The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-04-08
DAYTON,s sPOOK.
A Rutcher's Daughters are Roughly
Treated NV the CncivfI Ghost.

Treated by the UneiviI Ghost.
One of the most beautiful ghost stories
we ever hearn tell Of" says the Cinein-
natl Enquirer, comes to us all The way
irom Daytoa-Dayton,t the cOal-road cursed
city oi the Miami. Not content with being
the nome OF so many witchful women, it
must now lay claim to the possession OF
the most unapproachable and complicated
ghost in the Western country. No Katie
King affair this time, you may gamble
your last dollar on it, but a real, feversi-
bic, wild, untathOmable, ubiquitous, ON
niscient and Omnipresent spoOk. The
playground of this festive inhabitant of
the other shore is the house Of a butcher
| situate at the junction of Williams and
| Germantown Streets. The aforesaid butch
| er considers il his Christian duty TO kill
all the hogs that can possibly be slausht-
! cred in one short week, and consequently
/ takes advantage of the Lords Day TO get
| in his bloody work with more vigor. Now
| there are some superstitious neighbors
who are ready to bet their last shirt that
his spookship is no less parsonage than
His Satanic Majesty, the King Of the Sui
phurous Pit, taking an inventory of the
butchers soul preparatory to scorching it,
for killing those poor hogs on Sunday.
Suffice il that the 'spOOk is rcal-spOOk Is
earnest" 1t has been raising the hair Of
that family for two or three weeks past.
Even the horse-tail that one of the girls
wears is inclined sometimes, when the
racket is loudest, TO rear up perpendicu-
larry.
The spook's festive hours-or. we
might say his Office hours, when he is in
are between O'Clock p. m. and midnight.
He sometimes don't arrive on his stamp
ing-grounds till IL O'Clock, but, late or
aariu his arrival D.azy no ha rptiras
promptly at IL. Either his wife objects
TO his being out later, or he has another
engagement TO play somewhere else after
that hour These seances of his ghost
ship interfere considerably with hog
killing in that family. No one can sleep
before the ''wee sma' hours ayaEt the
twal, ;" and that pOstpones the getting-up
hour considerably next Gay. The spOok
is invisible, and, as a natural consequence,
can't be seen. Ii he could be "seen" he
might be induced to quit his foOlshness
and give the old man a chance to sleep.
Though lost to sight he is not lost TO
sound. The way he bangs things around
and shakes the windows, and rattles the
dishes, and bOunces the chairs, Is caution
to shattered nerves. The first intimatiOn
he gave the family of his intention TO play
an engagement at the house was the night
he lifted two of the butchers girls clean
out of their snowy couch. The damSelS
had retired to the sopOriferoes arms of
recumbent Morpheus, and had just reached
fiat with their snoring when our ghost
put his shoulder under the mattress, and
lifted the whole fixing up so high that the
girls rolled out one on each side and fell
miscellaneously on the floor. That was
the beginning of the trouble. Since that
time no one has been able TO sleep in that
bed. The unseen power underneath the
chaff tick lifts 'em out like lightning. Wild
stories are ailOat as to the subsequent
proceedings" of the internal spook. 1t is
worse than a bedlam about that house.
Twenty-seven babies, with fifty-fOur
drums and one hundred and eight whistles,
Couldn't materialiZe as much sound as en-
anates from that obstreperOus spOOk.
Every means known to the science of phys
les and metaphysics has been used in the
attempts to bribe the spOOk to leave, but
all in vain. An old woman came i'm and
spent whole day lavishing mysterious
words and symbOlical demonstrations on
the invisible guest. No good. Then a
man who knows how to weld together
the choice oaths of modern English into
the most complex and compound chain
bolts of vituperations and soaring anathe-
mas was given a contract to exercise the
spOok. He began business one morning
at sun-up, and basted the mysterious
ghost with the most fearfully compiled
language that ever blistered mans lips,
but the effect was not discernible. The
imperturbable spOOk continues to materi-
aliZe on stated occasions, and get in his
devilish work by rolling the girls from
their quiet slumbers to the floor, and kick
ing the chairs around regardless of cost,
and raising Old Ned generally. The
butcher who is honored with all this at
tention from the other world is thinking
seriously of making the acquaintance OF
some meeting house. There is evidently
no mistake about the genuine essence of
the spoOks in this case this time. If there
ever was a supernatural messenger from
the sweet by and by to this corporal and
world of ours, then that Dayton
butcher has him.