The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1873-05-22

overhead there was skylight and the
dark sky beyond. One of the sisters
looking up towards this skylight, saw
there the face of her dying sister looking
| sorrowfully down upon them. She seized
another sister by the hand and pointed to
the skylight; and one after another the
sisters looked where she pointed. They
spoke no word; and in few moments
their father and mother called them to the
room where their sister had just died; but
when afterwards they talked together
about what had happened that night, it
was found that they had all seen the WIS.,
ion of the sorrowful face.
A remarkable circumstance in these and
many other instances of supposed visions,
is the utterly unreasonable nature of the
supposition actually made in the mind Of
the ghost-seer In the stories where u
ghost appears for some useful purpose, as
| to show where treasure has been conceal
| cd or to reveal the misdeeds of some per-
son still living, the mind does not reject
the event as altogether unreasonable
though the circumstances may be land
commonly are) sufficiently preposterous.
! But one can conceive no reason whatever
| why departed wife and mother should
! make her appearance in a garden-chair on
asdusky evening, and still less why the
vision of dying sister should look down
| through skylight. 1t is singular that on
| this account alone the mind does not re-
ject the illusion in such cases.
Among the most perplexing circum-
stances in the common belief about ghosts,
| are the accepted ideas about ghostly habili-
ments. For instance, why should so many
ghosts be clothed in white: If the answer
is that grave-clothes are white, we may in
Quire what Il ghost wants with grave
clothes? 1t might as well refuse to appear
| without coffin. And then, many ghosts
have appeared in their habit as they lived.
| If we inquire what is the real conception
| in the ghOst-seer's mind as to the nature of
the vision, we find difficulty in under
standing what idea is formed by the real
believer in ghosts respecting the vestments
in which spirits make their appearance.
This is an old difficulty. In fact, it has
probably occurred to every one who has
thought over ghost story. So soon as We
come to the description of the ghosts
vestments, there is always hitch in the
story For my own part, must have been
very small child indeed, when l first
pondered over the question, Who made
the ghosts clothes?
Of course there is no difficulty in the
case of those who believe only in ghostly
apparitions as phantoms Of the brain.
Here distinction must be drawn. am
not speaking of those who regard such
apparitions as either due to diseased &C
ton of the brain or to the power of fancy
in forming from real objects, indistinctly
seen, the picture of departed friend; but
of those who look on visions of the dead
as produced by supernatural impressions
on the brain. Those who think that at
| the will of the dead a vision may be caused
to appear, can of course understand that
this vision would either be clothed in the
garb which had been worn during life, or
in grave-clothes, or in such other dress as
suited the circumstances under which the
vision appeared. But this view is not or
dinarily adopted by those who regard ap-
partitions as supernatural phenomena.
They commonly regard the phantom as
something really existent in the place
where it is apparently seen. The dead
person is there in some form; some essen
tial entity representing him has the power
to transport itself from the place of the
departed into the presence Of the living:
1t must be admitted that there is some
, thing particularly hideous in a long horn
| ed face. remember an instance where
| the sudden appearance of such face, or
what took to be such, caused me de-
gree. of discomfort certainly not justified
by the occasion. Singularly enough, the
event belongs to the period of my life to
which l have already referred; and may
as well note that at no time either before
or since have I, even for a moment land
against the will of the mind1 mistaken
commonplace objects for either spirit of
health" or goblin damn'd."
During the last weeks of the long vaca-
ton already mentioned, went alone to
BlackpoOl in Lancashire. There took
lodgings in house facing the sea. My
sitting room was on the ground floor. On
| a warm autumn night l was reading with
| and was waving gently to and fro in the
wind. 1t happened that was reading q
book on demonology; moreover, had
been startled earlier in the evening by pro
longed shrieks from an upper room in the
house, where my landladv's sister, who
was very ill, had had an hysterical fit. I
had just read to the end of q long and par
ticularly horrible narrative when was
disturbed by the beating of the curtain
the wind having risen somewhat-and I
got up to close the window. As I
turned around for the purpose, the
curtain rose gently and disclosed
a startling object A fearful face
was there, black, long and hideous,
and surmOunted by two monstrOus horns!
Its eyes, large and bright, cleaned horri-
bly,, and a mouth garnished with immense
teeth grinned at me. Then the curtain
slowly descended. But knew the horri-
| BILE thing was there. waited, by no
means comfortably, while the curtain flut.
tered about, showing parts of the black
monster. At last it rose again so as to
disclose the whole face. But the face had
lost its horror for me. For the horns soere
gone Instead of the two nearly upright
horns which before had shown black and
frightful against the light background of
sea and sky, there were two sloped ears as
unmistakably assinine as felt myself at
the moment. When l.. went to the win
dow (which before I felt unable to ap-
proach) saw that several stray donkeys
were wandering through the front gar.
dens of the row of houses to which my
lodgings belonged. It is possible that the
inquisitive gentleman who had looked in
at my window was attracted by the flap-
ping curtain, which he may have taken
for something edible. "1f So" re-
marked to myself, 1.-TWO Of your kind
would have been deceived to-night.n
ia N Would be easy to fill page after page
with The details Of the various ideas en-.
tertained about ghosts, COLLINS and de-
mons Such ideas extend not only to the
appearance of such beings, their apparel,
/ A. l-P a 4