Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1884-12-18
THE HAUNTED HILL.
RENEWED DEMONSTRATIONS OF
THE GHOST OF AEDRAN co.
Horses and Men Pursued bysarLong,
Gaunt Figure, Clothed IN white
A Fruitful Hunt Led by Col.
Bob White.
From the Kansas CITY Times.

| MEXICO, NO., Dec. tn this eS-
sentially practical age, and among
such essentially practical people as
populate the west, real genuine
ghost is {. most delicious novelty.
When tho ghost permeates, SO to
speak, locality with an area of sew
eral hundred acres, giving a ghostly
essence to every acre of it, the sense
of deliciousness is in proportion to
the acreage. Mexico has enjoyed
this extreme felicity for year. Dur
ing the campaign, of course no ghost
stood ghost of show for the first
place in the popular regard, but no
sooner has the great event transpired
and the absorbing aftermath of
wheelbarrow episodes etcetera, been
satisfactorily disposed of, than the
uneasy spirit Of the Haunted Hill
seeks to re-establish his supremacy.
There is truly something very real
istic in connection with the ghostly
demonstrations that are disturbing
our incredulous materialists, or rath-
er, there Is q real and serious effect
growing out Of mysterious and in
tangible cause.
DEScRJRINC TIE IocAJITY
A traveller over the lonely bill road
finds here wagon wheel, there an
axle rotting in the sun and rain. A
dilapidated buggy top or part of a
silver-mounted harness, tarnished by
the mud, keep company with their
humber companions. As the trave-
Ter proceeds he encounters repeti-
ton of such groups until he reaches
a picturesque creek murmuring be-
tween arches of birch and maple,
and here the line is drawn and he is
released from the depressing effect Of
a succession of suggestive wrecks.
These wrecks are the visible signs of
an invisible and mysterious agency.
Early in the spring of the present
year, certain reliable and veracious
men, whose names have been freely
used by the local press, saw at differ
ent times and in different places
but always within the limits of what
lis comprehensively known as the
Hill-a man, or being, of Goliah
stature and fearful mien, stalking
aimlessly among the black jacks or
along the borders of the narrow
road. Tricks of imagination and op-
,tical illusion being alike out of the
question, these gentleman gave some
lpracticsl joker credit for the appari-
ton. A well known gentleman of
this city, driving over the road at
nightfall, had his hair brought to
perpendicular and his heart forced
somewhere in the region of his
mouth by an apparition gigantic in
height, ethereal in substance, long
cloaked and booted, which approach
ed and rested familiarly on the box
of his buggy.
A GHOST FLEET oF FOOT.
1t kept pace with rapid, and in
this case an exceedingly terrified
horse, and then disappeared, how or
, whence the gentleman was perhaps
, in no condition to discover. The
, descriptions furnished by these diff
ferent reliable men of what they had
: seen Tailed precisely. thus supporting
their individual veraclty- Irrespon-
! sible parties saw it headless, armless,
| transparent-always gigantic.
r The natural sequence Of all this in
, a materlalistic community was a ghost
, hunt, properly organized. In this
, connection there were three classes
: of spirits. In regular order they
. we're: Spirits malt; spirits animal
and spirits ethereal. l might add
, another: Colonel Bob White, editor
/ of the LEDGER, was the leading
spirit of the party, and cannot prop.
erly be classed under any of the
above heads. The hunt took place
) and the natural result followed.
There is but one class Of spirits thai
dare meet Bob White face to face
and they are not given to wandering
t homeless and friendless.
, So far the haunt Of the hill had
) only served as break in the monotony
, of local traditions, as bugaboo te
send fretful children to he'd with
r and to keep the colored population
housed after night; but when public
. interest in the matter began to lag, s
R serious aspect Was presented, and il
: is that which has brought the Haunted
Hill into prominence all over thu
country and bids fair to keep i
r prominent until the ghost is laid OF
l the mystery fathomed.
:, Horses driven over the hill roaf
were victims of the most abject ter
iror, even in daylight. The mos
/ staid and reliable Of family horse'
{ belied their regulations and raj
: away The blind, the lame, the hal
!, of the equine race forgot their in
i firmities long enough to get out o
9 the neighborhood as rapidly ant
reckl.ssly as their more perfec
brethren. The SPAWN, the heayes o
= the ssaggers were alike powerless t
$ prevent sudden and dangerous exodu
9 from the accursed hill. Thus tn
: road became a panorama Of pictuI
b esqu,e fragments, and surgeons sur