The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-10-02
GHOSTS IN ARIZONA.
SAID TO APPEAR ANNUALLY NEAR
SKULL CREEK.


and Nouches For Its Truth.
Talking about ghosts" said Colonel
Ham Splogett of Arizona, don't you know
] never seed Il ghost until | went out to
Arizuny, mighty nigh ontcr 40 ycnrs ago.
/ never put much belief in spirit stories
until | seed spirit with my own eyes,
md ever since that time | never was
knowod to doubt man what says he's
done seed ghost.
"Thar's gulley some ten miles out CT
Bonneville on Skull creek, what u party of
ghosts ride once year always en- the same
night, lowing for short months, and thou.
sands of the best citizens of Arizuny have
done seed the things, and seed them my
self, and / never wants ter see nothing
like them ag'in.
at was in rough times, when every man
was bound ter carry brace Of Colts on his
hips and rifle across the holior of his
back. Men never thought nothing of crack.
ing loose at other men whenever they
thought their dignity had been kinder in
jered.
"For several months after l got inter
Bonneville the inbound stage had q mighty
hard time in getting ter the town. and
several times it came in without the mail
Tucson bank ter the mine, and with the
driver pulling reins upon painting horse
flesh and couple of dead men hanging ter
the straps inside the coach The boys in
town at last got sortcr rilod over these
raids, and finally ledge Smith, who was
kinder the leading man of Bonneville called
a business meeting of the boys ter discuss
the ways and means of Kidding Bonneville
and its suburbs of the hold up fellers A
plan was mapped out, and every Teller in
| the crowd was told ter shet his mouth and
go ter work.
The next trip of tho coach about 20 Of
the boys, with their rifles, went out to
Skull creek and ambushcd at the end of a
long bridge which crossed the creek.
Here it was that the stage was generally
held up, and row of crosses near the
creeks bank marked whar different fellers
| had passed in their checks what had rid
den in the stage WAL right on time we
| heard the stage come over the brow of the
hill, going like hi. AS she rolled outer
the bridge there came volley of skots,
and six fellers on horseback came tearing
down the bridge after the stage Not a
| Teller in our crowd moved Il muscle. The
driver of the stage laid on the lash, and
the animals jest ratified over the boards
with them six fellers pounding hard after.
Jest before the stage reached the ambush
tho driver fell off of the box, dead as q
doornail and the horses swerved and
went inter the creek, stage and passenger:
and all. The gang on horseback refined il
as they reached the ambush, and tlei
there was rattle Of rifles and u chorus %
yells that made my hart sick, as right Il.
l knowed ii was. The smoke clcartt
away, and thar, right on the bridge, no
morn 40 feet from whnr l stood, lay 81;
dead bodies of mon and six dead bodies o
horses. Not spark left to tell the tale
WAL, we managed To get the stage out G
tho creek, but we had ter kill the horse
and pull from the stage one of the passln
gers, POOR little woman who was comir,
ter join her husband at the town, and sh
was dead, jest little round hole in he
neck telling it's story. We picked up th
body of the driver and took it ter tow
with the little woman, and that night tn
boys dug "a deep cut near the creek ant
dumped the killed robbers into it and GOV
cred them up for good
"NOw comes the funny part of the story
1t must have been year after the wipin,
out of the gang that one of the boys from
the town was out hunting near Skull
creek Dusk caught him right alongsd
of the bridge before he knowed it, an,
then as he realized whar he was he too
out for home on long gallop. Before b
had time to go very far he heard "A rattl
of wheels, and looking back at the bridge
he saw the stagecoach coming across tn
boards at an awful rate. While he wa
bordering bout the stage, knowing
wasn't due untiI the next day, he saw 81
men on horseback come a-tearing alon
hnL; ,,l . , ,,a;,, LODI CHI -,
ter beat the devil WAL he stood kinde
spellbound in his tracks, not KNOWN
what ter do, although he said ter me AFT
erward that he wanted ter run might
bad, but was afcured that he might /
needed. Before the stage reached him i
saw the driver tumble to the bridge, deat
The horses and stage went into the creel
and the next minute a cloud seemed I
hide all the light, and when he saw ag /
there wasn't blamed thing in sight sa,
the trees and the bridge and the creel
Then he knowed what he had seen.
1.-The whole picture of the killing of ii
robbers and the smashing of the stage can
inter his mind, and jest then he caugl
sight of the crosses OIL the bank of II
creek and the high mound under whic
the robbers slept, and he suddenly SCENE
to get enough of the locality. He turne
tail and ran inter town like n scary coyot
and he never went back. Jest as sure
that date rolls around and anybody's ne;
the bridge the same thing happens je
like it did in life. / seed it twice, and
l hadn't er had some of the boys with II
I'd err left before it ended.
cts awful ter see the sight You CT
hear the roll of the wheels, heavy like Il
rattle of smothered drum beating Il
, funeral march, and the pounding of Il
animals hoofs upon the boards seems dea
ened, jest for the world like you hear the
long way Off and then, too, the sho
come to your ear like you done heard the
in a dream. You see it all, and then
Z cloud pears to hide everything, and whC
it clears away thar amt IA thing in sigI
'cept yourselves. New Orleans Time
Democrat.
Genius and Work