Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-07
As They Were Told by
Some Newspaper Men.
s t.iHN& @N
A MYSTERIOUS MURDER
Was Brought Home to a Guilty Wife
Through Appearance Of Spook-
Some, Of the Other Tales That Were
Listened to.

ghosts" said the newspaper man, II am
an agnostic. l neither affirm nor deny.
I do not go behind Hamlet's generaliza-
ton touching the existence of things OF
which the ordinary thinker does not
dream. My brother, the foreign editor.
is a believer. for he has seen q ghost.
You know my brother is a thoughtful
man Of high ideas. He and untruth are
strangers. He is also a matter Of fact
man, and gives his imagination small
opportunity for riot or outbreak. so
when he says he has seen a ghost there
is slight room left for argument. The
phenomena cannot, in his presence at
least, be explained on the customary
theories of iii balanced nerves or an ex-
citable imagination.
''Some years ago, before my brother
found his proper vocation, he was travel
ing in the west as the duly commissioned
and accredited envoy of an eastern nur-
sery. His business was to sell to the
prairie homesteaders and p~re-emptors
trees labelled Pride of New York Pip
PIN or Duchess of Herkimer" pears, or
n other name the purchaser might
prefer. The trees, it might be said,
rarely lived up to the promise borne ON
the twig-thus d~isproving a proverb re-
KATU6u DIS TCSHGNLAVHN III .11IAAAy AlAN1@0 "a
society. Sometimes the infant pippin
would develop all the botanical ear
marks OF water elm before It was three
years old. / have personally witnessed
a en-acre orchard planted with pears
turn into a. Eastwood sgrove. These
facts may not have any bearing upon
a ghost story" said the newspaper man,
alphabetically. but they are singular
enough to entitle them to mention. My
brother" he continued, was once at APP
pleton City, Mo-, collecting for the sales
made by his predecessor in the business,
who is now a successful seller of gold
bricks. The natives of this region not
only declined to substitute money for
their notes of hand, but organized a
This they did on the ground that the
peach trees they planted resulted In
Usage orange-a miserable thorn Of a
shrub, which is Indigenous to the soil
around and about Appleton City. Their
cherry and apple trees had grown into
strong blackberry and young jackoaks.
My brother, SO far from collecting funds.
CAV his all to the town marshal for
the privilege Of the off1cial's society un-
til train time.
about the ghost he saw. He struck
st. Anne's, Kan, in the cours of his
robber career. Possibly st. Anne's is not
the name of the town, but 1t was some
SdI1It l1lttL udu Lie RESPONSIBILITY, anu
Anne will do. The only hotel was a
square two-story frame arrangement.
built on the general plan of an enlarged
dry goods box. It had toasted in the
relentless sun that shrivels the edges Of
the rain belt until resin had started in
every board. All that was necessary to
a bonfire was a careless match. In
the morning after his arrival. my BROTH
er too a late breakfast. 7. was fully
10 o'clock as he sat at the table read
ing the last weeks edition of the Pot
tawatomie Pioneer, waiting for the corn
bread and bacon which, from life in
Kansas, he knew was coming to him.
His table was at the corner of the large
square dining room. The door leading
the figure Of a man. He was a tall.
spare person, apparently about 60 years
old, with white beard and no mustache.
His hair. was white and required trim
ming, which is a ommon need Of hair
in some parts Of Kansas. The old mans
coat was of the Prince Albert-so-called
style Of cut, and$his trousers were bags
gy and an inch too short.
HE SPOKE NOT "A WORD.
"All this my brother noted as he look-
ed up and in his courteous manner said:
Good morning. The. old man, looked at
him. but answered no word. Good
morning again said my brother, a shade
testify perhaps, for he did not like to
waste his politeness. The old man
turned away n continued his walk to
the kitchen door. There he disappear
ed, and my brother regarded his depar-
-ture, or. perhaps the mode of his out
going, with some surprise. The old
person seemed to exhale. The door an
parently did not open, but the man was
out of sight. Shortly afterward the
landlady, who was also the cook and
waiter girl. appeared with my brothers
meal. AS she approached the table my
brother said:
"'Your people here are some naughty.
don't you Think