Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-02-14
@GH0ST STORIES.
YARNS TOLD TO THE LITTLE ONES,
BUT THE ELDERS LISTEN, TOO.

Tho Test Of Ghost Story Is the Tempera-
ture In the Vicinity of the Spinal Col
umn-some OF the Old Timers That Arc
Now Almost Forgotten.
1t Is to be hoped that not many persons are
proof against the weird destinations of a reg.
ular old fashioned ghost story. A ghost story
that Is, 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 a 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 outgrow1l them, to have so much
keener facilities for seeing through them and
explaining them away, that they no longer
appeal to US. Beyond ell doubt the crucial
test OF 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 fearful book, but It
requires distinct effort of the imagination
to thrill over the gigantic monster Of ones
own creating. In this sense, Poe's "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 rr.r
Years ago there was published in the
Harper's Masazine a ghost story, entitled
What Is It1n 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 some thing fell from the ceiling
upon a bed and Immediately began to crap
pie with the two men lying there. A terrible
fight ensued, the Tling-it is always proper
polite and more frightening to refer to q
ghost as Thing-groaned and breathed
heavily, and the touch of it was something
to freeze the blood in the veins Finally it
was overpowsred, tied down to the bed with
rope and a light brought. Nothing was
therel At least nothing visible. They could
touch 1t, 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 cellar! 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, persstently walk up and
down stairs all nigh and go through looked
doors aud stone walls None tho less, even
I,,,
Mr.. Frank Stoc kton, we believe, it was
who told very closely the story of rich
American family Who became owners of q
haunted house In England, and who refused
to be "downedn 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 I'D
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 decent burial, and they lived
ever after In peace In England and in many
parts OF this country G family ghost Is an in
evitable part Of ont S pedigree. 1t is thought
as much of as q cont of arms, and while the
owners pretend to oIisbelieve in it themselves
they certainly like to make it appear that
every one else is ia, from being so rational
CoLoRED PEOPLE BELIEVE IN GHOSTS.
In a certain fine old family house In Mis-
souri, the family ghost appears only in the
mirror of a certain room. The reflection is
that of young woman with silvery white
hair streaming down either side her beautiful
face. She is dress I'd in the costumes of the
early part of this century. An enticing vir-
ginia story is that Of a pair of scissors held
In shadowy hand, Snipping, shipping papers,
clothes, even the hair upon the heads of the
inmates Of the house, and which very proba-
bly, considerably stood on end for the con.
venience Of this mysterious barber In the
same mansion oman dressed In scarlet Is
seen shaking q VIII to cloth from a garret
window. After bar appearance-it being
well understood she is a ghost-fresh, wet
blood stains are found on all the piled stores
OF linen In the chests Of the linen closet.
New Orleans is full Of haunted houses A
story Is told Of one house where no human
power can keep the doors fastened They fly
open in spite of bolt and bar. The old
haunted house ON Royal street Is known to
everybody, and its tale has been told In every
newspaper In the land. At one time this
house was used as a school, but it Is said all
the board Of directors had not power to make
the pupils attend from any district.
Negroes believe implicitly in ghosts or
spirits. They are net afraid Of them, accept
ing them as innocently as a little child &c
cepts fairies and Santa Claus, but the talss
they tell are crude and inartistic. To an
tlhterate negro ghost is in the nature of q
religious experience. Any old colored
nanny can give dozen such personal ex-
periences, but the writer of tales Of mystery
must go higher than this for his sources of
information. Children are brought up to
have horror Of ghosts; that is, they are
taught to believe In them Children and
women-and men a. well, for the matter of
that-cannot be better taught than that the
only use for ghost story is to while away
an idle hour, and to give an amusement,
mingled with a fictitious fear, which we thus