The Appeal., 1900-02-24

President Garfield Was About to
| Visit a Haunted House. When As
| sass:natcd-His Close Friend and
Double, Mr. SmalIey, Had Inter
ested Himself in q Case Having
to Do With the Occult and Had
| Arranged Secret Trip for the
! President. ---|.9 l.-.
| Apropos OF the statement made by the
Rev. DR.. Hills, of Plymouth church, con-
cerning mysterious visit of Abraham
! Lincoln to Henry Ward Beecher in Brook
! lyn just before the issuance Of the Eman-
| cipation Proclamation there is another
bit Of history in something the same line.
| That also involved a clandestine visit of
| q president of the United States to a
house on the other side of the East river.
The visit, as matter, Of fact, did not
take place, for a tragic event that star
| tied the whole world prevented it. But
| it was all fully planned, and would have
been carried out >to the letter but for
the tragedy in question. There was, how.
ever, a difference in the nature of the
two mysterious presidential visits which
| was perhaps characteristic Of the men.
Lincoln's errand was to seek advice on a
step Of grave national Importance; the
other presidents errand was to see a
ghost. ..s- .. 49, ... .~.
The late Eugene Virgil Snalley, editor
Of the Northwest Magazine, who died
in st. Paul about two weeks ago, was a
party TO the queer presidential trip IN
question, and it grew out of curious
series of condolences incident to Mr.
smalley's close personal relations with
the president and to certain character
istics common to them both. The story
is one of the many interesting reminis-
cences of public men; of which Mr. Small
ley could have made a most entertaining
book had he chosen to do so.
During the time Mr. Smalley was the
Washington correspondent of New York
newspaper he bore a strong personal re-
semolance to James A. Garfield. Garfield
was. not president then, but he was none
the less one Of the great men in Wash
lngton at the time. man who always at
tracted attention on the streets and in
public places.
The resemblance between Smalley and
the congressman from Ohio was so great
that the one was often mistaken for the
other, with many amusing episodes as a
natural consequence. 1t was more a re-
semblance in generalit:es than in detail.
Their features were unlike, but they were
of much the same size and build. their
boards were alike in color and form, and
the general contour; Of their heads was
very similar. 'z.5
But the resemblance was not merely
physical. They had many habits of mind
and sympathies in common, circum.
stance, among others. which made them
warm friends. There was in Garfield's s
rather poetic temperament a strong vein
Of mysticism, a fondness for the occult
which needed little cultivation to have led
Guiteau's victim into paths which other
men of great talent and strong imagina-
ton have followed until led ty them in
to strange faiths and delusions. Theo-
phile Gautier avs there is in every mans
mind certain dark chamber where bats
of superstition lurk, only needing the
right kind Of prod to set them futtering
their uncanny wings; obscuring the rea-
son with all sorts of dark shadows and
queer phantoms.
In the case of Garfield this dark
chamber was large, and the tdoor was
easily opened, If a discreet and SYM
pathetic hand touched the spring:
Mr.. Smalleys mind was precisely SINH
lar in construction in this respect, and
the more untramnelled conditions of the
newspaper correspondents life, as COM
pared with the politicians, gave him the
| privilege of an Indulgence in mystic ex-
pertinent which was denied to Gen. Gar
field. Yet the two had many quiet con-
ferences on the subject, and each found
in the other sympathetic conddant.
At about the time of Gen. Garfield's
inauguration there was much stir among
New York spiritualists over certain
strange occurrences said to be taking.
place in house in Astoria The owner
of this, hard-headed business man who
had amassed large fortune in the
distinctly material occupation Of making
pig iron, had the misfortune the winter
before to lose a very beautiful daughter
whom he idolized. She died in Florida
after lingering illness. The shock Ut
terly shattered her fathers nerves, He
brooded upon his loss until it became the
fixed idea of hts Hfe He tried to absorb
himself in business, and after a. time.
did succeed in freeing his mind from his
sorrow while actually in his downtown
| business Office. But the moment he en-
| tered his beautiful home, quite a princely
place of the old fashioned sort, with wide
grounds, and a fine lawn in the rear.
sweeping down to the East rfver-the old
grief came back to him with all its crush
ing weight.
At least it did until a strange event
occurred which he at first told only in
confidence to a few intimate friends, and
which, with other equally strange events
that followed, seemed to make quite an
other man of him and to almost reconcile
him to his loss. ~
The extraordinary story he told his
friends was this: He had gone to his
home one afternoon earlier than usual.
1t was in February, a sunny, day and
still light and clear when he reached the
gate Of his grounds. He had been un-
usually absorbed that day on an ilnpor-
| tant business matter and his mind was
still intent upon it when he entered his
grounds. For almost the first time, he
believed, since his daughters death, the
thought of her and his awful loss did
no: come to oppress him as he entered
his doorway. She was quite out of his
mind when he walked into the large front
parlor and started to go through the
open doors to the rear parlor, the win
dows OF which overlooked the lawn reach
ing down to the river.
And by one of those windows in her
favorite nook sat his daughter! So real,
SO true to life in every detail OF fea-
ture and pose was the vision, that with
his mind for the moment unburdened as it
was from the sense of his loss, he for
an Instant felt no surprise at seeing her
where he had seen her hundreds of times
before. He advanced a step toward her,
whereat she looked laughingly and
brightly at him, but held up a
| warning finger which brought him
to a standstin with, for the first
time, realization of all that had