Cheraw gazette. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1835-1838, 1837-01-31
POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.
(Continued.)

The writer once knew young man,
who in sultry summer nights, rose from his
bed to walk his chamber. As he rose he
observed distinctly man on the opposite
side of the room. He was much alarmed
and stood still for moment looking at the
man, and then softly slipped down behind
the bed TO watch his movements. AS he
stopped, the man stopped; when suddenly
the young gentleman burst into laugh, to
find that he was watching his own refec.
ton in the looking.glass. A person of
feebler courage, or Of nervous excitabiity,
would have screamed a ghost and would
have forever declared that he could not dis.
credit his own senses.
We will mention another circumstance,
to show how easily person may be de.
ceived, by an occurrence, which is capable
of perfectly natural explanation. An aged
lady had long been sick, and was near her
death. One afternoon as she was sitting
in her room with young lady, a friend
who was her constant attendant, the whole
room seemed suddenly illuminated. The
room faced the east. The sun was far
down in the west, and could not shine into
it. "What is that 2" said the aged lady.
They both looked, and beheld the strange
light gittering upon the wall. Three sue
cessive times the mysterious illumination
appeared and vanished. A few moments
after, some one of the family entering the
room, the aged lady remarked, 81 have
just had a warning, which tells me that |
am very near my end-a truth which cer-
tainly did not need any supernatural attes-
tation.' Had the sick lady seen the vision
alone, there would have been no difficulty
in attributing it to a disordered imagination.
But the young lady beheld it also, and she
was one not easily alarmed. There was
no way in which the occurrence could be
explained, and there it rested. The aged
lady felt perfectly satisfied, that she had
been warned to prepare for death, and she
made her preparation accordingly, and in a
week or two died. She left the world en-.
tireIy convinced that she had witnessed a
supernatural vision. You might as we'll
have attempted to reason her out of the be.
lief Of her own consciousness, as to have
reasoned away the reality ofthis apparltlon.
A week or two after her death, the writer
called at house where some college STU
dents roomed, and found them amusing
themselves, by casting reflections with a
large looking glass in:o the houses of the
village. In an instant, the whole mystery
of the appari,on was explained. These
Young men had thrown a reflection three
times into the room, and thus had given it
apparently supernatural illumination.
Any one who is acquainted with the
wonderful powers of vcntriloquism, knows
that person may abuse that power, to the
very serious annoyance Of those who are
easily alarmed. A ventriloquist can, with.
out difficulty, cause uncarthy sounds,
groanings, knockings. &C., to be heard IN
different parts of the house, and he can be
all the time moving about with the family,
an unsuspccted spectator. Many house
has been thus haunted, to the extreme ter
ror Of its occupants. and TO the great mlrth
of the mischievous joker.
These principles will account for vast
number of those appearances, which seem
to be supernatural. The man who is unac.
quaintcd with these laws, thinks at once,
and very naturally, that there must be
ghosty agency in the production of effects
which to him are so unaccounta BILE, and he IS
therefore, too much alarmed to give the
subject a cool investigation.
We have, somewhere, met with another
account illustrative Of the same principle.
A ship was lying becalmed,one warm sum-
NOR afternoon, in the middle ofti,c Atlantic.
The atmosphere was clear, and the sky Sc
rene, with the exception of few clouds
floating in their flceey whitcncss. As the
officers ofthe ship were carelessly reclining
upon the quarter deck, and the sailors
lolling in the Iistlcssness of 4 calm at sea,
whisting for the wand, all were surprised
; br seeing, iareF i'll the hor'zon' where the
sky and wator secmod ~ meet n ship '!n,icl