The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-02-03
THE ENGINEER QUIT HIS RUN
AfteT Seeing Something and Hearing
What It Probably Was, ~
Fronl The Mem Ynr. SIN.


we were booming along through the pines Just
at dusk one OctOker evening when heard the
most unearthly shrek, or yell, or sCreech, or
whatever the sound might Be called aud the
next second something came swooping down
from the pines and stuck its head
through the cab window. Il was the
ugheSt and most terrifying looking
head and face that person could conjure IN
IN bis widest dreams. The head was much like
that Of an owl although larger than that Of the
biggest owl had ever seen. The face was that of
an ape or monkey. The cheeks we're sunken and
almost white, and above them glared a pair of
fiery and prOtruding eyes, with black streak
over each eye, extending diagOnally up
toward the erect and pointed ears.
This hideOus creature had a feathered or per-
haps hairy body and a pair OF huge wings,
which worked as nOiselessly as shadows and
kept the demon-like bird in the ar abreast Of
the engine without any apparent effort. When
this apparition made its appearance at the cab
window it uttered yell that actually shook
things IN the cab, and my fireman tainted
dead away in front Of the furnace.
l didn't blame himefor / fell back from
that cab window myself with every hair stand
ing on end, and could feel that was as pale
as ghost. My knees shook so that 1 could
scarcely bear my weight, and l grew cold all
over. But managed TO recover from my ter
Tor in few seconds sufficiently TO grab fur
mace poker, and with this 1 struck blow at the
owl monstrosity that would have felled au OK.
But IL didn't fell that winged demon at the cab
window, and must have hit it fair between the
eyes. Nevertheless there it remained, glaring
in through the window with its fiery eyes, and
moving along with the engine as if it we're part
of its maChinery-and we were going forty
miles an hour if we were going 6ve-iust the
same as it was before l struck the blow with
the heavy poker.
You may imagine the state / was 10 when
say if that thing had remained half minute
longer with its head through the window l
would have leaped from the engine Ihad stood
at the throttle moro than once when there was
danger ahead Of US that seemed to be nothing
short of certain death and kept steady at nv
post but l couldn't have remained in that cab
many seconds longer with that hidebus and I'M
canny apparitiOn facing me. Fortunately the
mysterious dividend seemed TO be satisfied with
the inspection it had made of the interior Of
that cab and its occupants, and with another
scalp raising yell it disappeared into the pines
as suddenly as it had appeared at the cab The
fireman came to about the same time, but was
so weak that l could hardly pull the whistle
cord and slow up for Burlington, through which
town that train would have gone like the wind
but for the oppOrtune departure of the monkey
faced owl from the cab. left the train at
Burlington, and said to some of the boys:
IF any Of you fellows want to make a nice
stake from some museum you can't do better
than 20 down in the pines and trap the big
gest curiosity that ever man paid admission
to see. But you want to be careful it don't
"Then told EN- about what I had seen, and
described the thing to EN-. They all gave me
great laugh except one old-time resident OF
Burlington county, who was among the listen
ers. When described the owl, as I called It,
this old residenter gave the table whack with
his fist that was almost enough to make the
splinteTs fly, and exclaimed
"'By - That han'U no owl; that's the
Leeds devil back ag'in, sure as you're livin'r
THE old chaps earnestness was so appar-
emit that pressed him for further particulars,
and he told the story Of what he called the
Leeds devil
THAT thing, said he, amt a bird nor it
amt an animal, but, from the description it is
the Leeds devil, and it was born in Evasham
mr. rrnfs Falr,
about 1t. l never see the terrible critter myself
but can remember well when it was roamin'
round in the Evasham woods, and when it was
hunted by men and dogs, aud shot at by some
of the best marksmen there was in all o. South
Jersey. but couldn't be killed. There amt an
old family in Burlington county that don't
know of the Leeds devil, and it as the bcogy-
boo they used to scare young ones with when
was a boy. I've been scared out of lots of fun
by being reminded that If entered into it I was
in danger Of a visit from the awful Leeds devil
and I've heard, even to this day, that there are
parts OF old Burlington where the dreaded
critter comes in handy for the same purpose
But it's more than fifty years sinceit was seen
or heard OF III these parts and everybody
thought long ago that IL must have come to an
end on earth somehow or other And now TO
think that 1t has come back again, aud right
here under our very noses People will begin
to lay awake again nights expectn' every
minute to hear its yell that made the blood Of
past generations run cold,
The history of the Leeds devil has been
handed down for pretty near 100 years. [ guess
in Burlington county, and Rccordin' TO its state
mentS q young chap named Leeds, VINO lived in
Evasham and was quite well knOWnin that part
of the county, got married. His wife was
respectable girl, but she was full o. the old
Nick. She made things lively at all the corn
huskins and apple cuts, dances and shndigs
generally in them days, and the trouble was
that she wouldn't give EN- up after she was
married, it didn't make no difference what her
husband said or thought about it, She had a
good-sized temper Of her own, TOO, and when
-, NRne aha rrI,g,,N 70, H.
the story is that she became regular wicked
in her COMPLAINTS an COINS on to
her husband and she actually
cursed the day she got married. Now, the
Mrs. Leeds nurse when the baby was born is
still livin' in burlington county, or was five
years ago, and she told me that what I'm goin'
to tell you has been handed down in the family
straight and without a word bein' left out or
added to 1t. This woman's great grandmother's
story was that on the night before the baby was
born Mrs. Leeds was in an awful wicked state Of
mind, and after giving everybody O goin' over
that must have made things look blue she
suddenly raised her hands above her head and
yelled:
81 hope it'll be devil! I hope it'll be a
horrible devill'
1.-The next night the nurse came home, pale
and tremblin', and in an awful state.
- THE Leeds baby Is bornN' she said to her
folks, ''but it was mOnsterous thing, all de-
formed and devilish, and it flew up the chimney
and away. shriekin' and yellin'"
5" Inc nurse story give IOlhb an awful scare
around Evasham. There wasn't many believed
it, though, folks generally suspectin that the
Leeds baby had been made way with, and the
story cooked up to throw people Off the track.
But few days afterward man that was hunt.
ing in the Evasham woods come in al Ia a
fiutter and declared that he had run across the
most outlandish and frightful thing In the
woods, and that it had scared him 50 that he
got home as quick as he could. He de-
scribed it Just the way the nurse had described
the terrible Leeds baby. After thatit appeared
to others from time to time, always
with the same screeches and yeils. The nurses
story was then believed by everybody. and the
monsCrous offspring of the wicked young
woman became known as the Leeds devil and
for years and years il was the terror Of Bur
lington county. 1t was hunted and hunted, but
it seemed to have the charmed life of a WITCH
and even silver bullets aud every other kind of
bullet that had always been known to be death
to witches and things bewitched, wasn't OF any
use against the Leeds devil. Fifty years ago
it turned up missin, and now here 10 comes
back to old Burlington to be a terror az in, list
as like as not. Where ia the name O Satan do
you spose it could have been for all these
MEDICAL.
~~~-~~~~~~~~~-~~~-~-~-~- ~~~-~-~-~~~-~-~-~-~~-