The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-03-17
THE RED DWARF.
A LEGEND OF NEW YORK IN TIE OLDEN
TIME.
By WILLIAM HENRY PECK.

Many years before the war of the Revolution
there stood time-worn edifce, of Wondering
brick and crumbling stone, in the now magnificent
pleasure ground which we calf the Central Park of
New York. Isolated and bleak, in those days with
no attempt at ornamentation upon its rude walls,
the old house had been untenanted for years,
when Hugh Garrbolt saw ft to make it his habita.
ton. No one then living could say to whom it
belonged or by whom it had been built though
grayhaired told that it had sprung as from the
earth, unmade by mortal hands, and it only for
the lurking place of smugglers, desperadoes or
demons. The last man, within their recollection
who had lived there before Hugh Garrbolt made it
his home, died there alone nor was he known to
be dead until wandering hunter, demanding
shelter at its ironbound door and prisonlike win
dows, and receiving no reply forced an entrance
from the rear, and after striking light with flint
and steel beheld human skeleton, clad In decay.
ing eathern garme nts, seated in an oaken chair in
ghostly srimness.
Before this hideous figure was spread upon
table goodly store of silver and golden coins,
which their owner, perchance, was counting when
the hand Of death smote him, sudden and sure.
The hunter was q man of nerve, and did not hest
tate to appropriate the treasures and though he did
not fail to tell of what he had seen ia the chair he
said not word of what he had taken from the
table, the latter truth leaked out when the hunter
wife.
The honest burghers of New Amsterdam as its
first white settlers defanty persisted in calling
New York, smoked their pipes for three months in
deep cogitation and resolved unanimously that the
hunter was tremendous liar, until tall, gaunt
ard evleyed man from France set the town ia an
uproar by declaring that he intended to penetrate
to the spot and make the house his abode. From
the very day that the hunter had told his tale the
Stunned dwelling had been called " The Skeletons
House." and no urchn however daring, had ven
tured within mile Of it; aud as for any sensible
Knickerbockers going there, the very idea was
But Hugh Garrbolt, with sheer that had been
growing his thin, hard face for sixty years, deed
all known and unknown demons with scoff that
made the good burghers' hair bristle over their
heads, and went alone to "The House of the Ske.
leton.'
The burghers waited two days, and then nodded
through clouds of smoke that Hugh Garrbolt was a
fool. But when he returned on the third day with
q bag Of coin 80 heavy that he staggered under it
the burghers opened their eyes and whstled that
Hugh Garrbelt was very wise personage.
81 searched about the place. said Garrbolt to
score of listeners as his sneer deepened around his
lips, "and found some musty papers which told me
that an old buccaneer had lived there, and where
to dig for this / dug. these 10000 golden crowns
from under the table,"
'But," said Hans Van schleeper, the innkeeper,
as he slowly filled his pipe, 1.-THE skeleton?"
"Is there" said Garrbolt "My dear friends,
You are all welcome to that!'
The burghers smoked several hundred pounds Of
strong jamestown weed during the following week,
and on the eighth day resolved to claim the co. 900
golden crowns for the township. But Monsieur
Hugh Garrboldt had disappeared, and with him
went the crowns.
Twelve months rolled on and still the skeleton
of the dead buccaneer held grim and unnolested
watch over the table, when young Albert Vande-
meer paid It visit. Albert Vandemeer was the
only son Of q most worthy and respectable widow
when Albert was but ten years old.
Ten years more had passed, and though the sad.
| hearted widow held her head droopingly, as she
thought of the past her soft eyes sparked with joy
| as she gazed upon her manly son. Kind generous
handsome, and afectionate, Albert, with his tall
1.-the frame, keen blue eyes, and bounding step
never paced the street ungreeted by gossip, glance
or smile from the rosy damsels that festooned the
windows like living garlands of beauty on either
side.
But the good burghers and their better wives
shook their heads as he stepped so gaily. and said
he was by far too daring, rs had been his father
who lost his life in trying to swim through He'll
gate without putting out the fire Of his ppe-an
exploit that extinguished pipe and life forever.
One fine day some phlegmatic youth, who envied
Albert for his famous courage, bantered him to 60
and spend stormy night in "The Skeletons
House,
GIVE respect for tombs,n said Albert, "a his
handsome face flushed with indignation, "and have
never made them butt for sport. And that is the
only reason have never entered that bugSear.
But If you, John Bloof, win 60 With me, will stay
there any night you may appoint"
turned
his heels as his young comrades vowed the chal.
enge fair; but Albert declared that he, alone,
would dare the unknown horrors of the place that
very night.
that scud above ,foretel stormy night to my eye."
His word was as good to all who knew him as
their eyesight, and none would have questioned its
truth, had he returned next day and said
pipes and ale-using each like a hero himself
however absurd the statement might seem to men
who held it as firm belief that lungs were indis-
pensable to smoking, and bowels to the reshing Of
Albert vandemeer cautioned his companions to
conceal his purpose from his fond mother, who,
though abe would not be alarmed by his absence
from her roof for night, would undoubtedly have
called in the aid of her stout aad stern brother the
rich shipowner, had she dreamed of this perilous
Aiming himself with his fathers trusty pistols.
and good old cutass that had coven the scalp lock
of some dozen or more red savages, Albert was
soon on his way towards the awful spot, nor did
many hours pass ere he found himself before It. de-
spite the roughness Of the journey and the tangled
maze Of forest and underground that then covered
the now well cleared park
1.-THE. Skeletons House, was Of one story and
half, square In shape, and built in the midst of
dense wood, here and there broken by the rugged
backs Of huge rocks that seemed like stony giants
forcing their way to the upper air. One iron bound
door In front and two. strong oaken shattered
windows, all as firmly closed as the entrance TO
tomb, mot the youths FIRST glance as he paused
before it, he walked cautiously around It, and
found similar entrances in the rear, but the door
yielded to his touch and, cutlass in hand he en-
tered, not fearing forty skeletons, though brawny
sinews might cloths them. At first he could dis.
Germ nothing Pat when his eyes became accus
toned to the gloom he saw the silent aud heshle1
sentinel still grnning in terrible mockery Of NOR
tality over the worm eaten table, while many
molderiag bone of its frame lay damp and dark
around IT. Looking closely. the youth saw Tat