The Canton advocate. [volume] (Canton, D.T. [S.D.]) 1877-1897, 1880-08-19
THE HAUNTED INN.

| My horse had cast shoe, and, stop
ping about sunset at blacksmith
cabin in one Of the most savage passes
of the Alleghanies, a smutty-faced
leathern-aproned fellow was soon en-.
gagged in putting his feet in order to en-.
counter the finty roads of the noun
tains, when the operation was inter
rupted in the manner here related:
pardon me, sir, said a middle-aged
traveller, riding up to the smithy and
throwing himself from his horse, just
as the shaggy-headed vulcan, having
taken the heel of my nag in his lap, was
proceeding to pare off the hoof prepa.
tory to fitting the shoe, which he had
hammered into shape and thrown upon
the black soil beside him. Pardon
me- repeated the stranger, raising his
broad-brimmed beaver from head re.
markable for what the phrenologist
would call the uncommon development
of ideally" revealed by short locks
which were parted over pair Of mel
anchOly gray eyes, 'matters of mo.
ment make it important for me to be a
dozen miles hence before nightfall, and
you will place me, sir, under singular
obligations by allowing this good fellow
to attend to my lame beast imme-
diately."
The confident and not ungracefu]
manner in which the stranger threw
himself upon my courtesy sufficiently
marked him as a man of breeding, and
l, of course, complied with his request
by giving the necessary order to the
blacksmith. His horse was soon put
in travelling trim, and leaping actively
into the saddle, he regained the high
way at a bound; checking his course
then a moment, he turned in the stir
rups to thank me for the slight service
| had rendered him, and giving an ad-
dress, which l have now forgotten, he
added that if ever l should enter-'s s
valley, l mightbe sure ola cordial well
come from its proprietor.
An hour afterward ! was pursuing
the same road, and rapidly approach
ing the end of my days journey. The
imm ediate district through which l was
travelling had been settled by Germans
in the early days of Pennsylvania
scattered community that had been
| thrown somewhat in advance of the
more slowly extended settlements. In
populousness and fertility it did not
compare with the regions on the east
ern side of the mountains; but the i'm
mense stone barns, which, though few
and far between, occasionally met the
eye, not less than the language spoken
around me, indicated that G inhab-
itants were of the same origin with the
ignorant but industrious denizens of the
lower country. One Of these stone
buildings, an enormous and ungainly
editice, stood upon hill Immediately
back of the Wolfswald Hotel-a mis-
erable wooden hovel where 1 was to
pass the highland while descending
the hill in the rear of the village, [ had
leisure to observe that it presented a
different appearance from the other
agricultural establishments Of the kind
which l had met with during the day
The massive walls were pierced here
and there with narrow windows, which
looked like loop-holes, and IL clumsy
chimney had been filed up by some
unskillful mechanic against one of the
gables, with a rrodigality of materials
which made its jagged top show like
some old turret in the growing twilight.
The history of this grotesque mansion,
as subsequently learned it, was that
of hundreds of others scattered over
our country, and known generally in
the neighborhood as "Smith's," OF
'tThompson's Folly" 1t had been be-
gun upon All ambitious scale by per-
son whose means were inadequate to
its completion, and had been sacrifc ed
at public when half finished, in ord er
to liquidate the claim of the mechanics
employe upon it. After that it had
been used as a granary for while, and
subsequently, being rudely completed
without any reference to the original
plan, it had been occupied rs hotel
for a few years. The ruinous inn had
however, for a long period been aban.
doned, and now enjoyed the general
reputation in the neighborhood of being
haunted; for ghosts and goblins are
always sure to take big house off a
landlords hand when he can't get any
other tenant.
"We have no room for nlynheer,'
said mine host, Peter Schmidtson, lay
ing his hand on my bride, as I rode up
to the door of q cabaret near this old
building, while three or four waggoners
smoking their pipes upon a bench in
front of of the house gave grunt Of
confirmation to the frank avowal OF
Peter. was too old a stager, however,
to be so summarily turned away from
an inn at such an hour, and throwing
myself from my horse without further
parley, told the landlord to get me
some supper, and we would talk about
lodging afterward.
1t matters not how | got through the
evening until the hour of bedtime. !
had soon ascertained that every bed in
The hostelrie was already taken up, and
| that unless l chose to share his straw
customed to sleep in their numbering
vehicles, there was no resource for me
except to occupy the lonely building,
which had first caught my eye upon
entering the hamlet. Upon inquiring
as to the.accommodation it afforded, j
Learned that, though long deserted by
any permanent occupants, it was still
occasionally, Notwithstanding its evil
reputation, resorted to by the passing
traveller, and that one or two of the
rooms were yet in good repair and
partially furnished. The good woman
of the house, however, looked very por-
ltentous when expressed my deter
mination to take up my abode for the
night in the haunted room, though she
tried, Intellectually, to arouse her sleep.
ing husband to guide me thither. Mine
host had been luxuriating too freely in
some old Monongahela, brought by re
turn wagon from Wheeling, to heed the
logging of his spouse, and / was OBJ
lliged to act as my own gentleman
usher