Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1892-09-10

BY common consent the room fen in
&c disuse. Even the Sceptical members
of the family could find no explanation
for the sounds; and those of us who
Lad heard them felt no desire to hear
item again, Our impressions were too
vivid 20 be reasoned away although, of
course we had nothing to say in de
Tense Of "A ghost in this nineteenth cen
fury.
Some little time after this, Il cousin
came to spend few days with us 1t
was convenient TO give him the haunt
I'd room. He is a person of the strong
est possible nerves, we did not hesitate
TO send him to this room with no word
about its ghostly yisitant But even
liuth's Indignation was tride COM
pared with Toms Twice he had been
awakened from sound sleep by what
he was sure was one of us coming
down stairs and running swiftly into
the parlor. When for the third time he
had gone into the next room to find
il perfectly empty and not sound in
the house, he concluded to sit up the
remainder of the night and start for
home the next morning. Although we
AL tried to look surprised and innocent
while he told the story, he could not be
convinced that we did not know all
about the spirit So persistent and Wig
dOus ghost as that one was certainly
not making her debut
Nothing could be found TO solve the
mystery. In the common-sense age,
none of us wanted to confess that we
believed in ghosts; and yet, what was
it? There was not the slightest shadow
OF crime or of a great misfortune in
the history of the house to found
lhost story ON. We might have thought
it was a spirit come to warn us of pend
ing disaster, but nothing at all unusual
occurred TO us after its appearances
One afternoon my mother and / sat
sewing in the parlor My sister, the
only other person in the house, was in
The room above. Suddenly the sound
Of swift footsteps down the stairs
reused us, but we could still hear
Ruth's voice as she sang in the upper
room. The sound stopped suddenly.
Mother went to see who it was. but
found no one A uihe puzzled she
settled back to her work. A second
time, the steps and the soft rustIing
Of drapery Surely my ghost, for by
right of discovery She was specially
mine. was growing bold and making
daylight visits. That was n ghost with
al the modern Improvements. At some
sudden sound in Ruth's room, / looked
Up. The ceiling was positively shud-
dering. 1t took only flash Of time df
any ones clock marks time In that way,
he will understand just how long to
see that the ceiling had at some time
teen repaired by plastering cloth over
q great hole in the plaster and kalso-
mining over it. Certain combinations
OF open windows and doors drew a
current of air between the floor and
ceiling and moved this cloth in very
curious way, giving the sound Of flut-
tCring garments and bare feet that we
lad so long and vainly sought to ex-
Plain. The rest of the phenomenon
was TO be attributed to certain peculiar
acoustic properties of the house which
we had already discovered. Sound
was gathered up there and its direction
changed in quite a puzzling manner.
The mystery was solved Our lady
spectre, with her swift bare feet ard
softly rustiing skirts, could no longer
haunt us, The modern ghost was ex-
Ilained most prosaically. 1t was very
simple matter to have the ceiling re
paired and to lay the spirit. And so
ended my only intercourse with ghosts