The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1872-05-16
UHE MRtBuEE.
Official City and County Paper
REAL GHOST STORY.

LII is not worm WNlle U tOIi HiO 1HoI
the spirits of the dead never walk this
earth. to be seen by mortal eyes, after
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.
shall have my own opinion, until | try
to come back myself, and can't, and IL is
proved to me, by the best authority of
the spiritual world, that no one else can.
You will say, I make no doubt, as my
friends have always done, that my fears
alarmed me, and that my excited iInagi-
nation caused me to fancy saw the per-
son of my old friend, DIR. Fenton Atwick,
and heard his voice speaking to me, when
knew he was crushed and mangled
corpse, and you will conclude that I was
asleep. You viii be equally mistaken in
either hypotheses. In the first place l
was not timid man. [ never had been
afraid of anything in the earth, air or
sea. had walked through lone burying
grounds, and by old churches, hundreds
Of times, in the dead Of night, and no
Tam o Shanter'' visions had ever caus-
ed me to quicken my pace, | had been,
all my life, sturdy, hard working. per-
son; so, no sick, pulling fancies had
haunted me through long, weary days of
idleness working for twelve hours on
the stretch, until you are wearied to
death, and sleeping like log for ten
hours, is not conducive to romancing,
nor did [ wish it to be- | had 20 thought
of writing novels, or even ''ghost
stories In these days, l was plodding
chancery lawyer, never venturing to
make speech, but drudging, as L have
said, for the clothes | wore, and the food
by which life was kept in my body. DIR.
Fenton Atwick had moved to Darbytown
ten years before 1t was well he had an
annuity to fall back upon, for there was
no need Of bis diploma, OR of any science
here. He had had case or so of ''ague
and fever and sometimes in the au-
tumn few chils, Smoothing more
Strange that DR.. Atwick' S should have
been the first death. Alas, poor ply
stefan thou vast unable to heal thy |
self!'' Our salubrious climate and |
bracing mountain air might brave every
effort of miasma to find victim amongst |
US. But accident-the creature of fate
how unforeseen, how impossible to guard |
against its treacherous dealings! The
veriest invalid on earth was safer from
that than hale, harty DR.. Fenton At
wick,
l don't know how got into sort of |
reverie one evening thinking of all our
lives, and the popular idea that we all
have mission to perform 1 was not |
given to such things I should as soon
have thought of joining an opera troupe
having no more idea of music than
steam-engine-as turning meta-physician
But there [ sat, looking out at my win
dow on the giant mountains, ablaze with
the golden aureola of the setting sun,
with my pen behind my ear, and pom
derous volume Of Coke all unheeded be-
fore me. asking myself, over and over
again, of what avail my life had been to
myself or others, and whittier it was ten
ding, until the light died too from the
western sky, and the shadows of night
or of death, crept, darker and darker into |
the room. ''Pshaw!'' I exclaimed, 81
am as visionary as child emerging from
or an old man, going into, the realms of
the unknown. Very soon we too will be
dust, as our ancestors are-perhaps
part of that which the young man, who
was galloping madly by but a few mo-
ments ago, sent curling into my window |
here, over my books into my very nos
trils. And then our children mot mine,
of course, as | am bachelor, but other
people'sl will look out of this very win
dow, as | am doing now, and wonder
what they were made for, and whittier |
ward they are tending. And they will |
IND themseiyes-in the dark as [ am"
L struck myself sharp blow on the fore
head, as If by this means | should effec |
tually floor the goblin thoughts that were
bewitchlng me; and drawing parlor
match across the green serge that COW
cred my table, lit my lamp and reopen |
ed my book. But, strange to say. T |
could not collect my thoughts.
Il am tempted, muttered, sto go for |
Atwick and Fleet aud Jones, and have a
rubber at whist, for it seems [ am de. |
termiaed to be at cross purposes with
time this evening. sprang up out of
my chair as | concluded, for a heavy
thud, sounding like the falling of hui
man body, struck distinctly on my ear.
L glanced hastily around the room, and
as nothing was disturbed, listened for a
repetition OF the sound from without. hut |
the silence was profound. and | took up
my book again. A moment more, and I |
heard some enc walking rapidly down |
the street, 1T is some visitor to me, l |
hope" But no, the footsteps passed on. |
Then there came the sound of rpnnino |
feet-one, two, three seperate persons |
going by. Then there was hasty tread
on my steps and some one came up. 7 |
turned quickly as the door was pushed
open.
"Ah, Fleet, it is you! I am glad to
see you, Come in. He did come in
and there was CHASTITY look upon him,
fightful to behold.
''Come, Jerry" he said whila hi