The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1897-10-29

florida auamler n us were giving b.
nur experience when my old college
friend, Mckay, took hia turn. Hois
i1p Dll % preEaritaia or exaggcr.
ate. Hn travelled iu Europe with his
wife aul olgrllri his children There.
aud Tor eight years lived Boz Italy or iu
tlo cities among tho Mediterranean.
laying sometimes several months iu
ono place On arriyiugat Dresden he
sought Tor pleasant house % rent aud
found one ou O hin iu the suburbs.
large, massive, roct.built mansion Of
the pIden time. lie and his wife aud
daughter usrr p'yu-rI w.th the pIucg
and rented two rooms Tho rooms
were high and large AID had heavy
c0ruice about four feet below the cell
ing ON this coruire aud just over the
mantol was q portrait Of a man. IL
was an old oil painting ald the mass
i've frame was fastened 90 n hook iu
the ceiling. There was n piano in the
front room aud set OF fine old.fash-
toned furniture The lnndlady was a
sad featured old woman. The first
night Of their domicile Mr.. Mckay
and his wife aud daughter sat up
quite late and the piano was tried and
found 10 be In perfect order. When
they retired the lamp was shaded and
left dimly burning. About midnight
there was a racket up about that por-
trait and IL was seen TO break loose
from the ceiling and turn over edge
ways along the cornice 10 tho corner
OF the room and then came down with
a crash. Why gravity didn't make 10
fall down by the mantel was the mys-
terry. Next morning the servant came
and removed the portrait. Next night
after they had retired q heavy screen
that was between the bed and the
window galloped around TO the foot of
the bed and fell with a crash. The
laudlady came in the morning and re-
moved it and said but little in expla-
nation. She seemed troubled. The
next night Miss Mckay, who was
gifted in music, played till quite late
and after she had closed the piano ana
Joined in the conversation with her
parents there was an awful crash IL
the piano behind them. II sounded
like everything had been violently
broken by blows from heavy bludgeons
and the blows were several times
repeated and with crushing force.
For some minutes Mr. Mckay and his
wife and daughter looked and won
dered and said nothing. Then he got
up and approached the piano and in
spected it closely. Then he ventured
to open it and found every string and
every key in order. The next night
about midnight there was pitiful wall
of a child crying in the room. The
lamp was turned up and a search for
the child was made Sometimes it
was in one corner, then in another,
then up on the cornice and then ont in
the hall and away off, but its cry
was distressing, as though in great
anguish. The landlady was rung for
and came and whom asked about the
child said there was no child in the
house, nor did her neighbor have any
children. Madam, did you ever hear
the crying of a child in this room be-
fore?" She said she had, but it was a
long time ago, and he learned from her
that during the war with Napoleon the
inmates Of the house were all murdered
for harboring some traitors. The man
whose portraitfell and his wife and son
and a little child. She thought that
maybe the haunts had left the house
by this time or she would not have
rented it.
"Now," said my friend, "this all
happened just as 1 tell you and my
little wife will say to you that / have
not exaggerated it. =" We looked at the
little woman and she said cit was just
that way" OF course they moved the
next day.
Do l believe it? Yes, believe Mr..
and Mrs. Mckay; more than that my
mind is not satisfied. Bill ARP, in
! Atlanta Constitution.