, 1892-01-07

Been Frightened in Houses in Which
Spirits Were Said to Have Appeared.
Question of Animal immortality.
Some time ago l had something to say
on animal Immortality. In that article
l briefly referred to the argument, now
not uncommon, that some animals ap-
pear to have intercourse with beings, or
forms and states of being, unseen by us.
This on the face of it is not improbable;
but it may be a stretch of our own i'm
agination to assume that this is a vision
of ghosts. But if it can be shown first
that, as Wallace affirms, objective phan-
tasms appear to men sometimes, and to
dogs sometimes, then it would be hardly
fair to assume that men are to have a
spirit life hereafter and the dog not. It
might become necessary for us to shove
back u dividing line between immor-
tails and nonimmortals, and take over on
our side at least some of the beasts. Is
the Indian right who, in Pope's language,
believes "his faithful dog will bear him
company" in the spirit land? There
seems, however, to be a conviction in
the minds of some observers that dogs
not only sometimes, but at all times, see
tAA4A AN~oA W AAhN W. IN " NGi
First of all, in justice, let us get the
facts, or the averred facts. In Rod and
Gun appears the following letter: Sir,
there is reason to believe hat animals
can see spirits. At any rate, l have a
very remarkable fact to relate. There
is in Devonshire a large, rambling old
house, which has long had the reputa-
ton of being haunted. Family after
family tried to make it their home. One
after another they gave it up, all for the
same eason - that was frequent spec
trail ongoings in one of the corridors.
Sometimes the ghost was seen by one
member of the household, while it was
invisible to others close by" which, of
course, would indicate that the seeing,
or not seeing, depended on the ocular
condition of the family. At least, a
skeptic would strongly urge that the
probabilities were in favor of visual de-
fusion. Sometimes mysterious sounds
showed the ghost to be about, while he
was mo visible to any of the watchers"
A SCARED DOG.
Hearing easily follows hysterical see
ing. l have myself seen wires and lamps
when l knew none existed. 1.-THE fam
lily that last occupied the house thought
a fierce dog might settle the problem,
on the supposition that q human trick
ster was at the bottom of the disturb
ance. On the first night of the dogs
residence the spectral ratings were
heard. The watchers took the dog to
the corridor. True to the instincts of
his nature he rushed to the front, bark
ing savagely. Suddenly, when half way
thro,rh Tho oorr,lor +ha 49, +o--al
and gazed upward in evident terror.
His tail dropped, and then he retreated
trembling. But to the human eye
nothing was visible" This story is
authenticated as coming from persons Of
unquestioned veracity and excellent
powers of Judgment.
If you will excuse me for turning
aside from the main thought / will give
one or two illustrations to show that
ghost seeing is not SO improbable as you
have judged. Fanny Kemble tells us
that when residing in Rittenhouse
square her maid, sitting so that she
faced and could see the staircase and
upper landing, saw the door of her bed
room open, and an elderly woman in a
fannel dressing gown, with a bonnet on
her head, come out, walk the whole
length of the passage, and then return
deliberately in the same manner The
maid knew her mistress was down stairs,
and also was confident that no such per-
son as she saw could be in the house.
Having good nerves, the woman did not
at first tell Miss Kemble what she had
seen, but ransacked the rooms to see if
she could solve the puzzle, all the time
afraid her mistress would be disturbed
by some similar apparition. She after
ward came or a portrait in the house
suddenly hat was an exact copy of her
ghost. A good chance, of course, for an
imaginative maid, or a cunning one, to
work up a fine yarn. Yetit is something
that Miss Kemble believed the girl did
see an apparition.
STRANGE CASES.
The Epworth parsonage case, involv-
ing John Wesley, is of great value be-
cause it links both man and beast in the
sensing of apparitions. Mr.. Wesley says:
"Soon after our large mastif dog came
and ran to shelter between us. While
the disturbances continued he used to
bark and leap and snap on one side and
the other, and that frequently before any
person in the room heard any noise at all.
But after two or three days he used to
tremble and creep away before the noise
began. And by this the family knew it
was at hand; nor did the observation
ever fail" The testimony here is GER
tainly credible merely as honest assever-
alton, but we are free to judge whether
it was some electric or magnetic phe-
nomenon that the dog felt'or was ghostly
presence.
A very strange case is reported by Mr..