New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-01-16
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.
A NEW FRAGMENT BY THE AMERICAN
NOVELIST.
THE GHOST OF DOCTOR HARRIS" A TALE G
sUPERNATURALIsM IN BOSTON

When Hawthorne was American Consul at
Liverpool he often guest at the house of
the late Mr. John Pemberton Haywood, of that
city. Upon occasion when he dining
with the family he related a ghost story which
Mrs Haywood thought so remarkable that she
asked him to write it out for her. This he did
apparently keeping no copy of the manuscript
for ii has never appeared in any volume bearing
his name The manuscript has been for all
these years in the possession of Mrs. Heywood's
sister, the Hon. Mrs. Richard Denman who
has allowed it TO be communicated to The
Nineteenth Century" for publication. 1t appears
in the January number Through the courtesy
of the Leonard Scott Publishing Company, the
American agents of the periodical we are
enabled to reproduce it herewith.
THE GHOST OF DOCTOR HARRIS
am afraid this ghost story will bear a very
daoed aspect when transferred TO paper What
ever effect ii had on you, or whatever charm it
retains IN your memory is perhaps to be attributed
origInaily told. -
ns we n We're t9r sitting remember late in the
Ssnahaelier We're so mufied to produce a de-
am red glow, In this rich twilight the feelings of
nc party had been properly attuned by tales
I1sl mao !ust oeen describing that Bloody Footstep
Your Yankee guest jealous for the honor of his
country, and DESTROYS OF proving that his dead
other dead people il they think worth while TO
that long ago happened to himself Possibly in
the verbal narratf.e he may nave assumed a little
more incense than would be allowable in written
record; For the sake OF the artistic effect
may lhen have thrown in, here and there. few
1 =, "hlcn ne wiz not think 1t
proper 10 retain IN what he now puts forth as the
,7f.g good many years ago qt must be as many as
bachelor) resided Boston. the United States.
IN that city there Is large and long established
library styled the Athenaeum, connected with
winch IS reading room well supplied with for
eign and American periodicals and newspapers A
splendid edifce has since been erected by the pro-
prietors OF the institution; but at the period I
nent citizen of Boston The reading " room o eN "a
spacious haI win the eroun of the a1coop 81 &C 0
end. and the Belvedere Apollo the other was
Irequented by not few elderly merchants. retired
from business, by clergyrnen and lawyers and by
good neoneS vT gn 11ostHy old l a0ng US Lnese
nolent, and used TO nod and doze for hours
anon recovering themselves SO far as TO read a
II or 6H wq the Sf e Of Of b the b5 Of ting as
through the newspapers which they so tenaciousiy
one of these worthless whom I occasionally saw
there was the Rev Dr. Harris, a Unitarian clergy
ibink al Dorcbester subrban Ya pe Te5 noe
mediate Vicinity of Boston had never rue hem l
personally acquainted with this good old clergy
noteworthy man; SO that when he was first pointed
out TO me looked at him with certain speciality
with degree OF interest whenever I happened to
small Wthered i9r but 6rsE od gen6sman
%1f t snow %nlte mar somewhat stoopng figure
member il was in the street that 1 first noticed
but turned smartIy about on being addressed by
The gentleman w who was with me. and responded
Who Is she he?n I incurred as soon as he had
piled my companion; and from that time often
saw him and never forgot his aspect His espe-
him daily. and almost always with a newspaper
OF the Democratic party in the Northern States
AS OLD Dr. Harris had been noted Democrat dur;
thing that he should still like to read "The Boston
to sit day after day. in the seifsame chair by the
dreside. and. by degrees, seeing him there so con-
the reading room, and felt that a kind of &C
So than had ny 9a long as
hee person oa9 ae e me Oo0y 10 suppose Taet
tion this small white haired infrm, yet vivacious
s e "a and GP Of e ps one d9
especially Sabout noon as was generally his hour
Of old DR.: Harris, and taken my customary note
pearance at all different from what I had seen on
But that very evening friend SAID to DID
you hear that OLD DT. Harris is dead? No said
him at 9 the kthenum fo-day You G must be
6sd and co3Tmed the Fact with sncb gpecia
circumstances that could no longer doubt it. My
much startled at the intelligence: but, as well as
can reeollect believe that was very little dis
mistake OF my own, or perhaps the interposition
cumstances with which 1 had been accustomed TO
The next day. assembled the steps of the
Athen@qm l remember thinking within myself,
With this thought in my mind, as I opened the
spot and chair where Dr. Harris usually sat and
there TO my establishment. sat the gray. infrm
paper, was his wont! His own death must have
been recorded, that very morning, in that very
newspaper! nave no recollection of being great
ly dscomposed at the moment nor indeed that
felt any extraordinary emotion whatever. Prob
ably, if ghosts were in the habit Of coming among
OF affairs, and melt into them SO Familiarity tnat
all events, so II was in this instance. 1 looked
through the newspapers as usual, and turned over
the periodicals, taking about as much interest
in their contents at other times. Once
from the page to look again at the venerable
fGetoc c Tho d ought then to have been lying in
who felt such interest in THE Boston POST
morning after his death One might have supposed
that he would have cared more about the novelties
Psd the po he he had 1 b6nd h
I ne apparition took no notice of me. nor behaved
Nobody but myself seemed to notice him; and yet
were his lifelong acquaintance. who were perhaps
thinking Of his death, and who in a day or two
would deem 1t a proper courtesy to attend his
have forgotten how the ghost of Dr.. Harris
took its departure from the Athenaum this
easion, or in fact whether the ghost 1 went
my part-the careless way in which / glanced at
SO singular mystery and left il aside-is what now
f fair HE d iueN as anything else IN the al
From that time for a long while thereafter-for
used 10 see the figure of Dr. Harris quite
gg o fst as 9fiG egb ms qeatn II grew to be SO com
funct more than any other of the old fogies who
basked before the fire and dozed over the news
papers.
1t was but a ghost-nothing but thin ar-not
tention from a man of flesh and boodi I cannot
recolleet any cold shuddertngs. any awe, any re-
pugnance, any emotion whatever such would
De suitable ana decorous on beholdng vsitant
such is the truth. 1t appears excessively odd to me
now that did not adopt such means as 1 readily