Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-05-26


hard Dissatisfied with my search for
I returned to the first grave,
and lay down to rest moment before
going home; for saw that I must soon
go home as it was almost ten o'clock
and it was getting very dark.
As / lay stretched out upon the grave
| felt a shudder of fear. / know not
what caused it. Perhaps it was the aw-
full quiet broken only by the muffled
signing and moaning Of the wind as
it gently moved about among the
tombstones. Was it the stones them
selves? They never before had ap
peared so strangely mysterious as they
now did. They seemed to me white
shrOuded sentinelS of death. The more
sought to still the strange fear which
was rising in my breast, the more that
fear took strength and life. All around
me was weird and unnatural. The least
rustling of the leaves caused me to
start and turn round half expecting
to see a ghost, or to see a grave open
and the dead occupant start forth in
silent life. And what should prevent
my seeing such a thing? Had / not
read of many instances where ghosts
had appeared in more strange and
startling manner than that of reSurrec-
ton? Were there not stories corrobor-
ated by prominent men-men whose
veracity had never been questioned
which dealt with such subjects and
proved such things to have happened?
As / though of all these things, I
trembled and dared not look around
me. / felt the sweat ooZe from my
forehead and battle my face with it's
moisture. I could hear the beating of
my heart as it loundly futtered in the
agony of terror. Unable longer to stand
the mental strain | resolved to flee.
Heavens! / could not move. Fear
had paralyzed my limbs and they re-
fused the mandates Of the mind. I'm
seen hands plucked my coat and
pressed themselves against my face.
Voices whispered in my ears and told
me of death. A strange clamor shook
the air. The earth seemed to heave and
swell beneath me. A horrible roar as
from a hundred cannon, a burst of fiend
ish shrieks, flash of light heard, l
selves open and the skeletons of the
dead clothed in their white, musty
shrouds, and with eyes of fire, had
risen from their long rest of death.
Out of each grave q powerful phOs-
phoreScent CLEAN came and lighted up
the night with it's CHASTITY halo.
From every grave, it seemed from
every tuft Of grass and clump Of earth,
the skeletons, with outstretched arms,
toward me. On all sides, wherever I
turned my gaze, [ saw these grim
spectres moving; and | was the object
which they sought.
The clamor and confusion increased.
The thunder snarled and groWled and
roared more fiercely, the lightnings
flashed more brightly and frequently,
and the mutterings in the bowels of
the earth grew deeper and louder.
right back of me-almost at my ear
[ heard a shrek, shrill, wild and I'M
earthly. The rage, the deviltry, sound
ed through it, together with it's sudden
ness, made my blood run cold. / half
turned my head, and for a moment my
heart stopped beating. There, scarcely
two feet distant from me, stood the
skeleton of John Fonghard. Tall and
forbidding, it stood with one arm
tightly holding its shroud about it, and
with the other arm it was reckoning
the risen dead to come and seize me.
On they came; and above the wild con-
fusion / could hear their shrieks of
demonic laughter, their loud but sense
less jabbering; and through the dark
ness / could see the fires within their
eyeless sockets glare and sparkle like a
thousand of red Goals; and through the
flashes of light / could see the tall grin
ming skeleton which stood guard over
me motioning, with outstretched arm,
to his White-robed brethren and cheer
ing them on.
Nearer and nearer they came. They
were countless. [ struggled to rise and
flee but, as before, | could not stir
from the spot. My grave was now com
pletely surrounded by them. One solid
compact mass they stood around me.
| could have reached out my hands
and touched them; they We're so near
But when they came thus near they
stopped. For a moment they were still;
and then they commenced to chant,
a strange chant, weild chant, a ter
rible chant, a chant Of death and the
hereafter. Their voices, beginning at
first in a whisper, rose by degrees to a
scream; as the chant increased, so did
the mutterings Of the earth and the
screeching of the wind and the crash
ing of falling trees. In the midst of
this uproar a blaze of glory pierced
the darkness with it's radiant light, a
blast of trumpets, glorious peal of
music, one grand symphony of voices
uniting in 4 majestic TIE DeUm. the
skeletons surrounding me hurled them
selves upon me.
My soul was torn from my body I
knew no more.
Madison, May 20.