The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1896-07-14
. Terrible Experience
The Raven Hair of a Bride Elect
Turns White In = Few Hours.

DdVannhn News,
A lady In Sylvania, Ca, relates the
following true story of a most thrilling
experience through which a friend OF
hers passed some years ago, and which
has never been published:
1t was near Milledgeville that this
%fricnd--a beautiful young lady--lived.
Pauline was her name. She was en-
gagged to be married to q gentleman
from another State. The appointed
time had come, and the large house
was filed with guests for the occasion.
There WAS one very particular friend,
however, q young lady, whom the
bride-elect wished to have present, but
1t was impossible for her to get there
before the morning after the night ap-
pointed for the marriage. She tele-
graphed her friend to come, and post
poned the wedding until the following
morning.
That night they held a large recep-
ton at the house, and numbers of the
guests remained over, so that they
might be present mex morning. The
house being crowded, the young lady
gave up her own D to friends, and
with her maid went over into anunused
chamber, somewhat separated from
the other part OF the house, and which
was called the "blue ROOM" 1t vas up
ON the second floor, and was connected
by lattice work with the main building.
Her father protested against her going
there, but she said she was not afraid.
The little maid, after strengthening
up the q lay down on a pallet to
sleep, and the young lady, ~eXtinguish-
ing the light, sat before the dying
blaze on the hearth, lost in revery.
Soon the maid began to sob, and said
she felt so uneasy that she was afraid
to sleep in the room. Not wishing to
be disturbed further, the young lady
hastily sought other quarters.
Seated before the fireplace, the young
bride soon felt q strange uneasiness
herself, as IL the air was charged with
something. She tried to dismiss it,
but in vain. To still her feeling she
managed, with a great deal of effort,
to move o wardrobe that was in the
o against the door, and thus safely
b%arricaded from without, she got into
bed and tried to go to sleep. But the
restless, uneasy feeling would not leave
her.
After u short while she thought she
heard the rattle of q chain. She listen
cd and charged it to her Imagination.
Again came the same sound, and more
distinct. She hardly breathed. Then,
from underneath the bed, came the
sound of o chain, and then d thud and
clank, a thud and clank, as something
moved about on the floor. At last it
crawled out into the room and seemed
to go to the fire.
She thought perhaps it might be her
fathers dog, which was kept chained
in the yard, and she summoned courage
bed and look. By the dim light she
could see an object lying in front of the
hearth, but could not tell what it
was.
She wanted to leap from the bed and
escape. but the thought Of the heavy
wardrobe in front of the door deferred
her, and her very blood was chilled
when she realized how she had i'm
prisoned herself. She knew che could
not mov it in time to escape this
chained object, whatever it might be,
should it wish to seize her.
She laid back on her pillow almost
paralyzed with fright, and as she did
SO tho object before the fire moved.
She could near the chain clanking and
dragging and the sound of slow moving
along the floor. CLOSE to the bed it
came and then climed up whore she
was lying, the chain rafting behind.
Stricken with terror and not daring
to move or even breathe, she then per-
ceived that 1t was O man with a chain
about him. He crawled over in the
bed, got under the cover and lay there
perfectly still. After a long time
through which she scarcely knew how
she lived, he stretched u his arm in
a kind of WEAKNESS, and it fell upon
hers. He grasped her arm with his
hand, but made no further move. She
could feel that his finger nails were
long and sharp and more like the claws
OF Il beast than part Of Il human being.
His clutch upon her arm was hard, but
she dared not movo u muscle.
Through minutes hat seemed like
years she waited. AT last she heard
him breathing regularly, us if in sleep,
linen "ls grasp upon he" arm re-
-, =" slipping from the bed, with u
sup.rii4in,n effort she pushed the
wardrobe aside and fed through the
door. The noise awe Ike the man in the
bed, she could neal him an he fol-
lowed, with his clanking chains.
Her creams aroused the house, and
she reached her fathers room to fall
insensible in his arms. A search was
made by the men present and they
O came upon the object of her ter
ror-an escaped lunatic from the asy-
lum, fierce and violent, with a broken
chain around his body. The officers
were nOIllcQ ana ne was reCaptured
after a struggle. He had escaped the
day before and the keepers had been
unable to discover his whereabouts.
He had beer 80 fierce for weeks that
they were unable to come close enough
to him to cut his nails, and they had
grown to be over an inch long on all
his fingers.
The saddest part of the story follows.
The next morning the young lady's
hair was gray. From mortal fright it
had changed, In q single night, from a
raven black to the hue of old age. She
had brain fever for weeks. Her young
lover went in to see her the morning
after their wedding day, and when he
saw how old she had suddenly grown
and how her beautiful hair had turned
gray, he went away and never came
back again.
After many weeks she recovered,
and when she saw how she had lost
her beauty and her hair had grown So
white, she wept softly and sill nly,
but uttered no word Of blame against
her lover who had left her. She told
them she was not the same woman he
had loved the night begore their we'd
ding day, aud, therefore, he broke no
faith In leaving her.
-. Gee
A SOLDIERS MEMORY.
Visiting the Battle Field Where Hc
AH-. D.