The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-03-31
DROVE rHROUGH rHE GHOST.
IL Was in the Middle Of the Road,
and the Doctor Had 20 60.

1dftloFu correspondence New 1Ork Her
aid.
Jogging along through the lonely and
savage wilds about the famous Wild Cat
Range. in Eastern Connecticut, the other
night. DR.. C. r. HAMS OF Norwich. en-
cOuntered a veritable ghost. a spectre be
yond the ghost of doubt. pale. transpar-
ent. yet invested with the outlines and the
essential superficial features OF a human
form.
The SURGEON. who Is strong nerved and
cocf headed. is positive that he saw the
shade emanate from the empty air. I'M
printed, as it was. on a background Of
black forest; hence he is satisfied that it
had the dimensions Of length and breadth
though obviously devoid Of thickness.
He saw. also. at a glance. that it was
the ghost Of the late Charles McCabe.
shoemaker. of Norwich. It was between
1 10 and II o'clock. and there was no moon
/ in the sky. The doctor had been making
| a late call on patient in Poquetannuck.
a gray, old fashioned. rambling riverside
village in Preston, and. instead OF return
/ ing by the direct river road to Norwich,
had followed more roundabout highway
that meanders among lodges and heavy
/ woodland about the rugged and gloomy
Wild Cat Ledge, three miles south of that
city.
| 1t is a picturesque region by day, but
seems bleak, black, forbidding and spec
trail like at night, terrifying with its
deathly stiffness and gloom. and weird
| with gnarled and twisted forms Of rock
and crag. The doctor was driving his
favorite steed, Old Pete, as trusty and
/ sagacious an animal as ever lived, which
1aFu AaV
woodlands. over the toughest and stoniest
/ road in the country.
He had surmounted the southern rise
of a circular range of hills, within whose
walls the Wild Cat valley is hidden. and
| plunged down a long slope into the centre
Of the vale. Far away on the right are
the lodges, with the long rifle range OF
the Norwich Military Company, from
which the neighborhood derives its name
| in part, nearer. almost on the border OF
the turnpike, is an old, stumbling dwell
| ing, in which McCabe, cobbler, of Nor
witch, resided for many years.
The traveller journeyed on past the un-
lighted dwelling, which seemed ghostly and
| empty in the night, and had nearly or
| rived at sharp crook in the thorough
fare when of a sudden Old Pete, who
| had been trotting along in leisurely, care
free style, stopped abruptly and with so
violent a recoil that his driver was nearly
thrown forward out of his seat.
The doctor had been whistling, being in
good spirits, but he ceased instantly and
| gazed ahead, his senses all alert, to
| point in the sidepath near bend in the
| wooded road not three rods ahead; for
there, upon the ebon shadow of the forest
the gray, impalpable figure of man was
| imprinted.
1t had delineated itself there instantan-
| eosuly, insensibly, On his path; it had not
developed itself IN any appreciable grada-
ton of time; but, as warm Vapor steals
over a cold window pane, the apparltion
had now printed itself there, where an
instant before was only the seeminly solid
shadow of forest and hill.
The figure was like a pillar of white
swamp mist in autumn, and to the way
farer, spellbound with commingled awe
and curiosity 1t appeared to dilate, and
each moment its likeness to human
form and lineaments became more plainly
discernible.
The faithful horse, who was clearly pos
sessed with supernatural terror, stirred
not, either forward or backward, but
shook like a leaf, and in a moment was
steaming with sweat. The doctor speedily
recovered his composure If not his polllty
or light heartedness, and, not doubling in
the slightest degree that he recognized
the spectral features of the roadside fig
ure he sang out hoarsely. with an as
there Charlie. Clear the road"
Charles was the name of his friend, Shoe
maker McCabe, of Norwich who died
sevsxal months ago, and whose figure
and sharpened visagA he believed he
identified in the Wild Cat range spectre.
The apparition, however, made not
movement. But the horse recoiled pace
or two, still shivering, and seemed bent
on plunging into the roadside underbrush.
Thereupon the doctor snatched his whip
from the buggy socket, and he touched
Old Pete lightly on his fiank-a monition
that it is rarely necessary to administer
to the stanch and steady beast Unaccus-
toned to feel the touch of the goad, the
brave and obedient steed leaped suddenly
forward, as calamity as a hunters cob
breasts an ordinary hurdle, and so fierce
" that his impetuous onset carried him
in moment beyond the spot where the
| terrifying apparition had upreared itself
but even in the excitement OF the dash,
and while striving to rein in and control
the frightened animal, the observing ply
sician noted distinctly that his swerving
vehicle following the cratic course OF
the horse rushed upon, and its forward
wheels cut through impalpably and with
out resistance, the misty figure In the
path.
The doctor drove on at impetuous speed
along the lonely shroudee road, and
paused not until his terror stricken horse,
trembling, steaming with perspiration,
plunged into his city stable in Norwich,
and had been safely stalled for the night.
! Then he narrated to the stablemen, and
afterward to few of his friends, the re
markable features of his spectral recon-
| tire.
Not one of his friends and townsmen
doubts that the story of his nocturnal ride
| through spook haunted Wild Cat Range
is exactly as he recounted it, furthermore,
| none is able to explain the extraordinary
| incident that befcll him. Skeptfcs pre-
| sumo to argue that the apparition was
merely an optical Illusion, not unlike the
blue black dog of old, that tagged DR..
samuel johnson after nightfall, misty
| coniuration of an excited imagination.
! ant then. this modern doctor is by no
means that sort of man, his friends In
| dignantly declare.
on the contrary he is hard headed
! level headed intellectual, scientific, pro-
| fessional man. I'm fact" said one OF his
most ardent friends, you can put it
down for a fact, that If he says he saw a
! Ghost then indeed, he did see ghost,
without the ghost of doubt, and 1t was
a ghost of the first order. too, and no
| iolxiOC