The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1897-08-05
COULDN'T TELL A GHOST sRoRY
A Young Lady Loses Wager to Be Car
ried Out in the Cemetery.

the public so that it can be enjoyed
outside the select little coterie the
members of which only are ontou it.
These four young ladies form a sort
of set all by themselves. They are
together much, they almost always go
to doin's" together and are as
+" thick as hasty pudding" The girls
were joined by brother of one OF
them in an excursion to Central park
Friday evening to hear the band con
cert They were out for a sort Of
quiet and orderly lark, and listened to
the music with wrapt attention.
After the music was ended the idea
struck one of the girls that it would be
nice to dare the tates and superstition
by going on Friday night into the
middle Of the cemetery and there tell
hair raising ghost story. She proposed
the scheme to the party and it was
adopted with many winces on the part
OF the rest of the girls, but they were
out for fun and were bound to have
it, if any fun could be got out of so
gruesome an experience as that pro-
posed.
The party started for the cemetery
up Park avenue. They laughed and
chatted and made merry all the way
up until they got to the cemetery gate.
Then there was a difference. 1t was
not in the atmosphere, since that was
balmy and bad not changed. But it
was dark. The sky overhead was as
clear as bell, and the wee stars
tWinkled at them in a strong effort to
give them confidence in themselves,
but in this position as in the business
world, that confidence was a hard
| thing to WOO back. Out in the middle
of the street at the corner of the GENE
terry, there is large arc electric light.
1t sent its rays glimmering in between
the great white stones which rose
ghost like just inside the fence, and as
it sizzled and snapped away as such
lights are wont to do, it seemed to set
them dancing fendish, wierd roun-
| delay. They looked as though they
sWayed from side to side in the queer
est sort of a rhythmic motion. There
was not enough Of the light from this
lamp to admit of seeing more than two
or three rods into the home of the
dead, and as the party looked the
emotions grew. There was no telling
what nameless terrors stood back in
the impenetrable darkness beyond the
rays of the arc lamp. There was no
moon overhead. She had descended
to her downy couch as the chickens
went to roost and the last soft tWitter
was heard from the birds as they
pulled their heads into their nests for a
quiet snOOze
The girl who had proposed the
scheme had not lost all her ability to |
speak yet, so She invited the party to
keep on and she would tell the ghost
story. The young man who was acting
as escort plucked up courage enough to
accompany the leader and the party |
made a daring attempt to get to the
middle of the grave yard. The three |
girls who followed were huddled to-
gether in such a fashion that their |
progress was rather problem. They
imagined every little ways that they
could see awful specters just back in
the shadows, who were about to reach |
out long. bony arms to enclasp them.
They quivered and shuddered and kept
on since no one had been snatched off
the earth as yet, but there seemed
every instant to be a strong likelihood
that some one would be.
At length the desired spot had been
reached and the story was to be told.
But the party did not sit down to en-
joy the story. By the time said de-
sired spot was reached there was no
story to tell. The terrible situation
she was in made the story teller lose
every word she had intended to tell.
Like one afflicted with stage fright,
though she knew her story we'll, there
facing the spooks and specters of the
departed worthless of other days she
was unable to begin. Her tongue took
strange notion to cleave to the roof
of her mouth. For a moment she
struggled with the refractory member
and attempted to regain her self pos
session, but that seemed to be just out
of reach. 1t had apparently gone over
to the side of the spooks. With one
final effort she at last blurted out with
a strange, unaccustomed sound, q
can't tell it. I've forgot"
This was the signal for sudden ard
undignifed rush for the street All of
them reached it unframed by the
spooks whose confidence had thus been
betrayed
Every member of the party has been
mum about the experience today eX-
cept one. She told it to her sister and
has been shivering all day for fear the
sister would tell the reporters. But
she didn't-the reporter overheard it.