Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-10-29
A WILD MAN.
Living for Years in a Cave Under the
Ground and Evadtng PursHis-A
Rem rk able Story.

Living for Years in a Cave Under the
Ground and Evadtng Pursnit-A
Rem arkabIe story.
"How is your wild man getting
along2" asked an American reporter
the other day Of the gentleman who
gave him an account recently of the
excitement in Marshal county over
the appearance of verItable wild
man in that section.
why, hadn't you heard?" he am
swered in some apparent surprise, "we
have captured him."
How did you get hint" asked the
reporter.
well, I'll tell you the whole story, +"
said he, "you see the morning after
we had run the wild man to his den,
as you stated In your previous article,
four of us got our lamps and candles
and determined to fad out what it
was. We went to the den or cave and
started In not knowing anything
about where it went to. After going
down two or three hundred yards we
came to a wet, marshy place where
we found footprints and we knew then
that we were on the trail and it gave
us renewed courag e. We looked to
our firearms to see that they could be
depended on at moments warning,
and moved along cautiously until we
came to a narrow pass, sort of fat
mans misery, which caused us to halt
for moment.
"But one of our men said he was
going through whether we went or
not, and W. all squirmed through and
found very large room, beautiful to
behold, but as we had something else
in view we did not stay to look around
but moved on until we came to creek
where we found crossing made of
chunks and log washed in there
somehow. This gave us renewed
courage. By this time we supposed
we were about two miles from our
compass going north, and we were
getting uneasy, as our oil had given
out and we had started on our candles
we had but half dozen candles to go
ahead with.
Suddenly one of the boys says:
What is that9 We stopped and lis
tened, when we could hear voices
that made us feel uneasy. We were
looking for but one, but we were
ready for them, for there appeared to
be several. So we moved alopg cau>
tiously as before for some distance,
when we could see daylight, aid then
we were determined to go forward,
let the consequences be what they
would. [ took pistol Ia each hand
and went ahead, and others behind,
until we came to another small place
to go through. | told the boys to keep
quiet and | would slip through and
see if l could make any discovery.
When I had almost got through [
could see that the mouth of the cave
was just across this room but could
not see any one; so I told the boys to
conae on and we would see through
that room When we all got in and
looked around we found it it to be a
bar-room.
''There were several barrels. decaat.
ers, glasses and anything that would
be found useful in place of that
kind. [ told the boys to put out the
lights and we would stay there and
see if the wild man would come back,
for we heard talking, and were salts
LIEU SOluO OAS WOQld CCAlG. w EAU
not long to wait. We heard talking
on the outside and IN a moment we
could see some one moving brush
from the cave mouth, aud in came
the Wild man with his long beard and
whiskers off Just as he and his
partners came in we presented our
pistols and told them to surrender,
which they did without q word. I
told the boys to light up and we would
see the wild man.
"When we saw each other we all
had a good laugh. He told me of his
last nights trip. He had put on his
long hair and whiskers and was down
IN the cedars looking for some wagons
to bring him some wild~cat whisky
when the fox-hunter came upon his
trail. He theR told us about the cave.
During the late little war the conscript
officers got after him and be ran to
this cave and lived in there for three
years, land that is why he knew the
cave so well. Since the four mile law
came into effect he has been selling
wildcat in this cave, having brush
thr0wn over the mouth, and If the
revenue officer had found him he
had nothing to do but drop back
through the small hole back of the
room and be out of danger. So this is
how the wild man was found and who
he was"