Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1881-10-27
GARFlELD'S HEAVENLY ESCORT.
Delaware People See the Late Presi-
dent Surrounded by Soldiers in the
Skv.

Delaware People See the Late Presi-
dent Surrounded by Soldiers in the
Sky.
Wilmington CDel) News.
Peninsula people have been seeing
ghosts and supernatural objects with
alarming frequency during the past
three weeks. The first instance of things
heavenly having been seen comes from
Royal Oak, Md. A little girl, some three
weeks ago, living in the village, saw af-
ter nightfall, before the moon was
fairly up above the horizon, whole
platoons Of angels slowly marching and
countermarching to and fro in the
clouds, their white robes and helmets
glistening with weird light. At in
tervals the heavenly visitors would
dance mournfully, as if to the sound
Of unseen music and certainly unheard
music. She rushed into her parents,
and declared that the heavens had beed
spread and portrayed to her vision
sights somewhat premature, as re-
CARDS time, and then sank down in
alright. Her father, to satisfy his
doubling mind, went out and was re-
warded with a sight of the unearthly
spectacle. The news Of the mystery
quickly spread from mouth to mouth,
from house to house, and in an incredi-
bly, short space Of time the inhabitants
were out en- masse, gazing in open
monthed astonishment, while the
whiterobed hosts, seemingly offended
at the immense amount of genuine as
tonishment and wonder they were un-
earthing, slowly faded from sight,
leaving Royal Oak a firm believer,
from the little girl who was first on
the spot, to the squire in his little
Office behind the church, in ghosts and
winged goblins. But the phenomena
seem to have been especially manifest
in Sussex county, Delaware.
Monday night, two weeks ago, Will
liam West, farmer living near George
town, the county seat, saw, at time
almost identical with the appearance of
the vision at Royal Oak, bands of sol
diers of great size, equipped in dazzling
uniforms, their musket steels quivering
and shimmering in the pale weird light
that seemed to be everywhere, march
ing with military precision up and
down unseen avenues, and presenting
arms at the sound of unheard COM
mands. The vision was of startling
distinction and lasted long enough to
be seen by number of Vests neigh
bors, who, after the unearthly military
had taken its departure and been
swallowed up in thin air, retailed the
strange story to their eager friends,
who had not been so fortunate as they.
But strangest of all, a man named
COverdale, who was driving through
the country along lonely road at the
same time, being then several miles
away from Vests house, and in an en-
tireiy different direction, saw to his
establishment and alarm the same band
of soldiers in their faultless uniforms.
Many people living near Laurel, many
miles away, situated in the lower end
of the peninsula, saw the same extraor-
binary phenomena at the same time.
A few go as far as to say, in spite of
the ridicule Of their associates, that
they distinctly saw in the midst of the
soldiers, and conspicuous by reason of
his size and commanding presence, the
hero president himself, pale, but with
his every feature distinctly and vivid
ly portrayed. There Is no doubt of the
fact that there were many who thought
they saw Garfield in the clouds. In
Talbot county the illusion was seen by
numbers. A farmer living near
Clara's Point on going out into his
yard after dark saw, as he related it
afterward to his neighbors, angels and
soldiers marching side by side in tie
clouds, wheeling and going through
every evolution with military precision,
and absolutely life-like and natural.