The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1870-06-24

to hope, If not believe, that the mysterious
ylsitants would scarcely dare to hold their
accustomed revel in such presence. But
they were mistaken. About the 'witching
hour OF night" when ghosts most love to
wander, and when all was still save the
signing night-wind as it chanted its mourn
ful music through the open crevices, they
were startled from their troubled slumbers
by noises to which, as they descriked them,
bediam, IN its widest rawlings were as
gentle as the breathings of Lutte Their
light was burning brightly, and as they
sErang from the bed, and looking at each
other suspiciously for moment, as if each
supposed the other to be an apparition,
standing face to face, dumb foundered and
J trembling, while the fearful tumult rolled
ON IN the outer room, they were soon
brought to full realization of their sur
roundlngs. Without exchanging a word,
or attempting to make an investigation of
the matter they were there to solve, they
each seemed to be moved by the same i'm
pulse at the same moment, and went through
the window almost as rapidly as if they
mad been shot from a mortar. Next day
they had wonderful stories to tell of the
fearful things they had seen and heard, of
what they said to the ghosts and the ghosts
SAID to them, but they could never after be
either coaXed or driven into that part of
town after daylight had disappeared. They
have both gone to the land ofshadows, and
carried with them to the tomb an implicit
belief in the supernatural.
TWO Others, who claimed to have more
nerve and daring than their predecessors,
took their turn the following night, with
about the same result, as far as any salts
factory discovery was made. Like the
Others, they claimed to have seen and talk.
eel with the hobgoblins, and to have
driven them from the building, but two or
three gentlemen who entered the little bed
room next morning, were persuaded that
the driving was the other way, as two pairs
OF boots and two hats had been left. which
were about the size of those worn by the
men who had scared away the ghosts
From every Indication, another couple had
escaped through the same window with
about the same speed.
The third night and there is said to be
charm in that magic number--the adven-
ture was rather more interesting than eth
er OF the preceding The two persons
now selected were in middle life, and had
long occupied rooms, in the front building,
ghosts held their nightly orgies. 1t was
believed they would solve the problem, if
| 1t were not really supernatural, and within
the scope Of mortal KEN One of them was
tall and as straight as an Indian, possessed
OF more than ordinary intelligence and
dignity, supposed to be a stranger to fear,
ridiculed the idea of ghosts and all sorts of
superstition, and secuted the notion of a
supernatural agency producing natural
manifestation, upon philosophic grounds
The other was my humble self 1t was a
dark, drizzly night, the mercury up towards
blood heat, and the fitful flaws of wind
that found ingress thro' the broken panes,
came heated as the breath of furnace
We entered the room at the hour of ten
Just two hours before the usual visits ofthe
apparltions that l, for my part, was not
fover-anxious to hear or see, or communi-
cate with in any manner or form. My com
'panion was armed with revolver, bot
tie of apple, jack and a bible, and | with a
Presbyterian Confession of Faith, a copy
of the National Intelligencer and two North
Carolina tallow candles-two-t thirds cotton
and the balance fat.
Neither of us belonged to church, but
fbelore we got out of the building, as the
sequel will show, we would have felt more
comfortable if we had belonged to all the
religious denominations and auxiliary
societies in Christendom. The night be-
ing so excessively warm and oppressive,
we Invested ourselves of outward adorn-
ments to an unmentionable extent, and
sat down to read and mediate upon the
developments of the coming midnight, and
to train our nerves for the tension to which
they might be subjected. | had selected
the Confession of Faith and the Intellgen-
Ger, because had heard that coroncrs
jury had decided that an unknown dead
man was Christian and gentleman, be-
cause the Confession was found in one of
his pockets, and the Intelligencer in the
Other. The ghosts, therefore if they were
as intelligent and considerable as ghosts
ought to be, might arrive at the same con
clusion as to my character and deal gently
with me.
/ My companion, with a view, l presume,
OF employing our waiting hours the more
! profitably, read aloud from the Word,
which he had turned down in dog-ears,
and instead of dispelling our gloomy
thoughts by the soulstirring songs of Sol
ONION, or the grander inspirations of Isaiah
or jeremiah, chose the sombre stories of
the Witch of Endor and the coming to-
gcther Of the dry bones of the valley
themes, as thought, in my then state of
mind, not peculiarly appropriate to the
place or the occasion.
After reading all such portions as were
surcharged with ghosts, hobgoblins and
fearful incantations, or as many of them as
his memory could conveniently muster, he
very reverently closed the volume, and with
uplifted eyes and pious emotion, very much
surprised me by saying "Let us pray" We
knet down, and solemn as were the occa
sion and the circumstances, it certainly
would have been scene more ludicrous
than sacred to spectator, had he seen us
kneeling amid barrels and bottles of vii
famous "pinc-top," each attired in our
neither garments and nothing else l have
often since wondered how l RETAINED from
irreverent merriment in the very presence
of the dreaded demons of the Haunted
Ballroom, as my companion, with length
ened visage and solemn accents, read the
sacred page and uttered his supplications,
with nothing upon him but his spectacles
and but one garment more than Adam had
on before he ate the apple!
Our devotions ended, we retired, not to
rest but to await the coming of the mystic
| rious yisitants, who thus far had proved the