The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-04-28
ROMANCE IN KEGS OF GOLD.
Pittsburg Chronicle.

Pittsburg Chronicle.
 Here is another romance of the civil war. It is i'll two parts. One is told by fugitive in Rio Janiero, Brazil, and the other by Pitts5urger. The scene is in the city of Macon, Ga. The fugitive, whose initials only are given, tells his part of the story in a letter to A. A. Subers, of Macon. It is this, in brief:-
 In March, 1863, the banks of Savan- nah, fearing a dash of the Federal troops and the capture of the city, sent all their money, or what could be spared, to Macon for safe keeping. The fugitive was then driver of one of the wagons of the Southern Ex- press company. In May, when the fears of the bankers had subsided, they ordered 8 return of the money. R. H., as the fugitive signs himself, was given a portion of it to haul to the railway station. The agent who usually accompanied him happened to be sick and he took it alone. He con- tinued:-
 '1 determined to steal the money. It was put up in kegs that contained 5000 each. The car was set outside of the car shed by the ice house that, if l remember right, was kept by a man named Henry Ells, so that it could be loaded at the convenience of the company, and as the bank would have it protected by special guard there would be no danger; but the guard had not been put on duty when got to the car, and as there was no one to watch me just jumped off of the wagon and smashed the car lock with brick and quickly drove on to an old house by the branch, between Fifth and Sixth streets, that had been used as a soap factory, and had weeping willow tree of large size in front oft, and was owned by 8 man named Mark Scratch, and hid it among the tubs and vats. The money was missed when the guard came to the car and search made; but as it had now grown dark, the track of the wagon could not be traced through the street."
 He was arrested but nothing could be proved against him, and was re- leased in a few hours. At three o'clock in the morning he took the money and buried it at the foot of a mulberry tree about thirty five yards from the bank of the Ocmulgee River.
 There it remained for some time, when he discovered the end of an old sunken boat, and tearing off plank he deposited the treasure in it. There were nine kegs of it, each containing $5,O00. He was cautious not to use any of it, and awaken suspicion; kept on at his employment as a driver for the express company finally had chance to escape to South America on & blockade runner, when he took all he could carry with him and fled. With it he bought coffee plantation in Brazil, and has remained there since, afraid to return to his own country. He was fifty-one years ot age when he fled, in 1863.
 He gives MT. Subers minute direc- tion as to where the old boat might be found. It was washed out last July, and MT. Subers, who knows its present location, is now forming a company with capital enough to raise it.
 Now for the other part of the story. It is told by MT. s. T. Turner, who belonged to the First Ohio cavalry, a portion of Wilson's corps. In May of 1865 nearly the whole corps was at Macon. One day a singular order was issued. The men were marched out to a plantation, ordered to dis mount and form about twenty feet in front of their horses. Then the off, cers of one regiment were ordered to search the clothes and saddle pockets of the men of another. Thus a con- plete search of all the troops was made.
 The meaning of this singular pro- ceeding no one could guess at the time, but soon after came the explan- ation that $45, 1000 buried on the shore of the Ocmulgee had been found and carried off. The soldiers were sus- pected, and hence the search. But how did this money come to be buried? The conjecture was that it had been buried recently by the banks or individuals through fear that it would be taken when the Federals swept down on the city.
 There was period of two years be- tween the theft from the Southern Express company, the proceeds of which were buried on the river bank, and the search of the cavalrymen sus- pected of finding money there, but -
 Query, could what was left of the nine kegs of $5,0O0 each which the Brazilian fugitive tells of, have been the $35, ,O00 sought for when Wilson's cavalry were in Macon?
 An Imperative Necessity.