The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1896-03-07
WARTIME POTS OF GOLD.

'ue HiiusouIH WHICH was LOT lHlee years Of
civil war Il lebatable land, wherein, out
side the army posts, there was no security
of person or property. The invaders them
selves had Il petty taste for looting, but
they were nothing like so rapacious as the
guerrillas, who plundered impartIally men
of all sympathes, and az often sported
blue and brass as the Confederate gray
The guerrillas had, indeed, but a single
active principlc-pllage. Gold was at an
enormous premium
Still, very many did insist on having
gold, and found life burden after they
got it. The writer remembers, us small
child. the weeks of unrest that followed the
coming into the house Of fat bag of double
eagles in exchange for many hogsheads #
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 indeed had
endured during attempts to make them re
veal the hiding place of their money. One
touHttllol, Ittll StluDItl W
a board and held with his feet to slow
fire until they were so crisp he never
walked again vet to the last he had kept
stontly silent. Another had been swung
up by the thumbs throughout long, cold
night, with nothing on but the garments in
which lie had been dragged from bed An
4 I, 4
her wounds washed with vinegar Indeed,
every variety OF torture that tiendish in.
gcnuity could devise was said to have been
practiced toward the unhappy possessors IF
hidden treasures.
So it became matter of first importance
to be able to say truthfully that you knew
nothing of such thing.
Sudden death did come in many cases.
One old farmer, who had held three years
crcp until prices were at their highest got
SD, 600 in the yellow metal, took it home
and gave it to his wife, bidding her do the
best she could with it. She was an easy
going, unthrfty sort of body n, buried
it in the garden in plain sight OF everybody
about the place, taking only theprecaution
to set Struggling rose bush on top of it,
and further, to put above the gold a bag of
silver that she herself had saved up. That
was Friday night. On Sunday the family
went to preaching, When they came home
the rosetlee lay uplooted, the bag of silver
was gone, and so wire wagon and team,
besides family of negroes
They had taken all of their belongings,
the nearest Federal outpost, which was 20
miles off. Pursuit was useless and would
have boon foolish. The farmer eyed the
iitlcd hole Il minute, then thrust his arm
down into it, scratched about furiously
clutched something deeper down and
brought up the bag Of gold. The despoilers
wile's hiding further He was godly man,
man, but, Sunday tn ugh it was, he swung
bag over his shoulder and trlmpcd off into
the woods. He did not come back until
til, night was welIaon said nothing of what
he had done 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 divining rod and con
suited clairvoyants, to say nothing of hay
ing cleared up the whole woodland and
dug over the whole ! 900 acre farm, to thi.
day they have never found a trace of the
lost money.
Another man buried Il pot of gold in n
ricsety barn, then set fire to the structure,
being certain that no one would think OF
rummaging in the ashes. And still
another put $500, 900 in gold and green
backs in the earthen floor of his smoke
house, and let it stay there five years. not
daring to take it out until reconstruction
was pretty well accomplished One of his
neighbors. the thrftiest man in the county,
was known to have put Il very large sum
in the rock walls Of his cellar, but to have
grown distrustful of that hiding place, and
so to have chosen another. Where the
other was located never came out: but the
man who chose it was secretlve, and did
not tell even his only son. BY and by he
was stricken speechless and motionless at a
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 secrct-eNccpt as to Il few thousand
dollars which his grandson found 20 years
alter, undrr the rock pillars of an old corn
crib In numerous ca, es money was hid
den in open fields and the land plowed
over to hide the fresh earth.
one wise woman raised several br0Ods OF
chickens, which, she declared Iat'r, ought
to he called golden phcasant~, as they were
all Matched in the fence corner nrsl, under
which she had hidden by nigh. half gal
lon fruit jar full of gold. Another wore
ragged shoes and homespun IrJcks, and
busted herself with spinning aui weaving,
more to save herself from the suspicion of
having money in hand and all tie time
had 5000 in belt around her waist Ii
belonged to orphans for whom her husband