The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1897-01-07

to dig. covering the place very care
fully, le- The Mexican returned to his
bed, an -he next monring told his en-
y pl0yer n+oJt he had seen. The police
were in ned and Went out TO the spot
! to see o whether or not the negroes
had no ried murdered man there to
hide Il crime. There was nothing
found the matter was dropped. 1t
I was tn eginning of the end. however.
In a S time it became rumored
around nong the negroes that there
was a lden treasure in Pease park.
The ri n was not confined to the
negroes The white men got hold of it.
What's lore they believed it. The
rumor cad. About this time gentle
man c, here from Mexico. He was
Spar d. He came here to visit
friends He told something about an en-
gagemt between the Indians and a
body !, surveying eXicans INN Pease
park !, before this state was settled
up. Ii said that upon the occasion OF
this el cement between the Indians
and tt Mexicans. that the Mexicans,
in ordt to tighten their packing animals
for fiji hit. had buried something like
$1,000 D in gold bars in the creek bottom
in the center of triangle formed
by thr' trees located in the valley of the
creek lat runs through Pease park, be-
low II old Neal place. The treasure
was D. lied, so the story ran, under rock
pile il the center of this triangle. The
story ent further to say that this Span-
ish ge,' leman, in order to help the friends
that NJ NTas visiting to find the hidden
thousaI Es secured an old man with the
exact ] bcation of the treasure. This he
gave tt the parties he was visiting, and
then ne went home.
The Tory soon began to be whispered
around 1t was like fairy story. Those
who he frd about it looked at one another
askingl and said, don't tell anybody
else. the course of time possibly
twenty i've people knew it. No five of
that tW enty-five. however, knew that the
others knew it, for awhile, at least.
Some the more enterprising treasure
hunters went about the matter systemat-
ically. vThey organized a stock company
and WONT in so much money apiece to buy
| the tools with which to work. They made
other arrangements to get the treasure.
| The lauiy at whose house the Spaniard
had vif tied had a young daughter. These
worthy treasure hunters accordingly set
about using her as a decOy to find the
| exact spot where the treasure was located.
| Ihey sfnt one of their crowd, q most ac-
| ceptable young man, to call on the young
! lady, and gave him so much a night to
buy CANDY and other refreshments that
might be necessary in his line of work
to secure the map with the location of the
hidden. treasure. The young man was
constant in his attention to the young
4 lady. He did his best, and sometimes
he called for as much as $50 night. but
he did not seem to make much Roadway.
His partners complained and finally they
went Up the creek to see if anybody else
had been anywheres near the treasure.
They stood aghast. They found great
trenches dug in many places. Somebody
was after the treasure. They waited no
longer. That night, when the valley was
in the very deepest of gloom, they went
to the place where the hidden treasure
was supposed TO be located. They found
others there before them. They could
hear item digging. They laid around and
watchtd, and finally the first Corners be-
came weary and left. Then the new
: comera went to work and worked until
daybr4k. The next day they returned.
only Ito find that somebody was
;" seeking to remove all traces of the trees.
Ihcy Dad burned one of the trees, the
south eorner one, down, close off to the
grolnu, so as TO remove the triangular
. quite. They worked hard after that;
! the ordalizod that somebody else was af.
rthdr treasure, and they never let a
nsle night pass but what they were
'orkig. 1t soon came to pass that the
ltre valley of the creek that runs
lrough the park was alive with workers
nigft. They went about as silent as
le grave. Every once in awhile some
rowd would bump up against another
thetdark, in which case the disturbed
rowd would invariably run away. Time
'ent IN. One company that had organ
ed tecame weary of waiting and dig
ng. They secured an old negro hoodoo.
9th his eyes set away back in his head,
t,fnd took him out to hunt the treasure.
he cd fellow said that if he walked
liver gold his feet would burn like he was
| sltepping on needles. So he was marched
H. Tut to the charmed place where the treas
Ire WIS supposed to be. He was walked
Jp and down the creek back and cross,
Ind over his beat time and again. until
lie fell from exhaustion. but he could
lever make his feet burn. He told his
Employers that the only thing that he
1ould ind under him was water, and that
There was no gold there. His employers
fired him in disgust. and renewed their
Digging.
On their first visit to the ground they
found that somebody had dug deep
trench across the triangle formed by the
trees, from each of the tree corners, to
meet at the center, but all to no purpose
( apparently. The story, as it was told
to these worthy treasure hunters, was
that when the Mexicans buried the treas
lure they had placed stob in the ground
Idirectly over the spot and placed some
Istoncsi. over it. There was an immense
stone i'm the center of the triangle. The
treasure hunters turned it over