Demon Rum

[AnimangaBloodThorn]

Ellis Sparr, his wife and six children, lived about six miles west of Sweet Springs, Monroe County, West Virginia on what is now known as State Route 3. It was in the 1880's and Sparr had the reputation of neglecting his family because he was addicted to "Demon Rum."

Being a rural section, Monroe County had very few liquor joints or bars. After working hard all day, Sparr would ride six miles down to Sweet Springs and drink until closing time. Around midnight, he would then ride six miles home over a dirt road back home. Much of the road was little more than a pathway with large timbers growing on each side.

On this particular night near the end of October, with a faint moon peeping through the clouds, Sparr was on his way home, pretty well intoxicated, riding his trusty mare, "Nell." As he approached a high bank along the roadside, about three miles west of Sweet Springs near the old Bill Patton place, he saw a large black animal which he thought was the family dog. When Nell approached and was directly along side of the animal, it jumped off the bank onto Nell behind Sparr. He thought he would knock the animal off the mare, but when he tried to swat the creature off, he could feel nothing but air. By this time, old Nell had broken into a sweat and was labouring and panting as if she had five or six hundred pounds of weight on her back. Even though Sparr started out drunk, by the time he got within a half mile of his home he was "stone sober," and his mare could hardly walk under the load. At this time, the object jumped off onto the road and in a deep bass voice shouted "Good night, Sparr."

Some say that Sparr never drank another drop as long as he lived and some say he was so shook up that he continued to drink even more.

Submitted By: Dwight Wickline

~*~

Freaky. First time I've heard of this. Anyone know anything else about it? If it's true or not?

But if this was true, I don't think the horse would have gotten that close to the "creature" Animals can sense the paranormal better than we can.

Oh, did I put this in the right place? I'm not sure...

Cya!

[Cufflink]

That could be one of those parable thingies, Becky. Stay off the demon drink, blah blah blah, that sort of message(what's wrong with a few drinks, anyway? ).

Mind you, if it's true, that sounds very much to me like a so-called Black Dog.

[dancin'hamster]

Hi Animanga

I agree with Cuffy.

We have squillions of stories like that here, mainly about playing cards on a Sunday.

It's like ~ Mr * playing cards, getting drunk, wants to carry on past midnight on a Saturday, no one will play, Mr * shouts then a stranger appears and plays cards and at the last minute everyone notices the stranger has cloven hooves instead of feet.............Bang............Mr* dead and devil has his soul.........

Hammy x x x

[AnimangaBloodThorn]

Mind you, if it's true, that sounds very much to me like a so-called Black Dog.

If it was a black dog, atleast I'm not the only one in America that has seen one...

I'm sure I'm not...

But "Demon Rum" does sound like something started to keep people from drinking now that I think of it... Well, whatever. It's kind of interesting (to me) anyway...

Cya!

[thefirstman]

Mr * playing cards, getting drunk, wants to carry on past midnight on a Saturday, no one will play, Mr * shouts then a stranger appears and plays cards and at the last minute everyone notices the stranger has cloven hooves instead of feet.............Bang............Mr* dead and devil has his soul.........

Thats one of the ghost storie's that is associated with Glamis Castle,the room they played in was boarded up,but supposedly you can still here them playing every Sunday............

[dancin'hamster]

It is indeed...... Earl Beardie, condemned to play cards till judgement day......

It's also supposedly true of George McKenzie in Rodney Street, Liverpool. His very odd grave is a large stone pyramid, and he is believed to be sitting upright inside with a hand of cards, playing poker until......yes, you guessed it, judgement day.

[Thistle]

Sounds suspiciously like a US version of " Tam O' Shanter ". I don't buy it I'm afraid

[AnimangaBloodThorn]

His very odd grave is a large stone pyramid, and he is believed to be sitting upright inside with a hand of cards, playing poker until......yes, you guessed it, judgement day.

Whoa...for some reason that sent shivers down my spine. Why does it seem like all the cool stuff is in another country? Well, maybe since I live in the US I take advantage of the freaky stuff here, ack, whatever! Oh, by the way I love your avatar thingie dancin'hamster...

Tam O' Shanter

Tam O' Shanter? Who-or what-is that?

Cya!

[Thistle]

Tam O' Shanter? Who-or what-is that?

Tam O Shanter is a poem by Robert Burns about a man who has a few too many drinks and is chased home by a witch after disturbing a coven ( extremely compact version lol ) Oh yeah and Tam's horse lost it's tail to the witch

coincidence??? I think not

[algernon the 3rd]

Gotta say this sounds a bit like one these don't drink tales. But then again I guess you can start imagining stuff whilst drunk or even start falling asleep and have a dream that seems very real. Just my 2p's worth