Omaha daily bee., 1899-09-24

returning late at nights invariably took
the opposite side of the street in passing.
THE remarkable experience Of a negro,
named Jackson, was the last straw, and not
many months after that the cottage was
ordered by the owner to be pulled down.
Jackson was a worthless character who did
odd jobs for residents Of the town. His
veracity at any other time or on any other
subject would have been questioned, but
such was the mind of the people that they
swallowed his story about this so-called
haunted house without a grain of salt.
According to Jackson he was returning
home late one Saturday night after attend
ing a dance down South Omaha way. 1t
used to be the Drexel district. He was feel
ing unusually tired, he said, and stopped
to take a nap in the deserted house. Up to
that time he had laughed at the stories of
ghosts that were said to dance in the back
yard, and had asserted on a number of &C.
casions that he didn't believe in them.
"He found the front door unlocked and
entered the hall. Striking matches he made
his way into what had been used as the
kitchen, and, fixing himself as comfortably
as possible, he fell asleep. He related that
he was awakened by feeling the presence of
someone in the room. The night was pitch
dark. AS he started to leave he saw a weird
apparition. Tramping noiselessly from
closet to larder and from larder back. again
to the closet, in search of something to eat,
were the phantom figures Of the old Ger
man woman and her children. Their forms
were of vapor and shone like PHOSPHORUS.
jackson leaped through the window, car
rying the glass and sash with him. Then
he ran to town. When he related his al
legged experience 1t was like sounding the
death knell OF the house. AS days passed 1t
became more dilapidated and really came
TO have an uncaDny aUDparanca. The Win1nW
panes disappeared one by one, the shutters
fell of and the doors were torn from their
hinges by the winds that played havoc
through the house on stormy nights. Twice
1t was struck by lightning, and negroes told
weird stories Of headless people that had
been seen entering the building after dark.
when 1t came into my hands for rental
/ knew / had TO destroy the ghost story,
and as ] was convinced that boys of the
neighborhood had been playing pranks, / de-
cided to catch some of them and disclose
the fraud. My first nights watch was re-
warded by the appearance OF the ghosts,
true to report, above the back yard graves.
At first a single white figure lowering in
the air was apparent in the darkness. II
seemed to taper toward the head, answering
the description OF people beholding 1t pre-
~viously, who said 1t wore a tall, peaked
cap. 1t made irregular movements, some
A'ANS NASNShAhbI ohalAAih6' a IVY
soon the little ghosts began TO appear and
indulge in wild orgies.
Il started toward them. AS ! approached
they gradually became more indistinct and
finally melted entirely into the atmosphere.
/ then went back some distance until they
reappeared like blue streams OF fire. Sud
denly / remembered a former experience
and the whole thing flashed across me. The
ghosts were in reality, as I afterward proved,
the phosphorescent fumes due TO the decom-
position OF the organic gases thrown off
by the bodies, half covered as they were,
in the still, huinid air. In the winter when
the ground was frozen the shoemaker had
been unable to dig far below the surface.
OF course my explanation was never ac-
cepted. People said / was trying TO rent
the property and they couldn't understand
how the ghosts got into the house. and
neither can / unless Jackson got to think
ing of the Germans in his sleep and
dreamed he saw them"