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About The advocate. (Portland, Or.) 19??-19?? | View Entire Issue (Dec. 14, 1929)
Í T ru e S to r ie s j| 4 A c h ie v e m e n t $ ^ S to r ie s » H /tit I II I >» l| ll m m H H f ir b s lN * i . « b t r a tilm iu llll M ‘ $«t r t r i l l *11* < • Portland Advocate it. II.U S’I IUTKI» IK ATURE SECTION’ December I I 1929 f’ i* l u r e s in tit« do no t • ml ll i u b t r u l e 'J ¥> a t u r e fs»ct*on w ere powfl. p r in c ip a l* uni*«* so c s p tio n c d HFV I M V i s tr s ls r * Jr , l« * lU r The MYSTERY of the VERMILION R A Y Still Unsolved! A f t e r n g ru e s o m e tra g e d y th e I ta u n te d K o e k sheds a b lin d in g light w hich seienee has not e x p la in e d . A | A 111ItT\ years ngo a Negro preacher wax rilling a mule along the I W Inti-water road. It was a dark, somber day, and a liv ing mist tilled the air. There was a hint of a heavy rain, ifnd the preach er. Moss Anderson, was in a hurry to rent h shell« r. It had been misting rain -nice early morning, ami the increasing dampness wax against the comfortable travel of the wayfarer. Moss was humming a little song a* h i s mule slowly picked his way over the uncertain road. W ltrii In rn .n r tu tlir place where tlir lilult m u straigh t U|i 111 the ulr tu n (tll/y lirluht. M int suddenly Iira n í a d rrp tuinliliiitt sound. *o iir n 11 ti k I v brought h it mount tu a gop i in- m ule inured his (rant Iret tlir Itintlnrt (it tlir uiilm ul showing lii IIm midden movement I In - -I i - ' 'Id Musa that m in d I iiiik r*t inord inary «un about In take 11 1 .1. • And hi tin mule stopped. there ruine almost liefore the rider had tim e to reult/r it. n d eu lrn lng t-ruidt Hut before the rnortnouH i n k ubuvr had let go ot the Mdo uf I hr 111 11 fT and i a v a ile d tn the rurtli. M ie AndeiMin hud seen som ething th at Milled hi-- heart D im f<0 ornen fit (be tailing rack ifiMef n .Venni u ornan ti fio clu tched On- linn f nI n *m all ch ild In cacti Ot Iter on n tan- - n riled no aerond Hash of thought to u ssgrr him that the wom an and the two little children hud lierti butted beneath the gl- tuntle rock and «Itliout « a ilin g to investigate. he leafied from the mule, left hliu Munding m ere In ilie wuiEuii m ad th at wound around the nidi* ot iI k - precipitous lilult and iiiih id liendloiig In the direc tion of A large « h ite hou r that Mood udt more tliuli three hu nd rn l r a t 'd . » * at c h a ' « a i the tieginniug of the trouble nt that partleiilni spot a mile out of liiilc lito u n . M issouri, and that wav when the big rock got its present nam e: "The Rock of the iia u n lln - W o m m " Cor. us u m atter ot (act the IWRMlm " f the «ornan and the two little c h ild ren were never recovered The rock weighed nppruxtm atelv sixty tons, and there was no way of blasting It without com pletely d e stroying all trace of tlir hum an lx stirs Unit lav m u ll'led Is in n tl it Men gal tiered, women cam e th ere an d fa in ted at the horrtblr traged y Men tried to ugrre u|sin some sensible course of action to follow, but there was obviously no reasonable lililíe s to be iidoptrd T h e rem ains of (lie victim s of the enarm one w e ll would have t o stay » h e re they were Com e w hat m ay they could not be removed Mus-, Andei an p reach ed i ser mon about It the follow ing Su n day Millie Ha Hr i . alio because of his ac quaintance with the hills, acted as a guide far the author and a number ■if Investigators, tie led the author to u vantage point where Ilie red ray could lie seen with remarkable clear ness. lie approached the rock at nine o'rlock on a clear t r nt.« s evening The air was still . . . He . . . began slowlv and cautiously to move in the d i rection of the rock. When he had rounded thr fiend. Ihr yrrmilion ray »h ir h looked os though It had been dipped in nuiuan blood, struck him squarely in the eyes. Rut he did not let this stop him. " t h e llaunlrd K im k - Ihr souri r of the Vermilion Kav. I'liis t in k crushed ihr «ornan and children. inortung a t his m iniature church In I’ lp e r » Oleit and he told his congregation that he had witnessed a sight th at h r would never forget as long as lie lived: and the old settlers around Dulehtow n rem em ber how Moss was a nervous wreck for the bulunrr of his life It must Im vr been terrible when Moss looked up to see the woman h elp less there In the tuitli of the rock and her two sm all girls holding to her hands for protection S u c h .t flung as that once seen 11 nevi < easy to erase from the hum an mind Mince lid s tragedy, oil each F r i day night of every week, tor the hast tw en ty-five years, the ghost light of the Rock of tlir Haunting Woman ha nevei erased to put tn uT appearance regardless of m Stth rr conditions regardless o f everything T h e fight seem s fo be u|Min the rock. In the center o f It mid the light resem bles In some niru.'.me a litnli-i n vutli .i n il glols such us Is used to w arn the c a re less motorist of an excavatio n on the highway. M any attem pts have been made to solve the inv .lc iy of the light but all these efforts have resulted In failu re on the part of the m any Investigators. T here seems to lie positively no explanation tor the existence of the light w ith the v e r milion my. Som etim es the ray ran lie seen for ns fs r ax three hundred yards while at a distance of n hundred yards (lie ruv Is alm ost blinding M rs Ituy Cain, wife o( u prom in ent w hile hunter and aportsm an. alm ost ran her ear to Its utter d e ft rtiel Ion one night when she was on her way to visit her parents. In fu rl. It Is said that Mrs. C a in , actu ally did run her con tie over the edge of n steep em bankm ent, and succeeded In slopping It only when the front wheels hung over the side It was u close call. In deed And then, there U the In vestigation of her husband carried on to prove Itiat there was posi tively nothing sup ern atural In the existence of the ghost light. C ain did not believe Ui ghosts so h r set out to bring home a solu tion to the mystery" of the v e r m ilion ray. He rouldn t tolerate the stories th at had been kept alive by the ancient residents of the v il lage o f D utchtow p fo r tw enty years He thought that somebody was having a barrel of fun by per- P "'!.iu n g ;i p n u ' t c . i l ) o k r l i e wa> stire some grtm Joker had started the l i g h t business twenty veins lie- lore and kept tt up T here would tie. when he had com pleted Ids m inute investigation nothing left to point to th e theory of the ghost light, and then lie would make all the fan cifu l stories that hud been believed, seem as lubrication* of an over Im aginative liralitc * Consequent Iv. when lie launched Ills attack again st the ghost light, he did it with steudv and persistent, determ ination. lie approached the rock at nine o ’clock on o clear F rid ay evening It was in file sum m er time, and n in e was a fu ll moon. T h e nlr » a s still And the rreafu res of the wild places evidently had h id den aw ay at the first sign of his com ing He parked his enr at the bend Tn the road w here his wife Imd almost cone to her death, took Ills two bird dogs, his rifle and a licit of cartridges and began slowlv and cautiously to m ove In direction ol the rock. W hen he had m in d e d th e bend the verm ilion rav which looked as If it had been citp|ied in hum an lilood, struck him squarely in tlie eyes. B u t he did not let this stop hint. He moved to a position d o se enough to get a good shot, lifted Ills rifle and tired point-blan k at the light. T h e bullet went w h ang- stran g e Inasm uch ns lie Is an ex- ing through the night I but when the smoke c l e a r e d aw ay, t h e light was still there T he house near Now Cain thought this liert id le shot. T o tell the truth he thought it so strange that when tie lifted the rttle a second time, to get an other shot a t the light he felt Ids hands trem ble slightly N ervousness! Fo r tile first tim e in III* life he felt nervous when about to fire a gun He hesitated, called his two dogs and made them crouch down at his feet. T h e re w as som ething com forting In th eir presence He w asn’t afraid and he would not have been nervous had he been dealing with som ething more natu ral. Men or an im als would not have troubled him the w ay the m ysterious light bothered him : and he felt Tn- ereaslnglv queer with th at verm il ion ra y beating again st his face It had a som ewhat warm glow He knew that If he had been asked to describe how the ray felt against his flesh, he would have failed m iserably. Then, from that m o ment on. lie had the certatntv th at he was dealing with .something sup ern atural He lifted the rifle and fired again T ills was followed by a third and a fourth shot; but the light did not vanish. He kept on shooting, and all the tim e he w as getting more nervous U ltim ately, however, he ceased to (Ire. straightened him self up to Ills fu ll height, and went striding toward the rook T here he climbed up on tlie lop of It. and made an exam in ation of its su r face, rubbing Ivls hands over it; He im agined but Without result the rock felt warm there on top yet there was no evidence of there having ever been a light of an y sort there th r llaunlrd landmark. Rock, a historical "Koko," this young colored fellow, a «ell-know n ligurr about town, had his eye» severely burned by the mys terious ray. Chagrined, he clim bed down o il the rock and w alked com pletely around It. S till, there w as no e v i dence of there being an yth in g out o f the way. S o he retreated to his form er position. and w hirling round, with the two dogs a t his heels, he shot an inquiring glance at Hie rock T h e ligh t tem there a nd the icarm verm ilio n ran tea* (Continued on |Mge 7 )