The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1883-01-20
A MODERN GHOST.
Detroit Free Press.

j Free PresS reporter.
AS he spoke the farmer drop
ped the stock of his gun to the
ground, bit off q piece of plug, and
/ pointed to a small cottage house with
barns and other buildings, mile or
SO away across the rolling prairie.
! ''How much?o
"There's eighty acres of good land,
and nearly nes Buildings, that any
'squatter' can have for the taking, and
| don't suppose there is anybody liv-
ing to claim the property"
"Why doesn't somebody squat on
it, then?"
"This is about the last place in the
world that anyone would expect to
find a ghost, isn't it? And yet there is
ghost enough about that place to keep
even squattcrs and claim-jumpers from
taking possession of it.
The reporter gazed off across the
treeless prairie, .. plain of luxuriant
vegetation, billow after bilIow of grass
until, in the dim distance, the green
united with the blue of the skies, the
sun shining brightly over all and re-
marked:
II should think that with all these
boundless acres to till, the farmers of
| Minnesota could find more profitable
employment than inventing 'buga-
boos' to scare their children"
"Sayp' exclaimed the farmer, as he
sent a jet Of tobacco juice among the
petals of a prairie rose and faced
quickly about with a slight flush show
ing through the bronze of his cheek
"ill give You S. if you'll stay in that
house tonight from dark until day
hghtm
Whats the particular line of hob
goblin you show up?"
"Swede."
I'm -m-ahl a little out of my line Of
spooks, but whocp up your scare. "
''This is no scare, but fact, as far
as what | tell yon is concerned. Two
years ago last summer there came
upon that quarter section man and
his wife, each apparently nearly 60
years of age. Nobody knew, or cared
where they came from. They brought
two COWS, four horses and household
goods, slept in their wagon and cook
ed in the open air until they got their
house closed in, and then put up the
barn. Then the man went TO plow-
ing, and the woman, who appeared to
be the better carpenter of the two,
shingled and clap-boarded the house.
This done, the woman went to plow-
ing and the man plastered the house
and built the chimney. Before snow
flew their buildings were done, and
they had about twenty-five acres of
prairie turned over
During the winter the woman
died, but no one knew of it until the
man who lives over there to the left, a
mile distant, saw the old man digging
a hole in the frozen earth, and went
over to see what he was up to. She
was already in her coffin, which the
man had made out of rough boards,
and some Of the neighbors helped him
to bury her. He could not speak a
word of English, but by signs indicat-
ing that she had taken cold and died
of some lung difficulty.
after that the old man lived there
alone. He raised a good crop ofwheat
the next season, harvested and thresh-
ed it, and marketed it at town. Along
towards the last of January his near
est neighbor came over to my house
one day and told me that he had not
seen the old man for a month, nor
smoke coming from the chimney of
his house. He proposed that we 90
over and ascertain the reason and we
went. We raped upon the door, but
got no response, so as it was not lock-
ed, we pushed it open and entered.
There are but two rooms in the house.
One was used for a storeroom; the
other for living room. Both were
vacant, as far as the old man was con-
cerned, but they looked as if he had
but just stepped out. A lot of potatoes
I turnips and beets on the floor of the
store-room were frozen as hard as
rocks, and the water pail contained a
block of ice There were bread and
cooked meat in the cupboard and
clothing hanging about on hooks.
Neither then, or subsequently, could
we discover anything to indicate pre-
meditated abandonment of the pre-
misses.
Not finding the old man in the
house we turned our attention to the
, harm. Then we discovered that fbare