The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-11-24
CAME BACK FOR HIS MONEY.
DIGGING N 4 YARD At MIDNIGHT
FOR A POT OF GOLD.

The NeighbOrs ThOaghf That Some
body Had Been Murdered and
Buried in the Night and Demanded
an Investigation by the Police and
the Coroner - The Investigation
Discovers Nothing and the suppOs-
ed Victim Turns Up All Right-If
Furnished the People I'm the East
ern section With an AII-Day Sem
satiOn, Though.
The people in the old fort had a sensa-
ton all day yesterday. and there were
the widest rumors of murder and the
finding Of buried pots of gold. Early yes
terday morning a white man living in
the vicinity of Houston and State streets.
approached Policeman Farrell, and told
him that a yard in that neighborhood
had been dug up during the night and I'LL
ed in again, and the people living in that
vicinity were of the opinion that there
had been foul play. Their theory was that
an old white woman, who occasionally
makes the house her headquarters, had
been murdered by negroes and buried in
the yard during the night. Policeman Far
rell took the man 20 Chief McDermOtt. to
whom he repeated the story. Chief Nc
Dermott did not take much stock in the
tale. but ne decided that it was worth
investigating. and sent the policeman there
with Instructions to do So Other par
ties making reports to the same effect,
Detectives Kiley and Scully were sent to
the place with instructions to make
thorough examination of the premises.
Reports of the same nature were also
To 70 no cd
to the scene accompanied by two able
bodied men with spades, prepared to I'M
earth dead bodies whole or in sections.
The yard in which all this mystery CEN
tered is in the rear of the house at the
northeast corner of Houston and State
streets which is occupied by an old negro
woman. The old woman said that she
woke up very early yesterday morning
before day, and hearing a noise in her
yard looked out of the window. She saw
TWO men in the yard digging and asked
them what they were doing there. one
OF them replied that he was digging for
a pot of money, which he buried there
four years ago. He had been in the PEN
itentiary ever since, he said, and had just
gotten out and had come back to look
for his money. They were both negroes,
she said. One was a stranger to her
and the other was man
whom she knew as vender
of fish and vegetables around the
road. They dug up the whole yard, she
said, and finally uncovered an old kettle,
which they said contained the money.
They did not show it to her. however,
and she had no idea how much it con-
tanned.
AS the people in the neighborhood seem
ed thoroughly impressed with the idea
that there had been foul play of some
kind Coroner Goette had his men turn up
the loose earth with the result that they
shoveled out hole almost large enough
to contain a man standing upright, but
discovered nothing As the old woman,
who was supposed to have been made
away with was afterwards discovered not
very far away, the supposition that she
had been murdered was disposed of and
the detectives came to the conclusion that
somebody actually had been digging for
money in the yard, as the old colored
woman said.
The old white woman who figures in
the story is a queer lot herself. Several
weeks ago she applied at the police bar
racks for a nights lodging. She said
she was from North Carolina, and, as she
looked rather frail, one of the officers
took pity on her. and gave her a place to
made his house her headquarters going
off at frequent intervals for hours at a
time. 1t seems that she made a practice
of begging small amounts of tea, coffee
and groceries, and when she had ac-
cumulated a supply of these she would
them. The house at Houston and State
streets was one of the places which she
frequently visited. The old negro woman
when asked about her said:
she so 'rOun and get iii coffee and
iii tea an come her an sell em to we
sit here an drink. OATS how she been
here so often"