Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1869-10-28
The Ghost Story Of Pliny the Younger

Of IL centuries, which SO terrified tho calm
philosopher Pliny, of Christian hating rep.
utation, that he wrote 70 his friend Sura,
the consul, to ask whether it could
be true. So exactly does this story
correspond in all the ghostly elements to
authentic narratives, which inundate the
waste-paper baskets Of magazine editors
every Christmas, that we cannot think j,
the first attempt of the invention in this
direction. Poets must have lived before
Homer, and dealers in the supernatural
must have traded on mans love for thu
marvellous long before the time of Pliny't
informant. We meet with ghosts in the
'Iiiad," and Eschylus twice introduces
them on the stage. Indeed, the belize
in their appearance naturally arose from
tho idea that, until o man was decently
buried, old Charon would not convey his
soul across the Shiny Styx, but left it tc
squeak and gibber on this side of the
| stream. Hence it was considered create,
crime at Athens to leave parent unburied
than to allow him to starve to death. AnG
that beautiful play of Sophocles, in which
Antigone suffers death rather than leave
her brothers corpse unburied. had a fol
greater charm in Pagan Athens than it Car
have in Christian land to-day.
But we are depressing. Here is the
promised story, from the twenty:seventf
epistle of the seventh book of Pliny the
younger:
There was, at Athens, house, large and
spacious, but with a bad name. In the 81
heard the rafting of iron, and if you listen
ed more attentively, the clash Of chains
first at distance, then hard by. Present.,
there appeared q ehost-an old man, lear
and squalid, with long beard and rough
hair. He carried letters on his legs and
gives on his wrists, shaking them as ht
walked.
Hence every night was spent in wakefu
terror by tho inhabitants. Sickness fol
lowed vigils, and death sickness. For ever
during the daytime, though the phantom
had departed, the recollection of it chung t.
them, and the terror lasted longer thar
that which caused it. Accordingly the
house was deserted, condemned to solitude
aud entirely given up to the spectre. II
was advertised, nevertheless, to be let OF
| sold, in case any one, not knowing the Cir
cumstances, should be willing to purchase
Athenodorus, the philosopher, came &c
Athens, read the notice, asked the terms
and, having his suspicious reused by the
low price, made inquiries, and heard the
whole story. So far from shrinking, he
took the house all the more eagerly.
When evening drew near, he orders hit
! couch to be placed in the front room, calls
for a writing tablet, style and light, dis
misses all his attendants, and devotes hif
attention-eyes, head and hands-to writ
ing, lest his mind, being unemployed
should conjure mp 'fancied sights ani
sounds.
Atfrst there was the silence of night
deep as elsewhere; then the clash of iror
and the rafting OF chains. He neither
raised his eyes, nor relaxed his style, bu
fixed his attention upon his work. tn,
clink grew louder, came nearer, an.
sounded, now at the door, now within
the room. He looks up, sees, and recog
nizes the spectre described. It stoot
and beckoned with its hand, a,
! if calling him. He made q sign
with his finger for it to wait little, ant
again settled down to his tablets and style
It ratified its chains at his head az be wrote
He looked up again, making the same sigl
as before, and without further delay tool
the candle and followed. It walked will
slow step, as if weighed with the chains
After turning into the courtyard of tn
house, it suddenly slipped into the esrtl
and disappeared.
He piled some leaves and weeds to mari
the spot, and the next day, going to tn
magistrates, advised them to order tn
place to be excavated
A skeleton was found, the flesh all wastes
away by petrefaction, and the bare bone
bound in letters and chains. It was tskcl
up and publicly buried; and after that til
house was no more troubled. -Oncea Week
| Another Robinson Crusoe.
From Paris letter.
In the month OF August, 1868, the Frencl
ship Adelina Eliza quilted Bordeaux 70
Hong Kong. A month afterward she wa
spoken off the Cape of Good Hope. She wa
never heard of again until few days since
her history and the history of all her ere,
became public. A typhoon in the 1ndial
Ocean threw her out Of her course, dis
masted her, broke her rudder, and tosse
her toward Oceanica- Bad weather laste
twenty days, and when fair weather re
turned she struck upon coral reef. an
the exhausted crew were scarcely able t.
take refuge in the boats. %
It was q moonless, starless night whel
this accident occurred. They rowed wild
ly, and thanked God when the breakin
day showed them barrier surrounded b,
q smiling landscape. They reached lam
and lay down to sleep. When they awok
they found themselves bound hand an
foot, and surrounded by savages. Thei
captors proved to be cannibals. Eleven q
them, the captain included, were slain an
eaten. Three others contrived, how doe
not appear, to make their escape, but the
were mutilated. The one who suoceede
in reaching Europe has one arm cut of
and one eye torn out. The three reache
q remote part of the island, where the
found a canoe and embarked in it, prefer
ring the risk of being devoured; by sharks
to the certainty of being killed and cate
by cannibals. Fortunately they foun
themselves in an archipelago, and wei
able to 20 from one island to another
After wandering for some time, moving q
rapidly as possible away from the cannibal'
home, George Samazon's two companion
died of exhaustion. -
~ He remained alone, mutilated, hopeless
upon frail canoe He nevertheless con
tinued to push on, touching land 'onl
when necessary to sleep, and to get waite
aud food. He eat shell-fish and roots On
day he reached the last island of the grou
and nothing lay before him but the vii!
ocean. He set to work to build a raft. II
launched it. He several times tried to pu
j: to sea, but constantly failed. He reso
we'd to take his footsteps landward, but i
a different direction from the canniball
home. He climbed b mountain, crossed
desert, fell again into savages' hands, ono
more escaped from them, fed through fol
ests; his feet were bitten by venomous il
sects; his face scabbed by the bite of mos
quitoes; at last. nearer dead than alive, h
came upon white men. The white me
received him kindly, aud did what the
could for him. He embarked upon q sma
Portuguese ship, and at last reached En-
rope. His family had long given him u
for dead.
imprisonment for Debt IN England.
An English paper says: The chang
made by the legislation Of 1869, in the Ia,
of imprisonment for debt, gives q specia
interest to recent returns, which show til
extent to which creditors have of late r.
sorted to this mode of enforcing paymen
OF their debts.
The number of annual committents t
the prisons of England and Wales for deb
and on civil process, has been increasin
in the last few years.
In the year ending at Michaalmas. 1866
it was 8, 433; IN tho year 1866, 10, SOS
in 1866-67, 11,647; in 1867-68, 1888
namely, 1925 men ard 575 women.
In this last year. six counties had abov
500 commitments of this class.
Cheshire, 514; Dorbyshire, 535; Stafford
shire, FOL; Yorkshire, SIG; Middlese1
l, 1893; Lancashire, 2.648. q Neither York
shire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, nor Derby
shire had so many as 80 women sent t
prison in the year for debt or ON civil pro
cess; but Middlesex had as many as u
and Lancashire 148. In Cornwall, 1893 pei
sops were imprisoned in the year for debt
aud "a many Al AZ of them were women