The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1872-02-23
SITTING UP WITH A CORPSE.
A Real GHOST story.

It is not worth while to tell me
that the spiri:s of the dead never
walk this earth, to be seen by NOR.
tai 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 NOR
| tai tolls and thousand others may
write, against 1t; it Is all one to me.
I shall have my own opinion, until L
try to come back myself and can t,
and it is proved to me, by the best
authority of the spirit 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 imagination
caused me to fancy I saw the person
of my old friend, DR.. Fenton Atwick,
and heard his voice speaking to me,
when | knew he was = crushed and
mangled corpse, or you will con
clude that I must have been asleep.
You will be equally mistaken IN
either hypothesis. In the first place,
I was not timid man. never
had been afraid Of anything in
earth, air or sea. I had walked
through lone burying- grounds, and
by cid churches, hundreds of times,
IN the dead of night, and no "Tam
o'Shanter visions had ever yet
caused me to quicken my pace. I
had been all my life a sturdy, hard
working person. No sick, pulling
f4ncies had haunted me through
long, weary days of idleness. Work
ing for twelve hours on a stretch,
until you are wearied to death, and
sleeping for ten. Is not conducive to
romancing, nor did I wish it to be.
I had no thought of writing novels,
or even "shost stories. IN those
days. I was a plodding chancery
lawyer, never venturing to make a
speech, but drudging as have said
for the clothes I wore and the food
by which life was kept in my body.
DIR. Fenton Atwick had moved to
Darbytown ten years before. It was
we'll he had an annuity to fall back
upon, for there was no need of his
diploma, or of any science here.
He had had a case or so of "ague
| and fever" and sometimes in the
autumn few chills-nothing more.
Strange that DR.. Atwick's should
have been the first death Alas,
poor physician thou vast "unable
to heal thysefl /" Our salubrious
climate and braeing mountain air
might battle every effort of miasm
to find a victim amongst US. But
accideDt-the creature of fate-how
unforeseen how impossible to
guard against its treacherous deal
ings The veriest invalid on earth
was safer from that than hale, hear
| ty Fenton Atwick,
Idon't know how I got into sort
of reyerie one evening-thinking of
our lives and the popular idea that
we all have &c mission" to perform.
I wasn't given to such things. I
should as soon have thought of join
ing an opera troupe-having no
more idea of music than a steam
engine-as turning metaphysician.
But there I sat looking out of my
window on the giant mountains,
ablaEe with the golden aureole OF
| the setting sun, with my pen behind
my ear and a ponderous volume of
Coke all unheeded before me, ask
ing myself over and over again, of
what avail my life had been to my
self or others, and whittier it was
tending, until the light died from
the western sky, and the shadows
of night, or of death, crept darker
and darker into the room. "Pshaw,' -
| l exclaimed; "I am as visionary as q
child emerging from, or an old man
| going into, the realms of the IN
known. Very soon we, too, will be
dust as our ancestors are-ps srhapa
part of that which the young man,
ganoping madly by but a few mo-
ments ago, sent curling into my
window here, over my books and
into my very nostrils. And then
our children fnot mine, of course,
as am bachelor, but other peo-
| pIe's) will look out of this very win
dow, as I am doing now, and won
der what they were made for and
whitherward they are tending
! And they viii find themselVes-in
| the dark, as I am" l struck my
| self a sharp blow on the forehead,
| as if by this means I should effect
ualIy floor the goblin thoughts thai
we're bewitching me; and drawing
a parIor match across the green
serge that covered my table. lit my
lamp and Eeopened my book. But
strange to say / could not collect
my thoughts.
"I am tempted" muttered, "tc
/ 90 for Atwick and Fleee and Jones
and have a rubber at whist, for i
; seems I am determined TO be a
cross purposes with time this even
, ing" 1 sprang up out Of my chai
/ as I concluded, for heavy " thud,
: like the falling of a human body
struck distinctly on my ear.
: glanced hastily around the room
: and as nothing was disturbed, lis
! tened for a repetition of the sount
: from without; but the silence wa
Z profound, and took up my boo
again. A moment more and
heard some one walking rapid,
down the street. "It is some visi
: tor to me I hope" But no: tn
e footsteps pass on. Then there cam
d the sound of running feet--one, twe
d three separate persons going by
, Then there was q hasty tread on n.
own steps and some one came az
/ turned quickly IS the door va
q pushed open.