The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-03-08
PART 7.

Neither Talkington is a quaint old
red built, red-tiled townlet. 1t is the
seat of the camel s-hair paint brush
industry, but at the time this story
opens it had another and more singu-
lar claim to distinction. 1t was the
only place in the Kingdom that pos
sessed a genuine ghost. There have
been many reputed ghosts up and
down the country, but their existence
has never been satisfactorily proved.
These fictions show their presence by
absurdly stumping about on bare
boards, clanlling heavy chains, break
ing crockery, moving heavy furniture
and by giving utterance to weird and
unCouth unds-manifestations utter
ly without rhyme or reason, and which
cannot in any one case be traced to
bona fide spirit.
Not SO was it with the ghost of
Neither Talkngton. 1t was a genuine
Elizabethan relic, the shade of an old
squire who had come to a bad end af-
ter leading an awful life, and the Meth
er Talkingtonians We're very proud of
it. 1t resided at the Grange at the far
end of the town. For generations no
living being had tenanted IT.. 1t was
specially set apart for the ghost, the
local authority arranging that the
moat was always filled with stagnant
water and that the place was kept in
the desolate condition so appropriate
to it's tenant.
1t was an Ideal place for a ghost to
dwell in, and in the shade of the squire
evidently thought so, for he never left
it. Summer and winter 1t was to be
found there by all those desirous of
seeing it and many were those who
came.
Neither Talkington owed much of its
prosperity to the ghost, for never q
day passed without visitors turning up
for the purpose of seeing it, and on
some days they came in shoals. Mat
ters had much improved in this respect
since the Psychial Research society
had investigated the phenomenon and
pronounced it genuine, for this had
introduced big American custom, and
in the summer large parties came from
Stratford on their way to London.
1t was harmless ghost, and of a
taciturn disposition. Sometimes IT
would speak, but on those occasions its
language was chiefly maledictory. 1t
was extremely methodical in its habits
and was to be seen any time between
midnight and cock crow and between
it sat in the dining room smoking a
fantastic pipe that had been given to
the squire by his friend, Sir Walter
Raleigh, and the evening hour 1t spent
in perambulating the terrace by the
sun dial. on the lookout for a lady who
had made an appointment some two
hundred years ago, which she had
failed to keep.
This methodical arrangement of the
ghost had existed according to authen-
tic accounts from the squireS death al
the end of the sixteenth century, and
his shade had never varied its pro
gramme within living memory. Con-
ceiVe, therefore, the CONSERVATION that
reigned in Neither Talkington when the
report spread that the ghos was mis-.
ing. A large party 0l Visitors from
Tontine, Oak, had called upon it al
two a. M, and the guide had been un.
able to give them value for their shil'
lings. They waited till four o'clock
but to no purpose, and although theil
money was returned they left Neither
Talkington the next morning in higf
dudgeon. That night two missionarie!
and photographer armed with a tlast
light apparatus, were in waiting by tht
sun dial, but they waited in vain.
The disappearance of the ghost wa!