Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-05-04
HIS FIRST WIFE'S WRATH
Made 1t Very Unpleasant for the
Second COOsort OF Mr.. -.

body existence Is at an end, ana thdt the
good and the evil alike rot together, and
are no more?
Here is a truthful story for such a skep-
tic, which he is welcome to sift TO the
bottom, says a New York correspondent
Of the Cincinnati Enquirer. The person
to whom the experience befell is a distant
relative of the writer, a woman of un-
doubted veracity, of more than ordinary
intelligence, and Of high character.
l give the story as nearly in her own
words as possible.
1T was.' says she in telling it, in
the latter part of last year that my ex-
perience occurred. | had, of course,
heard the usual number Of ghost stories.
But | was an unbeliever previously to
the events which / I'm about to relate.
On November 3, 1888, l married Mr.. S,
who, as you know, is my second hus-
band. For about six weeks we lived in
our New York holse, on Thirty-tfth
street. But the house my husband had
always considered his home is situated
at Huntington, l.. |. 1t is a fine, large
old. fashioned house built on the brow of
a hill overlooking the sound, and sur
rounded with oak and FIR trees of enor-
nous size. 1t may be called a family
seat, as it was inherited by my husband
from his grandparents.
my husbands first wife met with a
very tragic fate within sight of this
house. She was a skillful boat. woman
and very fond of rowing about on the
sound, some times allowing her boat to
drift out with the tide and come back on
the return tide. One day she drifted out
on the tide and was carried further than
usual away from land. Before the tide
turned a violent thunder storm arose and
The wind b'ew a gale. The poor woman
must have been drowned during this, for
she never returned, and the small boat in
which she had been was picked up days
after over a hundred miles away by a
coasting schooner.
This terrible accident occurred eight
years ego, and ucn a thing as her ghost
returning was never dreamed Of during
these years Ii was the day before
Christmas last, when, with a party of
friends, we went down TO Huntington
The old house had been elegantly rett-
ted, and was the personiication Of home
comfort, with It's cheerful, old sly lie wood
fires on the wide hearths. Our party was
indeed a jolly n There were two other
bri es in it beside my self.
"rhe room which my husband and |
occupied was on the second foor-a
large corner room at the front of the
house overlooking the sound, the bright
waters Of which glinm red and silvered
through the branches of the trees about
the house, as one looked from our north
windows.
we had retired on the first night of
our occupancy rather late, and, being
much worried by faligues incumbent on
me, a hostess, | soon fell asleep.
Suddenly [ awoke with a start. I felt
something cold on my face; | could
scarcely breath, as a deatslike feeling
ran through me, and seemed TO freeze my
blood. 1t was most horrible. Opening
my eyes | saw a woman-if such an OBJ
ject as | looked upon could be said to have
sex. She WAS exceedingly tall, and about
her head hung long wet streams of yellow
hair. Her whole form was lurid with a
kind of phosphorescense, and her eyes
seemed to blaze with a greenish fire.
About her form hung a long loose wrap.
per, which water seemed to drip from,
each drop having a green sparkle as it
fell; but, most horrible of all, l could
see clear through the body. The moon
was shining in through the window, and
she was between me and the moon. and,
strangely enough. l could see all her
bones inside OF her body. which seemed
to be less transparent than the flesh.
So she seemed a skeleton with a pallor OF
flesh and clothing about her. Slowly
with her horrible bony hands she
stroked my warm feeh, and salt water
seemed to drip from them as she did 80.
She literally felt me all over, and while
she was doing so | lay spellbound with.
out the power of speech or motion.
Meanwhile John (my husband) remained
sound asleep.
cat last, she seemingly had satisfied
her curiosity in regard to me. she quietly
raise, d up the covers and got into the bed
betwe,n us. Her cold. clammy form lay
still for q whi e ! Ike a corpse. Then she
spoke: joint at the same time taking
his hand in hers. My husband awoke
and only looked at her Is second when,
With a wild shrek, he leaped from the
bed and found a match. Meanwhile |
still lay there in bed. SO did the woman
or ghost. When the light was lit a loud
crash was heard. The ghost was q me in
an instant. On looking around the whole
SASH WAS broken bodily out of the north
window, the window toward the sound,
and a weird, wailing wind came whis-
Ting into the room. The noise lad
aroused the house, and before long our
guests and servants were in the room
with us. On hearing the strange story
they were greatly surprised. My husband
recognized the ghost as that of his
drowned wife.
"To sati.fy our guests we sat up all
together in the room next night, and at
about the same time the same horrible
specter returned, this time only staying a
few minutes. but long enough to scare
one Of our young ladies into a dead
faint.
1--WE all left the house socn after, and
since that time the strange phantom has
been seen in the same oom a number Of
times. She has also been seen walking
about the grounds always dressed in the
same manner as l have described and
looking the same.
"Had [ not seen this with my own ewes
and had others present TO witness it, |
should never have believed go remarkable
a freak OF nature possible"
There seems every reason TO believe that