Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1894-07-05
A TRUE GHOST STORY
THE OLD WOMAN IN THE QUEER
DRESS UNDER AN OAK TREE.

She Always Appeared to Announce an Ap.
preaching Death In the Family-She Was
Probably Servant Who Had Been Foul.
ly Dealt with In Ancient Days.
Everybody laughs in these days at
the old story of the Irish banshee, " said
gentleman of national reputation late
ly as he ohatted with a friend OF two
in the office of the Continental, land /
am not saying but that it was but su-
perstition after all, though there is q
little thing connected with my family
that is strange coincidence, to call it
even that.
"Once, when l was a boy, woke up
during the night weeping bitterly, and
when my mother came to my bedside 1
told her that had dreamed that queer
ly dressed old woman had come to me
under large oak tree and had warned
me that my brother Leonard, who was my
senior by several years, was going to die
very soon. l noticed then that instead
of calming my fears my mother listened
to me without saying word, and pres
emily 1 saw that she, too, was crying as
hard as / was l asked what was the
matter, and though she put me off did
not forget the strange effect ON her that
my dream had produced
"It could not have been O week after
that that my brother came i'll one after
noon from school and said he was going
to join a party of young people in
sleighing excursion to the next town.
My mother was very unwilling for him
30 To oil Of
GUS fears, very unlike her usual calm
and self reliant self, but my brother
insisted and at last went off, followed
by my mothers anxious eyes. Within
three hours we received telegram say
ing that he had been killed by the horses
attached to the sleigh becoming fright
ened, and, running away near railroad
track had thrown my poor brother un-
der the wheels of train.
"When his mangled body came home,
my mother met it, saying to her sister,
who was visiting at our house for the
day: 4 knew it, Fanny. H. here saw
her the other night, and for long
time wondered who the her referred
to could be- was nearly grown when
l again saw the old woman Of my boy
hood dream. l was about to graduate at
our home university and was studying
hard for the final examinations and was
sitting up late one night reading over
some questions in mental philosophy
when 1 dropped off to sleep in my chair.
"Then I dreamed of standing once
more under large oak tree, which was
particularly marked about the bark by
ring about three feet above the ground.
Here was, facing an old woman in
servants dress of the thirteenth or four
teenth century, l should judge, and this
old woman was telling me that would
see my father no more in life was a
good deal worried over this dream, re-
membering my former one and it's trag
ic sequence, but had ceased to think of
1t in the hurry and anxiety of the ex-
aminations, when one day old Professor
B. called to me as l was passing from
one classroom to another and asked,
III, isn't your father in Switzerland
II replied that he was, for his health
had failed SO alarmingly for months
past that he had been ordered abroad
and had been rapidly getting well in
the mountains of Switzerland. He had
recently joined the English party in an
expedition to Mont Blanc and had writ
ten in fine spirits regarding the trip.
Professor B. said no more, but l came
across in a few minutes newspaper
containing an account of an American
who had been killed by falling down
crevasse in the Swiss Alps.
mo particulars were known or given
by the paper, but l knewy-oh, yes,
knew-that the American was my father,
and so it proved. 1 told my widowed
mother of the strange coincidence of my
second dream, and she replied that the
warning would never fall that it had
gone with her through her life, and that
her mother had told her that this strange
phantom had also given her warning of
every disaster she had experienced. The
old woman, whoever she was, was al
ways accompanied in her missions Of
woe by the oak tree marked as / have
said. The whole thing is a mystery to
us, but it is true, every word of it.
eff the thing is something supernat-
ural, none of us has any idea who the
woman could have been or why she came
like bird Of i'll omen to prophesy evil
W IL pam AlntIlCtil ldiuliyJ Solio OolSoACj
sans legends, sans romance And i, for
one, am particularly interested in why
the oak tree should have come down to
us in connection with the ghost. Iwould
somehow hate to think that some
doughty ancestor of mine had, after the
playful little manner Of the good old
times, put some faithful servant to death
in way in which an oak tree took
prominent part, but should not be sur
prised if he did; indeed have sneak
ing belief that that is the true explana-
tion of the whole thing, though / am
sorry that same servant is so unforgiv-
ing as to take it out on me by bringing
me bad news, which, if she'd only wait
long enough, would reach me with pro-
verbal rapidity. .'-Philadelphia Times
Entertained.