The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1889-10-05
THE TOP OF HER BENT.
Spiritual Manifestations and
Strange ASPIRATIONS.


Spiritual Manifestations anc
Strange ApparitIons.
A Specter Which Seemed to Gaze
Out OF Eyeiess Sockets
Became Denizen Of the Palace and Dis
ported as Freely as the Royal Mistress.
Once upon time there was Prin.
cess who believed so ardently in the
supernatural that at last she thought
ard talked of nothing else, and occu.
pied herself solely discussing dreams
and spiritual manifestations, and she
surrounded herself with people only
who had seen visions and whose strange
dreams had Cor had mott come true,
and who had received spiritual mani
festations and seen apparitions-or at
least whose second cousins and great
aunts had witnessed the extraordinary.
Now the Princess dwelt in palace
which had once been a place of luxury
and delight, where people could move
about fearlessly during all the twenty
four hours of every day and night
But now that this Princess reigned in
it, it was haunted by spirits, and, go
where one might, some intangible
presence or some eerie appearance
filed every nook and corner of it. One
day the Lord Chamberlain met Shad-
owy lady in blue on the staircase, who
seemed TO gaze at him out of eyeless
sockets. The Lord Chamberlain did
not fail to relate his adventure, and
the next day the first maid OF honor
encountered the same lady in the pic
ture gallery. Then she was seen by
the chief page; then by the mistress OF
the robes. Soon she had been seen by
the whole household, including the
Princess herself, and thenceforth the
eyeless blue lady became denizen Of
the palace and walked there as freely
MS its royal mistress Next, phantom
coach was heard at midnight to drive
up to the palace portals and phantom
hand rang furiously at the great bell!
No eye saw this vision. The curiosity
OF those who peeped remained ungrat-
flied. But the sounds were heard by
many, and those who heard shuddered
and chung to each other in dismay.
Soon unusual things happened in the
palace with regularity and frequency.
Nightly cold and terrible hand WIS
laid upon the cheek OF the Lord Chief
Justice after he had extingulshed his
light Nightly also rustling silk
gown passed through the chamber of
the Generalissimo of the Army. On
Sundays, at in the early morning. a
hysterical laugh was laughed at the
bedside of the Princess heself, and at
an hour before cock-crow every month
when the moon began to wane, feet
scufrled, q heavy body fell. and deep
and. dreadful groan was uttered in the
apartment of the poet laureate. An
Intangible monk seemed to inhabit the
library; an invisible but bloody pres
ence was felt to invade the bali room.
Men Stunned the smoking room at the
going down of the sun, because at the
apartment was permeated by the faint
and exquisite aroma of a tobacco no
mortal had ever inhaled. The grand
piano in the drawing room was con-
stantly played upon, and when the
Princess and her suite entered in haste
although but that instant the room
had been ringing with melody--the
piano would be found closed and the
apartment void. Children scampered
up and down the wide staircases, when
there were no children within mile
OF the palace. Dogs whined at closed
doors, and, 10! when one rose to admit
the creature, no dog was to be found.
In short there was no end to the extra
ordinary occurrences which took place
in the Princess palace daily. The
Princess grew thin and haggard, and
her large and luminous eyes looked as
if they would fall out of her head. And
her whole court grew meager and
pallid also, and none spoke above his
breath, and the women clustered to-
gether in twos and threes, and when
any one entered a room, the occupants
would ask at once, What have you
seen? What have you experienced?
What did you dream last night?"
Then some who had formerly held
high Offices at the court but who had
been displaced because they were in
credulous OF the Princess second sight,
and because they had declared that he
only who desired to see ghosts saw
them, for that ghosts per sc existed not
drew together in consultation and
agreed that something must be done.
LET us prevail upon the Princess to
marry. Marriage is healthy state"
said one.
This proposition was received with
unanimity, and an audience of the
Princess being obtained. two gentlemen,
who had once been respectively Prime
Minister and Chief Court Physician.
were admitted into her Royal Highness'
august presence. They found their
royal mistress-who was herself as
slender as lily and very wan-sur-
rounded by her maids OF honor, lie IN
and terrified damsels and by her Min
listers of State-cadaverous and melan-
choly personages. The whole assem-
bly, looked as if it were smitten by some
painful nervous sickness; each one
glanced hither and thither, as though
devoured by some dread expectancy
all started at every sound, and their
breasts heaved with inexplicable emo
lions and their bony hands were cllnch-
Gu COuNulslNely.
For very pity the ex-chief physician
could have wept.. But he restrained |
while the ex-Prime Minister |
explained his errand, begging respect
fully TO inform the Princess that, while |
she was striving to grasp the SUPER
natural, the natural was falling into !
the army and navy were
becoming disorganized, foreign Powers |
were growing aggressive, literature was |
neglected and art and science forgotten,
social evils were unremedied. and the |
Whole realm was becoming disaffected. |
Then the Princess said, signing,
"What would you have me do?"
Then the eX-Prime Minister replied |
with caution, Madam. we would have |
your Royal Highness bend your mind |
from the immaterial to the Material,
To one so widely read as your Royal |
we need not to quote the wise |
mans words: Our business is not to
know all things, but those which con-
Germ our conduct"
"But how can we tell what truths |
may not be revealed to us through |
spiritual Investigations" said the Prin-
cess,
a III