Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1896-03-19


real creations CT a retrospective brain?
Who is the elusive being that opens
and shuts the doors at midnight. strikes
fantastic or sorrowful chords on the
piano. sets the dog barking and leaves
things in a disturbed state generally?
And what is q ghost? Has a ghost
parts? Can an unsubstantial phantom
that appears and disappears at will
make noise enough by contact with ma
terial things to waken sleeping house
hold? Science, with cool, calculating
methods, has Investigated the theory
of ghosts and found-nothing.
A haunted house has been one of the
recent attractions of a town in Mfchi-
gan. A family in that place, living in
their own house, were suddenly visit
ed by ghost. They did not see the
intruder, but they heard the clanking
of chains in the dead hour of night
until at last they were afraid to sleep
and the place acquired the unsavory
reputation of being haunted. Then
one member of the household, Drawer
than the rest, determined to sit up and
track the ghost to its lair. He watched
for two nights and heard the chain
clanking at distance, but on each oc-
casion the ghost evaded pursuit and
remained invisible. On the third night
| the clanking chain was again heard
and the watcher, acting on the princi-
pie that all things come to him who
waits, remained quiet at his post. Sure
enough, the ghost came timidly into
| his presence and turned out to be no
| ghost, but a pet coon that had strayed
! from its owner and hidden under the
woodshed floor At night it entered
the house by an entrance left for the
| family cat.
There is an empty house in the heart
of the city of Detroit that was former
ly large boarding house. 1t was at
one time filed with a goodly COM
pany of bright spirits, but the shadow
Of doom rested upon it. In less than
a. score Of years sixty persons, asso-
! ciated under that roof at one time,
have died and all connected in it's
management have died or been over
| taken by misfortune. Now it is said
! that lights are seen in its deserted
rooms, sobs and cries echo in the empty
! halls and forms are observed fitting
up and down the decaying stairs. It
/ is not surprising to those who know
the tragic story of the house to learn
! that it is q rendezvous for ghosts, for
| a more Inflated mansion does not eX-
! st. But the writer of this paper, who
had known of its joys and it's vicissi-
tudes, went there in the shadow of late
evening, and, standing near the ruined
pile, which is flanked by lines of mod
! OF, 01rcIvr Of
uncurtained windows, taking at the
same time a peep backward into the
limbo of the past.
Ghosts? There were regiments of
themi Where had once been light and
| gayety and the music of dancing feet,
there were now silence and DEATH But
it was easy to see shadowy revels and
| hear the shuttle of feet that now lie
at rest. There was the woman who
wore a rose in her hair and had al
ways smile on her lips, and the stall
| wart man on whose arm she leaned
| there was dust on their eyes now, but
they, too, came to look on their latest
dwelling place. And the generous
one, who had kept them all as under
the shadow of her wing, on whose
|
was set, she walked in majestic silence
from empty room to ROOM And then
| the lights in the neighbors' houses were
put out, and there were no ghosts-the
shifting lights had taken on a ghostly
appearance, and one had seen the lit
tie child who died there and wore a
kingly crown of flowers, and another
had seen the young girl who defied
death and danced a two-step about her
little room when she had but an hour
or two to live. And the ghosts will
assemble there until these are forgot
ten or the old house is pulled down TO
make way for some commercial CEN
ter
In the days of Salem witchcraft the
authorities hanged man who denied
that such being as a ghost ever ex-
ssted. julius Caesar and Brutus were
quoted as classical instances of the
truth, and Saul's experience with the
witch of Endor and Jobs vision of the
night as biblical Endorsement
Hamlet's father is perhaps the best
all-around ghost OF literature. al he