Omaha daily bee., 1888-01-06
WILD PEOPLE,
The Wooden Nutmeg State Enjoying
an Abundance of Them.


an Abundance of Them.
NORWICH, Conn, Jan. 5.-Thls season has
been prolific in wild people in Connecticut.
First wild girl appeared to a party Of
hunters in swamp near Madison. She
leapcd out Of thcket at them, poised her
arms stiffly in "Be gone, villain" gesture ,
laughing Historically "tee heen three times,
and fed into the fastnesses of the woods.
The hunters went the other way with cor
responding alacrIty. AS she has not been
seen since, the Madison people suspect that
the villain still pursues her.
A day or two ago a well dressed wild man,
who was about forty years old, and who had
black hair and eyes and smooth face, swung
at full speed into jackson street Willimantic,
and yelled "Chloroform.n Several fleet
footed citizens gave chase to him, and after
he had been caught he said that he was
"John Mullin;n that he had deserted from
the Italian navy, and that the authorities
were chasing him with team with the in
tention of chloroforming him. Then he
broke away from his captors, ran across lots,
leapcd into the Watchareg river, was pulled
out by his pursuors, taken TO the police sta
tion, and later released. He broke into a
run, yelled "Chloroform, and vanished out
of town.
Nightly a wild person appears in Prospect,
High and West Main streets, in the village of
Spofford. He is very tall, garbed in funeral
black and he runs noiselessly up to women,
touches them, starts back and silently van
ishes into the engulhng darkness. He ran up
to Mrs. William Brown the other night,
touched her and she screamed and fell in the
road. Mrs. Brown is a small woman, but her
shrek was heard distinctly a mile and "A half.
The wild man has not been seen since she
screamed
At Cow Hill, near Mystic, there is wild
man of the woods. He wears big black
bear skin, and he looks hideous. His other
clothes are not worth much. He says not a
word, but he gares with wild determined
stare. He advances on man who ap-
proaches his lair in the forest of Cow
Hill glares straight in the mans eyes
once and then runs, George Dunham was
day recently, and had felled a chestnut and
sat down to rcst on the trunk. The wild
man rushed up to him from. the brush, his
bear skin baggng in the wind, halted Mt the
distance of "a stride from him, and then fixed
n strong passionless glare on him. Mr.. Dun
ham did not like his looks and he sprang
from his seat, reversed the AK held in his
hands and whackcd the wild man three times
over the head with the handle. The man in
the bear skin got away from Mr.. Dunham as
quick as he could and plunged INTO the woods
with sore head and he has not been seen
since.
Another wild man tenants the woods in
MassapOag, "a lonely region three miles south
of this city. On the wooded banks of the
river in the Mohegan Indian reservation is q
methodical fellow of nocturnal habits.
His favorlte prank Is to appear with lantern
in the woods, stones throw from Willard
Churchs house, at midnight, set down his
light, dig hole in the leaves and earth and
yell "Murder!" until he wakens the neigh
borhood. About week ago he paid his lat
est call to Mr.. Church. He screamed "Mur-
derl' until Mr. Church hastily awoke from a
dream about tom codfshing. and then he kept
on screeching. Mr.. Church arose, partly
dressed himself, lighted his lantern, got a
cart rung, drafted a neighbor into his SER
direction of the outcry. A will-o'-thc wsp
glimmer among the boughs of the ad-
iacent forest guided the men. The yell
'murder'' was again heard and the men
hurried They dashed into the outstanding
fringe of underbrush The light elimmered
a few PAGES in advance of them, and they
saw brawny man with a wild-eyed look
delving with spade by lantern light in the
leaves and earth. The man saw them, too
He stopped yelling murder caught UP his
lantern with one hand, threw his spade over
his shoulder with the other and without an.
other word dashed madly into the depths OF
the forest. The men found a smooth hole
about two feet deep in the sod where he had
dug They returned to the house, and are
still in maze Of wondermcnt in attempting
to pierce the mystery of the occurrence.
Lonely, isolated Block island ID also
troubled by wild man this winter. He ap
pears at dead of night in wild, untenanted
hollow of the hills, to which the throbbing oi
the ocean comes with witch-like murmur
and he digs a hole in the the brittle peat
The swinging of u spectral light is seen il
the drifting mists. The islanders go out tc
find him, and they stumble upon the hole bu
the swinging light dances away over the hill.
with the illusions of an ignis fatuus, and nj
one is any wiser about the strange visitant
The spot that the wild visitor loves to haunt
is locally known as Monets valley, and thu
people are divided in opinion whether it is
wrath from the phantom ship Palatine tina
was beached on the island 200 years ago, or
ghost of Captain Kidds crew. who came will
the great pirate to bury an iron box of golt
with bible ut dcsolate Sands point.