The Portland daily press., 1892-02-26

Judge from SO small a pnoUogTapn, IL
was a face of rare beauty. l was COM
pletely mystifed.
GAS luck would have it I was obliged
to so to B again the next day, and
took my negative with me, promising
myself to look for the mysterious beauty
of the stairway, for the face had
strange fascination for me, and deter
mined to find the girl whose picture |
had so unaccountably taken, ii could
possibly do so.
81 hurried through my business and
rushed off to seek my friend the gar
dener. | found him and at once showed
him my puzzling negative. The moment
he saw it he dropped into seat on the
bench beside him as if he had been shot,
trembling like frightened animal and
with look of terror in his eyes. In
moment or so he found his breath and
gasped:
"'Good God, it's Miss Annie!
s'sYou may imagine my surprise. The
old man looked at mo and at the picture
with scased look, as if he suspected me
of some unholy relation with the devil
"But after awhile he Gained down
little, and good stiff drink from a flask
I happened to have in my pocket seemed
to brace him up and persuade him that
I was not an imp in disguise, and after
awhile succeeded in getting the follow
ing explanation from him, which l will
condense for you, not trying to repro
duce his words and his Scotch accent:
During the war of the rebellion Mr..
s. lived in this house with his wife
and an only daughter, Miss Annie, a
beautiful girl, who was about twenty
years old at the time Of which | am
speaking. She was the idol of the fam
lily, and loved by all who knew her. She
was to have been married to John b,
fine young fellow who lived near by,
but when the call for volunteers was
made her lover went off to the war. She
was almost overcome with anxiety for
him, for her heart had gone with him.
One day soon after one OF the early bat
tles-I forget which one-my friend the
gardener came up from the town with
telegram. He met Miss Annie coming
down the stairway and gave her the
message. She stopped on the landing,
opened the envelope and read the tele-
gram.
ssShe stood perfectly still for an in
slant as if she could not realize it and
then-the gardener was just in time to
save her from falling, as she tainted.
The telegram announced the death of
Lieutenant John R, killed on the
battlefield. Miss Annie never recovered
from the shock, and she died insane in a
few months. Her mother soon followed
her, and Mr.. s. left the town,
lonely, brokenhearted man, and never
has returned. The place has never been
rented because it is said that the un-
fortunate girls spirit haunts the house,
and especially the stairway, where she
heard the news of her lovers death. ]
had photographed the ghost.
''Now that knew the story of the girl
that picture took a stronger hold on me
than before and the mystery was only
intensified. could not get rid of that
face. It haunted me more surely than
the poor girls ghost ever haunted the
stairway, and l could not shake off the
fascination. In short, I had fallen in
love with ghost, and envied that
Lieutenant John R.
SIT was q horribly uncanny feeling,
but calling myself an ass did not help
me to forget the face. And then the
puzzle of it all, the problems it suggest
ed. Could it be that the camera was
able to open new world to us? Was
it's unerring vision clear enough to
pierce the nists of a spirit land and as
sure us of the reality of ghost? And
if SO, how was it to be explained? laid
the matter before the Society for Psychi-
cal Research, but they only talked
long time about it without suggesting
much, and for all know they're at it
yet. But I never shook off the spell OF
that phantom face"
Robinson paused moment, lost in d
far away dream. Brown, the skeptic, at
length aroused him with short ''Well?"
Robinson lit a fresh cigar and continued:
'For a week after my return that
picture, the mystery and the beautiful
face had such an effect on me that it al
most untitled me for work, and I was
heartily glad when johnson came back.
told the whole thing to him and then
showed him my strange picture. He
was much interested in the story, but
when he saw the picture I caught a
wicked twinkle in his eye. After mo-
ment he drawled out provokingly:
"'Yes, strange; very strange. The
old man seemed to see resemblance.
But, Robinson, you might as well return
me my camera you evidently took mine
instead of your own that day. Your
mysterious phantom beauty is my sister
Kate. You took your picture on the
plate had already used. Kate's photo
seems to. fit in remarkably well. The
joke is on you, old man.
johnson introduced me to his sister
the next day. She's Mrs. Robinson
III. L. Pangborn in Journalist.
The Poet and the Fishmonger.
was in Grimsby not long ago, and
went into one of the few fshmongers'
L. 1, E.1S-