St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-11-21
WANTS LOOKING into
Weird Story of a Willow-Cut-
ter's Experience at Fort
Smelling.
Men Who Work All Night In
a Concealed Cav
ePn.
Is 1t a Gang Of Counterfeiters
or a Company of
TPampS?
Chief Clark Will Have the
Matter Officially Looked
Into.

A man giving his name as George
BiSSel and claiming to reside on Second
street south, Minneapolis, refusing,
however, to give the number of the
house in which he lived, entered the
GLOBE Office yesterday morning, and
told weird tale of midnight goings on
in the vicinity of Fort Smelling. BiSSel
has been for some time past engaged In
cutting willows from the lOwlandS along
the river. for use in making willow
chairs and rustic articles, by the manu-
facture of which he claims to subsist.
His story is that last Saturday morning
while i'm pursuit of the willow
wand he stumbled upon a cave,
which opened into the bank, about
a quarter of a mile above the bridge.
The mouth of the cave, he says, was
almost concealed by brush and dried
underground, and protected by
rougly-made wooden door opening IN
ward. He pushed the door open and
entered, discovering, after becoming
accustomed to the darkness, that the
place was, OF had very recently, been
inhabited. Scattered about in corners and
leaning against the rOugh-hewn walls
were tools of all sorts, the uses or when
the visitor did not understand. In ad-
dition were several iron vessels OF diff
ferent sizes, and the still SmuulderIng
emberS of a wood fire. BiSsei at once
concluded that the cave was the rem
devious of a gang of cOunteif eiters, and
determined to watch the place and await
the arrival of the occupants. 1t was
pretty cold weather for an all-nlght al
frescO vigil. but Bissel had been there
before, and so Snugly enScOnSed himself
in
A CLUMP OF BUSHES
and began the siege. For three hours
he waited ana no sign of the gang. AT
last. shortly before Il o'clock, midnight.
the bushes parted, and man made his
appearance at the mouth of the cavern
CARRYING a sack filled with some ma
teral. Another followed, similarly
laden, then another, and so on until
half a dozen men and as many sacks
had passed from view into the gloom of
the caves receSSeS. Soon light APP
peared within, which, however, was
quickly hidden by the replacing OF the
door, and the eaulking of all chlnkS be-
tween il and the rock with empty gunny
sacks. From this OIL the solitary watcher
discovered nothing of the character
or occupation of the gang except that
he could plainly near the cracking VI
the fire within. aud the steady changing
of steel or iron implements OF some sort.
BiSsel claims that he had up to Tuesday
evening, determined to say nothing
about the matter. as he feared arrest in
connection with it. The facts haunted
him, however. and he determined to re-
late the story as he knew it to the
GLOBE.
Chief of Police Clark was seen in re-
gard to the probability or the reverse OF
the story told by Bissel and said:
81 don't know anything about it, never
heard of the cave. Lieut.. Budy is out
in that district, and I'll notify him of
the statement. As to its probability of
truth. why the men might be some
poor fellows who intend to winter there,
or it might be a tramp's headquarters.
Then. again. there may be something in
the story. Well have it looked up any
way"