The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-05-27

man, woman and child. They are, in
short, not on calling terms, although
am the very latest conner into the
! neighborhood. l am very sorry, and
beg to say that my Indifference is
congenial and not due to pride. This is
the real explanation, and l sincerely
hope that they will accept it in the
same spirit in which it is made.
/ But though l nave not as yet seen
or heard or even smelled a single re-
liable and substantive ghost in the
house in which l live. l have, 1 think.
unintentionaly deepened and broad
! ened the faith in ghosts of others
! My piazza is curtained with the dens-
sest conceivable growths of honey
/ suc6les and trumpet creepers and
/ other vines Twenty feet from its
outer edge is the highway. l sit at
all sorts of uncanonical hours in the
shadows smoking and lost in thought.
Anon 1 hear the tired patter of
I horses hoof coming down the dusty
road and the rumble of wagon with
a double burden. There is the soft,
small cheep of a young woman's
voice, and then the harsher speech Of
a young mantle tireless if vapid
antiphon of rural courtship. 1t is an
antiphonal crescendo, too. Nearer and
nearer they approach. They are, Tor
the moment, forgetful of everything
forgetful, among other things, OF local
topography. They reck not that they
are abeam of the haunted house IN
which 1 live. In the ecstacy OF the
moment they hear, with spasm OF
CONSERVATION, of terror, hideouS ana
heartsickening a sinister sound-the
very ghost of laugh-and in the
same instant they remember where
they are. 1t is the haunted house!
With a bound. the drowsy horse
springs across the road Two inner
arms, with horrible shiver of de-
light, cross behind two backs both
atremble Out of the shadow of the
buggy top peer fearfully two pairs OF
dilated eyes They encounter my
own, made awful by the boding CLEAN
of my pipe. A frenZied chirp to the
astonished horse-and down the dark
street they clatter with all the alarm
and pother of Tam O Shanter. From
that moment they are among the
famous of the neighborhood. They
have with their own eyes seen the
ghost.
AS L sit in my leafy ambush, hear
unending differentiations of the legend
of the house in which 1 live. They
are alike in at least one point-they
are blood curdling to degree. On one
occasion-it was a beautiful moonnt
night-three persons passed my lar.
white-herself a most angelic ghost
to look at The second was tall
young man of gallant meln, who wore
a. soft engaging smile and carried a
huge walking stick The third ana
last was little girl of 10. They
walked slowly, stopping every once IN
a while to expostulate with the little
girl They urged her, with several
pretexts, to turn and go home. 1t was
r1fo ant
who failed to realize the meaning OF
the ancient adage about the disad-
vantage of three-fold company. With
a baleful obstinacy, she utterly re-
fused to bulge.
Then the gallant young man cleared
his throat like one who had a great
moral duty to discharge. Uplifting his
walking stick, he said:
DO you see that house?
She saw it, of course.
"WeH. that is the haunted house.
There lives in 1t the most awful KIND
of a ghost. There is nothing that
ghost won't do-when he gets real mad.
You had better go home Immediately,
for if YOU don't III call him, sure"
She was as fearless as she was super
fluous-that naughty little girl.
Who's afraid?" she piped. I amt.
You can call all you want to. I'm not
going home for anybody"
He called. The next moment they all
were going home as fast as ever they
could. and the gallant young man with
the big walkingstick in the home-going
led all the rest. / had laughed softly
behind my screen of trumpet creepers.
In the daytime, when l have been
visible, l have been subjected to the
most astonishing identifications. L
have been pointed out from the wagons
of the Illuminated ones as the actual
1r,-1e
recognized me as a surviving member
of the family. The statement has been
made without hesitation, on the theory
that 1 must be geneofogically related
to the tragedy, that it would be hard
to find more distinctly homicidal cast
of features than my own innocent Wis
age. L have been variously spoken of
as the castaway child, The weeping
woman and the bearded gentleman
from the Spanish Main with an I'M
ouenchable thirst for cellar-digging.
All these, according to the various
lights and the times of the day.
It is another popularity of the haunt
ed house in which 1 live that in de-
fault of phantom visitors l must be
prepared at all hours to welcome liv-
ing ones Hoary natives. who have
been away for years, drop in to refresh
their memories with sight Of the his
toric scene, and deem it foul scorn
If do not pilot them from roof to eel
lar and confirm their lettering recol-
lections of the legend. Perfect strang-
ers, otherwise utterly uninterested in
me. sympatheticaly ring me up to in
quire if / am not afraid TO live in the
house People who have not been out
of sight of the premises for quarter
of a century generously visit me to re-
iterate the particulars of the story,
lest should not recognize the pertin-
ency of the several spectres when 1
see them. On two occasions have been
forced to entertain enthusiasts who
were willing personally to dig up the
cellar if 1 would agree to divide the
r,,.rear,dS ne the. saxca va finr with Them.