The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-07-06
The Haunted House--A Story of Life
r I'm Ludlow.

and the quiet villages OF granny ana Soutn
Hadley stands lonely hoase ten rods from
lonely road. II is Of two stories and m
l., though the single room in this last is the
only room that is inhabitable. The two
story part, now ruin, has never been more
than mere shell. A quarter of century
ago Shubae1 Jones put it up, planted
little orchard around it, and brought to it a
black-eyed, high-tempered wife. But he
was at that time an incipient drupkard,
and soon every appearance of comfort and
domestic happiness fed the place. And one
dismal November night the wretched wife
summoned her neighbors from their beds to
where the poor sot lay dead at the foot of
the cellar stairs. No inquest was held {;
none doubted that he was killed by fall in
drunken fit in attempting another visit to
his cider barrel. ..-
The widow rented the place to tenant
who neither kept it we'll nor paid its rent.
She went with her little boy, who was not
quite an idiot, to work in paper mill at
the village then called "Shipmuck." For
long years she changed from factory to fac
tory as best she could keep her son en-
ployed. He was always harmless and still.
He was always obedient when under his
mothers eye and working at her side.
They earned more than they spent, but the
prudent people Of Ludlow, where they last
lived, feared to allow them to "gain set
tlement," and thus render their town liable
for their future support. So they obtained
the consent of the agent that the widow and
her son need not keep strict time, and offer
ed to furnish room IL her old desolated
house, three miles from the factory, If they
would live there. The proud woman un-
derstood the motive, and with fash OF her
dark ewes declined their kindness. But
she soon bought little furniture OF q lam
ily that was moving away, and re-eStao-
lished herself in the gloomy old wreck.
1t was now late in the fall when the
widow Jones first noticed that the grass was
disappearing from the roadside by the bars
oppositc her door. 1t soon grew obviously
worse; and though bald spot on q mans
head is no great wonder, this bare spot,
with no hoofmarks on it, baffled oil her in
eenuity. The fence, too, seemed worn, as
If by loungers leaning upon it. What could
if mean? No human gathering could have
been held in that lonely place since the day
when the Wondering frame was raised, ex-
cept on that sad day when the moulder1ng
frame of the owner went to its long home.
The explanation of that mystery involves
us in deeper one. One night in Septem-
Der n man from Ludlow was passing the
house Just after the factory bell had an
nounced the hour of nine. AS he neared
the house he heard groan. 1t was sin
gle groan, and then all was Still. But 1t
was such groan as no one utters twice,
and he who hears it never wishes to hear 1t
again. He felt it his duty to rush into the
house, but dared not. After long heslta-
ton he went his way specializing whether
the widow had murdered her idiot son or
had been murdered by him and when he
saw them both come quietly into the vii
lage the next morning he doubted first his
eyes and next his memory.
But the same errand again brought him
past that lonely house few nights later.
Again he heard the o'clock bell as he ap-
preached the house, and again, as he was
opposite the house, that dreadful groan.
The next night he walked out with neigh
Dor, 30 timing his steps that when near the
house both heard the mortal sound. Both
were certain that it came from the house.
Three went out, and five, and fifteen, and
thirty. All heard the groan, and all agreed
that it was exact to its time to u quarter OF
a minute. Old Captain Hardcastle said
that if he were shut up in hole dark as
midnight he could tell within ten minutes
when the time for his "eleven o'clock "
came, but he couldn't keep time with
ghost. One guessed the spirits heard the
bell. The agent stopped the bell one night,
but the groan was heard Us usual. And 1t
was not q similar groan, but the same groan
repeated every night. No ear could tell
any difference not made by the same direc-
ton and force of the wind. Some wondered
whether it had been repeated every night
since DOOR Jones "broke his neck" Others
said that if they were tie widow, rather
than live q month in that house they would
confess the murder and be hanged.
One night the lawyer and doctor of Lud-
low, both young men, went out quite early.
They went into the house and "wanted to
| wait till the moon rose" The widow gave
| them scant welcome; she had not forgotten
Ludlow prudence, and she always conjec-
sured that her present guests had had their
| share in that affair. Without candle she
sat there stretching he, skinny hands to the
blaze, for the night was chill. The gawky
boy, who would be nearly seven feet long
= .t.ra;shtened out, and who seemed to have
ACQUIRED his Iongit; i'd a. the expense Of his
latitude, as if put through lotiias mill,
sat there in kinks and silence. They heard
the factory bell, they heard cricket, they
heard lusty rat, but they heard no groan.
AT half-past 8 they went out to large
shi ,ering, impatient crowd that had missed
their groun and felt misused. In an instant
more the groan was heard in all its perfec-
ton. Our friends hurried back to the
house to inquire whether the lawyer had
| dropped glove. The widow was making
| m n trundle- bed that had been lurking un-
suspected by them beneath the large one in
| the darkest corner of the room. They
| admired this contrivance for cconomizing
| space, Could the widow move it easily
She ran it in and drew it out again. By
this time the lawyer had found his glove in
his pocket, and again they wished the widow
good night.
Meanwhile the outsiders had heard two
extra groans. The first was somewhat diff
ferent from the usual one, but the last was
exact. w
81 have found" said the lawyer, that
Ludlow has expended at least three hunGI c..
miles of travel on foot, and all in the
night, and hundred hours loafng by these
old bars, just to hear that woman draw out
| her trundle- bed for that Jacob's-ladder
idiot"
"And let me recommend you," added
the doctor, "when you find anything you
cannot ex plain, not to jump at the conclu-
sion that it is supernatural. 1t is more
than probable-it is certain-that if you
knew enough you could find a physical
cause for every physical effect"