The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1861-08-01
THURSDAY, AUGUST /, 1861.

the fire, casting a strong illumination into the
darkest corners thrust my hand into the very
heart of the sound, l struck through it in all di
rections with a stick still saw nothing, touched
nothing.
Of course, DO not expect to be believed by
halt my readers, nor can blame them for theil
incredulity. So astonishing is the result, even
YET to myself, that should dougbt it sreality
were it not therefore necessary, for the same rea-
son, to doubt every event of my life
At length the sound moved away in the di.
rection whence it came, becoming gradually
fainter and fainter until it died in the distance
But Immediately. afterwards, from the same
| quarter came shrill, sharp blast of wind--or
what seemed to be such. If one cou Id imagine a
swift, intense sCream of air, no thicker than a
| telegraph wire, producing keen. whistling
sound i'll its passage, he would understand the
impression made upon my mind. The wind or
sound, or whatever it was, seemed to strike an
invisible target in the centre of the room, and
thereupon ensued new and worse confusion.
Sounds as of huge planks, lifted at one end and
then allowed to fall. slamming on the floor hard
wooden claps, crashes and noises of splitting
and swapping, filled the shanty. The rough
board of the floor Jared and trembled, and the
table and chairs were jolted off their feet In,
stinctlvely, jerked away my legs whenever the
invisible planks fell too near them.
1t never came in my mind to charge the fam
lily with being the authors of these phenomena;
their care and distress was too evident. There
was certainly no other human being but myself
in or near the shanty. My senses Of sight and
touch awaited me nothing, and l confined my
attention at last, to simply noting the manifest
ations, without endeavoring to explain them.
began to experience feeling, not of terror, but
of disturbing uncertainty. The solid ground
was taken from beneath nv feat
Still the man and his wife groaned and NUT
tured, as if in nightmare sleep, and the boy
tossed restessly on his low bed l would not
disturb them, since, by their own confession,
they We're accustomed to the visitation. Be-
sides, it would not assist me, and, so long as
there was no danger of personal injury, pre-
ferred to watch alone. | recalled, however,th
woman's remarks, remembering the mysterious
blame she had thrown upon her husband, and
felt certain that she had adopted some explana-
ton of the noises, at his expense
AS the confusion continued with more or less
violence, sometimes pausing for few minutes,
to begin again with renewed force,sI felt an in
creaslng impression of somebody else being
present Outside of the shanty this feeling
ceased, but every time opened the door, / fully
expected to see slime body standing in the CEN
tire OF the room. Yet, looking through the lit.
tie windows when the noises were the loudest,
l could discover nothing. Two no Irs had now
passed since | first heard the drum beat, and l
found myself at last completely wearied with my
trultless exertions and the unusual excitement
BY this time the disturbances had become faint
with more frequent pauses. All at once heard
a long weary sigh, so near to me that it could
not have proceeded from any of the sleepers.
weak moan, expressive of utter wretchedness
followed, land then came the words in woman's
Voice-came, l know not whence, for they seem
ed to be uttered close beside me, and vet far
far away How great is my trouble! How
long shall suffer | was married in the sight
Of God to Eber Nicholson! Have mercy, Oh,
Lord, and give him to nue. or release me from
him
These were the words, not spoken, but rath-
er moaned forth, in slow monotonous vail of
utter helplessness and broken heartedness.
have heard humon grief expressed in many
forms, but l never heard or imagined anything
so desolate, so surcharged with the despair of
an eternal Woe 1t was, indeed, too hopeless
tor sympathy. 1t was the utterance of sorrow
which removed its possessor into some dark
lonely world, girdled with iron walls, again ST
which every throb of a helping or consoling
heart would beat in vain for admittance. So
far from being moved or softened, the words
left ppon me an impression of stolid apathy
When they had ceased, heard another sigh,
and sometime afterwards, far-otf, retreating
through the eastern darkness the wailing rep
clifton, was married, in the sight of God, TO
Eber Nicholson. Have mercy Oh, Lord!
This was the last of those midnight marvels.
Nothing further disturb ed the night except the
steady sound of the wind. The more 1 thought
of what l had heard, the more l was convinced
that the phenomena were connected. in some
way, with the history ofmy host. had heard
his wife call him 'Ebe, and did not doubt that
he was Eber Nicholson who, for some mysteri-
Gus crime, was haunted by the reproachful
ghost. Could murder, lurk behind these VISTA
tons 1t was useless to conjecture yet, be-
fore giving myself to sleep, determined to
know everything that could be known, before
leaving the shnnty
ITO ~