Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1895-05-08
KANSAS CITY GHOSTS
FAMOUS sPooks OF THE TOWN ON
THE BIG MUDDY.


Fratricide--How the Santa Fe spook
Wa. Laid How . Man With the "Jim-
Jams" Stirred Up Jail Full Of Criminals.
1t may be true that conscience makes
towards Of Us all, but with the ignorant
and superstitious conscience is not q cir
uamstance when compared to a vivid
imagination. The greatest coward OIL
earth is the person who sees in every
dark shadow, in each deserted house and
around every dismal building the rest
less spirit of some departed sinner whose
crimes will not allow him to enter
heaven, who is doomed to wander around
this earth until Gabriel's trumpet is
sounded, who riust hover near tho scene
of his former misdeeds until the Last
day.
The place by popular consent most
adapted to ghost wanderings and the
place most fruitful in the production of
tho bora fide article is naturally the
graveyard. The drearier, gloomier and
more mournfrl the aspect of the grave
yard the more ghosts. But the real be-
lever in spoolls and spirits does not
deem it necessary to go among the tOmbs
and graves Of the dead to find spirit.
Ghosts are numerous. They can be
found in all sections of the country.
There is not a village nor a deserted
country house nor railroad bridge but
has its ghost. But the ghosts are not all
confined to the country by any means.
There have been several in Kansas City
that have gained extensive notoriety on
account Of their many visitations,
and tho parts Of the city in which they
are wont to disport themselves are still
eyed with suspicion and looked upon
askance by the inhabitants of Belvidere
Hollow, Hicks Hollow and other por-
tions of TIE city thickly settled by the
of Ham.
The Oldest, the original ghost that is
most wildly in the memory Of the su-
pcrstitious and is most often the topic
of grewsome whispers among the people
walked the levec between
Main street and Broadway IL years ago.
One winters night, the story goes, a
man was lying III wait for an energy
on the levec. In his hand he clutcfea
q porderous d"ublc barrelcd shotgun
loaded with nails and Sings. He saw u
man walking down TIE leveo. In the
dim, Pickering light lie thought hc rec
oCl,ized his enemy. He raised his gun,
fired and hurried away. The next day
he read in the papers that his brothers.
body had been fonnd on the lcvee, hor-
ribly manyled and torn. Tie I,urtlcrer
but kept his secret. Then the
dead brothers ghost began to walk. Ev-
cry night, at the same hour Of the
shooting, it could be seen on the levco.
Each time it would walk straight to the
spot where tho body had fallen. Then
the ghost would fall, go through death
and disappear. 1t kept this up
for years, and there arc those who say it
does it still.
The second healthy, well developed
ghost disportcd itself i'll tho ruins of the
old Santa Fc Stage Coach cOmpany's Of
flee at Scco.Kl and Main streets in 1856.
So generally known did it become that
often largo crowds would Con.TogGto and
await the appearance OF the nocturnal
visitor. Early one evening a young nGn
who wished to investigate :. little went
into the ruins. When he emerged from
them an hou- later, he found n large
crowd standing On the opposite siGc Of
the street. near the jail, Watching for
ghosts. Some enc i'll the crowd, thinking
that the young man had been playing
ghost, threw 4 brick at the Investigator,
striking him Oh the head. lie fell sense
less with q gaping wound III his head.
Tho Santa Fc ghost has not been seen
since.
In 1887 there was II story afioat that
at IL o'cloci, each nigh: u gho;tly cable
train glided down the incline between
Walnut and Main streets and disappear
ed into space. In the grip car, guiding
the train, was the ghost OF II gripman
who had died a short time before, after
having been insane for some time, the
result OF grief over the fact that his train
had run down and killed IL pedestrian.
Crowds congregated at the junction
nightly to see the strange sight. For the
most part they went away disappointed,
although there WIS plenty who declared
they had seen cit.
Another story, i'll which a ghost was
never seen, but which smacked strongly
OF spoolls, was the Conway murder on
East Eighteenth street, between Oak and
Locust, in 1883. Mrs. Conway, a young
woman, and her little girl We're beaten
to death with coupling pin. Tho muir
Gerer Or mrrderers We're never caught
Suspicion pointed toward two men, but
there was no evidence. Both of them
afterward died horrible deaths-one of
the CHAMBERS and the other of cancer.
Tho ghost of tho victims never walked
openly, but that section of tho city was
given a wide berth by the true believ-
ers for many months aftorward.
Last, bat not least, We're the ghosts of
Clark and Jones, the men hung for mur-
dering Nine Wright i'll 1898. These
ghosts materialjZcd i'll the jails, one ut
Independence and cne i'll Kansas City:
The scare lasted for some weeks, and
the negro prisoners were thrown into n
state of terror by any strange sounds.
One night, when tho Jail was in state
of comparative quiet, drunken pris-
oncr, who had just been brought in, had
TN attack of "jimjams. By some
strange coincidence he was placed in
the cell once occupied by Clark, and the
prisoners soon located the g1paning of
the unfortunate man. The negroes, not
knowing that the cell was occupied, sup
posed that the noise was made by 4 de-
parted spirit, and all started to bowling
with the "ghost." " The effect was somes
thing that can be imagined better than
it can be described. Since tho Clark
ghost left the Jail Kansas City has been
bereft Of spirits. and Belvidere Hollow
is breathing more easily than it has for
years s-Kansas City Times
New York's Reputation.