The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1874-01-23
GLIMPsEs OF GHoSTLAND.
SOME OF THE UNEXPLAINED MYSTERIES OF
THE UNKNOWN WORLD.

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| 1t is no longer the fashion to scofr at
( tales ofthe supernatural. On the contrary,
there is growing tendency to investigate
/ subjects which were formerly pooh pooled
! by most persons claiming to be well in
formed and capable of reasoning. 1t is,
however, without propounding any theory
or advancing any opinion that | record
/ few instances of apparently supernatur
! or, at least. ineXplicable occurrences. l
can vouch for the truth of nearly all the
, stories L am about to relate, one of them
only not being either my personal expert
enee or related TO me by some of the actors
in the scene. My first story shall be one
that was told 10 me by an aged lady who
was one of the friends of my youth, and
who often mentioned this strange incident
OF her placid, yet busy life. She was a
sensible, practical woman, the last person
in the world likely to be led astray 10y an
Overheated imagination or deceived by hal
lueinations. Her early youth had been
passed in the country, her father being a
wealthy farmer. She bad formed n close
intimacy with the daughter of a gentleman
living at some distance from her father S
farm, and the two were seldom apart. An
invitation to nay friend (whom | shall call
| Mrs. LintOn) to visit some relatives in a
neighboring city caused a brief separation
between the two girls, and they parted
ship On the day appointed for Mrs Lin
ton 5 return, she set Uut at the prescribed
/ hour. The latter part of her journey was
to be performed OF horseback. On bright
sunny afternoon i'll June she found herself,
( about five o clock, drawing near her faith
er's house. Suddenly in the broad road
| before her she perceived female form
walking rapidly toward her, and, to her
| delight, recognized her friend coming, as
/ she thought, to meet her.
81 will make her go back with me and
take tea,'' was Mrs Linton's thought as
she whipped on her horse in her haste to
| greet the dear one, who was all the more
beloved on account of their temporary sep
aration. But as she approached the figure,
! and before she had time to speak, or, in-
deed, to do more than notice that her
! friend looked very pale and i'll, her horse, an
! unusually quiet, steady animal, seemed
struck with sudden terror, reared, SHE'D
and finally plunged into hollow by the
! roadside, from which she had some diff
! Guilty III extracting linn. When she did
succeed in bringing him back to the level
road, she found, to her astonishment, that
the young girl had disappeared. Com
| pletely mystited, she fastened home. there
to learn chat ber friend had died suddenly
| that very morning.
A HUMANITARIAN GHOST.
The next instance l shall narrate was
told me by German gentleman, whose
mother WAS the heroine of the tale. His
father had been appointed to some public
office in small German town and among
the emoluments of the place was the privi-
lege of residing in large, old-fashioned,
but very handsome mansion. The bus
band and wife (named Caroline) set off in
| high spirits to behold their new abode, to
| which some portion of their furniture
| had already been transferred. They went
| from room to room, inspecting and plan
| ming, till they came to an apartment, the
ceiling of which was elabOrately decorated
| with plaster cupids, baskets of flowers,
ETC., modelled in high relief, and with
| centre-piece of unusual size and magnif-
cence. A small table, the only article of
furniture the room contained, was placed
directly under this centre-piece. The
young wife, rather weary of her researches,
| was standing beside this table, and was
| leaning OF it, while she went on talking
with her husband, when suddenly loud,
| impIoring voice called from down stairs ::
| Caroline Caroline come down to me
come ~
..WLo can that be ~ asked the husband,
in amazement. Il fastened all the doors
and windows before we left the lower
roomsn'
Again came the loud call-this time with
an accent of agonized ehtreaty: Caroline!
oh. Carolinei come down-dO come!'
The young couple hesitated no longer,
but FASTENED down stairs. There was
one there Doors and windows were Sc
curely fastened, and the old house looked
as solitary as when they had first entered
it.
''Very strange - said the gentleman.
''But now that we are DOWN here, Caroline
suppose that we take look at the garden"
So they sailed forth to examine that por-
tion of their new domain, but scarcely had
they entered it when they were startled by
a lond crash within the house. Looking
up, they saw volumes of what appeared To
be smoke issning from the window of the
room they had just quilted and fearing
that the room was on fire, they quickly re-
turned to it. There was no fire; what had
appeared to be smoke was only cloud of
dust: for the massive and elaDOTately orlla-
mented ceiling had fallen, and the heavy
centre-piece had crushed to fragments the
table against which the young wife had SO
lately been leaning But for the warning
voice her destruction would have been IN
evitable. My informant went on to state
that the pieces of .he shattered table were
preserved as sacred relics by his parents;
and that his mother always declared that
she had recognized in the mysterious voice
that of dear relative long before deceased.
GHosTLY SOUNDS.
1t was once my fortune to pass a few
weeks in ''haunted house, l was quite
young then-a mere school girl, in fact
and the friend whom | came to visit WAS
also very young, and both of us were too
gay and frolicsome to care much for what
ever was strange or startling in our sur
roundings. Not that we ever saw anything
my friend herself, the daughter of the :
house, had never done so-but the sounds
we heard were sufficiently inexplcable to
fill us with astoniShment, if not with terror.
Twice during my visit was roused from .
sound sIumber by loud, heavy crash. re-
sembing that which might be caused by
the overthrow of marble topped wash
stand or bureau. orsome other equally pom
derous piece Of furniture. The room actu-
ally vibrated, and yet a close scrutiny of
that and the adjoining apartments failed
to reveal any cause for the peculiar noise.
1t was a sound Which could possibly not
have been produced by cracking furniture, =
falling bricks, scampering rats, or any other |