Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1888-02-02
9ailg g1ess and 9akptaiaa
MIRAGE SCENES.
Arms and Black ROBBED Priests Float
-. ing in The AIR

Arms and Black ROBBED Priests Float
ing in the air.
San Francisco Examiner: "Whoop
up the rompiDg spooks out east of Bar
stow" said John Carson, an Atlantic &
Pacific railroad man, to reporter yes
terday. II saw you had something in
the Examiner several weeks age about
the mirage on the Mojave desert and the
myrisds of people That were seen in
boats about there. Well, they're thick.
ening up. In winter time, you know,
they always get thicker. For eight
months now l have peer runping the
hundred mile division out east OF Bar
stow. The spooks used to loom up
about every other Day. Now We see
them nearly all the time. They're the
ghoulest lot of things, too, l ever did
see, They appear in all sorts of shapes.
At first they were o tol.rably respect
able lot of ghosts, clad in white, with
faces and hands that looked very much
like apparitions as shown in pictures,
only they appeared and disappeared,
hoated horizontally in every other
position in the cir, always stsnding about
q quarter OF o mile away from us. Now
ses SnA 6cb "kehth G ClHutl vi u ulll6.
and some of them are trigged out like
Indians, with feathers in their hair, and
something like a streak OF red around
their bodies.
"Phe scientists say that the increase
IN the phenomena is sowing to the Pc
culiar atmospheric changes at this time
of the year. Whether it is or not, L
know they would have a very hard time
Cnnyipainr tho naonla pf ~ rho k.o-at
over our line. A woman last week, who
was from Illinois, tainted when she got
q glimpse of a lot of them sailing on an
imaginary lake. Lakes and green trees
appear without number now, on the COL
orado desert. Ffinging these lakes with
a circle OF green and with the strange
characters floating about on them, a
queer sight is presented. You never can
these lakes.
There rose M in front of the engine
last Saturday, however, said Mr.. Oar
son. "the strangest conglomeration of
figures that l presume mortal eyes ever
beheld. Ever see pictures OF Dante's
Inferno as illustrated by Dore? It was
something like that, the weirdest,
ewfulest sight al admixture Of floating
AAsist iSBSs auu pleCes VI butUUUb Ilr6e
or four white-iaced women, as many
gray bearded men, and a solemn yisaged
priest in black robes 1oated on the blue
ether with the mass. Sol. Andersen, our
engineer, was the most sacred man you
ever saw. He put on every pound of
steam he had. and We went tearing over
over the desert like mad. Wells. Fargo's
agent, L thought would have died.
Lucky for us that the awful mirage hoy
cred by the engine and tender. else we
should have had a raving lunatio asy-
lum abroad the train. Do you suppose
| could have convinced them the things
I were not genuine? Not much. Fact is,
l had all I could do to hold my own self
level. Every time l looked at them I
said: My God! these things are real!
There can't be anything 30 clearly rep.
resented as that and not be ~genuineg'
Wall: they he.e.ea .sssss sssTT fully twenty
minutes. and then disappeared. like a
fssh. Beyond were nothing but our
green fringed lakes.
"The desert inst now is usually hard
and parched. The sun shines clear and
warm. II the apparitions thricken /
don't know what we will do with our
people. Some OF them are likely to 20
raving mad