A Mysterious Shanty
Dallas Morning News
October 10, 1897
A Mysterious Shanty
Waco, Tex, Oct. 9 -- A mysterious shanty has been discovered in a cedar thicket on the north side of Waco near the city boundary. Walter Weaver, a school boy, while after rabbits discovered the hut.
Next day C.C. Johnson, Jack Smart and Oriville Work, guided by Walter, visited the spot and were amazed at the discoveries they made. The floor of the old dilapidated shanty was littered with various articles, denoting experiments in molding metal and in the manufacture of molds. Lumps of babbitt and copper were scattered about and a considerable lot of plaster of paris was in a heap in one corner.
Among the articles in the vacant hut was a treatise on amalgamating metals. The book was moldy, as if it had been neglected for a long time and had been in all sorts of weather. Some evidences were found of experiments in plating by the use of a battery.
The young men reported the find to Mr. John H. Finks, the federal commissioner, who visited the place, accompanied by Deputy United States Marshal W.L. Burke. All the articles left in and near the hut were collected and will be kept by the federal officers for further developments.
The officers suspect that the parties intended the manufacture of counterfeit coin and were frightened away before they got fairly to work. The shanty in which the articles described were found is located in a dense growth of cedar near a place which used to be called "Dead Man's hollow," owing to frequent lynchings there in the early days before law and order were established.
Persons residing nearest the hut remember hearing explosions there two months ago during the night. One man says he saw three men working in the hut in August. They told him they were getting ready to drill for oil, and as oil prospectors were in the neighborhood no further inquiry was made at the time.
October 10, 1897
A Mysterious Shanty
Waco, Tex, Oct. 9 -- A mysterious shanty has been discovered in a cedar thicket on the north side of Waco near the city boundary. Walter Weaver, a school boy, while after rabbits discovered the hut.
Next day C.C. Johnson, Jack Smart and Oriville Work, guided by Walter, visited the spot and were amazed at the discoveries they made. The floor of the old dilapidated shanty was littered with various articles, denoting experiments in molding metal and in the manufacture of molds. Lumps of babbitt and copper were scattered about and a considerable lot of plaster of paris was in a heap in one corner.
Among the articles in the vacant hut was a treatise on amalgamating metals. The book was moldy, as if it had been neglected for a long time and had been in all sorts of weather. Some evidences were found of experiments in plating by the use of a battery.
The young men reported the find to Mr. John H. Finks, the federal commissioner, who visited the place, accompanied by Deputy United States Marshal W.L. Burke. All the articles left in and near the hut were collected and will be kept by the federal officers for further developments.
The officers suspect that the parties intended the manufacture of counterfeit coin and were frightened away before they got fairly to work. The shanty in which the articles described were found is located in a dense growth of cedar near a place which used to be called "Dead Man's hollow," owing to frequent lynchings there in the early days before law and order were established.
Persons residing nearest the hut remember hearing explosions there two months ago during the night. One man says he saw three men working in the hut in August. They told him they were getting ready to drill for oil, and as oil prospectors were in the neighborhood no further inquiry was made at the time.
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