Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-07-09

knew. Tho next day in the full glare o
the noon-tide sun, in the unimaginativt
clearnes of afternoon light, or at whatever
hour of the day that one looked there wa,
to be seen that same unmovable, steady
pleading stare of the solemn black veleG
nun.
THE NEWS SPREAD.
1t did not take many hours for the news
of the advent of the strange and sudden ap
partition to spread. The neighborhood was
in riotous state of nervous tumult, and
fled the vicinity with more rapicity than il
the smallpox flag had hung from the win
dow instead of the shadow image of pale
faced, sad-eyed nun. In two weeks the
empty haunted house had company in
plenty for it's misery to love, for every
house on the block was vacated, and the
real estate agents we're up in arms ready to
march into the graveyards and open war,
fare against the whole army of ghosts.
From morning until night crowds OF
curious and stricken people gathered
around tho house, thousands sometimes
goiug day to look at the haunted win
dow. Some few were brave enough to ex-
such would come out trembling and con.
vinced. There were few attempts mace
to burn the disturbing phantom home,
after which policemen were placed on con-
tinuous guard. The reporters had a
"Widow's Cruse's" supply of material, and
interesting matter seemed to increase for
them regarding it day by day. At last it
was thought expedient to tear down and
ruthlessly destroy such useless element OF
annoyance and mental discord. From the
heavy telling blows of the pick-axe and the
spade the haunted house was mutilated
and the sad-eyed. solemnly veiled nun
shattered in her image existence upon the
window-pane and driven back into her
proper sphere, in the shades of some de-
serted cloister, or the clammy realms OF a
ceiled vault, where she could look beseech-
ingly out through rusted iron bars and win
the sympathy of bats and owls, while
peace once again reigned on Fifth street,
and despair ceased its hold upon the mind
of the real estate agent.
MYSTERIOUS HAPPENINGS.
Such incidents as are related in these ar
Uicles are not at all the work of the writer q
imagination, but are simply the relation of
some of the mysterious happenings and IL
lusions in the lives of those people that we
know. all of which heretofore have only
been known even to physiological students
as stories told by word of mouth.
The imagination is yet very unexplored
realm, and is full Of treacherous and ur-
known depths. Polonius is not the only
person who ever saw objects made OF the
floating clouds; many are the pictures the
creative eye can see mid the leaves and
limbs Of trees, and as good spectre as one
may want to see is always at hand when
the moonlight shines in the room, and
there are clothes upon the chair, or hang
ing behind the door, so with such vapid
material to weave our feverish fancies into
weird beliefs and Impressions, it is not to
be wondered at that with the help OF CO.
incidence and queer circumstances, so much
that seems mysterious passes nDder our
ken.
One of the most strange and unnatural
events is told with a guarantee OF having
actually happened some time ago in Nelson
county, Va.
ANOTHER NARRATIVE.
In one of the most refined and cultured
of its thickly inhabited country neighbor-
hoods, there were two young men who
were both very enamoured of the same
Young girl. Despite this heart rivalry
though, they were the closest Of friends,
and neither cherished any bitter feeling
after visiting their lady love together.
WENT WEST.
Finally, the one of them, Tom, accepted
a business position that carried him into
one of the far Western Territories for his
future home During his life there, for a
year or two, home friends heard regularly
from him, 1t with the greatest regularity
and greatest frequency his letters came to
Harry, his old chum and rival. Suddenly,
however, all news of him ceased, nothing
for weeks was heard, and one evening
Harry, while calling on the young lady of
their mutual love, mentioned to her casual
ly that it had been some time since any one
had heard from Tom, and that he did un-
derstand it. They talked of it carelessly,
coniecturing upon the probabilityof mail be-
ing lost coming from 80 new and distant a
country, and briefly dismissed the subject.
About midnight Harry was vending his
way home, which was 10 easy walking dis
tance and pleasant on summers night
The moon shone with clear, defining bright
ness, and he strolled on with his thoughts
on nothing less pleasant than sweet waking
dreams of her whom he had just left. He
followed the tickle path, that ran varyingly,
now through dark screenage of whisper
ing, murmuring pines, making ragged
seam through its carpet of soft brown tags;
then in zig.zag fashion across a great ex
panse of field, that by day was yellow, and
now by the touch of the moons rays was
grey and pty-looking to desolation in its
unentiing breadth and length of shorn and
shaven surface, not so much as dwarf
shrub or the mouldering stump of a felled
tree to cast it's own shadow to conceal the
shadow or form of any living thing. The
great eye of night which was so wide open
at this midnight hour, would have brought
to full view any lurking thing; but sudden
ly, in the midst of this great silent openness
and extent of vacant space, Harry heard
bis name feebly, but with perfect distinct
ness, called in a familiar voice, and stimuli
taneously there appeared close before him
the form of Tom, his absent friend. The
surprise was equal in effect to severe
shock, and for the nonce his reasoning con-
seriousness was stunned, so that by the time
he Questioned in his mind the strange ap-
pearance, the form had totally disappeared.
and once more he was utterly alone in the
broad fat, filled with only the steady white
the dried grass, and the distant
dark hue of the skirt of the woods visible.
'soH! HARRY"
Nervous and shaken, he walked on until
lust ere the field was crossed, he again
heard his friends voice call him in pitt
full, beseeching tone three times, Goa Har
ry, Harry, Harry" appearing at the same
time just before him with outstresched
arms.
THE FRIENDS DEATH.
Completely overcome with awe and dread
at the unaccountable happening, he reach
ed home and related the scene to the people
there, who were no less mystiied. II q
few days time he received letter from the
distant territory written by stranger who
said that Tom had died on certain night
and he had been with him and described
minutely exactly the happenings which
Harry had witnessed during his walk, hav-
ing been the same minute, hour and night
of his death.
In the Eastern portion of Kentucky,
among the bold heights and shadowy depths
of the interior Of the mountain, there exists
a wilduess and primitive degree of hu1nan-
ity and life which seems to have made no