San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-03-22
GHOST STORIES.
YARNS TOLD TO THE LITTLE ONES,
BUT THE ELDERS LISTEN, TOO.

The Test of a Ghost Story Is the Tempera-
ture in the Vicinity of the Spinal Col
umn-Some of the Old Timers That Are
Now Almost Forgotten.
1t is to be hoped that not many persons ar.
proof against the weird destinations of reg
ular old fashioned ghost story. A ghost story
that is, a good one - SO thrilling and so
graphic, so fearful and so plausible as to send
the cold chills racing up and down ones
spinal column, is as good in its way as love
story. The telling of ghost stories seems to
be almost lost art 1t is rarely that good
new one gets into print. We seem, indeed,
to have outgrown them, to have so much
keener facilities for seeing through them and
explaining them away, that they no longer
appeal to U.s. Beyond all doubt the crucial
test of a ghost story, or any tale bordering on
the supernatural, is the cold chills racing up
and down ones spinal column. In fact, one
had best trust to ones backbone than to ones
brains in a recital Of this kind. "Franken-
stein" is considered to be a fearful book, but it
requires distinct effort of the imagination
to thrill over the gigantic monster of ones
own creating In this sense, Poes BLACK
Cat" is not so successful as his Murder in
the Rue Morgue." These, however, cannot
be called ghost stories.
THE NEW YORK WHAT IS IT."
Years ago there was published in the
Harper's Magazine ghost story, entitled
What Is It9'' 1t was the story of New
York house that was haunted A party of
young students undertook to solve the mys-
terry. They slept in the house, and dur
ing the night something fell from the ceiling
upon a bed and Immediately began to Crap
pie with the two men lying there. A terrible
fight ensued, the Thing-it is always proper,
polite and more frightening to refer to a
ghost as a Thing-groaned and breathed
heavily, and the touch of it was something
to freeze the blood in the veins. Finally it
was overpowered, tied down to the bed with
a rope and light brought. Nothing was
therel At least nothing visible. They could
touch it, hear its breathing, see the bed shake
with its struggles, but the Thing itself was
invisible. 1t finally died pitifully of starva-
ton and was buried in the cellarl These in
cidents recalled from memory after a lapse
of many years made the material for one of
the best conceived and best related ghost
stories that ever got into print.
In polite society belief in ghosts is not
exactly permissible at least not in the kind
that clank chains, persistently walk up and
down stairs all night and go through locked
doors and stone walls. None tho less, even
in polite society, they have their destinations
Mr.. Frank Stockton, we believe, it was
who told very closely the story Of rich
American family who became owners of a
haunted house in England, and who refused
to be ''downed" by any bloated British shade
of however musty antiquity and renown-
They were considerably pestered by the
ghost, but provided it with oil to timber up
its rusty chains; with patent annihilator
they removed the deadly bloodstains and
finally wore the ghost out. He-we beg par
don't revealed its unburied bones, to which
they gave a decent burial, and they lived
ever after in peace. In England and in many
parts Of this country family ghost is an in
evitable part Of ones pedigree 1t is thought
as much Of as a coat of arms, and while the
owners pretend to disbeli?ve in it themselves.