St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-07-19
A Strung IInaGinlfiOa

81 believe" remarked man on one of the
Mississippi packets as, after supper, he sat
out on the guards and smoked and watched
the beautiful river scenery at twilight, II
believe" he continued, addressing party OF
fellow travellers, ''that the human imagina-
ton is to blame for pretty near all our pains
and disagreeable feelings and that the imag-
inatiSn can cure nearly all of them. 1t GER
tainly can relieve us of great many uncom-
Portable feelings
According to your theory said a mem
Der of the party, "a man does not want any
thing to eat when he is hungry, but simply
wants to educate his imagination to make
him believe that his hunger has been satisfied
and that will do him quite as we'll as a good,
substantial NEAL
swell. l don't believe in carrying it that
far" continued the man with the theory,
but L will tell you all little incident in my
own life that goes far to prove to me, at least.
that the imagination is Il potent factor in all
our feelings of personal discomfort"
''Some years ago, when through with my
school life. was invited to visit a friend at
his fathers country seat. I got there about
o'clock at night one of the hottest June
nights I ever saw. found the house crowded
with guests and as 1 was only boy [ was
put in the library for the night. An old
school friend was in with me. For some rea-
son, I've forgotten now, we took no light with
us to bed, and the homemade gas machine
being out of order we went to our improved
bed without a light of any character. During
the night 1 got pretty warm and opened a
window. 1t grew nice and cool, in fact, was
quite chilly, so much so, indeed, that my bed
mate and got up and put our clothes over
US to keep warm.
SIN the morning, when e'got p,we found
that we had not put up any window, and that
it was warm and close in the room. 1t seems
that when got up to open a window pushed
up one of the glass sides in the bookcase,
and the result was that his imagination and
mine made up the feeling of GOODNESS. We
thought that the window was up, and expert
fenced all the refreshing effects that would
nave followed such an accomplished fact.
~
"Have any of you fellows ever lived in q
haunted house?'' asked q man in the smoking
apartment of Pullman car on the Milwaukee
limited train
''Never have, / suppose he continued.
'Well, if you had, you would be more expert
enced and less liable to be imposed upon. My
father never believed in such things, although
he was raised in Kentucky with negro SER
wants. He never believed IN the stories of
haunted houses and never lost an opportunity
of investigating any houses in which the
haunted business was reported as going on.
The more he investigated such things the
more he was Convinced that there was moth
ing in it.
1--WE lived in Missouri, when I was a boy,
not far from Palmyra. My father had farm.
Not far from US a neighbor put up new
frame house, very pretty one. Shortly after
getting into the new home the neighbor got
to drinking and one night he and his wife
were killed. 1t was always supposed that he
killed his wife and then himself although
nothing was known about 1t save that their
dead bodies were discovered the next morn
ing
Pretty soon the house was said to be
haunted and everybody in the whole neigh
borhood was talking about the strange sounds
and goings on in the house. Everybody had
different version Of the affair. The more
talk, the more excitement there was. All
this while the house remained vacant and the
grass and weeds grew rank about the whole
place. AS boy can remember the feelings
of indescribable horror and awe that l ex-
perienced when going about the old house in
the day time, and nothing could induce me to
go there after dusk.
''Imagine my feelings when Twas told that
my father had rented the place, and that we
were goinlAko move in within the next few
days. We Gid so. That night nothing I'M
usual occurred, except that two of the doors
closed the night before were open on getting
up the next morning. The same opening OF
doors took place regularly every night, and
during a storm that occurred. most unnatural
noises were heard coming from the attic.
1.-THE noises, we afterwards discovered,
were produced by tree. blown by the wind,
scraping on the caves of the roof, but the
opening of the doors was not so easily dis
covered. The doors would open, even if
locked, and the opening would take place in
the presence of anyone without any visible
cause. 1t was finally ascertained that the
door frames and surrounding timbers were
of green material. and that shrinking away,
they caused the three doors thus situated to
open At least that was the cause ascertained
by carpenter who examined the house.
New doors and flooring were put in, and the
house ceased to be haunted"