Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1872-04-04
A REAL GHOST STORY.


1t is not worth while to tell me that
the spirits of the dead never walk this
earth, to be seen by mortal eyes after
they have taken leave of their clayey
tenements-l know better. Robert
Dale owen may write IN favor OF dead
men coming back to visit the ene 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
1t is proved to me, by the bestauthorlty
Of the spiritual world that no one else
can. You will say, | will make no
doubt, as my friends have always done,
that my fears alarmed me, and that my
excited imagination caused me to fancy
| saw the person of my old friend, DIR.
Feuton Atwick, and heard his voice
speaking to me, when | knew he was II
crushed and mangled corpse, or you
Will conclude that | have been asleep.
You will be equally mistaken in either
hypothesis. In the first place, | was
not a timid man. | never had been
afraid of anything in the earth, air or
sen. had walked through lone bury.
ing grounds, and by old churches,
hundreds of times, in the dead
of night, and no "Tam y Shan
ter visions had ever yet
caused rae to quicken my pace. | had
been all my life, "A sturdy, hard work
ing person SO, no sick, pulling fancies
had haunted me through long, weary
days of ldleness working for ten hours
on the stretch, until YOU are wearied to
death, Nnd sleeping like a log for ten,
is not conducive to romapcing, nor did
| wish 1t 10 be. | had no thought of
writing novels, or even ''ghost stories, y
IN those days. | was II plodding chan
Gerry lawyer, never venturiug to make q
speech, but drudgiug rs | have said,
for the clothes | wore. and the food by
which life was kept IN my body. Or.
Feutou Atwlck had moved to Darby
town ten years before. 1t was we'll be
had an annuity to fall back upon, for
there was no need of his diploma, or OF
any science here. He had a case or so
of ''ague and fever and sometimes
in the autumn a few chiils-nothing
more. Strange that DIR. Atw1ck's
should have been the first DEATH Alas,
poor physician, thou vast "unaale
to heal myself ~ Our salubriOus eli
mate and braciug mountain air might
battle every effort Of miasma to find Il
victim among us. But accidcnt-the
creature of fate-how unfortunate, how
impossible to guard against it's treach-
cruus dealingsl The yeriest invalid on
earth was safer from that than hale,
hearty Feuton Atwick.
| don't know how | got into a sort Of
revere n eyenlng-thinkinE of nil
our lives, and tie popular idea that We
all have a mission to perform. |
wasn't given to such things, | should
ms soon have thought Of joining an
opera troupe-haying no more idea of
music than a steam engine-as turning
metaphysician. But there | sat, look
ing out at my window at the giant
mountains, ahlaZe with the golden
aureola Of the setting sun, with mypen
behind my ear, and a ponderous vol
ume OF Coke all UNDECIDED before me,
asking myself, over and over again, OF
what avail my life had been to myself
or others, and whittier il was tending,
until the light died, too, from the west
eIn sky, and the shadows OF night. or
Of death, crept, darker and darker, into
the room. Fshaw !" exclaimed. II
am rs visionary ms a child emerging
IRON, or M old man gong into. tie
rea.ms Of ~theunkuown. Very soon We,
too, will be dust, rs our ancestors are
perhaps a part Of slat which the
young man. ~galloptng madly by but Il
few moments ago, sent curling into my
window here, over my books and into
my uostrils. And then our children
nut mine, OF course, rs am Il bach.
elor, but other peoples will look ont
Of tins very window, MS | ann doing
now, and wonder what they were made
for, and witherward they are tending.
And they Will find themselyes- in the
dark, rs | am" / struck myseNt asAarp
blow on tie forehead, rs i by tins
meaas | should efectuully door tine
eob4Ia thoughts that were bcwltchNur
ne; AMI drawing 4 parlor match across
the green serge TINT covere,! KY table,
lit my lamp and reopeuea the book.
but. strange to say, | could not collect
my thoughts.