Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-10-29
STORIES ABOUT GHOSTS.


q Eastern Europe.
THE SUPERNATURAL. WARNINGS GIVEN 10 THE
AIRLIE FAALY-sINGUIAR PHENOMENA IN A
CHAMBER OF DEATH-A son SEES HIS
FATHERS GHOST IN 4 THEATER
The discussion on the Truth About Ghosts
still continues in the columns of the London
Telegraph. In the issue of October 10 Mrs. Ann
Day writes In regard to the Drummer Boy" of
Airlie, questioning the statement that the
warning Of impending danger to the Airlie
family consists only Of the sound Of drum.
She says:
early in the year 1916 went to Cortachy
Castle in attendance upon Miss Margaret Dali
rymple, who was paying two days visit to the
Earl and Countess of Airlie. We arrived late
in the evening, and Miss Dalrymple had only
just time to dress for dinner. AS she rested
for few minutes on the sofa however.
this she told me some time after we had left
the castle,) she heard distinctly. as if imme-
dlately beneath the hnor the sound Of flies and
afterwards the beating Of drum. While at
dinner she remarked to Lord Arlie, who sat
near her: What is that strange music you have
about the house? YOuassuredly have an excellent
pper? Lord Airle, without replying, dropped
his knife and fork and retired from the dining
room Later In the evening the place seemed
to be all In confusion, and l learned that Lord
Alrlie. after leaving the table, went to the
ing, while the family were at breakfast, 1 was
quite alone in Miss Dalrymple's room, and as
stood before the fire, heard, as thought. a
carriage drive up, and stop dead, directly
under my feet Immediately there followed
the sound Of another carriage driving up, and
stopping In exactly the same manner. And
then, as II following the vehicles. came the
tramp, tramp, tramp of marching soldiers. Then
heard some shrill notes of the fife so distinctly
that looked round instinctively, expecting to
see piper in the room. In another moment
was still more startled by the beating of drum
About this there was something indescribably
dsagreeable; it seemed as if the drummer were
making his way through the floor. Being per-
feet stranger to the place, l thought there
might be coach road and an entrance door to
that some distinguished guests were arriving or
departing. On looking out of the window, how
ever, found there was no door or coach road
near, and not human being was to be seen. 1
concluded, therefore that the sounds must have
been echoed from distance. The next morn
ing before our departure. Lady Airlie came to
the door of Miss Dairymple's room to give her a
five-pound note for an orphan school in which
She was interested. Neither of us ever saw the
Countess again. She was confined Of twins at
Brighton some months afterward and died 1t
was not until Miss Dalrymple, few DAYS after
we left the castle, asked me if l had heard the
strange music there that disclosed my expe-
nence, and then for the first time l learned
from her the tradition about the Airlie drummer
boy. She told me that she herself had been to-
tally In Ignorance of it until her alluson at the
dlnner-table to the music she had heard elected
from another guest an explanation"
Another writer in the same paper eays:
can only say for myself that am not alto
gether ignorant of physical science; and vet
mysen have witnessed phenomena for which 1
could not account. After the death of female
relative whose husband at the time was living par
aiyzed, the room in which she died gave birth to
all kinds Of noises; the furniture was moved
violently about, &c, while the room itself was
locked and the key in my possession. This
mouse resumed it's normal condition. These
sounds were not heard by one pair of ears or by
the inmates OF the house only. And here am
reminded OF another fallacy in the reasoning of
gnost scoffers They say that a man, by pro-
ionged concentration of thought on one particu-
lar object, may project a picture of that object
onto the retina. But from this view how is the
following explained? A friend of mine came
nome one evening and told me that he saw his
father walk down the corridor leading from the
boxes OF certain theater. He was much sur
miles in the country at the time. The next day
ne received intelligence of the death of his
father at the hour when he saw him in the thea
ter. His father was in perfect health when he
saw him last
long letter appears in the Tele1roph of Oc-
tober 18th, in regard; to the superstition Of the
peasantry OF eastern Europe. The writer saws:
II have never been fortunate enough to set
eyes upon satisfactory ghost except at the la
mented Polytechnic. 1t is true that being,
presented to me as the spiritual incarnation
whatever that may be-of a deceased Belgian
damsel, once threw a necklace OF coral beads at
my head In twO-pair back within bowshOt of
the British museum, but 1 have since had rea-
son to believe that the appartion in question
was more or less respectable married woman
mother fhrpQ nd of oh
drops than is altogether consistent with the
habits of genuine ghost. have however
lived good deal in countries where belief in
the supernatural is the rule rather than the ex-
ceteptlon, and where spectral appearances, being
the outcome of deeply rooted and widely spread
popular superstition instead OF individual indi-
gestlon or imaginatiFeness, are far commoner
than in these matter-of-fact isles. Throughout
eastern Europe theseappearances are as it were
puDhc property; no man is 80 poor, ignorant
or insignificant that he need despair of becom-
ing acquainted with them at some period of his
existence. Here, for the most part, they are
m0nOp0liZed by the Well-tO-do classes; the Brit
ish proletary, with infrequent exceptions, has
neither act nor part in them. In Roumania,
Bulgaria, Servia, Pennsylvania and the Hunga-
rian Banat, the steadfastly recurrent old family
ghost, familiar alike to England, Scotland, Ire
land, and Wales, is all but unknown The per-
turbed ancestral spirit variety of apparition, so
theoretically dOmiciled in many venerable Brit
oh CouuIIy HOuSt, rarely luIeSlS the chateauS OF
Magyar nagnates or Dacian BOyards Spectral
apparitions on the frontier of European ciyili-
Zation do not limit their Objectionable functions
to the mere haunting of private dwellings,. but
distribute themselves, in a variety of imperson-
ations and with horrible impartiality, over the
surface of the country at large. AS rule, they
shun towns and aristOcraces. Their tastes are
rural and democratic, They court the society of
the peasant and are persistently neglectful of
his employer.
"Ofall the outlying Provinces above referred to
Roumania is the one most affected by spectres
Of bucOlical proclvities. 1t would puzzle the
most painstaking traveller through that dear
and lovely land, as it is described by the Dacian
Laureate, to discover single wood river bank,
valley or mountain top that is not-at least in
the opinion Of the local pOpulaton-haunted by
spirits Of one sort or another. The Roumans
of to day, like their Latin forefather-from
whom. in all probability, they have unconscious
ly derived the bulk Of their supernatural beliefs
are firmly welded to the conviction
that trees and flowers, rocks and streams.
lakes and marshes are endowed with spiritual
as well as cOpOreal existence For them earth air.
fire and water are inhabited by mysterious be-
ings, not the ghosts of anybody In particular.
but, as it were, the souls ofthe elements. capable
of rendering themselves apparent to
the human eye and by no means indisposed
to hold commune with ordinary mortais. for
good or evil to these latter as the case NAV be.