The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-05-08
VISIONS OF MIST.
Annual Parade and Excursion
of the Shades.
Strange Scenes Witnessed BY a Night
PatroIman lust Before the Dawn.

A night policeman leaning over Craw-
| ford street bridge at sunrise this morning,
was conscious OF something unusual on the
| river and at the steamboat docks. lie
could hear nothing but a strange vague
! sort of Whirr and see nothing but a
mist which he knew was not fog. He also
| remembered that when he went out on
| the / o'clock relief that his partner on the
| beat had said something about the same
thing occurring at sunset just after the
+" first-half night men had gone out to
| travel.
But there was no real mystery to what
| they had seen and heard. 1t was merely
the beginning and the end of the Shades
annual down-river excursion, which
| always leaves promptly at sunset and was
never known to return minute earlier
or a minute later than sunrise. And
that of course Is just as II should be for
ghosts prefer To recreate as well as walk
by night.
The excursion this year was very sue
cessful and there " ere large delegations
present from Swan Point, North End and
Trinity square. The different divisions
came together at Market square and
foated dresmily through Dyer street
TO the dock. But the START from
the different yards had not been made
without considerable confusion. A party
of half dozen shades, on emerging from
the ground, saw that their grass plats
were hereafter to receive perpetual in
stead of annual care, aud their glee was
bolsterous and unseemly tending to
delay the line which was forming
on the gravel driveways; on the
other hand a member of the party who
had left the walks of mortals less than a
year ago and saw his tombstone for the
first time yesterday was SO overcome with
remorse when he read the eulogistic
epitaph, ascribing virtues to him that
hnh a aA
that he refused to have anything to do
with the excursion and, after the manner
OF ghosts, vanished under The granite slab
with its unwarranted inscription. Others
complained that their stones had not been
erected but the procession was finally
got under way and the ghosts walked
through the city by twilight. There We're
occasional breaks in the line en- route
when shade would step for an instant
in front of the place whefe he had lived
or boarded or worked. Two or three
stops were made to see all of the archi-
tectural improvements made in the
town since the last annual parade.
The absence OF Butler Row was
noticed by shade nearly century dead,
who told how his body had been snatched
out of rural burial place, and brought TO
q doctors shop in the Row and cut up.
The pieces had been reinterred in a city
yard so the shade had been eligible to the
tIlDs tNtI nc COlIl-
pletion of the Industrial Trust
Company building was noticed with
shadowy mirth and waving OF shrouds.
There was but one more delay in the street
parade, il was when the chief marshal
pointed to a long black sign, zone Cent"
on South Water street, and every shade in
line wished that he was alive and in the
flesh. The first real hitch in the pro-
gram was when the committee
of arrangements learned that steamer
Pomham had been destroyed by fire, for
that was the craft which they had de-
pended upon. But large feet of small
boats was got together which answered
or oars the local order of shades
drifted down stream to Rocky
Point where landing was silently
made at midnight. The roll was called
and only three were missing, the one
whose remorse kept him in the grave and
two Others that had got snarled up in the
trolley wires at Turks Head. As usual the
first thing attended to after landing was
the annual business meeting. The
tombs council, the keeper of the
gates, and the midnight watch were
oil elected, and then with unanimous re-
signation il was voted to col tinue the
Providence Daily Journal as official organ.
The rest of the night was spent in dane
ing, strolling on the beach and eating the
CLANS that were not dug with hands.
There was no after-dinner speaking of a
formal character, but one shade said that
they could all enjoy shore dinners more
now than when they were mortals be-
cause they could die but once. An early
start for the city was made and, as the
officer had noticed, there was nys-
terious commotion at the docks just at
sunrise, three streaks of mist spread
through the streets in as many
different directions, thousand OF groves
opened and the Shades excursion for '94
was over.