The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1895-05-02
KANSAS CITY GHOSTS
FAMOUS SPooKS OF THE TOWN ON
THE BIG MUDDY.
TAe Original Ghost Is Prom Case of
Fratricide How the santa Fee Spook
Was Laid-How "a Man With the Jim

Jams" stirred Up Jail Full of Criminals
II may be true that conscience makes
towards of Us all, but with the ignorant
end supers. itious conscience is net Il cir
cum~tance when compared to a vivid
Imagination. The greatest coward ON
earth Is the person who sees III every
dark shadow, III each deserted house aud
around every dismal buildiug the rest
less spirit of some departed sinner whose
GRIMES Will not allow him t. 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
Tho place by popular consent most
adapted To ghost wanderings and the
place most fruitful i'll the prodrstion Of
the bona fide article is naturally the
graveyard The drearier, gloomicr and
more mournful the aspect of the grave
ward the more ghosts But the real be
lever in spaoks and spirits does not
deen it necessary to 90 among the tombs
and graves Of the dead to find a spirit
Ghosts are numerous. They can be
found in all sections of the country.
There Is not village nor Il deserted
country house nor railroad bridge but
has its ghost But the ghosts are not all
confined to the country 10y any mcano.
There have been several in Kansas City
that have gained extensive notoriety Oh
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
askancc by the inhabitants of Belyidere
Hollow, Hicks Hollow and other por
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 su
perstitious and is most often the topic
of grewsome whispers among the people
mentioned walked the levee between
Main street and Broadway IL years ago
One winters night, the story goes a
man was lying III wait for an enemy
on the lt"sce. In his hand no clutched
Il ponderous double barreled shotgun
loaded with nails and slugs. He saw Il
man walking down the levee. In the
dim. hickering light he thought he rec
ogniz"d 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 leyee, hor
ribly manglcd and torn. The murderer
WINGED, but kept his secret Then the
dead brothers. ghost began to walk. Ey
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 Il death
struggle and disappear. 1t kept this up
for years, and there are those who say t
does it still.
The second healthy well developed
ghost disported itself in the ruins of the
old Santa Fe Stage Coach company of
fee at Second and Main streets in 1856.
So generally known did it become that
often large crowds would congregatc and
await the appearance of the nocturnal
visitor. Early one evening young man
who wished to investigate IL little went
into the ruins. When he emerged from
them an hour later, he found large
crowd standing On the opposite side os
the street, near the jail, watching f1r
ghosts Some enc in the crowd, thinking
that the young man had been playing
ghost. threw brick at the investigator
striking him ON the head He fell sense
less with a gaping wound i'll his head
The Santa Fe ghost has not been seen
since
In 1887 there was Il story ahoat that
at - o'clock each night IA ghOstly cable
tram glideh down the incline between
Walnut and Main streets and disappear
ed into space. In the grip ear, ending
the train, was the ghost of u gripman
who had died short time before. after
having been insane for some time, the
result of grief over the fact that his tram
had run down and killed pedestrian.
Crowds congrcgatcd ut the junction
nightly tn see the strange sight. For the
most part they went away disappointed,
although there was plenty who declared
they had seen lit -
Another story, in which ghost was
/ newer SttIl, DUl W IltH Silltltht'l HiHlSlA
of spOoks. WAS the Conway murder on
East Eighteenth street, between Oak and
Locust. in 1888. Mrs. Conway, young
woman, and her little girl were beaten
to death with coupling pin. The muir
derer or murderers We're never caught
Suspicion pointed toward two men, bnt
there was no evidence Both of them
afterWard died horrible deathS-pnc OF
the CHAMBERS and the other of cancer.
The ghost of the victims never walked
openly, but that section of the city was
i given wide berth by the true heliey-
PRS for many months afterward.
Last, but not least, We're the ghosts of
Clark and Jones, the men hung for mur-
iering Nine Wright in 1898. These
ghosts matcrializod in the jailS. one al
Independence and one iii Kansas City
The scare lasted for some weeks and
the negro prisoners We're thrown into
state of terror by any strange sounds
One night, when the Jail was III state
Of comparative quiet, a drunken prls
0ner, who hau just been brought IN, had
IN attack of "jimjamS. - BY some
strange coincidence he was placed III
the cell once occupied by Clark, and the
prisoners soon located the groaning of
the unfortunate man The negroes, not
knowing that the cell was occupied, sup
posed that the noise WAS made by il de.