The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-06-10
LURED TO THEIR LAIR.
Boy Brigands Of Boston Immune
Captive.
Cut or and Left Alone With Ghosts.
Skulls and skeletons for Companion
Cries for Help From a Deserted
Grave-Yard-A Night of Terror.
Boston Cor. Ny. World l

there is on Water street a small cemetery
which for many years has been closed up.
Most of the people buried there were in
TERED during the latter part of the last
century, and since then there has been
abundant growth of vegetation over the
whole place, so that it is difficult for
stranger in the neighborhoo God to find the
ancient city of the dead even after its loca-
ton has been learned. The shrubs and
trees hide from view the few old headstOnes
that are left there, and person might
even wander through the deserted spot
without knowing that it was a cemetery.
There are two large vaults made of brick,
the walls being three bricks deep and COW
cred over with earth. There is nothing
about them that will show who was laid at
rest there or when, but probably the doors
have not been opened at any time since
1900. Secluded and lonesome as the spot
is some boys who are believed to be resi-
dents of the north end of the city appear
to have pretty well explored it, and one of
the vaults has heen for them a favorite re-
sort. An officer of the Jamaica Plain sta
ton, in following up lot of Juvenile law
breakers early yesterday, came across the
vault. On one side of it the earth and
shrubs had been torn away and the old
masonry had been picked out so that a hole
about three feet across had been made in
the wall about six feet up from the bottom.
1t was so well concealed by the brush
that it would not have been noticed had
the officer not observed a trail which
led him to it. He did not examine the
vault very closely, for as soon as he put
his head in the hole he kept out so much
light that scarcely anything was visible.
The matter was reported to the Board of
Health and tod ay Inspector Hicks went
out to investigate. He had good deal of
trouble in findi ng the place, and after he
got into the cemetery he heard faint cries
that seemed to come from the ground about
two hundred yards off. He traced them,
and as he came nearer the cries were
stronger and more pitiful. At length he
reached the vault he had been in search of,
and in it was boy about ten years of age.
AS he climbed up to the opening the little
fellow ceased his cries and crouched down
into a corner of the tomb in abject terror.
The officer called to him in a reassuring
tone and the boy then crept along the floor
of the vault until he got directly under the
opening. His condition was pitiful indeed
to behold, and the officer hardly knew
whether to regard him as insane or as some
kind of a wild animal. He would not speak
an intelligent sentence, but let forth the
most dreadful bowls, now and then stop
ping to gasp as though about to expire.
Hicks was afraid to go down into the tomb
for fear he could not get out again, but
after talking to the yOungster through the
hole for a while he succeeded in pacifying
him until he got broken limb of tree,
and this he put in for the lad to climb up
on. He seemed too weak to be equal to the
emergency, but at length he summoned up
all his strength and made successful eff
fort. After resting and looking about him
for while he talked a little, and finally
told his rescuer his remarkable story.
He said he had no home and lived mostly
in the Working Boys Lodge. The previous
afternoon he met lot of North End street
Arabs like himself, and they told him they
were going to give up backing boots and
selling papers to become bandits, They
related to him some blood and thunder
stories and told him they had cave of
their own and would soon terrorize the
whole country. They urged him to join
them and become famous. He agreed to
do so, and they led him to the vault de-
scribed One went off and brought an old
ladder and they all descended into the
tomb by it. When the victim got down
and saw pieces of collins on the shelves
he was nearly frightened to death. His
companions humored him for awhile and
offered him drink out of a flask. He re-
fused it and they forced it down his throat,
then they knocked him from one end of the
vault to the other. In spite of this treat
ment he soon began to feel sleepy and
crept away in corner and laid down. He
remembered nothing more till he heard
thought he heard voice, saying:
''Let him starve. It's kids like him
that's running us.''
A voice outside said "Cheese it!'' an
then all was quiet.
He rubbed his eyes and listened, but only
the cracking of brush some distance on
could be heard. 1t was dusk, and be made
his way to the opening, but there was no lad
der, and when he realized his position n
rent tn air with agOnizing cries for'Help"
He thought the skeletons were clustering
around him and grasping his hair with
their bony hands. 1t became pitchy dark
but every horrible thing he saw when he
entered was more plainly visible to him in
the darkness. Bats or insects occasionally
made q noise, and he would start and yell
Murder" till his voice gave out. FL,
rolled on the floor in his agony and the
perspiration grew cold on his body. He
hoped then he was dying, but there was
no such good luck. He would have at
tempted to kill himself, but the skeletons
made him afraid to try it. Thus his suf-
ering continued until his cries brought the
Inspector to his rescue. The officer be-
lieved that he was crazy at first, but he
soon recovered. After getting out he ac-
companied him to the road, and when the
lad saw it he bounded off like a deer in the
direction of the city and never turned to
look back all the while he was in view.
The Inspector found broken bottles, some
torn cards and pages of dime-nOvel litera-
ture among the bones and broken collins
which strewed the floor of the vault, and
it looked as though the recent occupants
had been on long spree. He at once en-
ployed a mason to brick up the vault Sc
curely so that it Will not be opened again by
the vandals. The gang of young despera-
does was doubtless unaware of the first
officers discovery, and but for it the lad
would most kelly have starved to death.
Glow SHALL l sle"p?' asks CORE
spnnde Z. A. moi -n'es-lv as possible,
please.-BifiiHgto7 Free Press.
The objection to stale jokes probably
FOL - in, "a 70 tb at iOkHS