Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1895-10-29
THE CAR GHOST.

All draped with blue denim-the sea
side cottage of my friend. Sara Pype.
She asked me to 20 there with her when
she opened il to have il set in order for
the summer. She confessed that she felt
a trifie nervous at the idea Of entering
it alone And / am always ready for an
excursion. So much blue denim rather
surprised me, because blue is not COM
plimentary to Sarah's complexion-she
always wears some shade of red, by
preference. She perceived my wonder t;
she is vely ncarsighted. and therefore
sees everything, by some sort OF sixth
sense.
"You do not like my portieres and
curtains and table covers, said she.
Neither dol But Ididit TO accommo-
date. And now he rests well in his
grave. hope. -
"Whose grave, for PHYS sake?"
"Mr. J. Ellington Prices"
"And who is hep He doesn't sound in
teresting.
"Then will tell yon about him, 7"
said Sara, taking a seat directly in front
of one Of those curtains. Last autumn
/ was leaving this place for New York,
travelling on the fast express train
known as the Flying Yankee. OF course
/ thought Of the Flying Dutchman and
Wagner's musical setting Of the uncan-
nv legend, and how different things are
in these days of steam, etc. Then /
looked ont Of the window at the land
scape, the horizon that seemed TO wheel
in a great curve as the train sped. Ev-
cry now and then had an impression
at the tail of the eye that a man was
sitting in a chair three or four numbers
in front of me on the opposite side Of
the car. Each time that saw this shape
l looked at the chair and ascertained
that it was unoccupied. But it was an
odd trick Of vision / raised my lor-
gnette, and the chair showed emptier
than before. There was nobody in it
certainly. But the more knew that it
was vacant the more plainly saw the
man, always with the corner of my
eve. 1t made me nervous.
"When passengers entered the car, l
dreaded lest they might take that seat
What would happen if they should? A
bag was put in the chair-that made
me uncomfortable. The bag was re-
moved at the next station. Then a baby
was placed in the seat. 1t began to
laugh as though some one had gently
tickled it. There was something odd
about that chair-l3 was its number.
When l looked away from it, the inn
preston was strong upon me that some
person sitting there was watching me.
"Really, it would not do to humor
such fancies So touched the electric
button, asked the porter TO bring me a
table, and taking from my bag pack
of cards proceeded to divert myself with
a game of patience. ! was puzzling to
put seven of spades. Where can it
go?' murmured to myself. A voice be-
hind me prompted, Play the four Of
diamonds on the five, and you can do
it. / started. The only occupants OF
the car besides me were bridal couple,
a mother with three little children and
a typical preacher of one of the strait
est sects. Who had spoken? Play up
the four, madam, repeated the voice.
| looked fearfully over my shoulder. At
first l saw blush cloud, like cigar
smoke, but inodorous. Then the vision
cleared, and saw young man whom
| knew by q subtle intuition to be the
occupant. seen and not seen, Of chair
No 13. Evidently he was a travelling
salesman-and ghost. OF course a
drummer's ghost sounds ridiculous
they so extremely alivel Or else you
would expect dead drummer to be
particularly dead and not walk. This
was a most commonplace looking ghost,
cordial, pushing, businesslike. AT the
same time his face had an expression OF
utter despair and horror which made
him still more preposterous. OF course
it is not nice TO let a stranger speak TO
one, even ON so impersonal topic as q
four of diamonds But a ghost--there
can't be any rule of etiquette about
talking with a ghost! My dear, it was
dreadful. That forward creature showed
me how TO play all the cards and then
begged me to lay them ont again, in or
der that he might give me some clever
points Twas too much amazed and dis
turbed to speak; could only place the
cards at his suggestion. This / did SO as
not to appear to be listening to the emp
ty air and be supposed to be crazy
woman. Presently the ghost spoke again
and told me his story.
Madam, he said, i have been rid
ing back and forth on this car ever since
Feb. %, lS9--, seven months and II
DAYS. Allthis time have not exchanged
a word with any one, For drummer
that is pretty hard, you may believe.
You know the story of the Flying
Dutchman? Well, that is very nearly
my case. A curse is upon me and will
not be removed until some kind soul.
But I'm getting ahead of my text That
day there We're fanr of us, travelling for
different houses One of the boys was
in wool, enc in baking powder, one in
boots and shoes aud myself in cotton
goods. We met Oh the road, took seats
together and fell into talking shop.
Those fellows told big lies about their
sales. WashiDg:cn's birthday though it
was. The baking powder man raised tho
amount Of the bills Of goods which he
had sold better than a whole can of his
stuff could have done / admitted the
straight truth, thar / had not yet been
able to make sale And then | swore
mot in a light minded, clipper style
of verba II INNINGS, but great, round,
n =