The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-12-19
AUTHENTICATING A GHOST.

"DoI believe in dreams and ghosts p
That is no way to put it. Do / believe
in dreams? Yes? In ghosts =? Listen
to me!
AS long ago as 1859 was county sur
vevor of HooppoIe county, state of
Arkansas. My brother.in-law, Jack
Henley, enjoyed the official title and
drew the salary; but used to go along
with him on duty to carry the chain and
set the stakes. l preferred this part of
the business because / could never
make the compass work properly; 1t
would always point north for mo; and
sometimes I wanted to go in other
directions. How Jack managed it 1
never could understand. Jack, by the
way. was the most intolerably ugly
motal ever beheld-except his sister
Margaret, my wife, now in heaven, poor
thing There is no sense in such ugll-
ness as Jacks.
One evening Jack came over to my
cabin, and we had little game-played
with the full pack. My wife-since
dead-retired early, leaving us with the
bottle and cigars to have it out. soon
had it out-out of Jacks pocket, every
cent of it !! And we were both Gin a
condition" About eleven o'clock we
shocks hands a few dozen times, and
Jack started for home-returning at va
riable intervals to shake hands. He
lived about mile away, down the Bull
burg road-frst house on the left.
When he was Enthusiastically gone / col
lected such of my faculties as could
lay my mind on, put the room in order,
and went to bed. I had no sooner shut
nv eyes than I dreamed Jack was dead.
1 saw him, as plainly as possible, stag
ger down the road till he had passed
the little bridge over Postum creek /;
then the moon coming out suddenly he
fell down and died of pure ugliness. /
dreamed and redreamed this so many
times that it began to worry me so /
got out of bed, dressed, and left the
house.
It was a misty kind of night, but
there was a moon somewhere behind
the fog, and I could see things close at
hand with tolerable distinctness. had
gone about quarter of mile towards
the spot where my dream had "1ocated"
Jacks body, when I met him coming
nv way. He was walking very steadily
now, and had the oldest look It was
as if his eyes had nothing behind them
you know how mean.
"Hal3oo, Jackw I exclaimed in pro-
found surprise 81 swear, old man, I
dreamed you were dead, and believed
it."
ct am" was the reply in tone of
unutterable hollowness that seemed to
come from anywhere but his lips and
at the sound of it a chill wind circulated
as freely through my hair as if I'd no
hat on.
Never having met many dead men I
did not quite know what was etiquette !;
but I have always thought the best
thing to do when you don't know what
to do is to shake hands; so proffered
my palm. Jack merely stared at me,
as if he did not see anything there, and
said in the same unearthIy tone:
ct can't do it, Bill; it's contrary to
the constitution an bylaws. I should
forfeit my leave"
"But, jack" persisted I, "can't you
take any chances for friendships sake ?"
"We never shakes hands, said he ;
can that's enough"
Jack. Before going to bed I had put
the black bottle, some cigars, and the
cards in the pocket of my coat and
that coat I had on. Ipulled out the
bottle and held it out.
"Drinkp
Then for the first time this solemn
ghost smiled sweet, sad smile.
I had learned to distinguish Jack g
sweet, sad smile from his scowls of
wrath, though most people couldn't.
I4AEl1 loo,,1-
and, after carefully returning the cork
to its place, put the whole thing under
his arm. All this time I could see
right through him at any point; and
the expression of his face depending
largely upon the color and confgura-
ton Of whatever object happened to be
behind it, whenever he moved his head
there was a deceitful appearance of a
play of emotion upon his features.
Once when he got his face between me
and knot-hole in a tree thought he
was going to eat me-so hastily offered
cigar.
"Smoke ?"
"Thanks. Got light ?"
Striking match on the sole of my
boot I gave it him, and he gravely
ignited the weed, blowing great banks
of smoke. I next produced the cards,
asking if we should have game" just
for pastime," 1 added, knowing he had
no money.
He nodded silently, sat down by the
roadside, a I'D spread out his legs like a
pair of dividers until they subtended
an angle of sixty degrees. I took posi-
ton between them and we were soon
absorbed in the rational delight of
seven-up." Sometimes [ won, some
times he did; but whatever was the re-
suit of the game he always ended it by
a pull at the bottle, never Offering it to
me. I thought this mean Of Jack, but
when I mentioned it he merely remark
ed, eve never offers anything" and
continued his play. But I began to
plan vengeance.
Presently Jack began to feel it work
ing in his spectral head. Sometimes
he would play as low as the four-spot
and claim "high." Once he stood his
hand on a queen and seven and finally,
saying something severe about "fellers
as would take advantage of a poor
ghost" he dropped over upon his I'M
substantial back, and emitted a sepul-
chral snore. 1 sat still a moment and
thought to the following effect
"This is a mean ghost. 1t would be
rather fine to teach a wholesome lesson
to the supernatural Besides, it is no
small distinction to have played seven
up with resident of another and a
warmer world; and some slight evil
dence of the fact would be acceptable. I"
I arose and went home. I remem-
bered that standing at the head of my
bed were my surveying pins and the
mallet with which l drove them in
where the ground was stony or frozen.
These pins were of iron, about eigh-
teen inches long and pointed at one
end. Opening the door entered quiet
ly so as not to arouse Margaret-since
deceased-and selecting a clean, sharp
pin returned with it and my mallet to
the spot. Jack was sleeping in exactly
the same position as at first-the cards
scattered about him like autumn leaves,
the bottle vacuous and overthrown at
his side. I passed my foot through
him two or three times to make sure he
would not awake, then kneit at his side.
His transparent head was lying on a
clean, even surface of yellow clay, and
could not help remarking his wonder
full resemblance to his sister-now no
mora 7 cT1c9Nap5aI &c