Weekly Trinity journal., 1875-08-07
Weaverville, August 7, 1875.
EXERCISING A GHOST.
Tom Brown was haunted.

Tom Brown was haunted
You may turn up your nose, reader,
and scout at the idea, but such things do
happen, even in the nineteenth century,
as | am ready to prove.
repeat it, my friend Tom was haunt
ed and by no less person than hi,
wiie's first husband, who, it would reas-
onably be supposed, having vacated the
place that Tom had oblgingly offered to
fill, would have left our hero in undis-
turbed possession OF all the rights and
privileges thereunto belonging.
Now if it had been the ghost of Toms
grandmother or great grandmother, or
any OF his aunts or cousins, or even that
undesirable but indispensable article-it
men would have any wives at ala
motherin- law, he could have borne it
with some degree of equanimity but
as it was, he was driven nearly frantic.
Tom had married the Widow Vandu-
zen with the best possible intentions,
who had manifested no reluctance to be-
coming Mrs. Tom Brown: indeed, we
are only to ramem Der that she was n
widow to feel pretty sure that she did her
share OF the courting.
And now to have the virtues of the de-
ceased Vanduzen dished up for breakfast,
dinner, and tea, to say nothing of having
them served up cold as sdedishes, on ev-
cry possible occasion. was rather more
than Tom could endure.
We can understand the poet when he
says, How blessings brighten as they
take their flight p but why a woman
should speak of her sainted husband"
who was anything but saint when on
earth, or why a man should allude to the
"dear Departed" who was only dear to
him in her heavy drafts upon his pocket
book, are among those things, to quote
the immortal Dundreary, (which no fell
low can find cut"
Toms wife was quiet, meek-faced
little woman, and who would have been
highly indignant if any one had intimat-
ed that she did not make him the best of
wives.
Indeed, most of Toms male acquaint-
ances thought that he ought to be very
happy fellow, and so he would have been
but for the ghost of the defunct Vandu-
zen, whose presence the late widow con-
tinually invoked, and whose moral excel
lencies, as portrayed by her skillfuI hand
he despaired Of ever being able to EN-
ulate.
Mrs, Brown regarded his shortcomings
with an air Of indulgence that was not
the least aggravating part Of it.
Poor Tom means WELL" she would
say with sigh Of mingled resignation
and regret. " l conld not expect to have
two such husbands as my sainted Au-
gustus."
We regret to say that Tom did not al
ways receive this with the meekness that
was expected Of him.
No one can regret his death more
than do my dear" was the unleeling
rejoinder one day.
Mrs. Brown uttered no roproach, nei
ther did she fly into passion. She knew
a trick worth two of that.
Slowly raising her handkerchief to her
eyes, she ialtered forth
My santed Augustus"
Without waiting to hear what the
4" sainted Augustus" did or did not do,
Tom left the house, uttering some very
emphatic language, like the unteeling
brute he was, as our lady readers will
acknowledge.
The worst of it was that Tom knew of
no one who had the slightest knowledge
Of the late Augustus Vanduzen, so he
was unable 10 throw any doubt upon the