The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-02-28

and who had written an essay to prove
the non-existence of everything, and that
we are simply the creations of our own
thoughts. Certainly these impalpable
specters are only illusions which the dis
ordered condition of our weak physical
organs bring before u.s."
" I own you are clever lad, Joe, but
/ don't care button for your arguments.
I believe in ghosts because I have seen
them"
"Oh, I am open to conviction; if you
introduce me to a bona-fde ghost I'll
give in. I believe only in the things I
understand"
"Joe, you have as little faith as
Jew; and, if you only believe in what
you understand, your creed will be
shorter than that of any man I know"
"Can you give us any proof? Can
you mention one instance in which the
specter has appeared to any one you
know?"
GA hundred, If you wish it." said the
old man.
"One will do; give us one genuine
csse and we will believe"
81 will; listen. The story that / am
about to relate is an incident that hap
pened to myself some twenty years ago,
and for the truth of which I can vouch. !"
"Well, proceed"
81 would give you the history of the
specter attached to this house, but that
only appears to a favored few, and I
have not yet seen it, although T have
often enough heard the noises it makes. y
eve should prefer ghost that can
be seen, if you have ever met with one. "
"You must understand that the vii
lage in which lived, like many others,
possesses its spectral visitor. About 100
years ago, an ancestor of mine started
for London in his travelling carriage,
one evening about the latter end Of
June. He was an exceedingly irascible
man, and, as the coaohman was not suf-
ticiently quick in preparing the vehicle,
he became much enraged, and used ex-
ceedingly passionate language. For
some time the coachman bore his abuse
patiently, but, at last, he lost his temper,
and struck the old gentleman in the
face.
In those days everybody wore q
sword and my ancestor, who was always
ready to draw, snatched his weapon
from his sheath, and, with one blow,
severed the unfortunate mans head
from his body.
" Conscience-stricken at this fearful
crime, and terrified by the dread of it's
he gazed upon the head
less body for few moments, and then,
being seized with fit of apoplexy,
was carried into the house by his SER
wants. where he died in a few hours"
"Well," said Joe, "although the
story is horrible enough, it has nothing
of the supernatural in it. It is quite
possible that an angry old man may
commit murder and die of fright"
eyes, you are right il the tale ended
there, there would be nothing to doubt;
but what am going to tell you, I am
afraid, will be scof6ed at by my skeptical
young friends, who disbelieve everything
they do not see or hear"
"Thats meant for me-" said Joe, with
a laugh. "Never mind, uncle; 20 on
with your story"
eyes, my boy, now [ come to the
marvellous part. Every year, as the
hands of the clock point to the hour of
travelling carriage, with four
horses, driven by a headless coachman,
leaves that village, and passes down the
London road"
''He must be clever if he can see to
drive without his head, interrupted the
still skeptical Joe.
"That [ cannot explain; some ghost
seers say that it is possible for people in
state to read from the pit of
the stomach; at all events, a dead man
may be possessed of faculties that we do
not understand +; for a man becomes con-
altered when he is dead"
He does, I admit"
"And if you allow that a dead man
can drive at all, the small matter of
head more or less is of very little i'm
portance."
"Just So"
"You know that when man dies he
becomes a spirit. y
"That's rum, D said Joe.
"No, sir, it's not rum, nor whisky
either; and, if you cannot listen to my
story without endeavoring to turn it into
I had better leave off, replied
Uncle Ben, who was as peppery as his
ancestor.
ooh pray go On, uncle" exclaimed
all the listeners. "We'u try to keep
Joe in order"
"Well, as I was saying, this appari-
lion made it's appearance once q year, as
the clock was striking -. Many of the
villagers had heard the tramp of horses
and the rattling of wheels as the ghostly
cortege went by. Now and then some
favored Individual witnessed the head
less driver, as he whipped his horses on
toward London. But, in all cases, the
coach passed too quickly for any one to
see whether the old gentleman was real
ly inside or not"
"And did no one ever see him ?' asked
one OF the party.
" You shall hear. Twill confess that.
until the night when the incident which
am about to relate took place, I was as
great an unbeliever as any CT you, and
al w9vg trnato1 4bo whole oooax.oL -