The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1889-01-09
weight. and gaspsd for breath with q
saisa OF suffocnIion i'm its density.

weight, and gasped for breath with q
sense OF suffocation in its density.
Il stood thus for some moments. l
wished had brought light The beating
OF my heart seemed like a comp lnion in
my solitude, nnd / remember laying my
hand upon it to feel it's pulsations. Then
slowly, slowly, out of the thick air, there
grew upon me horror, I'M unspeak-
able, awful consciousness of the presence
OF the Invisible which fioze my blood,
and chilled my life at its core. My body
seemed turned to stone. All its activity
was paralyzed, and had sought TO turn
and hee, knew my muscles would have
failed to do my bidding, and my feet havo
sunk under me. / was powerless to open
my lips. Only my mind was free as air
10 receive in every fiber this sense of un-
utter,b!e terror for that instant Fear
held dominion over me. Fear such as l
had never dreamed of, ruled in every atom
o. my being. The sound of the shutting
of door rosourded in my ears like an
unexpected thing, n faint light fitted Tor
an instant along the wall, and in its mo-
mentary CLEAN | saw woman's face,
wicked face, and n girls form, shadow
crouched ut my side. The light was gone,
but there still rung in my ears long, low
sob, like the cry of lost soul, and the
sickening noise of a fall on the stones
below.
1T must have been some time after this
that Margaret found me sitting on our
stairs below the closed door. How / came
there l do not know. She did not spesk
TO me. for think she knew by my face
what had happened, and she followed her
instinct in treating me much as | had
treated her. AS soon as any power OF &C
tion returned to me, | resolved upon quit
ting the house instantly. and set about
preparations for our departure with
feverish activity. | could not be easy so
long AS we remained In the building, and
we spent the few days necessary for the
epackiug of tho furniture mt Leland's
Ho,el, visiting the house as little as pos
sible and never remaining over night.
Margaret went TO her mothers TO stay till
she could recover from the shock to her
nerves and be TT for work.
knew it would be useless to try and
persuade Mrs. Capel that all she had re-
lated was but the illusions OF an over
wrought imagination. / relea ;ed her,
there ore, from the engagement, and de
termined to inspect the building for my
own satisfaction. An old doctor who re-
ded on West Monroe street, in the neigh
borhood. TO Il me that the last permanent
occupants of the house, before it began to
bear so evil n reputation, had been two
women, mother and daughter. The
mother, widow, owned the place. She
was n tierce-t mpered, hard woman, who
seemed possessed, as the gossips said, by
II spirit OF unnatural hatred toward her
daughter, q girl with a certain sad beauty
of her own, as the do tor described her II
me, but not ght in her mind. She was
not an idiot, but lacking the doctor
termed it. As she grew ir.o
womanhcoa her mental deficiencies
increased, and the mother, fercely proud
in her way, could not endure the spectacle
Of Lor child's misfo tune She wopld
h ave hidden her away from the world, but
the Girl robelled. There were taunts.
quarrcls. sometimes blows, between the
Two, and the mother. defiant and furious,
locke her daughter in the rear part OF
the builang. Here the tragedy of her
life played ITSELF out, and here she was
found one morning by the servant, who
slept in n remote attic, lying dead at the
foot OF The stairs. How she came by her
death 10 one knew. There was nothing
TO directly criminate the mother, and the
inquest that was held resulted in n YER
Dict of "accide ltal death. The mother
herself died soon after, le wing her prop
erty TO n distant cousin, who reaped little
benefit from tho house. since it soon be-
came impossible TO let IT,
The doctors account seemed 10 lend
weight TO the statement OF Mrs Capel.
entirely disbelieye in the supernatural,
aud, after making an examination of the
premises was on the point of leaving
when / noticed panel in the open door
that had n peculiar surface. As ! stood
watching il, while night shades were fall
ing, the outlines of two figures became
more and more visible. One was that of
n mildle-aged woman, with hard, fierce
face, while the other was that of young
girl in crouching attitude. When the
door was closed the panel could not be
seen except from the extension. / exam
iEed the framework Of the door, and found
1t 10 be in rickety condition. 4 gust of
wind from q special quarter striking
the framework threw the door suffi-
cieuty asiant to free the bolt from
the clasp and allow the door to
swing open into tho hall, and reveal
the painted panel. Gu subsequent in
quiry. | found that the extension had at
one time been occupied by an artist, who,
doubtless, hearing OF the tragedy as re-
lated by the doctor, had painted the scene
on the Panel. j also discovered THAT the "
artist had been making experiments with
phosphoreScent paint, and also with
paint that changed color at various de-
grees OF temperature. / had the Frame
work of the door repaired and the panel
taken out, and since then no tenant has
come to me with ghost stories. l have
the Panel at home in M parlor In the
dark, when the weather is slightly damp,
the two figures come ont very distinctly,
but ut times they are invisible. The
luminous paint used is now quite COM
mon, but the artist who invented it has no
idea of the supernatural sensation this
early experiment made on the tenants of
the Halsted Street Haunted House,
POli,eneSs OF Clerks.
Politeness Is an essential requisite 10
the successful clerk. There need be