New-York tribune., 1873-03-06
or FOUR GHOSTS.

or FOUR GHOSTS.
Mankind has weakness for specters. II
we are to credit human testimony at all,
great mass of supernatural narrative still tests
our skepticism, even with the largest allow
ances for ocular delusons, infirm credullty
and our propensity to see what we expect to
see and what others profess to have seen.
The earliest legends and traditions are full OF
these mysterious visitors gliding through the
twilight of history and peOpling the pages OF
poetry and romance In Hamlet and in many
other of Shakespeare's plays, the ghosts come
in as regular dramatis persona, and so much
as a matter of course that their coming at all
does not seem in the least miraculous. This
is because, up to recent period, NOBODY
questioned the existence of ghosts. The age,
though it is little more skeptical, has its
specters still, and still our houses and high
ways are haunted. OF four recent ghosts we
have lately seen newspaper accounts.
Number One walked all in white in the
pleasant village of Rowley, Mass, with blood
red hands, from which it was deduced that it
was the ghost of manslaughterer who was
long ago hung, or deserved to be. If so, the
Rowley specter has experienced a change of
heart for he is always seen in the first gray
dawn shOyeling snow from the sidewalks-a
most considerate and useful spirit-that is, II
the snow actually disappears before his imple-
ment-a point upon which we are not informed.
In some of our towns and cities, If he really
could clear the way for early pedestrians, he
would have been this Winter q prOdigiOus
friend to the lazy; nor should we ourselves
object to being so haunted.
Number Two is a woman, but at the same
time of the hair-erecting and marrow-con-
geaing Sort She travels by rail. She
haunts the fireman and she dstracts
the engineer of the locomotive Won
"Moltke" on the Binghamton Railway, jour
neying, against all the rules of the Company,
upon the tender, and without preparing her
fare. The incredulous conductor, upon hear
ing of this dead-head lin double sense such),
determined to investigate for himself. The
train stopped at a water tank to replenish the
boiler, and there was the She ghost sitting still
upon the tender, and uttering the following
words: Now, Billy, I've got your The fire.
man was about ungallantly to smte the
woman with a chain, when the con-
ductOr came up and told him not
to strike woman but to grasp and hold
her-One of the neatest and most pleasant
pieces of advice possible under any circum-
stances. Then the specter vanished" melted
into thin air." as the reporter POLITICALLY and
originally observes. The fireman has met the
same ghost since in Syracuse, when and
where she told him in sepulchral accents that
whisky would be the death of himn-which
we think exceedingly probable. What else she
told him he refuses TO disclose; but it must
have been something awful. Lately, just as
the engine was going out of the yard. the
ghost appeared again and the engineer was
so frightened that he declined to make his
regular trip, and, going home, probably took
something hot and went to bed.
Number Three, if ghost at all, is one
interested in the Common School System of
Massachusetts, 1t is attached to Newbury-
port (Mass.) seminary, ungallantly scares the
hool-marm, and takes mean advantage Of
juvenile timidity. 1t raps. 1t stops the clock.
Ii moves maps and rustles papers Being
specially requested TO appear, it became visible
in &" a light of a peculiar blush COLOR Com
mittees appointed to investigate are divided
in opinion. and make majority and minority
reports. The former contemptuously regard
third committeeman who inclnes to the
supernatural side of the question. Seven per-
sons have watched all night in the building,
and have heard and seen enough to scare
them out of their wits. Meanwhile the CITY
Marshal, who has been investigating in a
quiet way, will soon give us common sense
explanation of the matter, and we trust will
calm the Newburyport perturbations.
Number Four is an electrical and teiegraphic
ghost IN Dubuque, Iowa. A young man in
tending to go into the business of telegraphing
pair of repeating instruments,
with batteries and other apparatus, which he
set UP with connecting wire in his room. To
his great astonishment the Instruments began
to WORK OF their own accord, with Il system |
: attic and rhythmic cadence about the clicks !
. OF the armature, analogous to those heard |
in the ordinary telegraph ofice.r The ghost
operated very quickly, but being requested to
20 little slower in. its communications il |
lndly complied: and il was found that tho