Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1899-10-14
Farmer TayIOr's Ghost !
BY Rose L. Colby.


?
I'm TAYLOR and were. represent
III ing Chicago houses in the west,
each, however, carrying different lines
of goods. Jim was well fixed and owned
a good farm adjoining Cheyenne, To-
,cality conveniently situated for him as
regarded his field of work, but after the
death of his father, who in fit of de-
spondency caused by continued i'll
health had committed suicide, he left |
the farm and moved to Chicago.
II don't know what to do with The
old place. he said one day, as we sat
Sn a hotel rotunda enjoying an after
dinner chat and some good cigars.
"John Brownson, whose land adjOins
1t, wants to buy it, but he is not will
ing to pay even half it's actual value
He has been persistent in his efforts to
get me to sell, but I hate to give the
place away, which would be virtually
doing. if 1 let him have it at the figure
The offers. Brownson has the name of
being rather a schemer, and 1 think
ne wants to take the two pieces of
ground and lay off new addition TO
cheyenne, by dividing the land into
town lots"
q Al were you. SuOuiQ SO duO hNC
on it, or rent it." suggested.
THE fact isl he replied, ''I could
not get my wife TO live in the house,
even though hired man and woman
to stay with her, and il is impossible
TO get anyone else to live there, or rent
at, at any price"
why, what's the matter with it?'
i asked.
Jim shifted himself around uneasily
In his chair, and looking somewhat
ssheepish, answered:
-'They say the house is haunted" I
threw myself back in my chair and
laughed aloud, fairly shouting, the idea
seemed TO me so preposterous-ah haunt
ed house in Wyoming town, ct the
dawn of the twentieth century.
why, Jim, you certainly don't be
fieve such rot as that" / exclaimed
when / recovered myself.
81 don't know" be replied, shaking
his head, obviously, strange things
have been seen and heard there, &C
,scording to the testimony OF persons
whose truthfulness has never beer
questioned. I believe there is an ele
-ment of superstition in all human ma
ture, which only requires certain en-
--vironments and conditions TO bring 1
out While 1 don't really believe il
ghosts, vet I would not stay alone il
Che old house all night for any amour
of money"
II assure you. Jim broke in, "tha
superstition is simply a relic Of bar
6arism, and no one but very ignoran
achump would confess TO belief /
ghosts nowadays. am glad to be abb
TO assert that there is not a grain c
superstition in my composition, and
prove it to you, I'll agree to sleep !
your house instead Of the hotel the ne1
time I make Cheyenne"
Jim eagerly took me up on my prop'
ssition, and pledged cigars in profusio
If I succeeded in making good my proH
Uses I, enthused over the prospect
demonstrating the absurdity of the II
mors in circulation, not only pledge
myself to stay in the house alone, bI
to sleep in the very room that had bee
-Jim's fathers, and which had not bee
disturbed since his tragic death.
WhenInext arrived in Cheyenne ga
Jane, the chambermaid of the hotel,
dollar and asked her to go over to Il
Taylor place and get the front roo
upstairs ready for me to sleep in III
might
Law salxesl Yoa don't ever mean
sleep there alone" exclaimed Jar
They do say that ole man Tayioi
les trampin' round de house de who
might long"
~Do you believe that, Jane?" I aske
seriously.
WALL" she answered, timorously,
- - n !. 4
very front room was his'n. I'm me
afeerd to go dere alone by myself
de day time
''Well, Jane" said, you can take
Got Of your friends ever there with W
when you go, for company. promis
Jim Taylor I'd sleep there; and, l
sides, would not be afraid of old m
Taylor if he were alive, and I'm su
have no cause to fear him now tn
hes dead"
The Taylor house, two-story VIII
cottage, stood off by itself just at I
edge of the town limits. On one 81
was an uneven looking hedge fen
forming the boundary line between I
Taylor and the Brownson lands. A fl
TALL willow trees grew so close to I
house that their branches touched a
scraped upon the roof as they sway
back and forth by the breeze frS
the prairie.
II was about ten o'clock whe1
opened the front door and found
way through the hall by the aid o.
lighted match. There were no curta
on the windows, and as 1 assembled I
stairs could see through, into I
empty rooms, where the moonliG
formed fantastic figures on the b.
floors as it flickered in through I
branches Of the trees outside.