Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1891-03-09
a MUSICAL PHANTOM.


wardsViIle.. Ala, says tho Pittsburgh
Dispatch Glands the ruins OF . log cabin
where years ago . mysterious and
bloody crime was committed. The place
is haunted. but not by visible ghosts.
No white-robed phantom forms walk
with nofseless tread across the broken,
uncovered floor Of the old cabin. No
specter: lights g1eam through the one
window or across the rotten threshold
Of the shutter1ess door. The ghost is
heard, net seen, and no one who has
once, heard the sounds that come from
the old cabin at midnight will ever
again doubt the existence Of spooks.
The Rhostly sounds are the music off
violin. :. Tho playing is not that of
master, but it is good, and it is soft and
low as though: the soul Of the player
was in sympathy with his music. Night
after night for many years this ghostly
violin played by ghostly hands has
awakened the echoes of the deserted
cabin. First, there is heard drumming
On the strings, tuning of the instru-
ment. and then the bow is drawn across
the strings when they are all in perfect
harmony. A sweet Scottish love ballad
81 olden days Is first played, then comes
the familiar music of the Scots high
land fling.
Then there is brief pause, another
thrumc1ing of the strings, and then on
tho night air softly floats the music Of
that old Scottish song: within Mile
o Edinboro Town" One stanza is fin
ished, another is begun; the music is
softer, sweeter than before, when sud-
denly 1t stops in the middle Of a bar,
and is heard no more until the following
night. when the same programme is re-
peated. .t,i
Of course, there Is story attached to
the old cabin, story to explain the
ghostly music. and weird story it is.
Pa 1865, when the Arbaeoochee gold
fields were filed with prospectors, two
old California miners turned up there
one day. Their names were Martin
Burke and Daniel Mcleod. They were
past middle life, and had been mining
IN California and Nevada for twenty
years with Indifferent success. Mcleod
was Scotchman, and to the newly-dis-
covered gold field he brought an old
VIOLIN. which he never tired of playing
when asked to perform.
The two miners rented the cabin and
went to work prospecting among the
hills. They had been there only few
weeks when other miners and pros
pectors noticed they went out carly in
Che morning, always going in the same
direction, and did not return till night.
Many suspected they had struck it rich
somewhere in the hills, but as no one
else had been able to find gold in paying
quantities 1T was finally agreed that
Burke and Mcleod were merely follow
ing some blind lead.
One day the TWO men were missed.
Next day they were still missing, and
the cabin. was visited. The dead body
OF Mcleod was lying on the floor of
the cabin He had been shot through
The head while sitting in front of the
FIRE playing his violin. When he fell
his fingers stiffened on his violin, and
when in removing it from the dead
mans hands the bow was drawn ACROSS
The strings by accident the Old fiddle
emitted Il wall for the dead musician
which. it is stated, made those who
heard it shudder. Burke was gone, and
naturally he was suspected of the muir
der of his partner.
BILE theory of the crime-that the two
men had made rich find, that Burke
bad murdered his companion and taking
all the gold had fled. The theory was
generally accepted, but as there was
40 positive evidence against Burke no
effort was made to find him.
None dared to charge him with the
murder OF Mcleod, because they had
no evidence. Burke spent his days and
nights I'm the one saloon of the little
town. About that time the ghostry
Tiolin-pfaying in the old cabin was FIRST
heard, and one night frightened eoun-
tyEscn was giving TN account of it in
sho saloonIat Arbaco0chee. Burke heard
che story, and it was noticed that he
t.aSned deadly pale, and, staggering to
The bar, called for a glass of liquor.
Rrom that night Burke drank more and
EAore, and i'm week be was ON the
verge Of the 5nh-jans. g.. ..