Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-11-16
AGHosTIN THE OLD CEMETERY
a Boys Experience Many Years Ago.

MY declaration, made in a "Raid into
Dreamland," as to my having seen so
many ghosts that [ didn't believe in them
at all, has excited the curiosity of some
Youthful seekers after truth to know how
such n ~palpable contradiction could be
explained. They assume that ''to see is
to believe" and have not yet learned the
fact that appearances are deceitful," as
they might have done had they read the
fable of the mouse's terror of that terri
bic monster, the farm-yard cock, and its
love and admiration of the sleek, gentle
cat! Therefore. that these "reminiscences
may interest the young ard the old in APP
pearances which have often puzzled the
wisest to explain, 1 will tell what l have
seen with my own eyes and not with those
of another, and so must believe, as they
would say.
Sixty years ago l knew of three grave
yards in Savannah. The Jews %burying-
grOund,'' near the present Laurel Grove
Cemetery, where men resOTted TO shoot
woOdcOck. and, too often, II another
the negro burying ground. somewhere
near the crossing of Gordon and Abercorn
streets, and the city cemetery on South
Broad street. Between this last and
DraytOn street there were few houses,
ard a vacant space existed the full
length of the brick wall around the graves
and tOmbstOnes which marked the rest
ing place of two or three generations of
those whose grandchildren are now
rarely to be found in this, their former
dwelling place.
On this vacant space young men fire.
quently had their ball game, and boys
made their favorite ground on which to
i nlaU hnG0 h0II ond nffpnpr a UQmn in
which the fun was in hitting whom you
could and capturing all that you could
hit three times. Somehow or other, L was
always a captive to one big fellow, who
added insult to injury by laughing at me
under my m~isfortunes. | couldn't fight
him for two reasons. First, be
was too big and strong, and Sec
Ondly, 1 saw that it veXed him
to see that neither his hardest hits or
jibes could:make me cry. l nee called
him a coward, and he said he wasn't, but
L soon had an opportunity of proving it in
a way that at the same time scared me
out of at least an inch and a halfs
groWth-lf the received opinions of phys
iOlogists on the subject are correct. In
fact, | SdlC q ghost!
1t happened thus: My tyrant had bit
mt twice with all his strength, but missed
me several times, till one of his balls flew
INV Az OPGA S&NO ~ ~ law IAA0S IL
was nearly dusk, and the ball, hidden in
the grass or of the same shade o -color,
was not visible to me, and l stopped at
the gate to look for it.
THEN BE AND SOME OTHERS
came up and asked me why l did not go
in, and upon my answering, he said l was
afraid and called me c0lcdTd. l felt that
there was a considerable amount OF truth
in the first charge, and for that very rea-
son felt very angry at the term he applied
to me. l protested and rgued till sud-
denly L saw that my time had come TO test
the truth of what L had heard as TO a bully
being always a coward, and l seized the
opportunity, although with fear and
trembling. 1 had a dOg-knife, /. G. a
handle like a running dog with an iron
blade of the same length folded between
its legs. Determined to "do or die" as
Bruce in the song recommended
to his warriors at BannOck-
burn, my speech Of the previous
Saturday, l opened it and said. Ppm no
coward, for I'll go into the middle of the
graveyard ard stick this knife into the
fork of tie tree over IS tombstone,
if gOu'U 90 in and bring 10 back" He
was silent, and it was only when jeered
by the other boys into eOnsenting, that he
pledged himself to do -rh I came
back to them! He kept his promise, but
how? By running away when he saw
me comingi proving what military men
declare, viz: That the legs of a soldier
are often more important thar his arms,
to wit: Stonewall JacksOn'S foot cavalry
IN the late "unpleasantHess."
So l strobe into the ~half-Opened gate,
with my courage screwed up to the
sticking point" but the screw did not hold
it tight. for l had not gone twenty wards
before il began TO descend, till at last
nothing but the fear of being laughed at,
.xI 1--lrve-r #hA 1880 - az---I 800
vented me from turning back. So L kept
on, trying to convince myself that there
were no ghosts; that the dead could not
rise from their graves and hat the only
difference between the raves and tomb
stones by day and at night. was in the
mOun of light; so | tried to say, who's
afraid?' but l couldn't. for it was too pal
pable an untruth 10 be uttered by one on
the very borders of the tomb! Then L tried
to whistle, but / COuldn'tr raise note. and
heard a kind Of hiss, as from some one be-
hind me. l then hurried on, but did not
dare to look over my shoulder Tor lear
that | should see a train Of spectral ap-
pearances following me. At last l got so
thoroughly alarmed that L became, as it
were, petritied, and, strange to say, lost all
consciousness of fear in utter despera-
ton. In this state l reached the tree,
EOUnte the stone at its foot and drove
the knife into the fork with such force
that the blade doubled back and pinched
me severely. This brought me to nv
senses, and drawing a long breath, utterly
%fOrgetful Of my recent fears, l turned,
and oh, horror! Sdtg q ghost lrdriHg its arm
and becEOning ne t. it, With one springI
reachedt the ground and tried to u to the
gate; but l could not move a foot, and
felt myself as firmly planted as the
white headstOne near me. But
if l could not love, the ground
did; slowly and |doubtfully at first, but
more ard more rapidly. till 4 grave
Knocked my feet from under me, a dark
tombstone flew at me, missing me only 10
let me fall into the arms of a grinning
briar patch, to be raised upright in time
to be again tripped by the grave of a little
baby, and SO on and so forth, till the gate
itself rushed over me, the road sprung up
like a wall to arrest me, and the trees
and the houses across the green rose Up
and tumbled towards me.
L I RECOLLECT FIJI THAT
was that l saw the gate in its usual place,
perfectly still, as became q churchyard
gate, and, forgetting the well established
fact hat ghosts can pass through key
holes and cannot be confined by any
amount of brick and mortar, l shut the
gate, and then, falling to the ground, l
lay '.like a warrior taking his rest" but
/ cannot say with that sweet repOse of
mind generally supposed to accompany
''the consciousness of a race we'll rum"
for my pantaloons were torn, my legs
smarting from the vicious embraces of
the briars and my hands bruised by the
cruel blows of the flying tOmbstoues.
After awhile l came fully to myself,
and then tried to join the other boys, dis
persed in groups in the dim distance, but
in vain, for whenever l got near enough
to speak to the groups they seemed verify
to see a ghost, and fed in every directiOnl
Indeed. when l got home my appearance
so alarmed my parents that my mother,
in spite Of her temperance principles,
gave me a glass Of Madeira and then half
a glass Of raw cognac before 1 could tell
her that l had seen q ghOsti My n
was such that they could not laugh, till /
added, but fastened him in and he can't
get Quit" 1t was then arranged that l
should go back at daylight and see what
l could see. l did so. after an almost
sleepless night, but took care not to open
the gate till the sun rose over the eastern
wall of the cemetery, and then what did
l see? An old white cow, switching her
tail to drive off the gnats!" Here was
my ghost! There was near by q pile of
brickbats from q newly sealed up tomb.
1 got an armful Of them, and if that old
white COW lived 10 a respectable old g and
saw the great meteOric shower of 1883, il
/ must have put her strongly in mind of the
storm of missiles which induced and ac-