The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-01-04
A SAND-PIT MYSTERY.
Alleged Finding of a Dead Body il
a Small Cave.
The Sight and Smell That Mortified
Three Mushroom Gatherers-
Was 1t Dead Mana

On Thursday last three boys went out
from the city TO search for mushrooms.
Their ages ran from to Il years, and
they were lads of more than ordinary
brightness and truthfulness.
In their search for the succulent cryptic
gamic fruit they wandered as far as the
old gravel-pit east of the city. While
prospecting in that quarter one Of the
boys struck a scent" and following it
mp to the face of one of the pits he saw a
hole, or cave, in the bank several feet
above the bottom of the pit, with a
mound of earth reaching up to it.
Being Of an inquiring turn of mind, he
determined to see what it was that had
crawled in there and died. When he had
climbed to q point from which he could
look into the narrow cavity he saw the
naked feet of man near the opening,
and on prospecting further he saw Tor de-
clares he did the rest of the body. The
legs, he says, were bare up to the knees,
and one of them had two bloody wounds
upon 1t, and also white handled knife
sticking upright in the flesh. The rest OF
the body was covered with an old bag, or
piece OF blanket.
The discoverer called his companions
alleged corpse. The sight was, however
such a sickening one to the boys-to say
nothing of the horrid stencil that greeted
their nOstrils-that they dds not care to
investigate further. They all, however,
savior claim to have seen-the naked
legs, with their wounds, and the knife
sticking in one of them.
The boys did not, for some reason,
make known their alleged discovery un-
Ill the following evening, when one of
them informed his father of what they
had seen.
On Saturday the latter laid the matter
before Sheriff Stanley and accompanied
him to the place described by the boys.
they found the cave without much diff
Guilty, but it was empty, except that there
was an old garment-a Jumper or
something Of that sort-lying on the bot
tom of the hole. The latter pitched into
The bank at an angle of about forty five
degrees.
An examination of the spot showed
that something had either crept or been
dragged from the hole and there were
footprints about, but the rain Of the pre-
ceding night had robbed them of their
freshness OF outline. The boys had
spoken of large lump or clod of solid
earth which lay in footpath that passed
close by the cave to the top Of the bank,
but when the Sheriff and his companion
visited the place on Saturday it had dis
appeared, which merely shows that some
body had been there in the meantime.
With the disappearance of the alleged
carcass had also vanished the hOrrid odor
which had caused the mushroom-gather-
ers to hold their nostrils during their in
spectlon Of the cave and its mysterious
occupant.
Whether the latter was some wounded
tramp who had crawled into the hole to
sleep, and on leaving had taken the
awful smell along with him, or whether
what the boys saw was really a dead
body. can only be guessed at. But the
boys insist that they all saw the same
body, the wounds and the knife, and all
smelt the same odor-that of something
long deceased.
Not far from this cave the Sheriff found
e man occupying a hut made of tule and
brush, and he was asked various Dues
lions regarding the cave, and as to
whether or not he had seen ANYBODY
enter or leave it. The old fellow APP
peared to be both stupid and suIlen, and
would not talk.
Thus endeth what at one time promised
TO pan out fair sort of sensation.
POSSIBLE CLUE.
A gentlemen connected with the DO
lice department thinks it quite likely the
boys did see dead body there, and that
1t had probably been placed temporarily
in the cave by somebody engaged in the
ghoulish work of body-snatching 1t
may be that the close-mouthed hermit
who lives in the hut near by knows
more about the mystery than it would be
safe for him to tell.