The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1895-09-12
Short
Story
Corner.
A GHOST STORY.

4 H. while some individual was relating his
/ or her experience: "Ah It Is very odd that
these ghost stories should always be relat-
ed at second or third hand. Now, want
to see person who personally has seen the
| ghost, and then l will believed"
Yes, people are more accustomed to
! hearing about ghosts now, and yet even
now should 1t be wife, daughter or sister
who ventures TO narrate some supernatural
| experience she is poohpoohed, or laughed
| at, or told TO take pill"
| Now, 1 have seen a ghost and am pre-
| pared to attest most soleinnly to the fact
as well as to the truth of every word here
set down. have of course avoided names,
but nothing else, so, without further pre-
amble, will state my case.
| Some years ago l became the object of
| the infatuated alteration of person of my
| own age and sex, and 1 use the word in
| fatuated" advisedly, because l feel now,
as did at the time, that neither nor any
mortal that ever lived could possibly be
worthy of the overwhelming affection
| which my poor friend lavished upon me-
| /, on my side, was not ungrateful toward
her, for loved her in return very dearly
| but when l explain that was wife and
| the mother of young children, and that
she was unmarried, 1t will easily be un-
| derstood that our devotion to each other
| must of necessity be rather one sided, and
this fact caused some dispeace between us
| at times.
| For many years my friend held post at
court, which she resigned soon after she
| began to know me, and although her royal
mistress, In her gracious kindness, assign
cd two houses TO her she gave them both
| up to be free to live near me In P.
Indeed she gave up relatives old servants
| and comforts In order that she might come
and live land die, alas) In lodgings, ker
| a shop, near me. But she was not happy.
She "gloomed" over che inevitable fact
that, in consequence of the differences in
her home circumstances and mine, could
not be with her every day and all day
| long. l think she was naturally of an
! unhappy disposition, being deeply, pas
| sionately and unjustifiably jealous, and
| also painfully incapable of taking things
| and people as they were. All this gave me
often much annoyance, but we were, all
| the same, sometimes very cheerful and
| happy together and sometimes the re-
verse.
Later on, she, poor soul, was taken Ill,
and during months Of fluctuating health l
nursed her-sometimes in hope, sometimes
without-and at moments during her ILL
ness she found strange comfort in foretell-
| ing to me, after the most 'unoanny" fash
| ion, things which she declared would hap
pen to me after her death. They were
mostly trivialities-little episodes concern
ing people and things over whom we had
talked and laughed together, for she was
| gifted with keen sense of the ridiculous.
Among other things she said to me one
| afternoon
a.. Ia u.
| ing" (she had been helping me for weeks
| for charity bazaar, and l can now see her
| dainty little hands as she manipulated the
delicate muslin and lace; poor, poer
| L---D-"I shall be dead before it takes
| place, and shall see you at your STALL and
on one of the days of the bazaar an old
| lady will come up TO you and say: Have
| you any of poor Miss LIS work. (men-
| tioning me.) And you will answer, Yes;
\ here is some, and you will show her this
| which l am working, and she'll say, Have
| you any moreS and you'll say Yes again,
| and She II carry it all off and say she buys
| 1t for poor Miss LIS sake. And I
| shall know and see 1t alll''
/ remember repeating wonderingly,
| "What lady?"
| She answered dreamily: "Oh, I don't
know, but some old lady You'll seel"
And am bound to say this is actually
| what occurred at the bazaar months after
her death. An old lady, with whom was
not acquainted, did buy all her work, hav-
ing asked for 1t and carrying it away "for
her sake!" An old lady, too, whom had
never seen.
| One other curious circumstance whicg
attended her death was that, after lookiha
| forward with more than usual pleasure ITO
/ l.., I. III.
be "a more than commonly happy anni-
| versary'') that was the very day on which
| she died.
| think that one of the sharpest regrets
| which l ever experienced in my life con-
sisted in the fact that was not with my
| dearest friend at the moment that she
passed away. She had made me promise
| that would be with her at that time, and
God knows had the fullest intention of
| fulfilling her wish, but on that very even
| ing of all others, was called away, and
she died in my absence. l had been sit
| ting by her bedside all the afternoon and
| all that evening had held her dear hand
and had kept whispering comforting
| words In her ear, but latterly she had
made no response and was seemingly un-
| conscious.
Suddenly a messenger came from my
house (not hundred yards 1t was away
saying my husband wanted me at once, as
one of my children was i'll. looked at
| the nurse who assured me there was moth
ing immediate impending, SO STOPPING
over my poor friend whispered at the
same time pressing kiss on her forehead
that "half all hour should see me at her
side again" But she took no notice. and,
much against my will, hastily and noise
lessly left the room.
Throwing a shawl over my head, hur-
ried across the square, and as passed the
ohucoh the clock struck 12, and ] sudden
iy remembered that today was my birth
day.
got back in less ,han half an hour, and
on my return heard, to my everlasting sor-
row, that had not been gone ten minutes
before my dear L- became restless and
uneasy; then, starting up in her bed she
looked hastily round the room gave cry,
then there came rush Of blood to her
| TCoutinuad on Sevanth Pane