American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-10-03
A Window Ghost.

WHAT would be your sensations if you
were to close your eyes in sleep at night
with nothing unusual about the
house, and open them in the morning to
the ocular fact of a strange, ghostly face
in your window? You rub your eyes
while you still lie in bed and intently
examine the features, which appear to be
sternly bent upon you They are quiet,
ghostly and solemn. The glassed eyes
do not blink You are finally satisfied
that it is no optical Illusion, and your
wonder increases. You begin to tremble
a little, and your heart tiutters, the pre-
monitory symptoms of a scare. You get
up and go to the window. The sunrise
is glittering on the dripping trees. There
has been a thunderstorm during the
night. and you remember some remarks
it made at the time. The face is still
there in the window large as life and al
most as natural, but it has no correspond
ing body. 1t is just the picture of a face
set in the glass or suspended in the air
near the. window. You cannot tell eX-
actly which You step outside and OBJ
serve that the picture now appears to be
back Il few inches from the glass inside
the room You also notice evidences of
that end of your house having been played
with by lightning. You are more mys-
tilted than ever. You return to the face.
You examine the glass by passing your
hand over it. 1t is not rifted or
roughened. 1t is cold and smooth,
yet it seems to be animated by
spirit. You cannot make it out and re-
solve towait and watch if anybody else
sees it. You begin to be not quite sure
that bolt of lightning during the night
has not driven. you out of the body.
Maybe you are gazing at your own ghost
in the window, trying to look you out of
countenance and convince you that you
were struck dead during the night. You
feel very much alive, but want your
senses corroborated. If that flash of
lightning has thus photographed your
face, or the face of anybody else, you
want to know it. The town is astir.
You will soon have the proof. The pass
ers-by see you, and your friends speak
to you. They also see the ghostly face
in the window 1t is, therefore, a fact,
with which you are entirely disconnect-
ed. The wonder has increased. If an
illusion it is a delusion to all eyes. How
did it come there to look in and out of
that window with everlasting solemnity,
like Poe's Raven perching on the bust of
Pallas just within the chamber door, to
roost there forever more? Sensations
and thoughts like these were lately those
of a citizen of Darlington, Mo. He has
just such a ghost in his window, palpable
to everybody's sight, and it will not
awayi 1t came there as described above.
There was a thunder-storm-a bolt of
lightning; the face was seen in the
window in the morning, and there
seemed to be some mysterious connec-
ton between the lightning and the pic
ture. At any rate thatsis the only shadow
of theory advanced to account for the
marvellous appearance. The strange
phenomena was noticed in the local
papers, and thousands of people tiocked
to see the window ghost. They all saw
it, too, and .still the wonder grew"
Some believed it to be a real ghost
Others turned away and sneered; "a vain
imagination" but the fact is, all saw it,
and anybody who feels an interest can
see it for themselves. 1t is evidently
connected with the window-glass itself,
for when the whole section of sash is re-
moved to another place the haunting face
goes with it. The window therefore holds
the secret, and the appearance is not
caused by or subject to reflection.
The owner of the house and the win
dow and ghost, if it be one. has been of
fered various sums for the window, but
he is unwilling to sell it. A letter writ
ten to us on the subject states that Il
man, representing a st. Louis firm, of
fered as high as 800 for this strange
specimen of photography for the purpose
of exhibiting it in this city. That good
round sum for a few panes of common
window glass was no object to the own
er.-St. Louis Republican.