Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-05-22
A Real Ghost Story.


and earth, Horatio"-
1t came to the knowledge of a re-
porter quite by accident that in an
eminently respectable house lying be-
tween Madison and Fifth avenues, on
an eminently respectable street, a
gentleman well-known in business
circles has repeatedly experienced
what may be called, on lack of bet
ter word, visitations. This the re-
porter learned, while the gentleman
was quite unaware of his connection
with the press, Thanksgiving evening,
when conversation turned on mes
merism aud other occult subjects.
From talk to experiment the step was
easy, when it was discovered that the
man in question was an almost per-
feet sensitive" to hypnotic infiu-
ence.
This discovery was probably a sur
prise to most of them in the room.
The man is perhaps forty-five years
old, under the medium height, stout
and inclined to badness, fond of the
good things of life, shrewd business
man, yet he was absolutely at the
beck and call of an amateur of tOler-
ably developed hypnotic power.
When, after some grotesque mani
festations, the subject was restored
to consciousness, the company, with
one accord, pressed him to explain
his feeling while under the influence.
"You are taking impossibilities,
said the man good humoredly, "for
while in the hypnotic state my wax
ing self is submerged, and I-real I,
the ego of the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
what Is called unconscious, although
something that must be a second I,
or, alter ego, is obediently active. 1t
is all as great marvel to me as it
can be to any of you. I am not a
weak willed man or one easy to in
fuence by ordinary methods, yet I
have always been keenly susceptible
to psychic Influences"
This caused a stir of expectancy in
the little company.
Il do not often speak of these
things" went on the man after little
pause. HSuch a nature as mine must
seem uncanny to others, and to be
frank, in business way could not
afford to be known as sssensitive,"
but l think am safe to speak under
this roof
81 can remember when quite a small
boy seeing my uncle drive toward
the country home where 1 then lived.
While he was yet far off, and neither
face nor attitude could have borne to
to me any visual hint, I knew that
his son, my cousin William, was dead.
1 ran and sobbed in my mothers lap:
EOh, mamma! Willie's dead Willie's
deadi' She chided me for my folly, as
she believed. In a long two minutes
uncle drove up, looking ashen gray
and sad, and the questions my mother
would have put died upon her lips.
1t was true. My cousin had died I'M
expectedly after the briefest illness.
I couldn't have been more than six
years old, and had never heard of oc-
fashioned country folks.
''As L grew up experiences of this
kind were more common. I was a
stupid, bullet headed fellow in the
main, but in this special sense, as
must think it, was and am extraor-
dinarily gifted. To this I attribute
the fact that on three occasions I
have seen the ghost of my mother,
who died very soon after the incident
which have just related"
A stir of incredulity caused rustic
in the room, and one festive chap
whistled a bar of cover the Fence Is
Out"
'sOh, don't expect you to believe
it." resumed the narrator easily. SIN
a way I don't believe it myself. That
is. can't account for it, and my mind
revolts against accepting anything
against my reason. Yet am brought
face to face with the fact. Thrice in
my mature, life, while wide awake,
fully clothed and as much in my right
mind as l am at this minute, have
seen the shade, ghost or aura of my
lead mother, seeming not worn and
hin, as 1 remember her, but young |
nd fairer. And here is the curious
,rt of it. She was clothed as in the
Laws before my birth there were
,,der children than lin dress which