Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-04-27


equal resolution the origin of this phan.
tom light. l looked round and round, but
could see nothing in the room rejecting
moonlight Illuminating the air outside.
Finally got up, and after carefully
searching for any stray moonbean that
stance, and finding none, looked out Of
the window to see if the mystery could be
unraveled that way. But there was not a
light to be seen anywhere it was late-or
rather early-abOut two o'clock in the
morning-and the entire population of
Southsea appeared to be asleep. More
over, found that the moon was 80 far On
the right side of the house that she could
not possibly shine into my window; and
If, through any unsupported chink, she
did contrive to throw in ray or tive,
from her position they must fall on the
exact opposite side TO where the luminous
arch and fiery letters were now shifting
and shimmering. Consequently, / was
more puzzled than before; and after hunt
ing with infinite care for any possible re-
fecting medium, and failing TO discover
any such, decided thatit was matter
beyond my ken, and my best plan was to
go back to. bed, and try to forget this un-
comfortable shining visitor in sleep.
The first part Of this resolution acted
on; the second was q failure. Sleep /
could not, nor could keep my eyes off
my cleaning, glittering, uncanny looking
neighbor. Suddenly change took place i;
the arch seemed to stand out from the wall,
and appeared about to descend upon my
head. This was too much even for my
philosophy. jumped up in fright, and
retreated precipitateiy to the other end of
the room. watching the movements Of the
enemy rs went, more than half fearing
that it would run after me-. However it
did not descend ON the bed, but satisfied
apparently with having scared me away,
after waving about in the air for q rev
seconds, returning to its former station,
slowly faded, and troop of dazzling HE
roglyphics rushed into its place. had
now begun to feel, if not positively
at least seriously uneasy l
thought once or twice, should wake up
any one in the honses hut it seemed so
weak and foolish to disturb people out Of
their sleep to look at spots Of light dane
ing on a wall also, l felt sure that I was
more likely myself to come at the cause
than any one else, seeing how strong was
my belief in natural causes and the fantas-
tic power of rejecting light. But could
not go back to bed again. The recollec-
ton of the descending arch, unnerved me.
/ sat down by the window, opposite the
phantom letters, and tried to think Of some
possible solution to such an enigma. re-
membered, when a child, hearing lady
say, that she had once been nearly terrified
to death by waking in the night and see
ing phosphoric light shining in her room.
But this could not be phosphorus, for, in
the first place. the description given in no
way tailed with my Illuminated wall. The
light this lady had spoken of was one
large patch, dull and reddish in color; it
motionless for a few minutes,
and then disappeared altogether; the at
at the time being close, heavy,
and charged with electricity, and a severe
thunderstorm at hand. Now the atmos-
phere, at the present moment, was clear as
crystal, fresh and pure, the sky a lovely
blue, speckled all over with small summer
clouds; evidently there was neither phos-
phorus nor electricity overstepping its
bounds this night. What could that
strange appearance signifys After think
ing over every imaginable possibility, ] at
last had the boldness to 60 up and touch
it. The letters were not moved, nor
was my hand scorched, as l half
began to think it might be. looked
again, to see If some wandering moon
beam might not be reflected from some
polished surface of glass or china-no /;
everything was in a deep shadow. The
looking glass standing towards the room,
and slOped forward, was so dark that |
could not even distinguish my face in it.
So now had exhausted all my resources,
and was really perplexed how to act. |
shrank from going back to bed with that
ghostly light playing beside me; yet !
could not sit up al night! was getting
very nervous, and was also getting very
sleepy. Even the alternative of calling
up some one had passed out of my power,
for l did not now fancy approaching the
door, more especially opening it; the pos
sibility of some dazzling, flashing object
outside seemed to be growing up in my
foolish brain. I scolded myself well for
my ridiculous fears, nevertheless kept
steadily away from the bed and the door.
Again I seated myself at the window,
feeling that should have to wait till day
light for the dancing wild-fire to depart.
This would not be very long, for 1t was
the height of summer, and dawn would
certainly commence by four o'clock, If not
earlier; so l determined to exercise pa
thence till then. s.. tt.
As sat idle, all the accounts had ever
heard or read of wonderful and myster-
Gus lights came crowding into my mind,
and, above all, Bulwcr's " Strange Story"
and the horrible "Scin- Leca," described
therein, which nearly gave me q brain
fever while reading it, and Ifancied the
light began to grow more weird looking,
and a cid, creeping shudder passed over
me. The dressing-table stood before the
window, and l thought if could move
this, and get more into the recess, should
have, as it were, closer connection with
the outer world; and if the !" thing II
could give it no name-came down from
the door and attacked me-yes, O strong
minded reader, 1t had positively come to
this--I should prefer jumping into the
garden below, at the risk of broken neck
and limbs, to fighting with q nasty, wrig-
Cling, dancing, glimmering ghost, coming
Ydidn't know from where, and staying l
didn't know for what 1t was happy
thought" and / instantly began to move
the table, casting at the same time q
startled look towards the door. Startled,
indeed; for as I looked, arch, letters, all
disappeared suddenly and utterly!
In my dismay put the table back In its