Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1895-02-23
AN ACTORS DOUBLE.

We were talking about spirit NANTES
tations at the Thirty-nine club and retail
ing the usual second or third hand ac-
counts of deceased ladies and gentlemen
showing themselves to thoir sorrowing
relatives
1T is strange the trick which our brains
will sometimes play u.s." said DR.. Mac
pherson. II remember once seeing a
ghost myself, and l can toll you that the
sensation is very curious one. 1t was a
good many years ago, III my examination
days, and had been sitting up until the
early hours examining Everybody in the
house had long since gone to bed, where
ought to have been myself, SO was rath-
er surprised when glanced up from my
book to soc somebody sitting at the table
where myself had been few moments
before writing. I felt quite startled for an
instant, until recognized the intruder
He was little hazy, but could see
plainly enough who it was.
"a dead relative?" asked Major Den
nett, who was firm believer in the good
old fashioned ghost
Macpherson answered in his peculiarly
quiet way:
NO. it was myself. The appearance of
seeing ones own ghost is not altogether
unusual, believe"
Now, do not think your experience
was half so remarkable as one of mine, :"
said Gilbert Dano, the well known actor
and manager of tho Howard theater, who
happened to be there that night. Dane is
not member Of the Thirty mine, but had
come with Macpherson. Most of the brain
specialists friends are in the profession, a
fact which is perhaps due to the year
which he himself spent Oh the stage as a
young man.
my story begins prosaically," said the
actor when we begged to hear it. II lost
the latchkey with which let myself into
the theater and took somebody else's to
the locksmith's to have a duplicate made.
agreed to call for it the following morn
ing as I was going up to town for rehears-
al. I was living at Putney then, and we
were actively preparing play which de-
served q better fate than it received, If
thought and preparation go for anything,
for came near making myself i'll over it.
was feeling out of sorts on the morning
that called for the latchkey, and when
tho locksmith swore positively that he had
given me the thing alrcady-that less than
ten minutes previously l had come in for
the key, paid for 1t and taken it away
with mel will confess that / lost my
temper and stormed at the fellow, but
could not get him to bulge line from his
story
"He seemed to have an idea that was
playing a practical joke, and the only re-
my train to Waterloo. 1t was moving
when reached the platform, and had to
run for the only compartment Of which
the door was open near the end Of the
train.
1.-THE compartment contained two other
passengers, but if glanced at them at
all noticed nothing except that each was
pretty we'll hidden behind daily paper.
I had fortunately bought my own paper
before calling at the locksmith's, and
speedily followed their example. So far
the story is painfully commonplace Now
comes the truly remarkable experience
which has stamped the doings of that day
indelibly on my memory"
The actor paused to strike match and
relight his cheroot, which he had allowed
to 60 out, and we all watched him in 81
lenoe, wondering what was coming. Mac
pherson- only had the air of a man who
had heard the story before.
~ had become rather interested In my
paper" Dane went OIL when the cigar was
alight again, land did not notice my
companions talking until one of them
started telling an aneodote. Then it grad
ually dawncd upon me that the story he
was telling was one that consider my
own particular property, and when lis
tened 1t struck me that the story was be-
ing told not only in my exact words, but
also in my own voice They say that
man does not recognize his own voice
when he hears 1t In the monograph, for
instance-but that is possibly the fault Of
the phonograph, and, at any rate, know
that recognized mine instantly
"Tho story and the voice startled me,
but 1t Is difficult to describe my feelings
when l put down my paper to glance at
the narrator"
1T was YOURSELF" asked Major bennett
oxcitedly as tho actor paused, and Dane
nodded
YES, gentlemen, saw seated at tho
other end of the compartment by the win.
dow, opposite his companion, figure that
was ali exact facsimile of the reflection
which see in my glass every day when |
have dressed for the part of respectable |
citizen 1t was myself complete in every
detail of face and attire"
IAN optical delusion, Isupposein sup
gested, and the actor shook his head.
mo; that was the first idea that &C. |
Cured to me--that I had been working |
and worrying too much over the new |