Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1896-04-30

%EEYv k'DP EYF{8T blue-coated guides
.VlM1MM an extra tip and he
=z.-.---'--<eG&s. will take You amid
f><x-tnmrr.i the mazes of that
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ahS last you a lifetime.
OR, IL they do not satisfy you, pick ac-
,quaintance with one of the seedy, hungry
docking individuals you will find at the
foot of the grand staircase, who ten to
one is professional guide also, and ask
him to point out to you all the haunted
houses in the city and tell you their weird
histories And either Of these gentlemen
will tell you what they believe to be the
plain, unvarnished truth. The Capitol
police have strange things to tell about
the uncanpy doings in the vaulted corri-
dors after nightfall. The ghosts they tell
about are not simple, everyday
visitors from the land of the
unseen, but the shades of distin-
guished men in the nations history.
The majestic spiritual ego Of John Quincy
Adams, once President of the United
States; of Vice-President Henry Wilson,
a Massachusetts statesman, and of Gen.
John A. Logan, famous in field and
forum, are said to haunt by night the
echoing halls where legislators tread by
day.
When the redoubtable Andrew Jack
son was inaugurated, March 4, 1929,
Adams retired for a short while to private
life. 1t was not until Feb 81, 1S4S, that
he died. He was at that time a repre-
sentative, and his passing away was
tragic. During a session Of the House he
suddenly slipped from his seat to the floor.
Apoplexy, the doctors said. He was
borne to room near by, where not many
hours later he died, with but a few muir
INJURED words.
1t was not long after the unhappy
event that there was whispering among
the officials who took care Of the Capitol
Building after dark that someone like
unto the dead Adams was seen nightly to
pass out OF the speakers room, in which
the ex-President had died, into the House
chamber, which is now statuary hall, and
wander about among the seats. 1t would
pause beside the chair occupied by Adams.
then gradually fade away into nothing
ness. After the seats were removed and
statues places in the hall the change ap-
parently disconnected the distinguished
ghost, for according to the best authori-
whole proceeding, the shade Of the states
man wandered around and around the
chamber, and finally passed out without
apparently having found his former place
of daily occupation. But later small
bronze tablet was inserted in the floor.
through the good Offices of somebody who
felt sorry for the ghost, upon the spot
where John Quincy Adams chair used to
stand, and then 1t is said the ghost walk
ed as before, with every evidence Of be
ing once again at peace. This particular
shade was seen on Feb. 21 last, and is not
expected again until that date.
What purported to be the ghost of the
beloved Vice President is said to move
and have its ethereal being in the Vice
Presidents room, the marble room, where
the Senators receive their callers, and in
the corridors thereabouts. 1t was while
In the first named apartment that Mr..
Wilson was also suddenly visited by the
angel of death, Nov. 10, 1875, who re-
manned with him until Nov. 22, when he
died, after three severe shocks of apo
plexy.
The apparition supposed to represent
this poor man is occasionally declared to
manifest itself suddenly, as if evoluted
out of the thin air, and as quickly vanish
upon the approach of mortal.
The spirit of Black Jack Logan is said
to make its appearance at exactly twenty
minutes after II o'clock midnight. The
general was at one time chairman of the
Committee on Military Affairs, and out
OF this committee room he energies, TAX
ing care to close the door after him, and
glides swiftly down the corridor, to dis
appear without trace or sound. This is
perhaps the most substantial of all the
Capitol ghosts, for there are numbers of
persons ready TO attest having witnessed
his mysterious passage through the
gloomy halls.
But it does not take the actual appear
ance of these shades to make the Capitol
n place OF grewsOmeness and awe at
night. In the stiffness that peryades n
door shutting at one end of the long
building may be family heard at the
other, and step in the rotunda will
come back from all sides with startling
echoing. 1t is one of the stories that
every night there is n sound in the portico
of the Senate wing rs of some one scrub
Nbing the marble floor and the noise Of
pWaterlbeng thrown down on it is plainly
audible Capitol officials tell Of an aged
negro who used to be one of the sweeps.
anu WHO ultu II HulnDtT VI AtdTS uRO. anu
who, they say, performs his early morn
ing duties Of washing up just a few hours
before daybreak each day. This ghostly
individual is the unseen terror of all the
negro laborers who clean up around the
Capitol, and they will not work without
plenty of light on the subject.
1t would give a timid person the fright
Of his life to walk across statuary hall at
midnight and in the dark. In no place
in the vast building are the echoes so
strange or so ghostly. There are num-
ber of what are called echo stones, by
stepping upon which and speaking one is
astounded to hear his voice coming up
apparently beneath his feet. 1t is trick
the guides have of startling their custom
ers by stepping ny behind some pillar and,
Just mt the moment when the unwary
tourist stands on n certain stone, giving
voice to harsh and sepulchral whisper
that will reverberate in ghostly accent
close in his ear.