St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-07-26
A Ghostiy Tragedy.
st. Louis Globe-Democrat.

ST. Louis Globe-DemOcrat
At the Sulphur Springs, two miles
north of Sweet Springs, is an old vacant
house. The building mas not been oc
cupied for ten years, and many are the
weird stories told by farmers and others
who have passed the place at night.
The building stands only a few feet
from the public road, surrounded by
stately oaks and elms. No other build
ing is nearer than quarter of a mile.
Some colored folks live in the vicinity.
but nothing, it is said, can induce them
to visit the springs after night. The
building is two stories high and sets
upon posts buried in the ground. The
floor is about five feet above the ground,
and was built this way in order to
throw the floor above higE- water mark.
One morning recently, bright and
early. wagon containing man, two
grown boys and woman rolled into
town from the North. They told of a
nightot horror spent at Sulphur Springs.
1t is stopping place for campers, and
these people. arriving there late in the
afternoon, concluded to remain over I'M
til next day. They had never heard
anything about the place being haunted.
and never imagined they had camped
in nest of hobgoblins. Mr.. Thomp-
son, the father of the family, described
what took place substantially as fol-
lows:
"We got to the springs in the even
ing," he said, land, seeing it was q
camping ground, concluded to tie up
for the night. The spring is only about
100 feet from the old empty house. We
stopped our wagon about halfway be-
tween the spring and the house. l
didn't notice anything strange about
the place. barring its lonesome look.
The wind moaned and whistled through
the big trees, and didn't fall asleep
until nearly midnight. 1t was perhaps
an hour later when my old woman woke
Inc up and told me to listen. listened
for some little time, but couldn't make
out what sort of a noise it was. J never
heard anything like it before, and |
hope ! will never hear anything like it
again.
II listened awhile and heard some
body grooming. | thought it cowardly
to stay in the wagon and let human
suffer within few feet of me. l got
out of the wagon and listened again. l
head somebody going up stairs in the
old house, then saw light flash across
OliO VI OhC WiHQOnOs OOSdu W UIlIh
there was something out of keller. l
slipped up close to the house and heard
people walking around OH the floor up
stairs. | could hear them whispering,
and could plainly hear some one groan-
ing. | started back to the wagon.
just as | turned to leave man de-
Scended the steps and hurried out
of the building toward the road.
aroused the boys, and. after lighting nv
lantern, we went back to the house. [
could still hear the noise up stairs. |
felt little dubious about going up. but
on second thought determined to solve
the mystery. Imagine my surprise when
| reached the second floor to find there
was nothing in sight. There was plenty
of dust on the floor, but not sign of a
track. felt queer, and the boys looked
at each other and winked. We went
back to the wagon, but was SO terribly
put out that didn't know what to do.
The boys soon went to sleep, but
couldn't close my eyes.
ut must have been several hours
afterward when | was startled by I'M
earthly screams. / looked out and saw
a light in one of the upper windows. l
woke the old woman and the boys and
told them to take a peep. Suddenly a
man with Ratchet in his right hand,
while his left arm encircled another
mans neck, appeared before the win
dow. In all instant we saw the Ratchet
descend Oh the mans head, and then
the light vanished. Next we heard
what we were sure was a mans body
fall from the upper window to the
ground below. 1t was just breaking
day when big, stout-looking man came
around the east end of the house, stopped
down. lifted up the lifeless body which
was thrown out of the window short
time before, threw the corpse over his
shoulder and moved off down the creek
toward the bridge.
Il grabbed my gun and pursued him.
might as we'll have tried to catch cy-
clone, for before got to the public road,
which wasn't over 200 feet distant, the
man with his load was clean out of
sight. He seemed to glide along as if
on roller skates. have never believed
in spooks, but am convinced that what
l have described was not the work of
mortals. don't want to stay at Sulphur
Springs another night"
Perhaps sequel to this strange story
exists in the fact that about fifteen years
ago man named Barnum, proprietor of
Barnum's hotel, Kansas City, was muir
dered in or near this building. His
body was found. together with a
Ratchet. in a small lake about 500 yards
below the springs. The murderers have
never been found.