The Saint Paul globe., 1899-07-16
LEEDS DEVIL RETURNS
MONSTER WHICH STRUCK TERROR
TO JERSEYMEN IN COLONIAL
DAYS
JUST SEEN BY TWO MEN

tician Who Is Studying the
Strange People in the 600 Square
Miles of jersey Pine Forest-AII
Believe in Leeds Devil, Once
Banished for a Century.
VINCETOWN, N J., Juno 13-Leeds'
devil has reapReared. Yes, that terrible
monster which struck terror to the people
Of these parts back in Colonial times is
abroad in the land once more. Leeds.
devil has reappeared and "woe be-
tide u.s." say the Piners, for the evil
thing is inevitably g. harbinger of some
dire calamity. The Piners are the deni-
zens Of that dense expanse of forest
known as the Jersey Pines, upon whose
frontier this quaint little town is located.
and Leeds devil in New Jersey folk lore
is analogous to the Werwolf of the Ger
man mountaineers, but more hideous and
more fantastical.
Leeds devil has not been vividly seen
since it warned the Piners of the coming
of the Civil War. Its return is now
regarded as a certainty inasmuch as two
men, in separate settlements, each with
out knowledge of the others experience,
have reported the temperance at about
the same time. One of these men is Joel
Harrison, of Sooy Place, in the Pines,
twelve miles above here and in Burlington
county, upon the historic forest road
through which Pulashis legion rode to
the affair with the British at Osborne
Island, near Tuckerton when the. Revolu-
tionary War was at its height Harrison
is a much respected man, well known
by fishermen and cranberry growers who
happen at intervals through the clearing
where Sooy Place stands. He is eighty
years Old tall and wears q luxuriant
growth Of lan1brtcane whiskers. The
monster was revealed to him about
a week ago, although the Intelligence has
just reached here. He claims this to
have been it's third revelation In his long
lifetime. The saccount Of the other ap-
pearance comes from Martin Giberson.
Of Burrvjlle.- irK5 the Pines, eighteen miles
east of here, irlOcean county. Giberson
claims to have hads.a less vivid glimpse
Of it several years. back.
But what is Ieeds devil1
Allusions to it are found in q number
of collections of family manuscripts of
the ante-reVollFtionaEy period in the pos
session of several old residents here
abouts. The original story runs as fol-
lows, and strange to say, recent descrip-
tions tally exactly with those of more
than a century ago;
MOTHER LEEDS,
Back in the middIe-colonial days there
lived in Burlington, on the Delaware-the
pioneer Quaker settlement of the county
"a woman known as Mother Leeds ac-
cused of amateur witchcraft, and witch
craft was at its height herabouts at
that time. In 1875 Mother Leeds gave
birth to male child whose father at
first unidentified, was later said to have
been none other than, the very Foul
Fiend, the Prince of Darkness. The child
was normal at birth. but before the ter
mination Of the tempestuous night of its
arrival Mortified "severaI old crones gath
cred about the bedside Of Mother Leeds
by assuming an elongated Serpent-like
body, cloYen hoofss the head of a horse,
the wings of bat, and the forked tail
OF dragon The coloring of the horrible
creature turned to dusky brown, and
after bepommeling its mother and her
terrified companions it flew up the Chin
ney, uttering loud, rauoous cries. Circling
about from village to village during this
eventful night the fend devoured several
babies, abused a number OF young wom-
en- and made for the forest For some
years afterward belated travellers while
crossing the Pines, heard and saw it. The
Pine folks, whose experiences were even
more terrible, attributed to 1t supernat-
ural powers such as possessed by the
black witches of English folk lore. It
turned the milk sour. famed horses in
their stalls, dried up the cows, made
scar the Indian corn growing in the
fields. Accompanied, as 1t usually was,