Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-11-06
WORCESTER.
WEDNESDAY,. NOVEMBER ., 1879.


victory les rs Rejoice.
We give such returns of the voting, yesterday,
as We have received, and feel sure that all good
republicans will read them and rejoice. Grant
and Wilson appear to have swept the country
more completely than was generally expected.
All the New England states viii give them their
electoral votes They have carried New York
BY majority of 40 900; Delaware, which most
people had set down as sure for Greeley and
Brown, is reported republican by from 1000 to
1000 majority; and Arkansas, it is said, has
gone the same way. The republican majority
10 ohio.is said to be from 10000 to $4,000; in
Illinois, $4,000; and the whole northwest ap-
pears to be republican by decisive MAORI ties
In Pennsylvania the republican majority is over
whelming. We have something to say of this
great victory, but have not time to say it now.
In this state, the triumph is nearly complete
We have carried the state by a very greatima-
jofity. All our candidates for congress are
elected; all the councillors are republicans, and
so are most of the senators and representatives.
In this city, the result greatly astonished our
democratic friends. They expected TO carry the
eleventh representative district, and hoped 10
elect their candidate for senator; but the "tidal
wave" was against them.
We rejoice to know that Gen. Hawley is elect
ed to congress, in the Hartford district That
Connecticut district is very close, and Eaton, as
a emocratic candidate was very strong; but
Hawley has Gil majority
Railroad Romance and Superstition.
This is practical age, we are often told;
steam and electricity, the general diffusion of
knowledge and the exactions of material pro
gress have banished or crushed superstition and
romance. People are too hard-headed to believe
fables, and have no time to waste over the in.
dolent luxury of sentiment Statements, in
order to win belief, must be proved or, at least,
probable, and pleasant, but doubtful stories,
however full of picturesque beauty or Impress
iveness, are contemptuously dismissed as only
fit to amuse or brighten children. So the Grad
grinds tell us, exultmg in their hard dogmatic
fashion over the triumph of common sense and
tactical intelligence, aud a class of sentimental
siasts confirm the assertion with very diff
'elines. Mr.. Ruskin hates railways,
iment of all that is hostile to the
me old fashioned quiet virtues.
al man glories in them for
perhaps they are both
1t. The prosaic feat
obvious enough,
the other SIDE.
rand or more sug-
ges ptions than the swift,
steady, heavy train over OF
though M. tynes streams and for
ests?
Even business which to most minds seems
so severely pr2cgcal as that of working on rail
ways in subordinate POSITIONS does not make
men wholly unimaginatye or free them from
supernitions. On the contrary, their employ
ment furnishes situations which are prolific in
suggestions of superstition and romance. En-
glish writers Of tales have made good use Of
some Of these A story of this sort comes from
the west, where it is said, one Of the remote and
lonely stations on the Pacific railroad was kept
for some time by man named Connolly, a
steady, faithful man, who unfortunately lost his
life in the performance of his duty during one
of the terrific snow storms of the last
winter. His successor has been fearfully
annoyed by the apparidon of this Con-
molly, which visits him by day as well
a. Nl ul-nls anu lOt IoutJul WIN lhulCslu9 his
unwelcome presence, subjects the inofensive
man 10 personal i'll treatment. The station
keeper is said TO be an unmaginatiye but reso-
Lutte man, who would not much mind the
presence Of spectre, if it would only insist on
being looked at, but decidedly objects to being
1hrottled and beaten even by ghost Many Of
his acquaniances also have seen the phantom
and testify 10 the fact ofits appearance and to the
marks Of i'll usage on the person of its victim.
A respectable newspaper youches for the good
faith Of these witnesses, who tell what they have
themselves seen, and is driven to attempt an ex-
PLANTATION Of the phenomenon, based on some
species Of trickery or illusion.
But something much more strange than the
Teprehensbe behavior Of the spirit of the late
Connolly is told by night Waterman on the
New York Central railroad. He says that
every year, on the 9th Of April, about mid
night, phantom train passes over the road
bearing the body Of the murdered President
Lincoln. As a warning of its approach the air
suddenly becomes chill and cutting. Soon the
pilot engine, with long black streamers, band
playing dirges and grinning skeletons sitting
on every projection, passes up the road, and a
few minutes later the phantom train glides by
without noise. Flags and steamers hang from
it; the track seems covered with a black carpet
and the wheels are draped with black The coffin
of the murdered president is seen lying in the
center of the car, and all about it, in the air and
on the train, are innumerable blue coated SOL
diers, some with cofins on their backs aud 9TH
ers leaning on them. The vast army of men
who fell on the battle fields of the rebellion seem
to beescorting their chief to his grave. Wensed
not caution our readers aginst giving implicit
credence to this story, but it is certainly roman
tic and impressive in the highest degree, far sur
passing in this respect the comparatively puerile
legends of midnight hunts and headless horse
men. ruder and more credulous state Of So
ciety would find material and suggestion here
for cherished national superstition.