South-eastern Independent. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1871-1871, 1871-04-21

| gnOStly ugnI playing beside me; yet
could not sit up all night l was gettin.
very nervous, and was also getting yer,
sleepy. Even the alternative of calling
up some one had passed out of my power
for did not now fancy approaching tn,
door, more especially opening it; the pos
sibility Of some dazzling, flashing obiec
outside seemed to be growing up in my
foolish brain. l scolded myself well fo
my ridiculous fears, nevertheless 1 KEEP
steadily away from the bed and the door
Again l seated myself at the window
feeling that l should have to wait till day
light for the dancing wild-fire to depart
This would not be very long, for it wa
the height of summer, and dawn woulC
| certainly commence by four o'clock, if no
earlier; so / determined to exercise pa
tience till then.
As l sat idle, all the accounts had eve
heard or read of wonderful and mysteri
Gus lights came crowding into my mind
and, above all, Bulwer's =" Strange Story,
and the horrible "Scin-Leca," described
therein, which nearly gave me brain
| fever while reading it, and / fancied the
light began to grow more weird looking
and c Id, creeping shudder passed ovel
me. The dressing-table stood before the
window, and 1 thought if 1 could move
this, and get more into the recess, should
have, as it were, q closer connection with
the outer world: and if the thing NJ
could give it no name-came down from
the door and attacked me-yes, o strong
minded reader, it had positively come tc
this-I should prefer jumping into the
garden below, at the risk of broken neck
and limbs, to fighting with nasty, wrig,
Cling, dancing, glimmering ghost, coming
| didn't know from where, and staying
didn't know for what. 1t was "happy
thought" and l instantly began to move
the table, casting at the same time a
startled look towards the door, Startled
indeed; for as l looked, arch, letters, all
disappeared suddenly and utterlyl
In my dismay put the table back in its
place. At once the arch returned, sue.
ceeded in a moment by vivid letters
"Was it chance?" l asked myself De.
termined to make sure, / moved the table
again; again the light vanished. at
must be something on the table" thought,
with an immense sense of relief Imoved
off every article, cautiously watching the
light; no result Last of all, l took up
the looking glass-sudden blank over the
door. put it down again arch returned.
l repeated the experiment half dozen
times, to convince myself; there was no
longer doubt. My "Scin-Leca was a
very shallow spectre indeed, for it de-
pended on the movements of looking
glass.
was so delighted with this discovery,
and, moreover, so dreadfully weary with
sitting up all night in spite of nervous ex-
citement, that was tempted to go to bed
without ascertaining hon this puZzling,
bewildering will-o'the-wisp could be
caused by a glass on which no light fell.
But l would not let myself yield to the
temptation, and resolutely set my wits to
work to match causes and effects. But
for long time l could discover nothing
1t was the glass, beyond a doubt, but in
what way? At last, after turning it in
every direction, the frame suddenly swung
back, the screw having become loose.
Then the whole matter was plain. The
glass was supported on a broad plate of
polished wood. In this plate, now that
the frame sloping backward made it visi-
Bile, appeared the full moon as clearly as if
reflected in water. The plate was large
and long, extending almost to the end of
the table; the moon heing on the right
side of the window, shone, of course. on
to the left side of the glass; and conse-
quently the reflection struck back again
on to the the door, which was on the right
Perhaps the oblique position the reflection
took, partly accounted for the curious
shape of the fingers. The chance position
of the glass, sloped very much forward,
had prevented me from seeing the image
of the moon before. / found now that the
I1xrf ha ffealc
and bright, shining on the wood; and the
mysterious letters that had so alarmed me
were at once accounted for. The sky, as
said before, was f1ecked with small
clouds; which, at short intervals, sailed
over the moon; this broke up her light
into pieces; the portion of her disk left
uncovered, being generally of some fan
tastic shape, which, reflected in the pol
ished wood, was thrown back again to the
door in the form of hieroglyphic of light.
This, too, explained the blotting cut of
the letters Each little cloud passed, sue
ceeded by another and another, all of diff
ferent shapes; and not the moon only,
but the light surrounding her, contributed
to the delusion, and formed the unbroken
line of letters, some brighter, some paler,
according to their distance from the CEN
ter of light. Why the image of the moon
itself should be reflected in the form of an
arch, l must, as in the former case have
described, leave to wiser heads than mine
to determine, which / have no doubt they
will do easily, having partly guessed my
self; but as my deductions were drawn
from anything but scientific reasoning, 1
think had better not record them.
Neither could l discover or imagine why
the arch stood out, from the wall; it only
happened that once, so l had no opportu-
nifty of testing the reason.
So the terrible appearance of luminous
arch and letters of fire was fully explained; !;
and, singing to myself an inaudible jubi-
late, with a light heart and heavy eyelids,
1 went back to bed, and slept soundly.
/ have determined to give a plain and
truthful account Of these two unusual and
sights, from hearing people
speak with evident superstitiOus dread Of
lights and phantom shapes,
which never could be accounted for, seen
by themselves or their friends.
Nothing could be more strange than
these have described, or more unaccount-
able, till fully investigated; and perhaps
their evidence may induce many to search
for the cause of any mar
vellous appearance, which, without such
they would not do; and if
they DO search, 1 feel sure that they will
find.