The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-16
cHARLEsroN,s FUG1r1vEs.
The Bonds Believed to be in Hiding
Near Pelham.


The Bonds Believed to be in Hiding
Near Pelham.
PELHAM, GA, April 15.-The quiet of
this little town has been considerab dis
turbed during the last few days by the APP
pearance of two strangers, who it now
turns out are the fugitive Bond brothers,
the celebrated Charleston insurance rob-
bers
Last Saturday night two unknown men
applied to the proprietor OF the Nelson
House for lodging, and were assigned to
room. Their actions were mysterious, and
they did not come out to supper or to break
fast next morning, About o'clock Sunday
morning they paid their bill, and left on
foot, going towards Camilla. They held
no conversation with anyone, and Mr..
Nelson's suspicious were aroused by their
strange conduct. During the night NJ S.
Nelson distinctly overhead the clink of coin
in their room, indicating that they were
counting some large sum of money.
Nothing more was heard of them uutil
Wednesday morning, April il, when Detec-
tive Miles, of Charleston, arrived, accom-
panied by Sheriff Swindell, of Camilla and
at once made inquiries as to whether two
such men had been seen in Pelham. He
produced several photographs, from among
which Mr.. Nelson easily picked out two,
which were excellent hkenesSes of the two
strangers of the Saturday night previous.
Miles ascertained that they had not regis
tered or given any Names and he did not
let any one in Pelham know who the parties
were that he was hunting, or what crime
they were wanted for, beyond the remark
that there had been few such crimes per
petrated in the United States like the one
these men had been guilty Of"
A SCRAP OF PAPER.
In cleaning up the room occupied by the
two strangers on the morning they left Miss
Jennie Nelson found piece of paper lying
on the floor, which seemed to have been a
memorandum of some sort, signed. She
glanced at the signature, and seeing that
the paper was torn she supposed it bad been
thrown away by the parties, and so sweptit
out into the yard In recalling this circum-
stance to the detective he asked her if she
remembered the name on the paper, and
Miss Nelson replied that as near as she
could recollect it was flames Bond" De-
tective Miles and Sheriff Swindell then left
Pelham, and have not been back since
That night wednesday, about o'clock
Mr.. Nelson had occasion to go to the well in
his yard after bucket of water, and in the
darkness saw two men rise up from the gar
den fence near the house and walk off across
the lot.
The arrival of C. B. Townsend. of Savan-
nah, on Thursday morning put a new face
on matters. Up to this time no one in Pei
liam suspected the character of the two
men, or knew the nature of their crime.
Mr.. Townsend, however, had read all about
& e great insurance swindle in Charleston
and was familiar with the details. 1t was
thereupon resolved to organize a hunt for
the two Bonds, if such the two men should
really prove to be, rs it was certain that a
heavy reward was offered for them by the
swindled insurance companies.
THEY APPEAR ONCE MORE.
Thursday night, about dusk Mr.. Nelson's
little son came hurriedly to the store and
inf ormed his father that the same two
strangers had just been seen by him stand
ing near the gate opening into the street
and that when he walked towards them
they went away suddenly, directing their
course for a small pond on the outskirts Of
the town. Young Nelson said they had no
baggage, only carried under their arms the
same wallets or bundles which they had
when there before, and which every one
suppOses contains some of the Doodle so
skilfully extracted from various insurance
companies. party was quickly made up,
consisting of MeSsrs. j. l.. Hand, joseph
Nelson, c. F. Green, Jas. Hurst VIII and
Joseph Twitty, Town Marshal Jones, your
correspondent and others, and the tnicket
around the pond searched, but the two men
had left. The hunt was kept up until 10
O'Clock that night but not a trace of the |
strangers was found.
The excitement was renewed last night |
by their third appearance here. A negro
man named Gayor, living in the negro
quarters, came up to the Nelson House and
reported that the same two men had lust
passed his house, going up the street toward
Senator Hands residence They stopped to
get drink of water at one of the public
wells in the street and he got a good look at
them Another p rty was organized and
the town and suburbs were patrolled until
nearly midnight, but the birds had flown
and the hunt was abandoned
DETECTIVE WANTED.
The theory here is that the two Bonds III
such they are-aud it looks that way) have
some secret hiding place near here, and
that they lie close during the day and sally
forth at dusk aud come up to Pelham to
secure food and necessaries from some we'll
paid negro, also to spy around and ascer-
tain any news of interest. Knowing that
che Nelson House is the only hotel in
town, it is presumed that they have
fence and listeHlng at the cen
versetion going on i'll the house and on the
piazza, thinking to hear something OF i'm
portance concerning themselves. A watch
will now be set all over town for these mvs-
FERROUS strangers, and it may be that be-
fore this reaches you they will he captured
1t is probable that detective Miles is off on
some false scent, and it is regretted here
that he has not been around town during
the past three days as it is likely that he
could have secured his men ere this if he
had loft palha01