The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-14
SPRING RUNS WITH BLOOD.
STRANGE TALE OF A HAt-NTED
POOL IN MINNESOTA.

As'ce-A@enrn of a Family WiDed
Out There by the Indians.
RAINY Lake City, Mimi. Letter in Cbica-
go Chronicle.
away up in the northern part of Mime.
sota' close to the Canadian boundary line
is spring, said to be haunted which the
INDIANS avoid as they would pestilence.
Inc white guides and prospectors who fire.
quent the country never camp near the
! place and wild animals which once drink
! of its waters never return.
| Inc water is not clear, cold and Aark-
| ling as is the water of most springs-on
the contrary, it is a dun, dirty red in col
or almost as thick as the water of the
Missouri river in the early spring, and has
a bitter taste, as though strongly imprag-
mated with quinine. Men who have drank
at the spring have been made seriously III.
/ with every symptom of poisoning. and
| bones Of wild animals are strewn near
the gloomy spot, Indicating that the water
possesses death-dealing properties.
The spring is in a grove of dead nines
looking gaunt and CHASTITY in the dim light
of the forest, and is surrounded by ran
gled mass of underbrush through which it
is almost Impossible to make ones wav
So hidden from sight is it that a man in
search Of the spring might pass within A
few feet of It and remain in ignorance Of
its presence. A short distance from the
spring is ruined log house, showing that
| once human beings made their home there.
Time has done its work. however, and
now desoladon reigns supreme.
party of hunters who recently invaded
the Rainy Lake country in search of.Ibig
game ran onto the spring late in th&t-
| ernoon and decided to make their camp
| there for the night. Their experience dur
| ing the next few hours were such as to
| cause them to hurredly leave, after try
| ing in vain to solve the mystery of the
place and the story they have related re-
calls the tales told by the Indians re-
/ garding the springs.
! The hunters made their camp near the
ruined log house, and as the night was
| cold and dismal, a big fire was built
| around which the party sat as the even
ing meal was prepared. 1t was noticed
| that the water taken from the spring was
/ thick, i'll smelling and discolored, but no
| one paid any particular attention, being
! content to think they had found a good
! place to camp for the night. The water
was used in making coffee, but when the
hunters endeavored to drink the fluid
their stomachs rebelled and all became
| deathly ill.
While their agony was the greatest and
when two members of the little band
had completely collapsed, strange noises
were heard from the vicinity of the
! springs, and misty, white forms went fit
| tering by the camp fire. ShrleSS of NOR
| tai terror rang out upon the frosty air,
| and as they listened the blood of the hunt
1 vii horror W9ilinU
| of an infant sounded above the din; then
| came a womans voice, followed by the
| hoarse calls of a man.
! Two of the hunters tainted in their
! fright, and TO revive them their compan-
! ions rushed to the spring and procured
water to throw in their faces. Dipping
| their hands into the pail they started TO
! wet the heads of their comrades, when the
/ feeling of the fluid together with its Odor
! caused them to examine it more closely
! To their horror they saw the stuff was
| more like blood than water, and that IL
chung to their hands and to their gar
ments in huge. disgusting masses of red
while the odor which assailed their nos
trils filed them with a loathing they could
not express.
With a cry of fright the hunters threw
| the pail from them. far into the bushes,
and then retreated to the camp fire, where
| they scraped the substance from their
hands and clothing, each man asking the
| other what it all meant BY this time the
men who had tainted had regained their
/ senses, and a hasty consultation was held
All were men of courage, not to be fright
ened at the hooting of an owl or the
weird scream of loon, but all confessed
that the mystery confronting them was
one dense enough to appal the stoutest
heart.
An investigation was decided upon, and
armed with blazing pine knots the hun
ters began systematic search around
the spring whose water was not water at
all, but a thick bloodlike substance, which
dyed everything II touched a dirty red
and smeled like decaying flesh. Not a
shrub grew a the edge of the spring, or
pool and the vegetation in the neighbor.
hood was thick, rank and dark colored
more like the vegetation found in tropcal
countries than that ordinarily found in
the woods Of the far north.
Around the spring We're bones, which
proved to be those of human beings. From
the spring was drawn a skull, that of a
woman, and further search brought to
light the bones of an infant, reeking with
the fluid of the spring. Within a
radius of 100 feet from the pool
were found the bones of a man, also
the skeleton of deer and other animals,
and at last the hunters came upon a rusty
set gun, pointed directly across an old path
running toward the spring
Still the shrieks resounded through the
forest and in vain the hunters tried to To-
cate them. The noises seemed to come
from a dozen different points in the vicin-
ity of the spring and from the ruins of the
log cabin, but theclosest search failed to
reveal a living thing. A woman's dress.
fast falling into decay, lay sodden mass
upon a rude wooden cradle in the old cab
in, and a mans coat was on the floor near
by. Here and there was an ola newspa
per of a cheap magazine. or perhaps a
broken DISH but beyond these there was
nothing.
Yet in the very air seemed to be a pres
ence so dreadful and full of horror that the
hunters were glad TO pack their camp uten-
sis and fly from the gloomy spot. Rapidly
they made their way through the dark for
est, stumbling over fallen trees and broken
branches In their flight, the shrieks and