claiming that he had fired the
lucky shot. During the quarrel the
| stranger struck blow and received one
| in return that leYeled him to the earth
| Being seriously hurt he was carried into
the cabin and word sent 10 his friends,
who resided at some distance In short
| time his sister arrived a black-eyed girl
| with long rayenhair ON the slIne day
| he died, and the girl cursed the young
man who had dealt him the fatal blow in
a manner that made terrible impression
on all present
In a short time the waters of the
creek became black and sulphurous, the
| sky grew dim and haw. while the gap
became the abode of serpents and n
scene ofdesolatiou. The black-eyed girl
| was afterward freqently tlyseen-sometimes
walking through the gap at midnight,
enveloped in large black cloak at 9TH
or times in the midst Of the tempest, on
| the top of the loftiest tree, swaylng to
and fro, with herlong. black hair stream
ing in the wind So the good people Of
the long ago came to Iegard the place as
bswitched by the vindictiye sister, and
no one cared 10 be found in the dismal
place at night. But an important road,
connecting the Tomhickcn and Nesco-
peck Valleys led right through the be-
witched gap, and il was consequently not
always possible TO avoid it. The road was
always beaten hard and in the best OF
order. Yet farmers, in passing over 1t on
their return from market. with four horses
attached to an empty wagon, would often
como suddenly 10 standstill. Then the
farmer would crack his whip. the horses
would throw themselves into the har-
ness and scratch the ground for foot
hold, but the wagon would stand as
though riveted 10 the earth beneath an
invisible weight The farmer would
know that "the witches were riding his
wagon" and simply wait till they got off,
when the team would travel on us easily
"a before.
Abont ten years ago there was a mining
company Esgan operations four miles up
the gap, but there was no success pre-
dicted for il in such a place, And little
later Simon kaee ran his new railroad
right through the gap. About this time
Henry Croll, who owned valuable farm
out in the Nescopeck Valley, sold his
property for q large sum, and fearing
neither Simon KAse nor the witches, de-
oided To build large hotel right IN the
mountain gap. His blends eNpOstulatcd
with him, reminding MIN tnat ne could
not succeed there. lie went to work
however, and in short time had the
new hotel under roof The new coal
mines attracted great deal Of travel, and
before long CrOll was doing iiourishing
business He had tan sons ana he built
house for each of them near his own.
Other relatives followed, so that the place
soon came 10 be Troltown" Al the end
of two wears the town contained fifty
ioustsl anu na'l p'9iue', tiic loW !, H9oIoi
limekiin, pOstoiiice and school house
Soon after this Croll began to show some
strange eccentricities. He became very
quarrelsome, and, without any apparent
reason, would forbid his best customers
the house. large part of the popula-
ton had found employment at the neigh
boring coal mines, which, owing 10 some
cause, no longer afforded constant work.
Cron and his village began to go down
together. The unfortunate landlord then
advarfised his DropertV for sale but when