Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-10-12
MANY POTS OF GOLD
Wartime Devices to Conceal Valuable,
From GuerrilIas.
Bags of Money Hidden So Securely
That They Haven't Been Recox.-.a
Yet - Shifts to Escape.

| be tales Of treasure trove from that large
| section of the mid-south which was for
| three years Of civil war a debatable land,
wherein, outside the army posts, there was
| no security Of person or property. The
| invaders themselves had a pretty taste for
| looting, but they were nothing like so ra-
| pacious as the guerrilas, who plundered
| impartially men of all sympathies, and as
often sported blue and brass as the con-
| federate gray. The guerrillas had, indeed,
| but single active principie-pillage. Gold
was at an enormous premium, and nearly
| all the rich agricultural country produced
| crops of cotton or tobacco both equiva len .
| to gold in the controlling European marts.
Inc owners of such crops We're in a war
|. between the devil and the deep sea. 1t was
| extra hazardous to sell and hoard the pro-
| ceeds, yet to undertake to store the produce
was to invite the guerrillas' ready torch.
| Then, too the country swarmed with trad
ers. They gave liberal prices-enormous,
lndeed, on the face, when payment could
| be made in greenbacks. If Kentucky bank
| notes were demanded by The seller there
was something of reduction, but if the pay
| ment was i'll gold prices went down, almost
out of sight.
| STILL very many did insist on having gold,
| and found life burden after they got it..
| The writer remembers, as a small child,
| the weeks of unrest that followed the COM
| ing into the house of a fat bag of double
! eagles in exchange for many hogsheads of
| tobacco. In that time and place gold was
| more dangerous than dynamite. All the
household had heard with curdling blood
| tales Of the tortures old men had endured
during attempts to make them reveal the
hiding place Of their money. One, family
connection, had been strapped to a board
and held with his feet to a slow fire until
| they were SO crisp he never walked again;
yet to the last he had kept stoutiy silent.
Another had been swung up by the thun BIS
| fhrOuPhOn a cold nothing
| on but the garments in which he had been
| dragged from bed. An old woman miser
| had been beaten raw and her wounds wash
ed with vinegar. Indeed, every variety OF
| torture that 1endish ingenuity could devise
| was said to have been practiced toward the
unhappy possessors of hidden treasures.
secreting the Treasury.
| So 1t became a matter of first importance
| to be able to say truthfully that you knew
nothing of such thing. Heads of families,
of course, bore the brunt of questioning,
| and it was, therefore, determined that The
smallest of the family should be intrusted
| with the task of secreting the gold. To
| this day it brings thrill and creepy feel
| ing up and down the spine to recall going
out into the big woods alone, wandering
there for an hour and at last scramblng up
a big hollow oak, into an upper cavity OF
which heavy sealed tin box was dropped
there to remain untouched, unmatched, I'M
til its contents could be sent by sure hand
to New York city for investment. That was
a year later. In the interval, If by any
chance sudden death had come, the money
would most likely be there yet as the tree
stood in the edge of a bit of marsh land
| that is unlikely ever to be cleared and Gull
tivated.
Sudden death did come in many cases.
One old farmer, who had held three years
crop until prices were at their highest, got
$4,000 in the yellow metal. took it home
and gave it to his wife, bidding her do the
best she could with 1t. She was an easy
going unthrifty sort of body, and buried 1t
in the garden in plain sight of everybody
about the place. taking only the precaution
to set a struggling rose bush on top of 1t,
and, further. to put above the gold bag
of silver that she herself had saved up.
That was Friday night. On Sunday the
family all went to preaching. When they
cam home the rosetree lay uprooted, the
bag of silver was gone, and so were a
wagon and team, besides a family Of ne
groeS.
They had taken all Of their belongings
and so much of their masters and run
away to the nearest federal outpost, which
was twenty miles off. Pursuit was useless
and would have been foolish The farmer
eyed the rifled hole a minute, then thrust
his arm down into 1t, scratched about fu-
riously, clutched something deeper down
and brought up the bag of gold. The sill
yer had saved the gold. The despoilers,
finding it, had not thought to dig deeper.
But the owner was not satisfied to trust
man, but, Sunday though 1t was, he swung
the bag over his shoulder and tramped off
into the woods. He did not come back un-
til the night was well on and said nothing
of what he had one with the money. He
never said anything, in fact Six months
later he was found dead in bed OF heart
disease, and though his heirs hunted high
and low, have asked the help of the dfvin-
in., rod and consulted clairvoyants, to say
nothing of having cleared up the woodland
and dug over almost the whole thousand
acre farm, to this day they have never
found trace of the lost money.
A Variety of Devices.
Another man buried a pot of gold in a
rickety barn, then set fire to the structure,
being certain that nobody would think of
rumma ging in the. ashes. And still another
put $4,000 in gold and greenbacks in the
earthen floor of his smoke house. and let it
stay there five years, not daring to take 1t
out until reconstruction was pretty well
accomplished. One Of his neighbors, the
thriftiest man in the county, was known
to have put a very large sum in the rock
walls of his cellar, but to have grown dis
trustful of that hiding place. and SO to
have chosen another. Where the other was
located never came out; the man who chose
1t was secretive and did not tell even his
only son. BY and by he was stricken
speeches. and motionless at time when
he looked to be good for years of life. He
did live six months, and throughout them
he made desperate efforts to tell his secret,
but all in vain. 1t is still a secret-eXcept
as to a few thousand dollars, which his
grandson found twenty years after, under
the rock pillars of an old corn crib.
In numerous cases money was hidden in
open fields, and the land plowed over to
hide the fresh earth. Then it was neces-
sary in some unobtrusive way to mark the
exact spot, or the hider would be none the
better for saving himself from robbery.
Sometimes the mark was peculiarly shaped
stone, sometimes a bit of iron, such as a
WORKOUT pillow point or king bolt, which
might readily be left a-field. More COM
monty 1t was thin rod Of hard wood cap
ped with metal, or, better STILL an old ram
rod driven into the earth above pot or jar,
and left standing an inch above ground.
One wise woman raised several broods Of
chickens, which, she declared later, ought
to be called golden pheasants, as they were
all Matched in the fence corner nest, under
which she had hidden by night a half-gal-
Ion fruit jar full of gold Another wore
ragged shoes and homespun frocks and
busted herself with spinning and weaving,
more to save herself from the suspicion Of
having money in hand, and all the time
had $1,000 in a belt around her waist. 1t
belonged to orphans for whom her husband
was guardian. and while he was away
fighting for the confederacy she had no
mind he should be made out faithless to
his trust. A third astounded her neighbors
by developing great style in her hair dress