Omaha daily bee., 1888-06-10

DR.. Messing thought that a lathe was
loose, and that the wind caused 1t to
creak. A carpenter was sent for, and
he tore down a part Of the ceiling in
Hermann's a room. On poking his
head through the hole, he saw the
author OF the groaning-it was the cat.
Endeavors were then made to get pussy
to come out; milk aud meat were of
fered her, but she would not come.
Once she came TO the hole, but the car
penter tried to catch her, and she
jumped back out of reach. A pole was
poked at her. and more milk and meat
brought, The carpenter went away
and pussy came out. Some say that it
ran around the room three times and
fell lead upon the walk below. How
ever, the cat died.
1t appears that before moving into
the house, DIR. Messing had some re-
pairs made. A carpenter, tofix a break
in the wall, tore away some plastering.
Before he had completed his work he
went TO lunch. 1t is probable that dur
ing his absence the cat crawled into
the hole and was, of course, unable to
get out when the carpenter repaired
the wall.
A Headless Lady.
While stopping one winter in a small
village about fifty miles from Cincin-
natl, near the Little Miami river, we
used to congregate in the corner store
Of evenings and talk over the exploits
of the day and have a good time geuer-
ally, said n citizen to a Cincinnati En-
quirer reporter recently.
There was one of the lumber who
was always on hand, who lived a mile
and u half down the pike.
He would always come up early in the
evening and stay till about 10 before
starting for home.
The pike ran through a deep hollow
about u half mile from the village. l
had often heard it told that a horrible
murder had been committed near that
place, and that people had seen strange
sights and heard sounds that would
make their hair stand on end. | paid
no attention to such tales, as | don't be-
lieve in such things myself. Some of
the villagers were most positive that
they had seen and heard sufficient to
satisfy them, and no money would in
duce them to go through that hollow
after dark.
The murder that was said to have
been committed was that of a woman
having her head cut off. Uncle Jack, AS
we called him who lived down the pike,
used to say he always whistled to keep
his courage up. This evening Uacle
often would ask him during the eve
ming, "What is the matter? Have you
seen the headless LADY," But he would
only shake his head and say nothing.
About s o'clock it commenced to snow,
and by 10 it was about four inches deep.
AS it drew near time for Uncle Jack to
start for home he would sigh n say he
wished he was at home. Come, boys,
some OF you go with him across the hol-
low. He is afraid of the headless lady"
No one would go. "Come, Uncle Jack,
I'll go; | am not afraid of ghosts" AS
we got close to the hollow | began to
whistle. OF course 1 wasn't afraid, you
know. Uncle Jack lever said a word,
but | could hear him sigh every few
steps.
1t was still showing as we neared the
hollow, which was lined on each side
with tall trees. The snow hanging to
the limbs made it look rather gloomy.
without any ghosts added to it. AS we
began to descend the hollow l began to
feel like l didn't weigh quite as much
as | did on the hill. When we got
about the middle of the hollow Uncle
Jack, with a groan, sank down fiat in
the snow and said: Look there it isl"
L turned, ana, horror OF horrors, tnere
she stood, not more than three yards
from us, without a head, the blood
streaming down her shoulders, her
hands covered with blood. AS turned
to see where Uncle Jack was, expecting
every moment to feel the bloody hands
on my arms, Uncle Jack raised up and
said. ''Where is it?" There it is,n
but it was gone. "Come, Jack, let's
get out of this" and we did get, too.
OF course, / wasn't scared nor afraid of
ghosts, but | went four miles round to
| get home, you bet.