The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1895-05-09
KANSAS CITY GHOSTS
FAMOUS SPOoKS OF THE TOWN ON
THE BIG MUDDY.

V%WOOS STOONS Of Ire TOWN OF
THE BIG MUDDY.
Fratricide-How the Santa Fe Spool
Was Laid-How = Man with the Jim
Jams" Stirred Up q Jail Full Of Criminals
1t may be true that conscience make,
towards of US all, but with the ignoran,
and superstitious conscience is not a cir
cumstance when compared to a vivid
imagination The greatest coward Oh
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 must hover near the 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
the bona fide article is naturally the
graveyard The drearier, gloomier and
more mournful the aspect Of the grave
yard the more ghosts. But the real be-
lever in spooks and spirits does not
deem it necessary to go among the tombs
and graves Of the dead to find q 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 q railroad bridge but
has its ghost. But the ghosts are not all
confined to the country by any means.
d There have been several in Kansas CITY
that have gained extensive notoriety on
account Of their many ~visitations.
and the 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 DOR
lions Of the city thickly settled by the
descendants of Ham.
The oldest, the original ghost that is
most wildly in the memory Of the SUI
perstitious and is most often the topic
OF grewsome whispers among the people |
mentioned, walked the levee between !
Main street and Broadway ~ years ago
One winters night, the story goes, a
man was lying in wait for an enemy
on h levee. In his hand he clutched
a ponderous double barreled shotgun
loaded with nails and slugs. He saw a
man walking down the levee. In the
dim. Pickering light he thought he rec
ognized his enemy. He raised his gun,
fired and hurried away. The next day
he read in the papers that his brothers
body had been found on the levee, hor-
ribly mangled and torn. The murderer
WINGED, but kept his secret. Then the
e brothers. ghost began to walk. Ev-
cry night, at the same hour Of the
shooting. it could be seen on the levee
Each time it would walk straight to the
spot where the body had fallen. Then
the ghost would fall, go through a death
struggle and disappear. 1t kept this mn
for years, and there are those who say it
does it still
The second healthy, we'll developed
ghost disported itself in the ruins of the
old Santa Fe Stage Coach company's Of
flee at Second and Main streets in 1886.
So generally known did it become that
often large crowds would congregate and
await the appearance of the nocturnal
visitor. Early one evening a young man
x uttle went
Into the ruins. When he emerged from
them an hour later, he found a large
crowd standing on the opposite side Of
the street, near the Jail, watching for
ghosts. Some one in the crowd, thinking
that the young man had been playing
ghost, threw a brick at the investigator,
striking him on the head. He fell sense
less with a gaping wound in his head
The Santa Fe ghost has not been seen
since.
p In 1887 there wa q story af1oat that
at IL O'Clock each night a ghostly 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 a 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 a pedestrian.
Crowds congregated at the junction
nightly to see the strange sight For the
most part they went away disappointed,
although there was plenty who declared
they had seen cit"
Another story, in which a ghost was
never seen, but which smacked strongly
Of spooks, was the Conway murder on
East Eighteenth street, between Oak and
Locust, in 1885. Mrs. Conway, a young
woman. and her little girl were beaten
to death with a coupling pin The muir.
derer or murderers were 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
The ghost of the victims never walked
openly, but that section Of the city was
given a wide berth by the true believ-
ers for many months afterward.
Last, but not least, were the ghosts of
Clark and Jones, the men hung for MUIR
derinQ Nine Wright in 1895 These