Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-07-16

wife. When we were quite within the
room and in the light of the Pickering
Fame of the Gre my wife caught my arm
and whispered again: "Lookl Do you see
| ity"
saw nothing
For the rest had better tell directly
what my wife saw; for saw nothing till
the end, when there was something tan
| gible to lie seen. We sat down together a
! little way from the fire, she holding my
hand, which she would catch at hard and
hold on to, at, suppose, poignant instants
Of her vision
She saw the golden haired child sit on a
footstool quite close to the fire, and the
black kitten sit near her, both gazing in
tently, and as it were with content at the
flames.
They sat, and the Goals assuring us OF
our touch with the real world blew hiss
ing jets of smoke, which would break into
rushing flame illuminating all the room,
and the cinders cracked and fell together,
dropping fragments out upon the brass
fender with a chatter that made us start
all that, of course, at intervals which
seemed hours long. Then ut length she
saw Il handwriting but u shGpely, ghost
ly hand and wrist-fash from the dark on
the left hand side of the fireplace, seize the
black kitten by the neck and catch ii
away; an instant after the same hand
flashed down upon the child; the child fell
forward against the fire and with piercing
scream of agony disappeared!
My wife started forward with a scream,
SO that to this day it is impossible for me
to decide for myself which | heard-the
scream of my wife or the cry of the child
the sound of this world or of the other.
My wife had tainted; carried her out
of the room and locked the door. thought
it was not worth while to disturb the
house; but when had brought her to and
heard all she had seen she insisted that
she could not rest that night till an at.
tempt had been made to solve the mystery
and to lay the ghost.
returned down stairs, found Clyde and
old Vansittnrt and told them what we had
done. Clyde seemed Il good deal put out;
he believed nothing but trouble would
come of this meddling however, since we
had gone so far he was prepared to see us
through with it. So we all went to the
haunted room-women and all
We all agreed that the ghostly hand was
the center and origin of the whole ma
chinery, so to say, of the apparition, and
my wife and Mrs Vansittart declared that
the hand came from the left hand side of
the fireplace. Now there las all over the
walls of the room) Clyde had fastened
some greenish colored material of canvas
texture as background for his pictures,
which were here as everywhere Receiv-
ing his permission to undo that part of
it drew the pins and disclosed an old
Ia MI
clnred he had instructed the workmen to
strip the walls before putting his stuff up.
Stripping away piece of the flock paper
disclosed first one common wall paper
and then another, till came to fat, sound
wood work Stripping everything freely
away from that | saw on close eXamina-
ton small, tight fitting cupboard door.
That discovered ! paused, and we all
looked at each other. What strange secret
of the house might be exposed by the open.
ing of that doorl
prise awayr' said Clyde to me, handing
u chiscl with malignant ferocity which
startled me.
With some effort the door was forced
open-and lol grisly sight that made the
women screaml A skeleton handa right
hand-with precious flashing rings slip
ping over the joint Of one of the fingers
hung by loose silken cord from hook,
while below it on the floor of the cupboard
lay small complete skeleton of four
footed creature which we determined could
be none other than kitten!
Strange and horrible! And what did it
meanY gave my guess then, ~ / give it
now. The hand was the hand of the for
egn woman who had hated her own child
1 1,
struck at her child through her child's
kitten-had probably (as the vision seemed
| tasignify) seized the cat, and in her passion
Lad killed it and in her fear had hid it
and then had struck at her child, not with
intent to kill, probably, but 50 rashly and
violently that the child had fallen against
the fire and had died of her injuries. The
| buccaneering husband with the rose of
| health in his cheek, but with the evil of
| hell in his eye, had somehow found out all
that, and in Il passion for revenge had cut
| off his Wfe's cruel right hand and hung it
| up there in memorial of her cruelty
If that be not the explanation, there is
| none.
II think you must be right" said Clyde,
land in confederation Of your view point
to that portrait Of the lady over there in
}
hand is as if hid under the mantle"
There are two or three curious points in
the story which my attempted exposition
Of the original mystery does not explain
as, for instance, why the injured child and
not the cruel mother appeared in complete
| ghostly guise, and why it appeared only to
women, and among women only to moth
ers-but have never yet seen or heard the
theory that completely met and routed all
difficulties in any set of supernatural
| events.
These things, however, | know; that we
buried the bones found in the cupboard,
that the phantom child ceased to climb the
stairs at Silverladies, and that our baby is
alive ut this hour, Nj, Cobban in Lon
| don Figaro
A room which has been for some time oc
| ;IpiCd by Il COnsumptive patient should J..