Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1884-10-31
"OLC MAMMY'S" CURSE.
Exploding Gravestone---The Fright
Given Squad of SacriIe .iOus
Soldiers.
fChicago News

Chicago News
During the first year Of the war;
said the captain, as he took a mighty
chew of tobacco, and then sIuirted
along his wooden leg to see il the thaw
had sprung it, Il and four OF five other
fellows got such a fright that it fairly
loosened our teeth. We We're in camp
at Elizabethtown, Ky. My com
panv's quarters were in the middle of
an old graveyard. There were funny
old tombstones all around my tent. The
weather was cold, and the government
lad not yet furnished us with the little
sheet-iron stoves that were so common
during the closing years of the war We
fellows set to work and built ourselves
nice stove. We made the sides of it
out of mud and sticks, and took a big
fiat marble grayestone for its top. When
we had finished it and built roaring
fire we had reason to be proud of our
ingenuity.
just as 1T was growing dark that
evening here came an old colored
nanny to our tent door. We had seen
her searching among the graves some
minutes earlier. When she looked in
on us she had pulled her red turban off
and stood crushing it in her hands.
Her kinky, white wool stood up over
her head and her black features worked
with such rage that she looked like q
fury.
"'Well, nanny, hadn't you better
be getting outside of the lines?' I said
to her, in friendly sort of way.
"She never said word for minute
Then her eye fell on our new stove. AS
soon as she saw the top OF it she gave a
yell and rushed into the tent. She
grabbed the gravestone, but it was
nearly red-hot, and she had to let go.
We pulled her away, or l reckon she
would have carried that stone off with
out waiting for it to cool.
1.-The old girls crazy said one of
the boys, as we showed her out of the
tent.
"Crazyr she shrieked Lief de
Lawd cuss come on you sojer mans
fo' stealin' my missus' grabestun. Lief
de Lawd's strike yo' dead wild His light
MIN, and lef de debbil scrunch yo'
bonesp
"Well, she gave us lot more of that
kind Of talk. She was either crazy or
else she was a hoodoo, or something
of that nature. We had to drag her
outside of the lines, and she scratched
and bit and cursed us all the way.
When we got back to the tent and had
settled round our fire, we talked and
laughed good deal about the angry
old woman. After awhile we got to
playing poier, and forgot about her
and the gravestone. Suddenly here
was a terrific report right in the midst
of us. The candle went out, and We
pitched through the sides of the tent
on onr heads Then was the time that
we were scared. For my part, ! thought
the devil was bombarding us with hot
shot at short range. l was afraid to
move for several minutes. Everything
was pitch dark. Finally remembered
l was alive. and scrambled to my feet
and ran. / reckon the other fellows
did the same. An hour afterward we
met in another tent and compared notes.
Several of the fellows were badly hurt
and had to be bandaged up. When We
finally ventured back to our tent we
found out what caused the trouble"
"What was it ?" asked a listener.
"The gravestone had exploded with
the heat of the fire. Pieces of it were
scattered everywhere. 1t is wonder
some of us were not killed. l suppose
several OF the boys believe 20 this day
that the old mammy's curses caused
that stone to explode. We built an
other stove, but we didn't put grave