New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1852-09-15
DAILY CRESCENT.
OFFICIAL JOURNAL
OF THE CONSOLIDATED CITY OF NEW ORLEANS
From the PbladeIpha Evening Bulletin.
THE ANKLErCHAIN. IA Veritable Ghost-Story

OF THE CONSOLIDATED CITY OF NEW ORLEANS.
From the PbiladeIphia Evening Bulletin.
THE ANKLE-CHAIN. "A veritable Ghoststory.
BY MARGARET JuNKIN.
It used to be one of the choice treats Of the
young people of -, to assemble, during the
long winter evenings, in little knots OF half a
dozen, around the parlor-ire Of an old lady,
quite famous in her way as q story teller. and
not much inferior in their estimation, to the
Sultaness Shehrazade herself There was this
difference, however, our friends narratlons
were not spun from her own brain, as were those
of the fertile minded Arabian. She claimed
absolute credence for them, and took no credit
to herself for anything beyond very tenacious
memory that retained in its grasp whatever she
committed to it. Her positive manner of relat- |
ing circumstances, combined with her own evi- |
dent conviction of their truth, went far to per-
suade her auditors, and had at least always the |
effect of forbidding any shoU of disbelief.
If the reader could seat himself in the midst
of the little circle, he would see the old lady
with her kind, grave face turned gratihedly
upon US, as she sat with the retained stiffness OF
the olden time, bolt upright in her rocking
chair, her hands crossed upon her knee-her
old fashioned dress, her German popularity OF
thought air and expression, though not OF ac-
cent for she was not herself German born; the
brightly glistening '' brass lamp" upon the
| table, that looked ancient enough to have made
the voyage from the 6 Water land nan
century ago the atmosphere of antiquity that
pervaded all about her, and made us feel, while
we listened to her, as if we had a reversed Rip
Van Wrinkles experience, and were suddenly
| transported many years back into the past;
her daughter Marian, her only child, whose
filial reverence, amounting almost to a species
of idolatry, surrounded her to our young eyes
| - vcE, ln1o
site-her face, always somewhat radiant one,
quite aglow with delight at the attention her
mother absorbed: all this and more, that
brightens in the shadowy background OF me-
mory's picture, would be present to the eye of
the reader and in that case, the incidents
about to be related might not seem either tfite
or meagre.
For US, who used to gather SO gaily around
that winter evening hearth, there is a mourn
full haze now, curtaining over all these recollec-
tons. Marians brow wears a higher glory
than the flial love. which was to her as a
: crown, could confer-it has been covered be-
meath the sod, that it might be wreathed with
Immortality; and in one of the green and silent
isles of the most beautiful OF the &C cities OF the
!. dead,' the names of mother and daughter are
cut together on the same monumental marble
But to our story, which shall be told as nearly
as it can be recalled, in the very words in which
we heard it from the lips Of the narrator.
'Stir the fire, my child,' she would say tc
Marian, after we had all settled ourselves in O
!. state of expectancy; g let the CRATE look its
= cheerfulest and brighten the lamp too, that
5, there may be nothing weird-lik to add to thu
. ghostliness of my story" Then, with one hand
+. laid over the other on her knee, sitting uprgh
ID d in the chair, which she kept in gentle, yibra
= tory motion, in her precise and measured way
she would proceed as follows:
4. "Now, my dears, l am going to give you
l g..
will not pretend to explain what may seem in
explicable or mysterious about them You al
know me too well to doubt my veracity.'
ss0f course we do
Well, then, there are but two links in tn
chain; l had the incidents directly from IN
father, whom have heard recount them q scor
! Of times, and you will be willing to take m,
y word for it-he was man OF the most unswerS
ing truthfulness; nothing could have temple
him to fabricate such story. To have heal
him relate it, would have been all the eyident
any one could have required to persuade the
He of his entire sincerity, or of his mistaken col
viction that he had experienced what he ma
N rated, for he was himself the hero OF his oH
Ic, tale.
:" The scene of my story is in Germany, of whie
country my father was native. Sewers
90 young men, fellow students at the Universt,
W happened to meet together at the residence
one of their number-the young Baron Va
ps ps T. to pass part of their vacation
IL They had been sitting rather late one nigl
over their Rhine-wlne, when my father askt
the Baron question respecting an old castellE
ted pile, situated on wild and neglected pai
of his domain, with which he had that day fallt
in during his rambles; and expressed some SUI
prise that it had been so wholly abandona
while apparently in such good state of prese
walton.
"Why, have never told you about it
ri, al +ba bnct ic baup tod -bou uNt
N. beyond all possibility of dispossession."
ss- ''Not word,'' cried his guests let us ha
"n' the story forthwith" and they clashed the 81
yer which they had just emptied upon the tail
,s, gss till they rang again.
the "Oh! as to story, have none to relate.
only know that nobody has ever been found vi
will ling to pass second night within its walls. !"
." "Why ?'' inquired two or three voices.
Because of some unquiet ghost that Ike
sss sbs walking the old corridors all night long
Thy, "Pah is that all ?' exclaimed my fathe
.ssuch d nursery tale could not frighten n
us, One might most reasonably expect some u
d,v iE earthly noises about grim looking place;
' all events, they would seem unearthly if hea
there at midnight, were they nothing beyo
sin. an OWLS screeches, Though 1 should not ga
In to run the risk of rheumatic twinges from spen
y so Of ing the night in such mouldy den. shou
sa ,sa not hesitate to do so, if any object were to
with gained by it, beyond the mere assurance to N
'0a' self of the folly of some old superstition, I'll
clings to its walls much in the same way aB
,t,. ivy does.'
,itS 'sMy good friend,' said the Baron, '' v
u,ts n hold out such m object to you | solemn
pledge myself, in the presence of these witness
the to transfer to you all right and title to the
ID m towers, if you will in like manner. pledge yo
very self to pass three consecutive nights there a
). in one Of the chambers"
.-.,, The proposal was received with acclamatic
'AO writing materials were at once brought,
chlls condition formally drawn up and signed by
vgo- Baron and my father, who professed him
'''A' willing to make the trial; and it was agr
+; tis that on the next day, q thorough examinat
asf; aY;s Of the premises was to be undertaken.
vliin Accordingly on the morrow, the little pc
ork. repaired to the spot, The noise they made
unusual in that solitary hour, startled bic
aRRs Rsa Of rocks from their seldom disturbed retire
and sent them wheeling and chatterins
., 90 fusedly about the ivied turrets. When va
:. Q 50 and hail. and corridor, and chamber had
ind By duly and successfully inspected, they retul
..w home to make preparation for the carrying
- of their project After generous supper,
took horses, and bearing with them some
OF, clothing and materials for striking a light,
r,,r,d were again on their way to the ruinous ca
public They assembled to the chamber which my ia
hsi1s'' had selected as the one in which he should
helow. the night; it was about midway between
,iIaps yaut and turret and contained only the fl