Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1897-04-29
Haunted Rooms.
REMARKABLE STORIES OF GHOSTS
AT HOME.


race In a favorite suburban distric
vi ousy town. 1t is not far from
: busy highroad. The scene as tn,
, visitor ascends the steps of the hous,
Is viva with the present and prac
tical. Yet drops of water hay,
) iailen here upon the hands of occu
pants In the house, traceable to nc
, ordinary agency. Thus, it is said
the spirits of the past have made
their presence manifest.
) On the first floor are bedroom
ana drawing-room. In the last.
named apartment it would be diff.
, cut TO discover anything unusual
AS you enter the chamber a full.
length mirror faces you. The room
Is lit by bracket gas,jets. These are
, draped, and the falling curtains in
the windows make the light by day
suodued. The candles in the piano
forte sockets are tinted. Letters lie
upon the table, with postmarks from
places in South Africa. The bed
room is equally conventional. its
walls adorned with scripture texts,
as Is common, uttering a series of
moro or less helpful comments on
the conduct OF life. There is no
character in this place, for it is q
spare room, and each successive oc-
cupant seems to have left some me-
mento of his or her personality.
wholly out of harmony with its sur
roundings.
No souvenir, however, can be
found of the temporary occupant
whose presence here was fraupht
with the deepest interest. This was
a lady; and sleeping in this room
one night she was awakened hy a
chill wind blowing across her face {;
yet the window and door were
tightly closed, and the night without
was calm and still. More than once
this marvel was repeated. AT last,
in addition to to chill wind, the
sleeper, opening her eyes, perceived,
leaning over her as she lay in bed
the gentle face of woman long
since dead. 1t was an appealing
face-sad and terribly intent. This
spirit said, in distinct voice, Fol
low me! J" Whereupon the woman
so strangely called from sleep rose.
and pursued the wierd visitant into
the adjoining room. AS suddenly
as it had come the phantom vanished,
but not before it had whispered,
Tomorrow"
On the following night the chill
breath again awoke the sleeper
Over her the spirit bent, more and
more clearly denizen from the
shadowed kingdom of the dead
She who thus commuped with this
phantasmic form has told the tale.
From her the spirit eXacted oaths of
secrecy on private matters of grave
Importance, then bade her take
long journey to remote place, of
which even the name she had never
heard of before, ascertain certain
things from persons in the village
affairs again of deep significance;
and-last and most stringent man.
date-she was to pick a flower from
a grave in the churchyard, which she
was hidden to visit in the dead of
night.
All this she did. The ghost was
real enough to the woman who told
this curious history; for she took
the long journey to the village,
learned fBcts which she was the bet
ter to have learned and remained all
night alone in the church there, save
when at last she sailed out into the
darkness, and, crossing many places
in the churchyard where the dead
were laid to rest, knelt and plucked
a flower-an act of penitence-from
the grave to which her only guide
had been that ghOstly monitor.
Instances are not uncommon of
fiendish laughs which hover in caves
and ruined towers but in a castle
in the north of Ireland there is bed
room haunted by a cough, hideous
and unearthly, terribly inhuman.-
Sleep in that CHASTITY chamber is not
possible. This enables me to refer
to striking attribute of haunted
rooms, the fact that they so fire.
quently induce insomnia and that
not in persons predisposed, but in
entire strangers.
A singular case has come under
my notice, not, believe, previously
published, of haunted house in the
north of London. 1t was taken by
| v
Cooper, an aunt of Mrs. Viridis, oc-
cupied one of the bedrooms, but was
wholly unable to sleep, and, indeed,
left the house in consequence. La
ter, when alone in the draWing-room,
Mrs. Viridis not infrequently heard
noises in the bedroom above her, and
often ran upstairs to ascertain the
cause. Always the room was empty
and nothing disarranged. She at.
tributed the noises to her nerves.
One day she heard a deliberate strug-
gle there; yet on looking in again
the room was vacant and undis.
turbed. More than once in the dead
of night Mr.. and Mrs. Viridis both
distinctly heard sounds as if some
one were dragging a body down the
stairs. The chamber in which the
sounds were heard so often was g
spare room; but, as no visitors could
ever sleep in this apartment, its use
i'm that respect was eventually aban.
doned. Mrs. Viridis making it into
q little drawing-rOOm for her oWT
use. She was never comfortable
there, though it was furnished costly
More than one Of her friends shud
dered in the room, saying to Mrs
Viridis, "Surely there is some one
here besides us ?"
Strangers waiting to see Mr.. ant
Mrs. Viridis have been known t.
look anxiously behind the curtains
and even to step outside, as if the!
preferred waiting on the landing
One day as Mrs. Viridis was coming
down stairs she passed the room, and
the door being slightly open, she saw
,,;tb;n tho room q younp and Lowell,