The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1871-05-04
A WOODEN LEGGED GHOST.
A "REAL TRUE STORY. "-sPrRITUALITY
AND ITS AGENTS
Correspondence N. Y. Times.

"Most people turn willing ear TO every
revelation of the marvellous. Superstition
and credullty can scarcely be regarded
as salient features of our nineteenth cen.
tury civilization, and yet few of us would
| like to confess how, after all we have
| given our faith Of the supernatural Ghost
stories, which have not lost their secret
charms for the wi5est as we'll as the sim
| plest OF course, in the light of science
and of reason, all these things, are non
sense; but after all, it is a nonsense for
which we cannot help keeping soft
spot in our hearts"
[ think it was Charles Lamb who
reasoned that science had established
the fact that the subject of ghosts was
not theory, or anything of that indefi-
mite sort, and he worked it out" in this
way:
at is now admitted to be a scientific
truth, that at the end of every seventh
year of every mans life, or every wo-
mans life not particle of physical hu-
mainly remains in their system which
was in it seven years before"
Every seven years, therefore, man or
woman ise"not that man" or woman, but
another man or woman. Every seven
years there has been peeled off from each
d concenirlc ring, as from the co1centrlc
ring of an onion, a shadowy representative
OF the individual person, which is wan
deriDg in space, increasing by one at the
end OF every seven years. And this was
Lambs theory Of ghosts. Every seven
years mans ghost left him, to appear
afterward anywhere, and at any time, and
''no questions asked" Of cold night, as
in the poor buried King of Denmark
case. Now, reader has not this thought,
SO forcibly expressed by Joanna Bailey,
sometimes entered your mind?
''Shall the departed gaze on thee again ?
Shall glide past thee in the poontide hour,
And thou preceive it not? or think st per-
haps
IT'S but the mournfu breeze that passes by, ?''
Sitting beside winter fire of an even
ing in u roundabout chair upon solitary
hearth, in house where the unwonted
sound of q tootstep is to be heard ONLY
after the summons of u bell, have YOU
never encountered those "ministel ing
Spirits 2" [ think you have, know |
have
The fact is, that there is not one fam
!. lily in ten but it has it's tradi. ionary ghost
story, which, when narrated to the sgroup
that gathers round che winter fireside,
excites, according to the age and charae.
ter of the listeners, terror, sympathy.
doubt, incredulity and ridcule. Still
the old story is kept alive, and cherished
lin after life; fol it pertains to that world
of untried being, which approaches to
wards us with it's slow and noiseless
but irresistible and overwhelming move
ment.
The incident narrated below, by an old
friend and correspondent of mine, was
told first to me at his own most hospita
bic hearth, and afterwards, at my earnest
request, reduced to writing, from which
the present narrative is greatly reduced,
yet contains III compact form, all that is
necessary for the full understanding OF
the reader. The important point made
by Lamb, as to the eccentric theory of
escaped ghosts. Tin rings every seven
years, IN a wooden leg, which does not
expand, and bourgeon, and fade, and
vanish, In shadow with the human sys
tenl--"that is the question The very
: remarkable incident took place in the
Island of Dominica, in relation to which
there is at presest some national agita
ton, which promises to increase as time
goes on.
!, During u period of considerable ex
element, arising from season Of great
mortality among the inhabitants of th
island In the year -, a veteran Scot
+, fish regiment was stationed upon the
high bluff OF land which for ms one
point of crescentular bay, and over
looks Ghc town and harbor. Inland, to
ward the east, a small plain extends it
self, while, on the west and north, which
is nearest the shore, and almost overhano.
ing it, are several low, one, story build
ings, hastily erected, of wood, for the &C
comodation OF the officers of the corps
and consisting all of three or four rooms
in each end with piazza on the side to.
wards the sea, extending the whole length
of the structure, and forming shaded
and agreeable promenade during the
earlier part Of the day. The room,
apened upon the piazza and communi.
Gated with each other by means Of side
door, which was occasionally kept open
for the freer circulation ofair.
In one of these barracks were chartered
three officers of the regiment-M Major
Hamilton, Capt Gordon, and third.
whose name | cannot at this moment
recall.
Major Hamllton's appar ment was in
the center. He had .st leg in the ser
vice; and usually wore II wooden pin or
stick shod with Iron, and being IN alert
man, tond OF exercise, used to walk up
anc down the piazza for hours together,
stopping occasionally at Gordon's door
) or window, and sometimes looking In at
that of the other officer, exchanging q
cheerful word with them, as they sat,
each in his apartment, endeavoring to
|beguile the time with dressing, reading,