The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-04-02
a HIDDEN CHEST OF GOLD.
Guarded by Witches, but Eager Penn
sylvauia Dutch Farm srs Are After It.
FROM the Neao YORK Sun.

GuHroSu by WlLcnes, puC Eager Penn
sylvauia Dutch Farm srs Are AfserIt
From the NeaO York Sun.
LANCASTER, March 15.-Old Mrs. Lein-
bach of Lower Heidelberg township, Berks
county, has had a dream about the long
sought hidden gold that lies some where
among the rocks in Indian Gap, on the
South mountain. near WernersVille. This
gold Is in chest, says the legend, and was
hidden during the revolution by the famous
or Infamous, Dosne band Of tories aud rob =
beers, who terror1zed this pert Of PennsYl-
vania by their maraudering excursions and
bloody murders
The treasure has been for 100 years the
| object OF eager search by people who im-
plicitly believe In it's existence They are
simple-mi Pennsylvania Dutch farmers
mostly. and the belief in witchcraft is still
| held by many Of them. This chest of hid
den gold 1s guarded and protected by old
time witches, according to the story, and
this Is the reason no one has yet been able
10 get away with it, although the chest has
been located and seen at different times by
searcherS after it.
The last time 1t was seen was in 1885,
when Lena Stertzbsch, the 17-year-old
daughter OF prominent farmer of North
! heidelberg township, made her memorable
| guest for the treasure. In the summer of
that year she had a vision in which the
| spot where the chest was hidden was re-
Veeled to her. At the same time a stranger
came from Michigan to Wernersville and
said that an old Indian, whose ancestors had
hved In the Schuylkill valley, had told him
Of the chest Of gold that lay in Indian
Gap, and that he could find it provided he
could get young girl such as the Indian
| described TO lead him In the search. In
Lena Stertzbach the stranger recog-
| nized the girl the Indian had described.
Every night for SIX months the girl, the
stranger and the girls father visited Indian
Gap and hunted all night among sthe rocks
for the gold. Then Lena had another vision.
The treasure was TO be revealed 20 them on
| Christmas eve. The three went on that
night to the spot Lena had seen in her
vision and they found the chest deep in a
ravine covered with rocks. They removed
the rocks, when blue flame arose all
around the chest and unsarthly noises filed
the air. The searohers were frightened
away, aud Lena declared that for three
daysshe was totally blind and she has never
been able since to find the spot where the
chest lay or TO see 10 even il vision.
That experience OF Lena Stsrtzbach and
her party filled the superstitious community
with terror, and since then no one has had
| the termerity to make any further search
for the treasure. But old Mrs. Lem baoh's
dream, which she has had now In the first
quarter Of three successive moons, has
aroused such interest in the treasure that a
lew venturesome spirits are planning a
determined and decisive quest for it. Old
Mrs. Leiubach is a ''hex" or witch layer.
She cures bewitehed children or cattle, and
removes evil spirits Of all kinds on request,
and for fee. She has dreamed that the
witch that has its spell on the hidden chest
OF gold will be potent as the guardian of
the treasure OILY during the present year,
and that whoever may be present on tue
spot at midnight on the night that spell is
broken may succeed in securing the gold.
The trouble is that this dream of the old
hex does not fix the date of the witch's alb
dication, nor does it locate the place where
the chest is hidden. The only thing to be
done, under the circumstances, is for some
one to find the spot, and try to take the
chest away at midnight every night until
they hit the night the witch's watch ceases
From eli accounts the rocks on South
Mountain and In Indian Gap will for the
next few months have such a turning over
and tumbiing about as they have not had
since the glacial floods rolled and hurled
them where they lie. The oredulous Dutch
farmers are dead set on getting that chest
OF gold.