The Red Cloud chief., 1880-04-15
AstsAses tksAn.sroEY.

Thersb A insxplhsbls sosS-6AicA
| believe hAs RIVER bssn publisbcd-
Erb6nt the tradifions u the fertile hill
,uuftfy d WestsFn Pennsylvania, the
most unlikely quarter in the world to
,srye ~ . breeding-place Of mystery.
L was settled almost wholly BY well-to-
10 farmers from TIE North u Ireland,
economical, hssd-wurking fplk-9od-
too, aater tbe e{act manner
described BY John Knox, and having
title patience with any other manner.
Not . likely people, assuredly, 70 give
,redencc 10 any hnciful supcrstitions.
md still less to originals them. This
tory indeed, has . Bold, matter-of-fact
.hsrscer IN every detail which quiss
cts il apart from relations Of the super
/ have never heard IL ex.
and Il h the best authenticsted
mystery in my knowledge.
Here IL II In brief: Among the Scotch
Irish settlers In WashinktCs County In
1919 was . family named Rymirv, Who
occupied . comfortable farm and house.
Rschel, the daughter. wss Engaged 10 .
young farmer Of The neighbQrhoOd. On
Saturday evening IA July, having
finished keS weeks work, she dressed
herself tidily and started 70 visit her
married sister, who lived on . farm
about I'VE miles distant, intending TO
return Monday morning. She tied mp
her Sunday gown and hat In . check
cred handkerchief, and carried her
shoes and stockings in the other hand,
meaning 10 walk In her bare feet and TO
put them on when she ann In sight Of
her destination, after the canny Scotch
She left home about 7 O'Clock
in order b have the cool evening
for her walk. The road to the farm was
and unfrequented. The girl did
not return home OF Monday, but no
alarm was felt, as the family thought
her sister would probably wish to detain
her for q few days; and It was not until
the latter part Of the week that it was
found that she had never been ut her
The country Vas secured. but
in vain the alarm spread, and exciteds
degree Of terror In the ~peacesble, do
community, which would seem
inexplicable 70 city people, to whom the
newspaper has brought q budget OF
crime every morning since their child
hood. To children raised in those lone
" hamlets and hill farms murder was q
far-Off, unreal horror; usually all that
they knew Of it wa from the dOings OF
Cain and Jael, set off with hideous
wood-cuts in the family Bible.
The girl had left home on Saturday
at eve O'Clock. That night long be-
fore ten O'Clock Farmers 20 TO bed with
the chickens), q woman living in Green
County, about forty miles from the Ply
mire farm, awoke her husband in great
terror, declaring that she had just seen
q murder done, and went on to describe
a place she had never seen before-a
hill country with q wagon-road running
through it, and q girl with q bundle tied
in a checkered handkerchief, her shoes
and white stockings in the other hand,
walking briskly down the grassy side Of
the road. She was met by q young man
the woman judged from their manner
the meeting was by appointment; they
sat down On q log and talked for some
time.
The man at last rose, stepped behind
her and drawing out q Ratchet struck
her twice on the head. She fell back.
ward to the wet, rotten leaves dead.
Presently the nan was joined by anOth-
er, also young, who asked: "Is il
doneP" He NODDED, and together they
lifted the body and carried It away out
Of her sight. After a while they came
back, found the bundle of Sunday finery
and the shoes and stockings, all Of which
were stained with blood. There was a
ruined old mill near the road; they
went into it, lifted a loose board in the
flooring, put the bundle, shoes, etc.,
with the Ratchet, underneath, and re-
placed the board. Then they separated
and went through the woods in differ
ent directions. The farmers wife told
her dream to her husband that night
the next day Sunday, going to a little
country church she remained during
the intermission between the morning
and Afternoon services. The neighbors
who had come from . circuit of twenty
miles to church, gathered, according to
their homely habit, in the churchyard
to eat their lunch and exchange the
news. Our dreamer told her story
again and again, for she wa impressed
by it as II it had been reality. After the
afternoon service the congregation sep.
arated, going to their wfdely-scattered
homes. There were thus many wit
nesses to certify to the fact that the
woman had told the dream the morning
after the murder was committed at q
distance of forty miles, when it was sb-
s~olutely impossible that the news should
have reached her. There were no tele-
graphs, we must remember, and no
railways in those days, not even mail
carriers in those secluded districts.
When the story of the girls disap-
pearance was told over the country at
the end of the next week, the people to
whom the dream had been repeated re-
called it. Nowadays the matter would
only serve a. good material for the re-
porters, but the men Of those days still
believed that God took an oversight
even of their dreams. Might not this
be a hint from HimP The Rev. Charles
Wheeler, . Baptist clergyman of WASH
we'll known in Western Penn
sylvania and Virginia . generation ago,
and EphrAim Blaine, Esq, . magistrate,
father of the present Senator from
Maine,s and - popular . man in his
narrower circle, drove over to see the
woman who had told the dream. With
out stating their purpose, they took her
and her husband, on pretenss Of bust
ness, to the Plymirt farm. It was the
first time in her life that she had left
her own country, and she was greatly
amused and interested. They drove
over the whole of the road down which
Rachel Plymire had gone.
"Have You ever cen this neighbor-
one of them asked.
"Never," she replied.
That ended the matter, and they
turned back, taking . little-uss Cross
road to save time. Presently the woman
started up in great agitation, crying:
|" This ia tie place 1 dreamed orr
They assured her that KacAdsP1Ymife
had nos been apoA that rod 8 an. esI
knew nothing about her." she said,
:" but the girl I saw in my dream came
along heFe; theve b tho psth through
which the man came, and beyond that
turning you win find the log on which
he killed her." They did find tn log,