Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-03-27
CAPT. DAMS GHOST STORY,
1T BRINGS TROUBLE TO THE TRAv.
ELING GROCERYMAN's MIND.
Although, According to Captain Dan,
1t IL C~orrobOrated by Mr.. Kittle,
Mr.. Gilbert II Unable to De-
eide AbOut . Dream

From the New York Sun.
One Of three things is certain" said
John Gilbert. the travelling groceryman.
land 1 would rejoice If some person would
only satisfy my mind as to which one 1t
Is. for I can't do 1t myself. Did my old
friend. Captain Dan Culver, dream or does
he lie? Or is Lew kittle a mine reader?
If I only knew Lew Kittle I might be able
to form a judgment, but I don't know him.
I never heard Of him until after Captain
Dan mentioned him in connection with this
matter that has got me guessing. and the
captain a forgotten where he lives. So
that's the way the thing stands and I'm
in a quandary.
The way it came to happen was that I
was at Pittsburg not long ago and almost
the first man stumbled on vas my old
1 don't know what regiment Captain Dan
was in during the late war, but Nv often
heard him tell how he was in every big
times at Gettysburg before they could get
him to go away and have the bullets taken
".Hullo. John!' said he. Which way you
headed?'
II told him I thought I'd go down and
look some Of the West Virginia country
"'west Virginia, eh?' said Captain Dan.
I remember we'll the last time I was in
o Msa1 to- s,rs noad. 1 ia aaoa ND SAY Aga SOL t!' think l
During the hot times Of the war. 1sup-
No. sir: said Captain Dan. Since
during the war. and I saw q heap and did
a lot Of things that ought to have turned
me as grey as a rabbit thirty years before
Days fight. I got up and ate my break
fast on the morning Of the first day Of that
battle. and Immediately got to work. and
said to Corporal Smith: Corporal" said
I. that's. the %stifest days action I ever
put in without stopping for dinner" .'Stif-
~! "Why 1ay yhun aSsr0a and MAJ Mars. captain eapsain.s sn said
he. This is the end Of the seventh day"
That was a fact. 1 had fought all through
with it that I had Kept no note Of time.
ant didn't know until 1 turned in for sup
per that day, that instead Of skipping one
Then there was the battle Of
"'This last time you were in West yir-
ginia, captain. SAID l. in~teTrupting him.;
s sag made asa gou m remem a1@e it so ,~ nsii7 eid you
III didn't say said Captain Dan, but
it was something I saw the last time I was
it. What Was it / saw Only eight i've
ssh hosts that's all. Only eight Of emf 1'Ao
III litt mus fo na Csp toGnef 1a aa II imm was sayD said:
word f I Was T Surprised myself nSas k I never Seq BE-
liss S1a IN f fS ssy t SsaeF / pe shst; a IN 9em ! n nsse
hottest Of the c~hickamausa fight, when
Corporal Smith came to me n.
say this happened in, captain said I.
"'Didn't say replied Captain Dan. but
1t was down in Tucker county. I was look
was put in oil territory in the Wheeling dis
trict. When news came that somebody had
found the lost gold min OF Clover river.
T. ~ a ~ ~1~I0 .,,-L
for Glover river, and I Joined the process
a hundred years ago by the very miners
pened to lose it, was when the Indians
who lived in the Clover river country there
learned that the mine had been found they
Of it, and of course the finders lost it. The
mine had never been found again until this
time I speak OF. and everybody was wild.
They were wilder still when they got down
as a matter OF fact the lost mine hadn't
been found at all.
nights in succession, men digging eagerly
in the ground along Indian Run. near the
old battlefield of Rich Mountain. and as
when approached by the mountaineers the
mountaineer had jumped at the %conclus-
ion that they were not men. but ghosts of
mine min ma and that they had come back to
locate the mining property for posterity.
And from that the story got around that
the lost min had been found, and when
the contingent I was with got down there
we found the locality one jam Of wild-eyed
and disguised prospectors. and the only
was for those credulous mountaineers who
had spread the story Of the finding Of the
lost mine. But I was kline of glad I came,
anyhow. for it gave me the opportunity
Of looking over the field where the battle
of Rich Mountain was fought,the only
in it alright. though II I hadn't had seven
horses shot under me trying to get there.
I couldn't get any more horses and 1t was
too far to walk. ! was looking the field
over when q man who seemed to think he
knew what he was talking about came
along.
."'"Them mountaineers seen them chaps
diggin,' all right said he to me. But they
wasn't the miners ghosts. They was the
Confederate L~eutenant's men, tryin' to- bury
him."
the man passed on. After I had got
through with the battle field. I began to
think that I had better hunt up a place to
bunk in for tho night. and I wasn't long
finding out that there wasn't q shanty or
q tent or even a bush that had room or
shelter for another ledger. Right on the