Telegram-herald., 1891-03-22
SUPERNATURAL TALES.
Julian Hawthorne Writes q Quaint
Autobiography.
Personal Experiences Ia thu Oeeais Re-
ssGstea ~ asa.2s 81 Pea and lax
The >a<doS ga the Essu zaa
otasE 3Isst~Fiss.



II often happens ~ people OF nv pro-
fsssion % De asked u tel a story
ghost story by preference and. if pos
sible. a ghost story Of their own expert
eneing. II has happened % me. at any
rate aad / have uniformly failed -
make good showing. Whether this
~4s because my material was worse
Than the average, know not, but In
cline - think it Ms more because
handled IL badly | an no hand 70 give
cisa s0cs narratives My object Is 20
reash the point Of the story by the
shortest route. and so have done with IL.
But put the shade over the lamp.
When | was . boy Of twelve or thir-
teen. used u sit and watch haad
holding pencil. moving ~ and fro over
sheet Of paper. The place was suita-
bls for ghosts and all who were famli-
lar with 10 declared is % be haunted. 10
was an ancient Italia2 villa. or castle,
perehed on hill Of the town Apen-
mines. overlooking a wide valley, with
. historic river winding through IL
There was q tower at one end of IL, in
which political captive had been i'm
prisoned more than two hundred years
before An owl now occupies tho
gloomy chamber In which he used TO
languish. but after sunset 10 would dap
nolselessly round the battlements OF
the tower. emitting lbs soft, long-sirawn
cry. Bats there were also In abund-
ance. And several times. as I lay on
the tiled roof up aloft. watching tho
great comet that arched across the hori-
zon Of tho valley, have BEARD my
name called In the air. Just over the par
apet- There was q clean drop there Of
seventy let To the ground
In the body Of the edffice there was a
sort OF cell. or oraeory. massively con-
strueted Of stone, with groined ceiling.
This was the special abiding place Of
the ghost One night my sister. hav-
ing occasion 10 go there, set tho candle
on the nantel-pieee. As she was s.oop-
ing over a chest In the corner she
noticed her shadow glide along the
wall Turning. she saw that the cam
die had been placed on the table sew
eral yards from It's former position.
But no one except herself was in that
part OF the house.
An immense place IL was, with up
wards Of forty large rooms. As there
were only five Of US In the family. we
each had suite of Ave or six apart
ments- My bedroom was at tho end Of
the west wing; Ave rooms opening into
one another interviewed between that
one and huge reception hall in tho
center of the building. Often in the
dark Of the night have walked up and
heard some one pacing TO and fro in
these rooms. and tho rustic of long
skirt sweeping on the baro wooden
floors I used - suppose 10 was my
mother; and 10 was not until some years
later that discovered that IL was either
my inaginstion-or something else. As
10 that. can only say that mono Of US
children had the least fear Of ghosts, or
knew that anybody feared them. We
had never been frightened by injudi-
cious means
However, 10 go back TO that hand. It
was q white. wcll-shaped. woman's
hand. with long slender fingers, and a
turquoise ring on one finger l must
not make mystery of this II was the
hand Of n fair young American lady
who, years afterwards, les ped or fell
from . steamboat in Long Island sound,
and so vanished from this world Bnt
mt the time | write Of. she was woman
of happy disposition and singular intel
1igcnce, and was graduate OF famous
western college. Greek, and the Cali