The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-01-16


door there.
at was only the boaraer, mamma, !" said Miss
Bank finally.
Mrs. Bank recovered. Miss Bank was taken
i'll. Master Bank WINS taken III. As for Sally
she was seeing things all the time. II II wasn't
q policeman, II was n dog or q cat or n cow-riRht
in the middle OF q room Mt broad daylight and at
night. Night after night Miss Bank sitting In her
room heard the b-r.r-r and the click, click, click
of the sowing machine. Day after day and
twenty times n day the members Of tho house.
hold were accompanied up or down the stairs by
this invisible presence. At %last-.it was q little
more than four months after the lease for the
house had been signed-the doctor advised the
family TO movo. The family was delighted.
Mrs. Bank went to the real estate agent. She
didn't tell him Of the queer goings-on In the
house for fear sho would be laughed at. She
hadn't told her doctor for foar he would laugh
at her. She hadn't told anybody in the neigh.
borhood for fear tho %neighbors would laugh ut
hor. She was a woman Of sense. She know
that other people didn't believe In such foolish
things as ghosts. She didn't believe in them
herself. yet these were her experiences. and how
to explain them she didn't know. The agent Of
tho house said he would release her from the
lease. She went back home. She told Miss
Bank that they would move. Miss Bank said,
Thank heaveni' They started packing the
noxt day.
Mrs. Bank was in the linen closet sorting over
things there. She looked up. She saw passing
through the air downward OF the door o mans
arm. It moved slowly. Tho arm was covered
by o black sleeve; there was q ouff on the wrist
and Q gold cuff button. The band looked human.
"who's there y said Mrs. Bank.
There was no response. 1t was the boarder.
Mrs. Bank thought that tho arm was her daugh.
ter's. II wasn't for several minutes that she
thought Of the black coat sleeve and the cuff and
sleeve buttons, and she didn't get frightened
when she did think Of them.
The work of preparing for removal went on
that day. Thore are hills near the house, there
was snow on the ground, and Miss Bank wanted
one more coast before they moved on the day
following. So she and her brother went out
that evening and spent an hour or two c~oasting.
When they returned Mrs. Bank was huddled In
one corner of q room, pale and frightened.
GOOD heavensi" she gasped. GOOD heav.
ensi sister, the boarder 10 going with usi He
hasn't done q thing since you have been Rone
but throw around trunks and things up stairs.
why. 1t sounded almost like thunder. There
has been a banging and thrashings and smashing
until I thought the house was coming down."
Miss Banks succeeded in ~quieting her mother,
but neither Of them slept that night, though
they heard no more noises.
The day following Miss Bank went to the
third floor to finish the packing there. She was
STOPPING over in the act Of picking up a paper
box. when she felt the presence near her and
distinctly saw o mans arm at her side roach up
and stretch around her. She was SO frightened
that she could not speak. She was afraid to
run. Almost stiff with fear. she walked out of
the room, banged the door behind her. and then
fed downstairs, falling, almost ~fainting. at her
mothers feet on the floor below. Not o minute
afterward Sallie anne dashinR into the room,
throw her arms around Mrs. Banks neck. OK.
claiming:
Fob awd! Fob Gawd!"
Her eyes were rolling, and, black as sho was,
her face was almost ashen. She told Mrs. Bank
when she recovered that she was in the cellar at
the foot OF the stairs when she saw distinctly at
her side q mans arm. She saw it raised and
slipped around behind her. She described the
arm. Miss Bank described the arm she had
seen. The two descriptions were identical in
every particular, and they were identical with
the arm Mrs. Bank had seen the day before in
the linen closet. That settled It. The scare
was complete. They wouldn't have stayed in
that house another night II the owner had made
them O present Of 1t. They gathered all their
possessions together on the first floor. They
ripped open boxes and trunks and bags. They
bchrCutu eNeTyU ulHR u mdkO Sure LuhU nOC ono
atom Of STUFF that did not belong to them and
that they had not brought to the house should
get away with Thorn. for fear the boarder would
come after II.
Now, that Is the story. How are you going to
account for It'll From the day they left the
house to this day neither Mrs. Bank nor Miss
Bank nor Master Bank has seen a Rhost-or any
thing suggesting a ghost. Nothing strange has
happened to them. They have been precisely
as they were before they went into the house.
reasonable creatures. They didn't tell the re-
porter that what they saw In the house was q
ghost. but they saw something; they felt some
thing; they knew something was about, and
what they saw and what they felt and what
they knew is as related above. Miss Bank and
Mrs. Bank and Commodore Bank are well
known In Philadelphia society. Their correct
names are not given because of that fact, and
because they feel that everybody who heard the
story would say they were victims of foolish
hallucinations and that they didn't see the
things that they did see.
After the Banks moved from this house 1t was
vacant for some time. 1t was purchased by a
business man. who had heard some ghost stories
about 1t, and attributed them to idle gossip or
to a colored mar who had had privileges In the
house which were cut off when the Banks
moved in. This business man purchased the
house for his mother and his sister. The sister
has since married and is rearing a family. They
have lived in tho house two years. They as
sured the reporter that since moving in they
had neither heard nor felt invisible presences
nor seen visible presences. They had heard no
strange noises; there had been no manifesto
lions OF the supernatural whatever. And there
you are.
SELLING GOLDFISRE S.