The times., 1897-08-01
THE spooK CLUB.


| ghost story. once in a while, in the early
history of the club, a member would stay
away Inadvertently or because of sickness
| in the family, but in every case this IN
dividual was unable to obtain Wink OF
sleep all night. At first this was hoo
| noticed, of course, or was attributed 10
| pie or some other extraneous circumstance
but the absolute certainty OF the thing and
| its recurrence on several occasions finally
| made it manifest that there was something
, behind it.
| The speaker at the club last night was a
! Washington woman. She is very Wen
| known in the city and is recognized as one
| of the most niatter-of-fact people that ever
existed. She is lnethodical in her habits.
| is not given to nervous attacks OF otnef
pleasures OF this kind, and is moreover
| absolntei truthful in every smallest state
!, p,ent that she makes. This lady was last
| nights visitor at the club. She said:
| .,yben John and / We're married, fifteen
/ years ago, we went TO live at newton d
! suburb OF Boston, twenty miles OUT IL ls
a pretty little town, or was, at that uine.
! though | believe it has been modefnized
! and yiIlaed until there is nothing country
! like about It now.
| 1--we were intending to buy the house, as
! it suited us exactly on our rirst tour vi
inspection. Two friends promised To- boafu
| with u.s. and their board would Hsh.eh
our expenses considerably, and enable US
| to make good payment on the mouse
each north 1t was certainly very az
| Uractive outlook, and John and cOh-
! graduated ourselves over and over agaiN
at our good fortune The first night we
moved into the house / woke up, AFTER
! getting soandly to sleep, and found my
bed rocking violently TO and fro. was
| forced to cling to John to keep from fall-
| out JOHN felt the rocking. too, ana got
up TO investigate. The town was quiet
! one and no heavy drays were ruIabling
| by, and there was no commOtlon outside.
/ 1T must have been heavy earthquake,
/ John said
..As we got back into bed noticed that a
glass entirely filled with water on chair
| at the side OF the be Rad not spilled
| drop, although it was of the variety
| with small la se, which very easily toIIi-
/ bles over. vase on the mantel bove our
| bed, tall and slim, was also standing
| where it had teen before That's very
| strange, isn't it, John?' said-
| Next morning we asked about the
| earthquake, but there had been none IN
Newton that night. We were very much
surpri sed. We didn't understand the
| rocking OF the bed. but supposed that ii
| was something that could be easily ex-
| planned If we only knew where to look
for the source OF the disturbance We
| almost forgot it in the next two or three
days.
1--WE moved into our Newton house on
a Wednesday night. On Saturday night l
| woke up and sat up in bed, a thing that
have never known myself 10 do Eefore
without cause, as / am a good sleeper
There was an old man with gray hair
standing In the corner OF the room. in his
shirt sleeves, washing his hands at our
washstand As l locked he buried his
face in the water and rubbed his hands
up through his hair. I woke John and
pointed toward the corner. John saw the
man, too. As we sat there in the bel
the man In the corner vanished as ascandle
light does when a gust of wind blows it
put .Ionn and Were neither of US super
stitinus. You know very well that am
not. The thing was entirely inexpiicable
found our door locked. the only one in
the room, and all the window down We
went back to bed and / went to sleep.
don't know whether John did or not.
I'VE had very bright servant girl with
US in our Newton experience. She was
an Insh girl, five or six years away
from the old country, however, well
trained and educated more than is usual
! 1x-ft TricT art pirl
ing Mary said to me in the kitchen: DO
you know, we have somebody in the house
beside ourselves?' 1 laughed at her. but
she would not be turned off She had
seen the same old man that John and
l had seen, coming down the stairs as
she came in the front door that morning
She was about to speak to him, sup
posing that he was a friend OF ours,
when like flash he vanished froIu thJ
| stairway / persuaded Mary not to say
anything, as We didn't wish to lose
our boarders She was frightened, bat
agreed to stay with US little while
longer, If nothing of the kind occurred
again.
''on Tuesday morning John and 1 had sa.
down to breakfast. 1t wasT O'Clock, and
the bright sunshine was coming in at two
| WINDOWS he QOOr INTO the nan was open.
and we could see the upper part OF the
| stairway, but not the front of the hall
The front door was open, too, and the sun
shine came in there also. Our two board
ers were little late to breakfast that
morning.
"As | was pouring out Johns coffee ]
saw the lower part of Mrs. Parks body
on the stairway, her shoes and part of her
skirt, as she passed on down. A moment
after that 1 heard her scream. We both
rose hastily and met her at the door Mrs
Parks had seen our apparition. She tainted
and we carried her to her room. In few
moments she came to and told us eNactl 3
what had happened.
AS I was coming down stairs sh(
said, 4 saw at the bottom, with his foo
on the first stair and his hand on tht
shirt sleeves He looked up and l saw
his face distinctly. 1t was brown an
weatherheaten like that of farmer, an,
there was slight scar over his left eye
His hand, too, was brown and hard look
ing. I noticed these things curiously
enough, do rot know why AS I reache.
the bottom of the stairs, expecting to turr
out of the way to let him pass, he vanished
utterly
John and I and Mary and Mrs. Park,
went down to the dining-room and fin
ished breakfast. As we sat there we
talked the matter over, but could see no
where any explanation for it. There coul,
be no question of freaks of vision or hal