Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1898-04-08
a BALL OF FIRE THAT is SEEN AT
NIGHT ON A GEORGIA FARM.
It IL Said TO Rise From IN Old Slaves
Grave. TO which It Returns After Max.
ing h Rounds-Unlike the Common
Phosphorescent Light.

>ANS OOANa VAAOAA AO0ANS y ~ ofHNASS WACA
he kept her OH short rations until she
died, a month or so later. Jude's body
was buried in a piece of woods in a soli-
tary place on q hillside 800 yards or SO
from tho house. Jude and the solitary
grave on the hillside would have been for
gotten years ago If it hadn't been that ono
night a week or SO after the poor slavo's
body had been buried u curious phenom-
enon made its appearance at tho grave and
has persisted in appearing periodically
ever since, thus keeping itself ever fresh
In the minds of the people thereabout and
necessarily p%erpetuating the memory of
Jude and the lonely grave. That phenom-
enon is known as Jude's light.
s'1t first appeared to old Jasper Reid
himself. He was sitting OF the piazza of
his house one night when 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 it, and the
bottom land was swampy and covered
with canebrakes. 1t was not an uncom-
mon thing to see phosphorescent lights
dance and float with the wind over and
among those brakes under certain condi-
tions Of tho weather, and Reid supposed
this light that rose on tho hill was one of
SAO0OS oAUuOuSu Ao q sASSS1 CAIIU ecCu
any of the rhosphoresccpt will o .ole-wisrs
appear SO far from the iowlaius, nor any
go large as this one. The light rose SOW
eral feet above .Judc's grave, lingeru there
o moment aid then started slowly down
the hill toward tho house. This amazed
and startled Reid, for quito . strong wind
was blowing directly up the hill. and yet
this light NHs travelling with case against
1T, something no p!:uspiioresccnt light had
ever been known to do. Besides, this
light Illuminated with q deep reddish
lingo tho bushes ara trees us it passed
along. Reid was greatly DISTURBED in
spite of himself as tho light cl;..e On, but
he believed it wculd disappear in the
swamp, as the will-o'-tbe-wisps all did.
But this light passed right on through the
brakes and moved straight toward tho
house. Reid had not the courage to re-
main longer in sight of tho uncanny thing
and fastened into tho house. The light
did not stop in it's direct course until it
reached the house, and then it passed round
and round tho house, as Reid solemnly de-
clarcd to n%eigLbors and rs he wrote to q
friend in Atlanta. 1t fingered about the
premises an hour, watched by Reid and
terror stricken members of his household,
when 1T returned to tho spot in the woods
where it had first appeared, lowered q mo-
ment in tho dir and dropped to the ground
and disappeared. This light continued to
appear thus ut irregular intervals for q
month, when Reid, to escape the worri-
ment it gave him and the terror 1t kept
his family in, sold his farm and moved
away
"a man named Blunt purchased the
place, n I think descendants of his live
there yet; but. at any rate, every one who
has lived on the farm since Reid went
away has seen and wondered at Jude's
Highland It's queer actions. Nathan Lyons,
who lived on the farm once, says he has
seen the light more than a hundred times.
I have seen it myself three times. AL
though it is always q weird and startling
apparition, 1t long ago ceased to be a source
of alarm or uneasiness to the people of the
locality, and even the superstitious negroes
manifest no terror when it appears, al
though they all sacredly believe that it is
poor Jude, the slave, transformed for some
cause into a ball of fire and doomed to
make these eccentric journeys about the
place where she once toiled.
"This strange light is sparkling, but not
brilliant. 1t invariably rises from Jude's
grave, or whore the grave used to be, for
there is no mound there now, and never
disappears until it returns to that spot.
One time whom a man na4.4ed Hartman
lived on the farm a brother of his from
atlanta who was skeptioal about this
queer light came up there to investigate
1t. 1t appeared on the scene the first night
the Investigator was there and was par.
ticularly bright and erratio. It came down
the hill, passed over the farm and ciroled
round, proceeded up the swamp and then
of into the woods until it had gonei in that
direction nearly q mile, where It remained
stationary. This, Hartman's: brother
thoughts was his opportunity and he de-
cided to 60 up to Jude's grave and be.
there when the light came back and note,
how it disappeared. He started rapidly up
the bill. Jude's light glimmered in the.
distance. Hartman was within three or
four rods Of the grave when the light glid-
ed down through the woods so quickly
that it was poising over the grave before
the Investigator had gone two PAGES nearer
and dropped to the grounda and disappeared
before Hartman could realize what had
occurred.
"This strange light differs so radically
from the common phosphorescent lights Of
the Georgia swamps. that 1t cannot be one
of those. The phosphorescent lights can
only travel with the wind. This light
moves IN Cn0 lace OF G0o W1006.
Phosphorescent lights vary in size and app
p~earance. This light is always the same
size-about as largeas an average sized
cantaloupe-and always Of the same red
dish glow, casting an Illuminated belt
perhaps a yard On each side Of 1t and ahead
and behind 1t as 1t moves. It always rises
at the same spot and passes along at the
same height above the ground. It appears
in the driest and hottest as we'll as in the
coolest and wettest weather. It doesn't
come outSevery night nor at any particular
time Of night, but Thomas Mize, who
lived on the. farm two years, said he saw
Jude's light 800 nights during those two
years and never later than II O'Clock at
night."-New York Sun.
@ A Worthless Suggestion.
ST have tried the kissing cure for indi-
gestion, but it Is no good"
"What was the testp"s
"My wife had q ohalng dish supper,
and I followed it up BY kissing the entire
family. Didn't aleep 9 wink that night"