The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-03-06
FROM AN Old SLAVES CRAVE
An Errato HALL or Fire That 10 Said to Jour-
ney ut Might About . Georgia Farm.

An ErratIc HALL or Fire That 10 Said to Jour-
ney nj NiEht About . Georgia Farm.
I'm De Kalb county. Ca. four miles from tho
village OF Lithonia," said q native OF that
county, lis what is now known as the MO
Williams farm. Fifty years ago a family named
Reid owned tho place and lived there. The
head Of that family. Jasper Reid, was q head
strong. tyrannical man. He had a female slave
named Jude. Reid was hard with his slaves,
and for some act of characterization real or
~fancied. he had the woman judo fogged one
day. and then locked her in a pen. where he
kept her on short rations until she died. a month
or 30 later. Jude's body was buried In a piece
Of woods in q solitary place on q hillside, three
hundred yards or 20 from the house. Jude and
the solitary grave on the hillside would have
been forgotten years and years ago II 1t
hadn't boon that one night, q week or
90 after the poor slaves body had been
buried. a curious phenomenon made its appear
ance at the grave and has persisted In appear
Ing periodically ever since. thus keeping itself
ever fresh in the minds of the people thereabout
and necessarily perpetuating the memory of
Jude and the lonely grave. That phenomenon
is known az Jude's light.
at first appeared to old Jasper Reid himself.
He was sitting on the piazza Of his house one
night, which he saw a ball of fire rise In the
woods. directly on the spot where Jude's grave
was. The house stood-and stands yet-in the
fork OF two small creeks that Join just below 1t.
and the bottom land WAS swamp and covered
with canebrakes. II was not an uncommon
thing to see phosphorescent lights dance and
float with the wind over and among those brakes
under certain conditions Of the weather, and
Reid supposed this light that rose on the hill
was one Of these. although he had never before
seen any Of the phosphorescent will-o'. the-wisps
H. 49,. u. IL .-- 49,.
large az this one. The light rose several feet
above Jude's grave. fingered there a moment.
and then started slowly down the hill toward
the house. This amazed and startled Reid. for
quite a strong wind was blowing directly up the
hill; and yet this Light was fraysllins with ease ease
had ever been known TO do. Besides. this light
illuminated with deep reddish tinge the bushes
disturbed. In spite OF himself. as the light came
on. but no believed y would disappear in the
light passed right on through the brakes. and
moved straight toward the house, Reid had not
canny thisS, and hastened into tho house. The
light did not stop In Its direct course until ~
reached the house. and then y passed round and
neighbors and as he wrote TO q friend in Atlanta.
II fingered about the premises an hour, watched
by Reid and terror-strieken members OF his
household. when 1t returned to the spot in the
woods whore, 1t had first appeared, lowered 9
% nSa Sissp IN 1as a" Tbs nn light atS Continued 10 dc TO appear sppear
thus at irregular Intervals for a month, when
Reid, TO escape the worriment II gave him and
the terror II Kept his family in. sold his farm and
"a mar named Blunt purchased the place. and
1 think descendants of his live there yet; but,
at any rate, every one who has lived on the farm
since Reed went away has seen and wondered at
iiS SSss' w aisef ftv esa on ~ the 1fSssa once sSstCs says 'i Sc has
seen the light more than a hundred times. !
have seen 70 myself three times. Although IL is
always a weird and startling apparition. II long
ago ceased to be a source OF alarm or uneasincss
10 the people OF the locality. and even the super
etitious negroes manifest no terror when IL ap-
pears, although thoy all ~sacredly believe that IL
10 poor Jude, the slave. transformed, for some
cause into n ball OF nre and doomed TO make
these .cecutric Journeys about tho place where
sTLis strange Light is sparkling. but not