The record-union., 1891-10-31

Recently Told by Members Of the
Club-''The Ghost of My CLIENT
and 1.-THE Haunted Miu.''
Charlottesville is distinctly a city of
clubs, and as such is noted all over Hoo
slerdom. There is the Gentleman's Lit
erary Club, of which General Lew Wal
lace, Maurice Thompson, President Tut
tie of Wabash College, and Professor
John M. Coulter, President-elect of the
State University, are charter members;
there Is the Ladies' Literary Club, 1.-THE
Athenian," whose membership compri-
ses some of the cleverest lady writers in
Indiana; there is the "Ananias and Sap
phira Club" the rarest aggregation of
lying sportsmen to be found anywhere.
over whose farcial deliberations Hon. L.
G. Snyder, Judge of the Montgomery
Circuit Court, presides with much grav-
lty, deciding the worthiness of the stories
told, to be entered in the archives; there
are the college fraternities, the social clubs
and the sportmen's clubs, and last, but by
no means least, is the famous Crawfords-
vile Ghost Club, or, to use the name
with which it is dignified by the MEM
bers, The Society for the Advancement
OF the Belief in Ghosts.''
The unique organization has probably
no parallel IN the country. 1t is radi-
caIly different from the spiritualistic
bands, which can be found in any city
although IT is true that several of its
members are confirmed spiritualists.
Inc club was founded upon All Halo
Ween in 1887 by VIM. Ridley, DIR. Henry
pT1I TD,.Cf Oh
1tnow has in the neighborhood of twenty
members, although limitations occur but
once year, and that upon the anniver-
sary of the clubs founding.
MUST HAVE SEEN A GHOST.
There is one paramount qualification
Tor admlttance to membership, and that
qualification is personal experience, on
Ihe part OF the candidate, with a spook.
Mere belief Will not suffice; personal ex-
perlence is necessary. Every application
for membership must be accompanied
with Ithe asseveration that applicant has,
at some time during his life, seen a ghost
Most of the members of the club are men
OF more than ordinary intelligence, and
considerable education and standing
Thus it has come about that their belief
IN the fundamental principles of their or
ganlZatlOn is openly questioned by out
siders. But if they are in the club for
amusements sake they wisely keep their
own council. Under suspicion of be-
ing only pretended ghost believers sew
eral gentlemen have been blackballed,
much to their disgust. Still, however,
II is the prevailing opinion that just about
one-half of the members OF this club are
enjoying themselves at the expense of
the rest, who really do believe in spooks
and spirits.
The clubs meetings are held fort
nightly and at each one paper is read by
some member which purports to give a
truthful account Of his own personal adj
venture with ghost. The veracity of
these stories is never questioned by the
brotherhood, although they sometimes
have most unlikely smack. The meet
lngs are rarely ever adjourned before
midnight, and after these uncanny re-
cltals the average new member is said to
be often too terrified TO go abroad. and
some have been known to frequently
stay in the hall all night rather than run
the rlsk OF encountering the disentombed
spirits which their Imagination pictures
as lurking in every alley and lodging
about IN the shadow of every electric
light.
The club-room, or "ghost lodge" as it
is called, can certainly lay claim to being
the weirdest affair extant. 1t is room
about twenty by forty feet, in the fourth
story of one of the principal business
blocks. Its windows on the north over
look Oak Hill Cemetery, while those on
the west look directly down into the iail-
yard, where four red-handed murderers
have been swung OFF into eternity in as
many years. In the room itself occurred
murder, many years ago, upon the
very night that il was dedicated as a
dance hall, and the ghost of the promis-
ing young buck then slain is said TO fire.
quently revisit the scene of his untimely
taking off. From a scaffold on the same
building a painter fell some years later
and was dashed 10 death on the ecruel flag
stones below, while still later an old lady
dropped dead from heart disease while
searching for an erring son who was
playing poker in the hall, which was then
gambling hell.
DECORATIONS OF THE HALL
These terrible associations had much to
do with the selection Of the room, and
when it was once fitted up its ghastlv
decorations made its hideousneSs COM
plete. 1t IS hung entirely in white
White cheese cloth drapes the walls and
celllng- Nhlte canvas covers the floor,
and even the window glass is painted
White. On the other hand every article
Of furniture is as black as midnight. ex-
cept such paraphernalia as the skeletons.
In each corner of the room stands one of
these genial customers, grinninp horri-
bly,, and each one has duty to perform.
Tor IN every empty Uranium there is a
small lamp with a red glass chimney. and
Tor the hall these lamps furnish the only
llght which pours in lurid streams
through the empty eye-sockets and grim
ming mouths of these four repulsive SEN
tlnels. The table at which the President
and Secretary sit is an old dissectinp
table, purchased some time ago from the
Indiana Medical College. The President
10 call order rings a large dinner bell.
which hangs from the ceiling above. This
bell was obtained from the ruins of farm
house IN the conflagration of which an in
Iant perished, and in order to ring it the
President pulls the identical rope with
which Jack Henning was hanged. not
500 yards away, IN 1887, for the murder of
his sweetheart. The seats in the room
were all made from the timbers of the
scatfold from which Henning and three
others dropped to glory, and which the
sheriff was only too glad to sell when the
law requiring all executions 10 take place
IN the Penitentiary went into effect
There is 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 is the blood stained
club with which Chris Coffey beat old
man McMullen and his wife to death:
the spade with which the old sexton of
the Masonic Cemetery dug over SEQ
graves, and which he was clutchiuo
tightly in his stiffened hand when found
cold in death one fine morning: there is
the cup in which Rev. Petit is said 10
have mixed poison for his wife. the
knives and revolvers of murderers and
suicides and other implements of SINH
larly hair-raising character. The club
mas expended no little money in prepar-
ing its quarters, and every month or two
some new horror is added to its already
STARTLING Outfit