The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-10-20
A MODERN GHOST STORY.
New York Mercury.

"A MO0&NN 0AAOS4 94ON . New York Mercury.
 A dreary, wailing, weeping day near summer's ending. The desolate sweep ing rains that follow the hurricane's track deluge street and sidewalk alike and batter with persistent monotone upon the ferry boats resonant upper deck ss it churns along through the storm borne twilight. With shock, clang and metallic rattle it comes into dock and I march with the crowd toward the waiting. room of the Penn- sylvania railway. It is early for my train, the 5:23, but it happens to be made up, and an obliging guard per- mits me to pass the gate and I stroll up the dim interminable platform to where it stands. Entering the vacant and as yet unlighted car, I choose 8 seat and sit and wait.
 The utter quiet, the half light and the comfortable upholstery are very grateful to my tired limbs; waiting is no penance, and without my having noticed the process the car has filled up, the lamps glow with 8 weird, phosphorescent light, and we are in motion. Fathers hastening to wife and children; mothers returning from shopping tours, whose chief burdens are presents for little ones at home 1; parents conveying their young broods from sightseeing, with wonders 80 indelibly stamped upon the impress ionable tablets of their memories that 1ooo1oc hnrco xu{%h 4n{S xrro,IJ fcJ;oc from their perceptions, they shall stand forth with a vivid distinctness that casts into shadow the vital con- cerns that have absorbed their ma- turer lives; youth and maiden from task or pleasure; gray hair mingling with sunny curls; all swinging along in ease, content and expectancy.
 As gaze at smiling faces and catch fragmehtary sentences from merry voices, the rhythmic clangor of the wheels increases its beat with rapidly gaining measures, the smoothly nov. ing carriage swsys and rocks with in- creasing violence. Expressions of interest, anxiety, alarm fit over the faces before me, which culminate in frozen terror as sharp, rapid screams of the whistle peal through the night and the grating jar and hideous shriek of the suddenly applied brakes swell the pandemonium.
 Too late! with the crash of an earthquake and heart-rending vail of agony and despair the seats leap from their fastenings, carrying with them their occupants, and pile up in frightful melange at the forward end of the car. What gruesome sight 1 Gray locks and sunny curls dabbled with blood; manly strength and wo- manly grace crushed, distorted, man. gled bright eyes dimmed by the film of death and rosy cheeks made ashen by it's pallor, while every horrible de- tail of the sight blasting spectacle is illurnined and accented by the lambert flames of the broken lamps that crawl and leap like fiery serpents over the tortured writhing mass. The cry for help would rouse the dead, but when, leaping forward in response, my move- ment is checked by firm grasp and a decided voice, saying, Cricket, sir" ," and gazing stupidly st the intcrlocu- tor, I mechanically comply with his demand, while the car and its passen- gers roll on in comfort and order. "Conductor, may ask you ques-. tion?"
 He looked at me inquisitively, but replied:
 "Haven't time to stop now, sir; but if you'll go through into the baggage car, I'll be there as soon as l go through the train"
 go forward and await his return. } AS he approaches me 1 cannot but mo-
 tice his grave, preoccupied look, and it invites my question:
 Conductor, I meant to ask you if this car or train has any special his- tory?"
 "The car has, sir, sure enough; but will you tell me why you want to know2" and relate to him what I have seen. He listens to the end with no indications of surprise or incredu-
 lity, and then speaks:
 "The car that you were in was No. i, 218, that came into collision with a landslip near Trenton just seven years ago tonight. The body and rolling gear of the car did not come to much harm, but the inside was the worst wreck 1 ever saw every seat and par tition was splintered into match wood, and what with the crash and fire started by the broken lamps, every passenger in her, excepting some chil- dren, was killed. In course of time she was fitted up again and put on the
 line, but there has always been some
 thing queer about her, as plenty can
 tell you"