The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-09-23
IND|ANA'S GHOST CLUB.
Tho Most Unique Organization Prob
ably There Is To-Day In
tho United States.
TO Become a Member Ons Must
Have Had Experience
With a Ghost.
The Club Room Overlooka q Csmeterv,
and There Stories Are Told which
Paralyxs the Tlmid.

and There Stories Are Told Which
Paralyzs tho TImid.
Charlottesville ia distinctly a CITY Of
clubs. says tho ST. Louis GlObs-Demoorat
There Ia tho Gentleman's Literary club. OF
which Gsn. Lew Wallace, Maurice Thomp-
son, President futile, OF Wabash collage.
and Prof. John NJ. Coulter, president elect
OF tho state university, AFRO charter mem
bera; there ia the ladies' literary club. "Ths
Athenian," whose membership comprises
some of the cIeverest lady writer's in In
diana; there is the ''Ananins and Sapphire
club" tho rarsst aggregation Of lying
sportsmen to be found anywhere, over
whose farcical deliberations Hon. y. @. Sny-
dor, Judge Of the Montgomery circuit court,
presldes with much gravity, deciding the
worthiness of the stories told, to be on
tered in the archives; there are the college
freternities, tho social clubs and the sports
mems clubs, and last, but not least, Is the
famous Charlottesville Ghost club. or, to
use the name with which it is dignifed BY
its members, 1.-THE Society for the Advance.
mont of the Belief in Ghosts
This unique organization has probably no
parallel in the country. 1t is radically diff
ferent from tho spiritualistic bands, which
can DO found in any city, although it is
true that several Of its members are CON
6rmed spiritualists. The club was founded
upon All Halloween in 1887 by William
Ridley, DR.. Henry de Caux and Prot. hob
srt Burton. It now has in the %neighbor-
hood Of twenty members, although initia-
tions occur but once q year, and that upon
ALo .r~Syaronrv ~ AhA rluh5n foun1inu EM'
There ID one paramount qualification for
admittance to membership, and that quail
cation is personal experience, on the part of
will not suffice, personal experience
10 necessary. Every application for
membership must be accompanied with the
ssservation that applicant has, at some time
during his life, seen a ghost. Most of the
memhers of the club are men of more than
ordinary intelligence, and considerable ed
ucation and standing. Thus it has come
principles of their organization is openly
questioned by outsiders. But it they are
in the club for nmusement's sake they
wisely keep their W council. Under a
suspicion Of being only pretended ghost be-
levers several gentlemen have been black
balled, much to their disgust. Still, how
ever, it is the prevailing opinion that just
about one-half of the members Of the club
are enjoying themselves at the expense of
the rest. who really do believe in spooks
and spirits.
The clubs meetings are held fortnightly.
and at each one q paper is read by some mem
Der which purports to give a truthful &C
count of his own personal adventure with a
ghost. The veracity Of these stories is
mover questioned by the brotherhood, al
though they have sometimes o most nm
likely smack. The meetings are rarely
ever adjourned before midnight. and after
these uncanny ~rscitsls the average new
member IL said to be too terrified to go
abroad, and some have been known to fire.
uuently stay in the hall all night rather than
run the risk Of encounterinp tho olsen
tombod spirits which their imagination
pictures as lurking in every alley and dodg-
ing about in the shadow of every electric
light.
The club room, or 'ghost LODGE as it is
called, can certainly lay claim to being tbs
weirdest affair extant. 1t is a room about
2ox4O feet, in the fourth story OF one of the
principal business blocks. It's windows on
the north overlook Oak Fill cemetery,
while those on the west look directly down
into the Jail yard, whore four red handed
mutdersrs have been swung of into etcr-
nifty in as many years. In the room itself
occurred a murder, many years ago, upon
the very night that it was dedicated "a a
dance hall, and the ghost OF the promising
young buck then slain~is said to frequently
revisit the scene Of his untimely taking
of. From a soafold on the same building
a painter fell some years later and was
dashed to death on the cruel dagstones
below, while still later ar old lady dropped
dead from heart disease while searching for
an erring aon who was playing poker in the
hall. which was then a gambling hell.
These terrible associations had much to
do with tho selection of the room. and
when it was once fitted up it's CHASTITY deco
.~rations made it's hideousness complete. 1t
is hung entirely In white. White cheese
cloth drapes the walls and ceiling. White
canvas covers the floor, and even the win
dow glass is painted white: IN the other
hand every article Of furniture is as black
as midnight except such paraphernAlla as
tho skeletons. In each corner OF the room
stands one of these genial customers,
to perform, for in every empty Uranium
there is a small lamp with a red glass Chin
ney, and for the hall these lamps furnish
the only light which pours in lurid streams
through the empty oye sockets and
pulsive sentinels. The table at
which the president and secretary sit is an
old dissectingtable, purchased some time
ago from the Indiana Medical college. The
president to call order rings a large dinner
ball, which hangs from the ceiling above
him. This bell was obtained from the
ruins OF a farm house in the conf1agration
of which an infant pcrishsd. and in order
to ring it the president pulls the identical
rope WlLl WnlCu JaCA Il0iluluS Wah uhuH0u.
not 800 yards away. in 1887, for the murder
of his sweetheart. The seats in tie room
were NIL made from the timbsrs of the scat
fold from which Henning and three Other
dropped 70 ,glory. and which the sheriff was
only too glad to sell when tho law re-
quiriug all executions to take place
in the penitentisry went into effect.
There 10 a library of some hundred
books in the hall, all treating of
ghosts and ghost life. There is a museum
also, and in it are to be found relics most
CHASTITY and curious. There ia the blood
stained club with which Chris CofIey beat
old man McMullen and hia wife to death
the spade with which the old sexton of the
Masonic cemeterv dug oyer 800 graves, and
which he was clutchinQ tiahtly in his stiff
ened hend when found cold in death one
fine morning; there is the cup in which
Roy. Petit is said to have mixed poison fot
his wife, tho knives and rsvolvers of muir.
derers and auicides and other implements
of a similarly Embarrassing character. lht
club has expended no little money in pre-
pairing it's qunrters, and every month o.
two some new horror is added to it's al
ready startling outfit.
There is no particular secrecy about the