Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-11-11

Dosiness took me to Illinois, and late at
night, amid storm of rain and sleet, l ar
rived by rail at small station on the Hi
nois Central Railroad.
Only four passengers disembarked from
the train. Tired and almost worn out, l
fastened into the depot, and hunting up
the agent, enquired =
elbow far is it to the nearest hotel ?''
''There is only one hotel in town, sir, and
that is three-quarters of a mile away" he
replied.
ing obliged to walk long distance to hunt
up temporary abiding place.
SIS there no conveyance to carry passen-
gers to the hotel ?''
ooh, yes,' he replied, smiling, eff the
little cramped up box on wheels, can be
called conveyance" He kept me few
moments to relate an anecdote, then d-
recting me, he said, ''You will find the ark
on the left side of that door," pointing to
the exit indicated.
Selling my gripsack, 1 thanked the po-
lite ticket-seller, and as | passed out the
door, cold wave blew shower of rain
and sleet in my face.
Immediately espying the 'tark' made
for its door, and as | ducked my head and
CROPPED my way into its contracted interior,
was conscious that the only seat it con-
tanned, ran along the middle of the odd We
hicle. At the sides of the rude bench,
there was hardly room for my feet.
tried to peer about the dark coach to
see if / was alone; yes, I even ran both
hands along the bench with the hope of
touching some other passenger.
was startled by my loneliness, and was
about to alight, when a man came out of
the depot, hastily closed the door, mount
ed the box and the coach started.
Tired as I was l could not help but laugh
outright at the paucity of the omnibus &C
commodations in that benighted region
The depot agent lad not rightly called it
an ark, for an ark I always supposed was
larger, with room enough for. many pairs.
The road being muddy and rough, the
horse crawled along at very slow pace,
and being nearly exhausted with travelling,
it was not long before I fell into a peaceful
slumber.
How long I slept 1 never ascertained,
but was awakened by feeling my seat
suddenly move towards the door.
"Great Jupiter p I exclaimed, 'fet &c
my seat p
As I picked myself up from the floor,
caught a glimpse of four men, who instant
ly let go their grasp on the bench. Drop.
ping their lantern, thus envelopng the sur
rounding sin impenetrable darkness, and
roaring and believing at the top of theil
voices, they took to their heels and precipi
lately ran away.
Wondering if I had fallen upon com.
munity of mad men, l crawled from the
coach into darkness SO thick and tangible
that person could have leaned against il
without falling.
My feet struck the overturned lantern
that lay on the ground, and taking mattel
which fortunately had in my pocket, a
moment later the glare of an oil lamp illu
minated the surrounding objects.
Shades of Banquo's ghost, and glimpse.
of Tom O'Shanter's apparition How
started, and how the tall columns of marble
and granite, rising with horrible perpendic
ularity, caused my hair to stand on end.
One hasty survey at my late conveyance,
and my teeth chartered like castinets
my knees beat each other; the blood rushed
to my usually cool head, and all the phan
tastes of the sepulchral surroundings were
grouped in distorted imagination before me
The sound of fleeing feet grew fainter
and fainter, and then died away on the air
and as l gazed on the vehicle before me, the
white pine bench that l had occupied, now
revealed itself as the box that surrounded
the CT fin of a corpse. | could plainly dis
Germ the dark and sombre plumes, that stiff
1y stood as silent sentinels on the four cor
ners of the village hearse.
My head swan. l tried to cry out, bu
not sound could articulate. The rays o.
the lantern fell on the open door of vault
before me, in which was visible long grin
row ofrepulsive coffin ends. Reason seemed
to be tottering on its throne. My senses
were going rapidly, and l was conscious
that was powerless to move
l made one more awful attempt to cal
out, but the words froze on my lips, anC
then reeled, and as my head fell and pill
lowed itself on. "a new made grave, all be-
came dark and vapory for lost conscious
ness. When | awole I was in bed with q
physician at my side.
Fortunately for me the frightened men,
REINFORCED by others, soon returned to un
ravel the mystery, when my insensible body
was found AS the corpse had not broken
its bounds, the coffin which had arrived on
the evening train, was placed in the vault,
and was carried to house near by.
When restored to consciousness, expla-
nations followed, and then and there ]
vowed that would never of my own Volt
ton get aboard of another vehicle without
first ascertaining whether or not it was a
hearse, and corpse had not the sole right
to tie conveyanee.-W hitehdU Times.