New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-03-28
THE WHITE LADY.
FROM THE GERMAN OF w. ZIMMERMAN.

FROM THE GERMAN OF w. ZIMMERMAN.
IT was late on a winters evening, in the
wear 1852. that a small but lively company OF
ladies and gentlemen were assembled in
larye drawino-room Of the villa belonging to
(,oSInt C.. not rar from the city OF Stutt-
cart. in Wurtenburg. The conversation,
which in the early part of the evening, had
fallen upon politics, the theatre, and other
common topics of the day, now, as the hour
of midnight approached, turned naturally upon
the solemn subjects, presentlments, omens,
and ghostly appearances. =,
Then she has actually been seen salo
q Young lawyer.
ssCertainly," replied the lively Frau Won
R. ''Ihree persons who had been in
constant attendance upon her tor many years,
saw her appear before them exactly as she
was in life."
"Was it in the day or in the night p asked
the lawyer. -,
ait was just at DUSK" answered the old
clergyman. "She appeared for two consecu-
tive DAYS about the same time; but on the
second occasion it was little later. The
first time. the waiting-woman was sitting in
the ante-chamber near the door in the inner
apartment, by the window, sat an old rela-
tive of the deceased, and the nurse was watch
ing by the cradle of the sick child. The two
latter were talking softly together when sud-
denly they stopped. They tried to scream,
but could not, they were speeches. with hor-
TOR. The door opened, of itself, and the
deceased lady, clothed in a long white night
dress, glided slowly across the antechamber,
and through the open door of the inner room.
She was seen by them all, and distinctly rec
ognized. the features as plainly marked as in
her earthly frame although the appearance
was that Of a spiritual body, pale white mist,
the veil, as it were, of the immortal soul.
She approached the cradle, remai-ed mo-
ment bending over it, and then returned as
silently as she had come.
"Did you see herr" gasped the old lady, at
last.
s:I 1t was she y gasped the nurse.
SO As she was in the body said the wait
ing girl. .. .,,... ,,.,.r...., ;, cold tho
lawyer; 'but not one man among them, and
a woman's Imagination is always livelier than
a MANS"
But on the second evening"" said Major
Won M, " the husband of the deceased,
with others who were sitting with him, wit
messed the same thing. Everything was re-
peated. exactly as on the previous evening.
She came in silently, and as silently retired,
no one daring to speak or move. But cool
breath seemed to pass over those present, and
Did you see again? Yes, it was She were
the first words uttered by her husband when
the door closed of itself behind her as it had
opened Of itself when she entered.
During the night the child died, without
suffering"
"Very strange,r said the lawyer since
the husband of the deceased, whom know
well, saw it with his own eyes, my position as
a doubter is poor indeed"
This apparition, in the garrison city of
L, distant only mile and half from
Stuttgart, was at the time the talk of the day
in both cities. The spirit, whose motherly
love for her sick child was stronger than death
or the grave, was the wife, not long before
deceased of Captain Won s..
cit is ever better in such cases." said the
clergyman. ''to doubt than to believe blindly:
but the possibility of such an appearance does
not belong to the inconceivable indeed, pro-
liability is on its side, and where this is so.
one is forced to believe. 1t is even so, he
went on, with thousands Of phenomena in
nature. The doubter says, 1t is not clear to
me. 1 do not know Every thoughtful man
feels within himself that he is akin to higher
beings that he stands in certain relations to
them. and that, for those who dearly love
each other, death may sever the earthly but
not the spiritual bond. We ought not, in
deed. to seek intercourse with spirits; that
has often led to extravaganza and folly, to
errors of serious nature, to lying and deceit,
but we will not, therefore, deny the posi-
biity of such intercourse"
so much the less, (" said the major, since,
even now, we understand so little what man
really is, and it is yet more inexplicable to US
what we will be after this life.''
.'Still less" added the Herr Won C..
an Austrian, who was present, "when so
many instances and so many witnesses can
be produced to prove its truth. Only think
of the apparition Of our White Lady!''
"You call her your White Lady," cried
the Frau Won R, in a tone of surprise.
ave, in Wurtemburg, call her our White
Lady,"
"You are right, too, said the Austrian.
"The tradition of the White Lady is found in
almost every part of Europe; in Stuttgart and
in Berlin, in Lyons, in Paris, in London,
Stockholm, and Copenhagen, has she appeared
many times, for she was related, in some way,
with all these royal houses. She was de-
scended, indeed, from the ancient race of the
Rosenbergs, and the house of the 'Ursine'
of Rosenberg, an old line in the Italy of our
middle ages, is related to most of our German
princely houses"
"Yet the White Lady belongs more espe-
cially to us Austrians, together with the Be-
hemians for the Rosenbergs came from Rome
t. Bohemia and there lived until the house
the Rosenbergs, wherever they may be--the
Silesian castles of Kynast and Kynsberg, and,
in Bohemia, the castle of Teltsch, Neuhaus,
and Krma, Teltsch is more especially favored
by her. As in the ancestral house of the
Kolowrate, when a stone sweats blood, so
surely KOlowrate must die; so, in the same
way, the ringing of bell Of itself in the chapel
of the Teltsch family fortells the death of the
lord of the castle let him be where he will.
And the White Lady is seen and heard
cftener in the Teltsch and Neuhaus than else
where"
Gift is really true that the spirits, as you
have before stated in the case of the Frau
Won s., appear exactly as they were in
life, should like very much to see the White
Lady, for her painted form has quite exhausted
me-"
Have you then seen her picture ?" cried
many voices at once.
sin the Teltsch Castle ;" said the Austrian,
hangs her picture. According to this she
was of middle statue of slender form, her
shin as white and soft as May flower; her
forehead was narrow at the nose, somewhat
retrousse; deep-sunken, melancholy eyes
but the mouth was particularly beautiful, like
the opening rosebud"
''She is represented in long, white velvet
= L.