Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1872-03-28
A REAL GHOST STORY.


they have taken leave of their clayey
tenements-I know better. Robert
Dale Owen may write in favor of dead
men coming back to visit the scenes Of
their mortal tolls, and thousand others
may write against it; it's all one to me.
l shall have my own opinion, until
try to come back myself, and can't, and
1t is proved to me, by the best authority
OF the spiritual world that no one else
can. You will say, I will make no
doubt, as my friends have always done,
that my fears alarmed me, and that nv
excited imagination caused me to fancy
I saw the person of my old friend, DR..
Fenton Atwick, and heard his voice
speaking to me, when I knew he was q
crushed and mangled corpse, or Won
will conclude that have been asleep.
You will be equally mistaken in either
not timid man. I never had been
afraid of anything in the earth, air OF
sea. had walked through lone bury.
ing grounds, and by old churches.
hundreds of times, in the dead
OF night, and no "Tam u Shan
ter visions had ever vet
caused me to quicken my pace. I had
been all my life, q sturdy, hard work
ing person; so, no sick, pulling fancies
had haunted me through long, weary
days of idleness working for ten hours
on the stretch, until you are wearied to
death, and sleeping like log for ten.
is not conducive to romancins. nor did
1 wish it to be. I had no thought of
writing novels, or even ''ghost Stories, -
in those days. I was plodding chan
cery lawyer, never vepturing to make a
speech, but drudging as I have said,
for the clothes I wore, and tue food by
which life was kept in my body. DR..
Fenton Atw,ck had moved to Darby.
town ten years before. It was we'll he
had an annuity to fall back upon. fol
there was no need of his diploma, or o1
any science here. He had case or &C
of "ague and fever" and sometimes
in the autumn few chills-nothins
more. Strange that DR.. Atwick'i
should have been the first death! Alas
poor physician, thou vast "unablt
to heal thyself!" Our salubrious eli
mate and bracing mountain air might
battle every effort Of miasma to find .
victim among US. But accidcnt-th<
creature OF fate-how unfortunate, how
impossible to guard against it's treach
er0us dealings! The veriest invalid OF
earth was safer from that than hale
hearty Fenton Atwick.
don't know how I got into sort o1
reverle one evening-thinking of al
our lives, and tie popular idea that VIC
all have "misslOn" to perform.
wasn't given to such things. I should
as soon have thought Of joining ar
opera troupe-having no more idea ot
music than steam engine-as turning
metaphysician. But there I sat, look:
ing out at my window at the giant
mountains, ablaze with the COLDER
aureola OF the setting sun, with myper
behind my ear, and ponderous vol
ume of Coke all nnheeded before me-
asking myself, over and over again, oi
what avail my life had been to myself
or others, and whittier it was tending,
until the light died, too, from the west
| ern sky, and the shadows of night, O,
OF death, crept, darker and darker, into
the room. Pshaw !" I exclaimed. 81
am as visionary as a child emerging
from, or an old man going into, the
realms OF the unknown. Very soon we,
too, will be dust, rs our ancestors are
perhaps q part of that which the
young man, galloping madly by but {
lew moments ago, sent curling into my
window here, over my books and into
my nostrils. And then our children
(not mine, of course, as I am a bach
elor, but other people's) will look on,
OF this very window, as 1 am doine
now, and wonder what they were made
for, and witherward they are tending
And they Will find thems elves--in ti'
dark, as I am." struck myself a shar,
blow on the forehead, as if bv thiI
means l should effectually floor tn,
goblin thoughts that were bewitchin1
me; and drawing a parlor match across
the green serge that covered my table
lit my lamp and reopened the book
But. strange to say, could not collect
my thoughts.
~ am tempted" I muttered. ct.
go for Atwick and Fleet and Jones. ani
have . rubber at whist, for it seems
am determined to be at cross purpose,
with time this evening"" sprang ou
OF my chair as I concluded, for 6eav,
"thud," like the falling of a huma,
body, struck distinctly on my ear.
glanced hastily around the room, and
as nothing was disturbed, listened for
, repetition of the sound from without
but the SILENCE was profound, and
heard some one walking rapidly dow,
the street. ut is some visitor to me
l hope" But no the footsteps passet
on. Then there came the sound O
running feet, and some one came up
! turned quickly around as the door wa
pushed open.
"Ab, Fleet. it is you! am glad t,
see you. Come in" He did come in
and there was ghastly look upon him
frightened to behold.
"Come. jerry" he said, while hi
teeth chartered. 81 have been sent t
fetch you. A fearful accident has ius
happened. DIR. Atwick-"
What2" l asked, while shudde
I thought to be mortal ran through an
through me.
els already dead, and as have tol
you, by an accident as horrible as i
was unforeseen. Jones was with him i
his office, and they had risen to come n
here, when Atwick extinguished hi
lamp, and turning suddenly, steppe
out Of the window instead al the ioo]
and fell upon the rocks below. He wa
dead man when Jones got down t
him.
MY God, how horrible!"
$ was at the scene Of the c,;a f.,
p:Ic in few moments. And ther,