St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-08-09
DANCE OF GHOSTS.
Georgia People See Remarkable
Performance.


and unimpeachable character, as vel
as of brave and fearless heart. No one
ever doubted his veracity or accused
him of being superstitious. He fought
CALAMITY in the Mexican war. belonging
to the famous Palmetto regiment OF
South Carolina, and holding the rank OF
first lieutenant. And he had i'll his
possession until his death a beautiful
silver sword, presented to him by the
citizens of Edgfield county for his BRAY
cry at Chapultepec, Buena Vista and
many other hard-fought battles of Mex
leo.
He was very interesting and enter
tanning talker, and when in reminis-
cent mood it was treat to hear him tell
of his experience in war and of many
hairbreadth escapes in the imminent
deadly breach.
But the most exciting story | ever
heard from the doctors lips he told sew
eral of the boys one night when we
were spending the evening over at his
hospital home, and the earnest and i'm
pressive way in which he related il
made US involuntrily glance round in to
the dark corners of the room, and
marred to certain extent the pleasure
or our ride home.
When he was young man. the doctor
said, he took charge Of one of his
fathers plantations in California. There
was no other white man on the place,
and the negro quarter was about half a
mile away from the old twO-story dwell
ing in which the overseer had been &C
customed to stay. The house was a
lonely place, and many were the stories
told by those who had successfully at
tempted to live in 1t of the strange.
mysterious. unseen beings who would
come and hold high carnival there in
the deep still hours of the night. In
other words, the house was said to be
haunted.
There was an ancient and gloomy air
about the place, such as usually gives
rise to rumOrs of supernatural viSitantS,
and to this the doctor said. together
with its loneliness and the excited
imaginations perhaps of those who
STAYED there, he attributed all the un-
canny things he had heard.
Anyhow, he had never known yet
what it was to be afraid, and as he had
come there for the purpose of making a
crop, he intended, no matter who else
might dwell there in the midnight
hours, to live IN the house that year.
The day he moved in the former
overseer and his family were taking
away the last of their household goods.
The doctor began to locate himself in
a large room that opened OH the piazza
down stairs. But the overSeer told him
it was no use to do that, as he would
be compelled to move. For" said he,
''they won't let you have any peace
down here"
The doctor laughed and told him ne
didn't care snap about "they," and as
that room was the most convenient for
his business he was going to occupy it..
The man said he thought the same
thing when he came there, but after
the first night he and all his family
moved up stairs and stayed there the
rest of the time.
The Doctor laughed again and fixed
himself all comfortably in the large
room.
That night he read for an hour or two
after he had finished his supper, and
then went to bed with his pistol and a
box of matches within easy reach of his
hand. He had been asleep he knew
not how long, when he was suddenly
awakened by most terrific crashing
sound. as if the whole house was falling
in OH him.
Then, right in the room where he
was, the chairs were taken up and
thrown furiOusly against the wall, the
table was overturned with fearful vlO-
lence and the noise was deafening and
terrific. Over him and around him,
everywhere in the room, up against the
ceiling and then down, as if it would
60 through the very floor itself, was the
inn Of
ture.
When he first awoke so suddenly he
had half raised himself in bed to listen,
down to escape, if possible, the awful
havoc that was going on around him.
1t seemed as if twenty men were in the
room tearing everything to pieces. For
the first time in his life, the doctor said,
he was scared. His hair even began to
play fantastic tricks. But finally. the
noise continuing with tenfold fury. he
he reached out easily and found the box
of matches. Taking one out he strnck
it, expecting to see-he knew not what.
As the light flashed up he looked, and
10! everything was in its place in the
room-chairs. table and furniture-just
as he had left it. The noise had sud-
denly ceased when he struck the match
and it was now still. The air was so
tick with silence that it was absolutely
frightening.
He heard no more of it that night nor
the next, but the third he suddenly
awoke as before with the curious noises
in his ears. Again the chairs were
seemingly thrown by giant hands
against the wall and broken to pieces.
Again it seemed as if the whole army
of men were in the room knocking it
asunder. And again he struck match
and found everything i'll its place and
the silence of the grave.
In week or two the doctor said he
became accustomed to the strange
things. and they did not affect him
other than to rouse him up and keep
him awake until they stopped, which
was generally in few minutes. Some
times he would not hear it for week,
and again it would come several nights
in succession.
AS to what it was he was unable to
say. He could not account for it in any
way in the world. He examined the
house and premises thoroughly. but
could get no clew to the mysterious Wis
itor. Once, and once only, he heard
the noise up stairs, or at least he heard
III going up the steps. IL SOUNDED ike
some one walking heavily with chains
around him.
s Jumping from his bed he struck a
light and thought that at least he would
find out who his midnight intruder was,
At the foot of the stairs there was a
door, W hich he closed and locked, so
that whatever it was it might not escape
that way. Hurrying up the steps
whittier the noise had Immediately pre-
ceded him, he searched quickly in both
the rooms and found nothing.
All during the year the same thing
One night his cousin came
over and slept with him. and was nearly
frightened to death when he awoke and
heard the fearful noise. Immediately
they got up and together examined the
whole house and place, but saw or
heard nothing that would tend to ex-
plain the mystery. The doctor said
from that time he could never venture
in there after dark.
A swarm of bees got loose In Michi-
gan Central smoking car near Saginaw
the other day, and the profanity of the
occupants OF the car is said to have