The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1883-04-12
THE RED SPECTRE OF THE TUIL.
ERIES.

Are the contractors engaged in pnlliug down
the burnt Palace of the Tuileries, aware that
they are also laying ghost! Ii is doubtful,
for the legend of the Red Spectre who haunted
and may still haunt the building is now almost
forgotten. Yet it is not so long ago that the
goblin who showed himself on the eve of great
disasters, was mentioned with bated breath,
not only in the palace, but by many of the in
habitants of the Louvre Quarter. There Is no
record to show when he first took up his lOdg-
ing AT the Tuieries, but it is affirmed that he
disclosed his existence there most unmistaka-
bly,. during the great revolutionary period A
few DAYS before the terrible 10th of August,
17Gi-sn the story gOes-Marie Antoinette's wo-
men were sitting in the Sale dies Gardes, when
they became suddenly aware of the presence of
small man clothed from crown to heel in scar
let who looked at them with sneh unearthly
ewes that they were frozen with terror. They
rushed to the apartment of Madame la Dau-
phine aud related their adventure.
The next apparitiun of the Red Man was in
l-iI in the presence of the little King Of Rome
and his attendants: and the red figure was
again seen. according To report, little before
the death of Louis NVIII.-ths time in the
Galerie du Louvre. In ISIS. however, much
discredit was thrown upon the ghosts existence
| by the practical joking of some art students
| attached tn Gross studio at the Louvre. Some
of the Louvre apartments had been placed at
| the disposal of ruined emigrants who had re-
! turned To France and fopnd a protectreSs IN the
| Duchesse fAngoulcme. Among these were two
! old maiden Ladies' aud Knight of st. Lonis,
| who were dining together, one evening, when,
| to their supreme astonisnment, grand dlahle
rouge came down the chimney, and snatching
| a leg of mutton from the table, disappeared
| with IL by the way he came. The incident was
reported to the Duchess. who sought the pres
| ence of the King, and with tears pouring down
| her face, declared her conviction that some
| great misfortune impending. The King
| laughed at his niece's fears, and sent for a
| chimney-sweeprr. 4 hoy who went up the
| chimney to look for the ''diablr rouge did not
! return. man was then sent up, but nothing
more was seen OF heard of him. The greatest
| excitement reigned in the palace, and ut length
| a fireman undertook to explore the haunted
| chimney. He returned, and explained the myS
| terry. Ii appeared that the chimney passed by
| Gross studi0 and that his pupils, by making 4
| hole in the wall, were enabled to play thes,
| pranks upon illnstrious personages. They had
| made the two sweeps their confederateS, hut
| the fireman WIS not Ia he hribed. writer in
| one of the Paris papers, who recalls this anec
dnte relates in all seriousness the circumstance
under which the genuine goblin of the Tuilerie'
made his final appearance. IL was in ISL
4 during the last days of the Commune. The
journalist had the story, he says, from the lip
! of the witness, who trcmbled while he told IL
! He was a concierge at the Louvre, and whit
making his accustomed round, one night, Ian
tern in hand. through the silent galleries, h'
| observed in the Galeric dApollon a human
form, standing against window, with crosset
arms and dropping head, in an attitude of pro
| found affirtion. Believing he had surprised
robher, the concierge made toward the intruder
! who therenpon disappeared in most mysterious
fashion. He tried Ia persuade himself that hi
| senses had deceived him, when ON reaching thu
Grande Galrrie he the same figure again
in the same melancholy pasture. On bein;
challenged, the form vanished. The officia
then remembered the legend of the Homm
R0RgC and lost no time in regaining the street
Presently he returned with some of his coin
rades. To whom he had related what he ha,
seen but this time the search for the goblin
. was fruitless, and cut short by anothe
kind of apparition-a lnrid glare in the sky
The Communists had begun their incendiar
, work, and the next day the flames shot out q
every window of the Tnileries. II will he see
that the Red Man not only haunis the palac
with which his name is associated. hut also tn
adjoining buildings of the Louvre. so it j
| doubtful if he will quit the precincts to whicl
7 he j. linked by many associations. even wheI
there is not stone left to tell where the Tuil
cries once stood.-Si. JaRess Gazette.