The sun., 1898-11-06
lA ClH1(L IS HlpNTED
Fifteen Ghosts Said to Appear at
the White House at Regl-
lar Intervals.
REAPPEARED AFTER YEARS
The Demon Cat Is the Most Terrify.
ing-..Ghostly Footsteps Follow
Anybody Who Crosses Statuary
Hall at Nights--SuperstitiOn
of ColOred Men.

| While on visit to the National Capt.
tol at Washington, d. g., quite recently,
Postmaster Hugh G. Browne was in
formed that the building was haunted.
In speaking with a number of the en-
ployes, the affable Postmaster was in
formed that the Demon Cat had reap
peared after an absence of six years. He
asked for the history of this ghost, and
was given the full history of the appari.
tions, as follows:
The Demon Cat, in whose regard testi-
mony of the utmost seeming authentic
ity was put on record thirty-fve years
ago, has been missing since 1892. One
OF the watchmen on duty in the build
ing shot at it then, and it disappeared.
Since then, until now, nothing more has
been heard of it, though one or two OF
the older policemen of the Capitol force
still speak of the spectral animal in awed
whispers. Their work, when performed
in the night, requires more than ordinary
nerve, inasmuch as the interior of the
great structure is literally alive with
echoes and other suggestions Of the super
natural. In the daytime, when the
place is full of people and the noises Of
busy life, the professional guides make a
point of showing persons how whisper
uttered when standing ON certain
marble block is distinctly audible at an
other point quite distance away, though
unheard in the space between.
A good many phenomena of this kind
are observable in various portions of the
Capitol, and the extent to which they
become augmented in strangeness dur
ing the silence Of the night may we'll be
conceived. The silence of any ordinary
house is oppressive some times to the
least superstitious individual. There are
unaccountable noises and wierd and
eerie sort of feeling comes over him, dis
tracing him, perhaps, from the perusal
of his book. He finds himself indulging
in vague sense of alarm, although he
cannot imagine any cause for it.
Such suggestions OF the supernatural
are magnitied thousand fold in the
Capitol when the watchman pursues his
lonely beat through the great corridors,
whose immense spaces impress him with
sense of solitariness, while the shadows
thrown by his lantern gather into
ctf allSC anu lucIdCluR 1OlluS.
One OF the most curious and alarming
of the audible phenomena observable in
the Capitol, so all the watchmen say, is
a ghostly footstep that seems to follow
anybody who crosses Statuary Hall at
night. 1t was in this hall, then the
chamber of the House of Representa-
tives, that John Quincy Adams died at
spot indicated now by a brass tablet
set in stone slab, where stood his
desk.
Whether or not it is his ghost that
pursues is question open to dispute,
though it is to be hoped that the yener-
able ex-President rests more quietly in
his grave. At all events, the performance
is unpleasant, and even gruesone for
him who walks across the historic floor,
while the white marble statues of the
dead statesmen around the walls seem to
point at him with outstretched arms de-
risively.
OF course, the duties of the watchman
oblige him, when SO assigned, to patrol
the basement OF the building, where all
sorts of hobgoblins lie in wait. One OF
the Capitol policemen was almost fright
ened out of his wits one night when
pair of flaming eyes looked out at him
From the vaults under the chamber of
,he House of Representatives, where the
wood is stored for the fires. 1t was subse-
luently ascertained that the eyes in
question were those of fox, which,
being chevied through the town, sought
efuge in the cellar of the edifce occupied
~ the national Legislature. The animal
vas killed, for the reason which obliges
! white man to slay any innocent beast :
hat comes under his power.
But, speaking of the steps which follow
person at night across the floor of Stat
lary Hall, bold watchman attempted
lot long ago to investigate them on t
cientifc principles. He suspected
rick, and 80 bought pair of rubber
hoes, with the aid of which he pro-
eeded to examine into the question. In !
he stiffness of the night he made busi- t
ess of patrolling that portion of the
rincipal government edifice, and, sure c
nough, the footsteps followed along g be.
ind him. He corned them; it was d
lrely some trickster There was no t
disability for the joker to get away. O
ut, a moment later, the steps were o
card in another part of the hall; they
ad evaded him successfully. Similar ex- n
were tried on other nights, but b
ley all ended in the same way. n
Ghosts are supposed to appertaln most
opropriately to the lower regions, in ii
much as the ancients, who described q
lem first, consigned the blessed, as we'll t,
the damned, to neither world. Con- fs
quently, it is not surprising to find
lat phantoms of the Capitol are mostly o
legated to the basement. "
Exceptions are made in the case of al
ice President Wilson, who, as will lie h,
died in his room at the hi
nate end of the building, and also M
lth respect to John Quincy Adams, W
hose nocturnal perambulations are SO Js
noying to the watchmen. Mr.. Wilson Pl
only an occasional visitor on the prem G
IS, it is understood, finding his way C;
ither, probably, when nothing else OF
.portance is "up," SO to speak, in the WI
ritual realm, which now claims him ev
: its own.
But, to come down to things that are nj
III authenticated and sure, comparative an
speaking, the basement of the Capt.
/, as has been said, is the part of the th
ilding chiefly haunted. Beneath the br