Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-12-13
AN ARIZONA GHOST STORY.


ago, and when l opened it, wondering
why it had been sent to me and by
whom, my eye presently fell on blue
penciled paragraph:
Marshal Catlip and posse got back
late last evening. They had livery
chase-and there is one bad man the
less. 1t won't cost this town anything
to try him. Dive Tranchard needed a
change. He was too fond of horse
tesh-other peoples
Probably Arizonians understood that
paragraph perfectly at first sight, and
it intimated even to a slow New Eng
lander that "Dive Tranchard" had
been sternly punished.
"Dive Tranchardv' Something in
the name set the chords of memory
vaguely vibrating all day. and when
1 walked next morning, the full, ia
miliar name had come to me out of the
past-Dives Tranchard! 1t must be he
the queer boy" of the school where
/ first began as teacher in kennebec
county, Maine, 20 years ago.
l was then only IS years old, and
the school agent who hired me and
the good minister-member of the school
board who gave me my certificate"
said that might pull through" if l
could manage Dives Tranchard.
In the schoolroom, Dives did not ap-
pear formidable at first view, but
was not long in discovering the fer
tility of his mischievous ingenuity.
The wits of the average schoolmaster
could not possibly keep pace with the
swift thickness in which he INDUCED
himself.
He was a somewhat sedate and dis
tinguished looking youngster, with a
clear-cut, refined face, and the incon-
sstency between his countenance and
his conduct was such that l never was
able to feel, during the whole time he
was my pupil, that l quite understood
him.
Dives was an orphan, who. while
still very young, had been adopted by
the storekeeper of the place, Mr.. Null
hall.
His father had been very intem-
perate and blasphemous man. whose
dearest delight had been to rail at the
Scriptures. In profane bravado he
had named his three sons Judas, To
phet and Dives. The two former had
died of Group while very young, and
Dives, or "Dive," as he was generally
called was the sole survivor of the
family.
Naturally, a teacher only is years
old could not hope to assume the role
of moral adviser to a youth of II with
entire success.
When l attempted it,with Dives, he
grinned in my face. and the effort end
ed in a rough-and tumble fight over the
schoolhouse floor In this conflict l es
tablished a kind of doubtful suzer-
ainty over him. and afterward main
tanned it with bold front. but the
issue was always in some little doubt.
What the outcome would have been
is far from certain. l have a feeling
that Dives would have been too much
for me. in time. had our relations rs
pupil and pedagogue continued long.
But they lasted only three weeks. On
the first day of January he ran away,
in consequence of curious prank.
District Number Eleven was the only
place where l ever saw what was be-
lieved to be n ghost. The people there
Were not superstitous, but I found
that many of them had seen an APP
partition that they could not account
for. 1t had been seen three times the
previous winter and once late in No
vember, few days before l arrived
More than 20 persons admitted that
they had seen 1t during snow storms,
but all made light of it; the people
were not ignorant, and the apparitlon
puzzled them much more than 1t
frightened them.
The mysterious thing. whatever 1t
was. had always been seen at night,
and seemed to be kind of phantom on
horseback, an equestrian ghost, SO as
To speak.
1t had been dlscerned passing at
great speed. but the hoofs made no
noise. and II looked thin. or white.
and was hardly distinguishable In out
line amidst the falling snowfiakcs.
That was about all could learn re-
garding the phantom; and rs the repre-
sentative Of education. set myself To
discountenance belief In the spcctra.
My theories were received with re-
spect the only difficulty In the way of
their entire acceptance was that num-
bers of those who listened to me had
really seen the ghost
IL was place where the people re-
talned many of the old customs of an
cestral Puritan England. among others
that 'of watch-night." or watching the
old year out and the new year In. on
the night of December aist. II was
announced at the meeting house the
previous sunday that there would h. q
watch-night the following Saturday
evening. 10 last half past twelve. New
Years morning. There would la sing.
ing aud prayers. bur IL was not to be