Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-07-24
HIS VIEW OF GHOSTS,
CORONER TAYLOR TALKS ABOUT
THESE MYSTERIOUS BEINGS.
DOES NOT BELIEVE IN THEN.
The Learned Scientist Not q SUPER
naturalist, and Says There f. No
Record Of Where an Intelligent
Person Has Seen q Ghost.

Taylor, OF this city.
Everybody knows DR.. Taylor. He Is
Richmond's wizard, and, besides, there
are few pies being cut in Richmond which
ne hasn't got his finger in, anyhow.
First Of all, he has that pleasant occu-
patton Of being City Coroner. II body,
however harmless and wel-meaning.
takes notion to let locomotive or a
street-car run over him and liberate his
languishing soul from It's prlson-housc of
clay. or If. perchance, he quaffs prussic
acid to the honor OF the fair but false
one who coldly turns her back upon him,
why. 1t is DR.. Taylor who is the first to
be called, and until he has adjusted his
steel-rimmed glasses over the remains
several times, even the false one now
penitent for what she has DONE cannot
pillow the fainting head in her lap, or the
tender hands of relatives bear away the
stiffening form.
is STATE CHEMIST, ALSO.
DR.. Taylor is also State Chemist, and
may expect a brickbat from AlbemarIe
county by most any mail for him 10 soak
in acids and tell what is in it, when every
4 'N"SNh~ptS man hliONS II llttuS VI hO-
thing but red clay, baked in the Abe
marie sun. But the law says the Doctor
| must "analyze' tito use a hard word
| and send back long list of things no one
| would have ever accused the poor brick
| Of being guilty of concealing only to be
read and discredited by the innocent
farmer.
He is also a member of the faculty OF
the Medical College of Virginia, and
teaches chemistry and physics in the High
School. There he Is expected to tell boys
and girls bat two bodies can't occupy
the same space at the same time. and
that sulphuretted hydrogen has a delight
full odor.
DOES NOT LIKE LAWYERS.
DR.. Taylor is against all lawyers. This
he says, is one virtue of his of which ne
thinks he is pardonably vain. With great
complacency he goes on from year to year
disliling them as n class most cordially |
They have also said some very unkind |
things about him, and the Doctor would |
feel badly about IL did he not hold to the |
belief that lawyers seldom say what they |
think, and only by accident tell the truth. |
DIR. Taylor is, moreover, the walking
encyclopaedia for the city and State at |
large on all questions Of the weird and
strange. If there is shower Of meteors,
or If the moon adorns herself with a ring,
or whatever turns up or down, for that
matter, which is not seen every day in
the year. somebody calls up Phone No. |
692 and asks what he knows about it.
1t was quite natural, in view Of all this,
that a scribe Of the Dispatch. who want
cd to hear something about ghosts, should
call upon him for it.
The man whose business 1t is to inspect |
dead folks, and who will not even let such |
harmless creatures rest, one would thiak
would be favored with a perennial visit
tation Of "sperits." But alas things never
turn out aa poor mortals expect them.
THE WIZARD IN HIS DEN.
DR.. Taylor was found seated at his
desk, in his office on Grace street, only
ne had wheeled around in his chair and :
was chatting with friend when the Dis
patch man entered. {
Doctor" explained the scribe, 81 want y
you TO give me a real, good. rich ghost q
experience"
why" returned he. II never saw a
,host in my life, and never saw man
Who could tell the truth who had seen
ne. I don't believe there is any such =
hing. Now" he said, 81 have heard q b
Of Of ghost stories, and have had my n
air 10 stand on end while listening to
he tales. / believed them, too, then; but II
have outgrown that by this" u
When the Doctor reached the point I'm Z,
he foregoing sentence where he alluded !
D the insurgency OF his hair in his youth 81
III days. he put his hand to the top of o
is pate, yet snatched it away quickly, IL
S IL he had lost something and would -
~ to catch 1t. v,
DR. LAFFERTY SEES THEM. Gu
However" the corpse inspector contlnu- !"
I, "there is my good friend and Method
{ brother, DR.. Lafferty, who believes in
hosts. and has seen many q one. But l
II you, my young friend" unused the ma
Octor, don't you believe everything Fl
,ople tell you. Folks are no. constitu- te
Onally built TO tell the truth. and they 81
mt do It," is
We'll. Doctor, didn't you ever sea any NJ
ing at night you couldn't make out?' Ps
'Oh. yes" he replied. but stayed there Sc
It'll / did make it out. and didn't run G.
way like I have heard OF folks doing VI
10 claim they were born to see Spirits ~
people didn't run, there wouldn't be II.
II the ghost stories that there are" tif
Dr.. Taylor is too gentle to say so. OF he
urse, but he talked along in a strain ne
lich seemed to give IL as his private
lnion that a man who saw ghosts was
her very excitable or was careless OF
, manner in which he handled the ~
It'll. re,
IS NO SUCH THING. Va
becoming quite serious, however. the ga pa
zard Doctor said that after all he did RI ro,
believe in the supernatural. Nature Tn
her fixed laws and conditions, and for
re was nothing ever seen or ever oc- the
red whose mysterious appearance
Id not be explained away by them. 81
re really given the matter much
ught," he declared. land other men 80
,e written books on IT. but so far as 7 n,
wv there is not one authentic instance ers
record where person Of intelligence mic
for himself a ghost or supernatural tur
n.y. d tI
Ghost stories usually come down 10 US en-
what somebody heard from his grand me,
hers uncle's aunts third cousin. AT ..--
Ill meeting OF our college faculty one
I asked in all seriousness, because 1
ly wanted to know, IL any one pres
had ever seen or known positively or
appearance OF ghost. All TO the last
/ replied that they had not. The tes- y
ony of the leading scientists who have =
. lived Is that they never saw any
q which led them to believe in the 70
Among these are New su
Huxley, Liebig ana others. Inc ohiy Gil
OF science who claims such lhihs acl
7 know OF Is Crookes, the inventor OF of
Crookes tube which is used in the X BIZ
experiments. So you see couid not tui
or write you anything about ghosts Ne
gh should try ever so hard. be-
% never, saw one and don't DelleVe IN