St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1890-03-01
Written for the Farmer.
A STRANGE TRUE STORY.

Nothing ID more common than to
ridicule the belief in spirits, and
nothing is more common than the
deep down innate same belief. 1t
Is . singular phenomenon that the
tales We hear in childhood Of fairies,
witches and hobgoblins, tho fully
believed in then, fOrsake US in our
maturer growth, while the belief in
spirits, even against the teachings
Of our parents, cleave to Us still.
Indeed, it seems to be . latent prin-
ciple Of our nature which we cannot
cOnQuer-the soul asserting ITSELF
and when We think we have subdued
1t, 'clings to us still, like the Eng
lish lord, who could not bear to be
alone in the darkness lest he see .
spirit, 1T the same time asserting
his unbelief in their existence.
What has brought the doctrine
into disrepute 10 the mAss Of litter
ate and superstiti0us persons who
believe it; and the elite and cult
waited aspire superiority by ridicul-
ing It, - shallow wits sometimes
attempt notoriety by their inideli-
ty.
The incident I shall relate had
many witnesses who could not be
gainsaid, both white and black, and
occurred in open day; not in the
night when vision IL obscured; nor
near old grave yards where imagin-
alton is ut play; nor yet by one
person, when optical illusion may
take place but in IN open cultiva-
ted field Of cotton about IN inch
high, without the least obstruction
to the vision, with soft pl0wed
ground to show the least impression
OF . track, and witnessed by some
eighteen or twenty persons, black
and white.
In the spring Of l847 . pious and
well-to-do family by the name Of
Perkins, members of the Baptist
Church. and owning some 20 or 25
slaves, started from Oktibeha coun-
ty, Mississippi, to remove down
into Holmes county, and rented for
that year q farm near Richland,
some eight miles south Of Lexing-
ton, the county seat. The farm be-
longed to VIM. s. Byrd, Esq.
This Perkins family consisted Of
old Mr. Perkins and wife one mar
ried son, wife and two children,
Miss Perkins, . pleasant young
lady Of eighteen, and three or four
half-grown boys and young men,
her brothers. Unfortunately, in
their journey, which Was in winter,
the old man, the patriarch Of Ill,
took sick and died, and was buried
on the journey.
About the month Of May-early
in the month Of that year-while
the cotton in that region was just
up, about 10 or IL o'clock in the
when some fifteen OF
eighteen slaves were in the field at
work, attended and assisted by
three or four Of their young mas
tiers, there was seen, near the mid
die Ut the field, . figure ~ Of .
man in . white robe, kneeling down,
with arms stretched out as far as
his elbows, aud his hands hanging
down. They all came up and stood
in strange wOnder-b0th
and Withdrawing never
seen anything like it before. At
last one young man said, 81 will 60
to it," But as he approached, it
arose and kept . few yards ahead
Of him, while he followed it to the
fence and vanished in the
sight Of al. They then turned to
find its tracks; but though the
ground was just plowed and soft,
it had made no tracks ut al.
At once they all started for the
both black and white, and
related the strange incident, 3when
young Miss Perkins asked, "Where
did it come to the fence!" They
told her, when she exclaimed,
Three nights ago I dreamed I saw
dear papa cross the fence at that
very spot" when the old lady
clapped her hands and exclaimed,
ats my dear old husband, and he's
gone to glory" and calling Pin Ill
the servants, they Ill bowed in re
thanks to God, who had
given them such evidence Of his
being safely happy in the hosts Of
hose in white. These aressthe facts,
make Of them what you please.