Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1882 — A WILD WOMAN. [ARTICLE]

A WILD WOMAN.

A North Carolina Cannibal That Feeds on Babies. A Tale Like the Stories Told in the * Great Forests of the Old Country. [Charlotte (N. C.) Telegram to Chicago Tribune.] For months past th; re have • eea rumors of a terrible apparition, which has terrorized all the women and children in Clear Creek township The women say that for two weeks they have been subject to terrifying visits in the absence of their husbands .from a creature like a shiny, black negress, with long hair and gleaming eyes. She asks in hardly distinguishable gibberish for a baby to eat, and makes efforts to get hold of the children. The men, getting tired of the fears of their wives, determined to try and cat- h the > reature, and for the last week crowds of farmers have been daily and nigh Jy chasing her without success. The first effort to catch her was made a week ago by John Boberts, a blacksmith. The wild creature had appeared several times at afire which it was the habit of Carey Moore (colored) of the neighborhood to light alter dark ini he yard*of hs house for the preparation of his meals Roberts w s put to watch her, and she appeared even before the fames were well kindled, t-he presented suck a wild look in the halflight. and asked for food in such wild fashion, that Roberts was demoralized He recovered, however, made an outcry, and attempted to seize the woman, but she slirped through his hands, and disappeared in the dark shadows of the woods Tuesday morning Maj. Stephen Cowell caught sight of the creature, and chased her across an open field. He was badly hurt in hi« efforts to keep up with her, and reported that she outran a buck, and cleared four corn-rows at a leap. That same night she was again enticed from the woods by the k ndling of a fire, and was chased by thirty men without success. Capt Marsh Alien, later in the day, met her in the neighborhood with her faqe tom and bleeding, and a long bloody knife in her hand. The creature was naked and so unearthly and terrible-looking to him that he says he is not sure it is a human being. Her hair reached almost to her feet, and was kinky like that of the African. It is not mere fright which has caused the country people to organize in their attempts to catch the creature, which has been living in the forest and swamp fastnesses for a year or more. Some months ago it is reported an infant was spirited away from its parents’ yard while they were in the corn-field, and was never heard from, and the disappearance was from that section of the country in which the wi d woman has been seen, and mothers, white aud black, are in terror for fear their little one - may also become food lor the cannibal negress. Yesterday the fanners, some mounted and others on loot, assembled for the pua pose of surrounding a swamp in which the creature is known to be hid. There are 400 men ready for the chase. At first it was attempted to run her down with bloodhounds, but they refused to cliaSe her, which deepened the superstitious feeling with which the men as weil as the women of the communiiy began to regard her. The men made the attempt to catch her, but without success. The excitement among the nearest and simple county folk is intense.