Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1896-11-12
BRISTOL'S ACTIVE GHOST.

southwest of Hartford, Conn, has
a ghost. The footsteps of this ghost
NAV be heard, loud aud unmistak-
able, as it walks in a business block
on Main street, but the ghost itself
is as unseen as the air. 1t is a
strange, unusual, unaccountsble
spook. In the uneasy peregrina-
tions it makes about various habi-
tations in the block. opening and
closing doors, shutting about up
stairs rooms, its footballs repeated
ly tapping smartly up and down
stairs. it manifests itself quite as
often IN broad daylight as after
nightfall.
The Bristol ghost, it is said, be-
gan to walk several months ago,
and has been walking about all the
time since. At frst the people in
the block were afraid, and had q
sort of creepy feeling when the foot
steps came up suddenly behind
them, particularly when they heard
them in a well-lighted hallway or
staircase, and beheld nothing in the
direction whence they seemed to
come except the empty space of the
familiar corridor. The ghost kept
on walking. and after a time their
alarm wore off and they began to
be proud of the familiar spirit say.
ing, "He's select, anyhow /; COM
mon folks don't have the exclusive
proprietary right in a ghost" un-
til of an afternoon one of them
chanced to mention the incident to
a friend. who dwells in another
quarter. The friend replied excit-
edly:
"Well, | do believe it is the very
same one. 1t is the same. Why,
he comes over and walks in our
block now and then"
Further inquiry by the insesti-
gator revealed the fact that the
ghostly footsteps had been heard,
though infrequently, in several
blocks in the neighborhood. Bat
it is only in the main street that
the ghost walks habitually. Speak
ing of the phenomenon in a matter
of-fact wav, engendered by his long
familiarity with it, business man,
who has fine shop in that block,
said to a questioner a day or two
ago:
"The footsteps have got to be a
regular every day affair; so much
so that the storekeepers here pay
very little attention to them now.
What are they and what causes
them? Well, that's exactly what
we would like very much to know,
but l will confess, for one, that /
haven't the ghost of an idea, or any
explain alton to offer. All | can say
about it is that it's fact, and that
they are real footsteps, or appear
to be, not light and unsubstantial
ones which we might be deceived in,
but loud, clear, sharp, and distinct
steps such as a man makes walking
in heavy shoes. And they come
and go at ali hours in some part OF
the block.
"In this particular shop it is
strange fact that its manifestations
take place only in the day time.
Sometimes we hear the steps cross
ing the hall, then ascending the
stairway, and so real are they that
the stairs creak under them, but no
one is in sight, either in the hall
or on the stairs. Account for it all
in any way you can or think most
reasonable, but these are the plain
facts that l am giving. Then,
again, the steps are not always of
the same nature exactly. for some
times they are rather lighter and
quicker in some particular apart
ment, while in another one they
are heavy and tagging. For in
stance, the occupants of one of the
rooms declare that one morning re-
Gently they heard the ghost climb
ing the stairs with heavy, regular
footsteps the hall door of an ad-
joining chamber was heard to open
and shut with a loud sound, and
then the listener heard the intruder
striding about that apartment,
not with light or muffled football,
but solid tread, as of a man in
stout boots, While the footsteps
were still going. the listening ten
ants, who were young men, stole
softly to q door OF the ehanib Der
opening into the ghosts apartment,
suddenly opened it, and dashed in,