The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-03-28
DIGGING FOR GOLD
GOT HIM IN TROUBLE.

Negro Who Was Caught Digging
Sentenced to Six Months on Chain
gang.
Although the police have not been
| able to obtain any proof, they are of
the opinion that the three negroes who
were surprised while preparing to dig
in the yards of the Seaboard Air Line.
early yesterday morning, were search
ing for stolen brasses and not buried
gold.
The negro Moses Hymes who was
| arrested by officer Wainwright and
who told the story of a buried treas
ure, stuck to his statement yesterday
when arraigned in Police Court. He
was remanded for trial in the City
! Court for carrying a concealed weapon
and was later given six months on the
chaingang by Judge Norwood.
Hymes was examined by the detec-
| tiVes before he was arraigned on the
concealed weapon charge. He declared
that he did not know who the two men
were who managed to make their es-
cape. The officers had hoped to learn
| from Hymes who his companions were,
and in this way to clear up the mys-
terry. The prisoner, however, insisted
that the identity of those who got
away from officer Wainwright is as
much mystery to him as it is to the
| officers of the law.
He had been accosted he said, by the
two men and asked to go with them
west of the city to dig for a buried
| treasure. The strangers related to him
that a certain women had dreamed
that there was Il vast amount of
wealth buried at the root of a certain
oak tree IN the railroad yards. She
disclosed the hiding place of the for
| tune with the understanding that she
would receive a share of the treasure.
| The men agreed to let Hymes in on thE
deal if he would assist them in digging
for the gold.
with crocus sacks, buckets and
shovels the trio started for the rail-
road yards shortly before midnight and
hadn't gotten to work when the rail-
road officer pounced down upon them
E1ymes seems to be a halfwitted ne
gro and the officers are inclined to
the opinion that some of his story is
true. Their theory is that the men
VINO made their escape are brass
thieves and that Hymes was pulled
into the game with the aid of an al
legged dream, and an imaginary hid
den treasure.
The detectives think It probable that
somewhere in the vicinity of where the
trio was encountered the unidentified
negroes had buried brasses that they
mad previously stolen from the rail-
road cars in the yards, reports of
thetts of this kind being on record at
police headquarters. The brasses are
heavy and they probably figured that
1t would take three men to carry
them away and that the halfwitted
negro could be induced to do his share
II he did not suspect that he was do
ing something wrong.
1t is by no means an unusual thing
for negro to dream of buried treas
ures and start hundreds of his
race digging up the soil. Several
years ago the members of the colored
race were agitated by a report that a
fortune was under the earth in the
southwestern sections of the city. For
several nights an army of negroes la
bored with picks and shovels in an eff
fort to locate the missing treasure.
They were finally disntegrated by the
police. Since that time there have
been several treasure digging expedi-
lions on a less extensive scale and the
negroes who are believed by the police
to have been guilty of brass stealing
probably used the old story in securing
the services of Hymes, who was un-
fortunate enough to be caught with
concealed pistol.