The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-07-20
IN LITERATURE.
Walter SCOTS Library Full Of
Works On the General
Subject.
J His Love Stood Him In Poor
Stead One Night at
Abbotaford.
Explained Noises and Other phenom.
Pagan Id ols-C0nservativc Ghosts.

il said. I do not know how truly, that
agricultural laborer dislikes TO be can
sed, Being human, and having proba-
made up his mind, he naturally detests
az worried, and probably distrusts the
terity OF those who worry him. A SINH
highly praiseworthy reserve marks tho
heanor Of many ahoata-they detest be-
canvaased. OF all people a ghost Ia
IT inverse to giving an account of him
/. Ny own belief il that he knows very
10 about himself and his mode Of life.
Pver you spoke to a person who was talk
in his sleep. you may have remarked
! he rarely gives an Ineligible answer.
cannot be kept to the point. A ghost 10
king, "a it were, in his sleep. he has
all his wits about him; he hates to be
bhered, It was not SO with the laird OF
uls ghost, who was 80 popular in a chap
biz of tho last century, and whose con-
sions have lately been reprinted by Mr..
lot Stock. Coul was riding the ghost of
s.of his tenants when no met the minister
4 told him all that he knew and chose to
real about his experiences OF being a
ost. His remarks. I fear, were satirioal.
d IN many points no was retlcent. Even
I'll hated being cross-examined. Tit
ysical society, il seems. make little
nothing out of their researches in haunted
uses. No sooner does an emissary 60
wn than the ghost oeases to walk. He 10
home. he objects to ''house-to-houss can
sing" An Irish family once had = ghost
troublesome that they sent for detectives.
he Of these men, late at night, fell asleep
his chair. The lady of the house
anced to come into the room, and could
BIT resist the temptation to groan aud
tile her keys. She had never played
lost before; it was a momentary indis-
elton. But tho policeman did not. and
uld hardly be- expected to believe
is. He said it was hardly worth
bile to bring him from Dublin. and he
ithdrew in dudgeon. Yet tho lady was
pt really the ghost. He was sulking in re-
rement. Hence doubt has been cast on
Q ghosts of haunted houses, even among
Meeting minds. On the other hand, I
ave known a touching instance of gentle-
Banly behavior in a ghost. A country
Puse was full. for some fcstivity, and one
i the guests, a nervous young lady, was
heltered by neighbors who inhabited a
fodigiously old castle. She was put in the
hunted room. but was not disturbed, The
(ext guest WAS a captain, or colonel. or
hight at-arms," accompanied by his wife.
hey were frightened out of the place by
he ghost. Probably he said: IA soldier,
nd afrnid2" and exhibited in his best man.
Ter, but he scorned to scare a nervous
The conclusion seems to be
bat We can get most enjoy ment out of
hosts by treating them with genteel re-
brve. They are like cats-they take to one
~erson, not to another. They will not
folic merely to oblige. They resent an
Experiment curiosity. l never myself saw
ghost in a haunted house, Or only once,
it might nave been a lady's maid, but
that she was doing there has never been
Explained. Still, the most unaooountable
onduct on the part of q maid is an hy-
he only other solution of the difficulty, SO
n this appearance no stress can be laid.
A man may think he knows a great deal
bout ghosts, and yet may blunder in tho
most elementary matters. If ever there
7as a man whom we could have accepted rs
uthority on the ghostly, it WAS Sir Walter
His library contained as many
of magic as the people of Ephesus
'urned, to tho regret of bibliophiles. Among
books he possessed "Of Ghostes and
+ Sprites, and Of Strange Noyses, C~raokes,"
nd SO forth, by Lewis Lavaterus, trans
ated by r. II. (London, 1866. Yet,
vhen he heard tho nocturnal disturbances
It Abbotsford, he forgot his lore, and
ave 20 singular solution of tho problem.
The passage is in Il letter to Terry, the
.ctor, and was written ut SeIkirk. April 80,
818. Scott was furnishing Abbotsford.
lis agent in these matters. Mr.. Bullock,
vas in London. On April % Scott was
awakened by a violent noise. like drawing
envy boards along the new part of the
louse. This WAS about two in the mo ming.
INST night (the 29tb), at the same witching
lour, the very same noise occurred. Mrs.
scott, as YOU know, is rather cumbersome.
o up got !, with Beardie's btoadsword I'M
So bot upright
And ready to fight.
3ut nothing was out of order, neither can /
what caused the disturbance"
Now, Bullock had died in London, and, rs
as they could ascertain, az the very
lour when Scott was rousad from his sleep
" the mysterious disturbance" Scott
wrote to Terry MAY 16): Were you not
with the fantastical coincidence of
nocturnal disturbances at Abbotsford
nd the melancholy event that happened?
protest to you, the noise resembled half a
lozen men hard at work putting up boards
md furniture; and nothing can be more
certain than that there was nobody on the
,rem,ses at the time" Lockhart adds that
no coincidence mad a much stronger i'm
preston on Scott's mind than might be
,athered from the tone Of his letters to
Terry.
All this proves a lacuna in Sir Walters
knowledge Of ghosts and their
Ways. The coincidence was not 30 remark
bile. Bullock only died once. but the dis
urbances occurred on two nights. Now,
he point is. and Scott should have known
t, that such ''Noyses and Craches'' are not
,nly usual, but oven desirable in houses
While they are being built and furnished.
Nobody's emo is always ready at need,
nd Scott. no doubt, forgot whit Lavaterus
on this branch of the subject.
'ays he: "When houses are in building the
,eighbors MANY times hear the carpenters
herein, and other artificers handling all
Kings in such sort as # they were busily
aboring in the daytime" This exactly de-
what Sir Walter heard-a noise of
1alf a dozen men at work In an uncom-
,leted house. There was no reason to oon-
,ect the circumstance with Bullock's death;
With that event a phenomenon perfectly
ordinary and recognized CHANGED to coin
tide. Lavaterus goes on, And this strange
il j~oyfully received as = strong
of good lucke."
hla9! IL pTouRnt nc LUCK 10 hODOtoIOru.
Lavaterus' statement prove that this
lass of disturbances il familiar and that
he hypothesis OF coincidence with a death
4 supertluous, and, probably, erroneous.
The whole passage shows that Il man may
Know a great deal about ghostly practice
precedent. yet may miss an obvious
md essential fact.
In a house, n modern house, known to
10 many unexplained noiaes and other
henarara follown6 tina ufrc1untioo ~
objects of pagan religion-objects
hiataru IN hidaoaalu anuuiaiaanx