The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1901-05-03
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! A CREEPY EXPERIENCE.
HOW A DOGS VISION VAS TERI-
FLED BY A CL1iRTOYANT.
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= FLED BY CL1iRTOYANT. 4
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"Well, sir" said Crampton when it
comes TO the ghost business. | suppose |
have had as varied an experience as any
man of my age in the country"
And you came in time" said Farwell.
ito disbelieve in the whole supernatural
business, of coursct"
Il cannot say that | came to any posi-
tive conclusion, but think, on the con
trary, that was led to abandon some
very positive conclusions which were not
unlike those which you seem to hold
One was that because | could not see or
hear thing nobody else could. never
worked out bit of satisfactory evidence
of Supermundane interference by an in
vestigation. But like everybody else who
goes into this sort of thing, | ran up at
last against stone wall and then hauled
off. The diSturbers refused to disturb
when | was in the haunted house. The
pale blue light didn't tighten. The foot
steps in the hallway were silent. The
cold air rcf sed to blow even when
turned the hts down at midnight The
blood stains always turned out under the
microscope to be oxide of iron, lust as
the elixir of the clairvoyants turned out
to be hypophosphates.' Slade baflled me,
but never convinced me. Home disap-
pointed me, and the materiaizing circles
wearied me. If any man tried patiently
and fearlessly to see a ghost, did"
And" said Farwell, with considerable
satisfaction, you arrived at the sensible
conclusion that a ghost never is seen.
That's what | said"
NO" replied Champion. 81 came to
the conclusion that ghosts are seen"
Farwell laughed. 1T was some ma
hatma, or, more likely, gray eyed sibyl.
not at all ghostly HERSELF
NO" said Crampton 1T was a dog
that led me to that conclusion. In IS.
you will remember, | bought that old
house just out of Chambersburg, in Penn
sylvania. You will recall the big dining
room, with its old fashioned fireplace,
and YOU may recall my mastiff, Hubert
'Hubc,' we called him. There wasn't
anything mysterious about the house. 1t
was one of those old fashioned colonial
affairs without any special traditions
of interest and unaSSociated with any
crimes that | ever heard of. Nothing oc-
Cured in it to disturb a pleasant life
that led there with my family until the
winter of IS. Dave Pettus had come
down and had been visiting us for sew
eral weeks. The fact is, we were doing
some work together on a book for which
we had contract. 1t was about the
early history of Louisiana, and Pettus
boI oppur1ttl Ia oil q ,rrnot hull. Of rnato,io1
for the purpose. He and | used to sit be-
fore that big fireplace at night, after the
family had retired, and discuss our work,
with bottle of old whisky on the table.
Nearly always Hube would lie on the
rug before the fire, and Alice's big cat
would be pretty sure to be asleep on the
cushioned bench at the corner of the
chimney. One night, while we were talk
ing about Lafittc and General jackson,
Hube growled ominously. jumped up and.
backing against my chair, began to bark
violently and exhibit unmistakabe signs
of terror. The cat, with her fur stand
ing on end, made break for the closed
door and began to cry piteously to get
out. The disturbance was so sudden
that PettuS and | were startled. There
stood the dog with his tail drawn down
between his legs, his nose pointing at
the southeast corner of the room and his
head slowly turning as he barked, as if
his eyes were following something that
was slowly crossing the room diagonally
to the northwest corner, and all the time
he was pushing against my chair with
his hind quarters. He finished this per-
formancc, when the object of his excite
mcnt had evidently disappeared, by walk
ing over the trail with his nose down to
the northwest corner of the room and
there giving farewell bark to the vain
scoting.
Il took a lantern and went outside,
Pettus following me. There was a light
fall of snow on the ground and not a
break in 1t anywhere of Il footprint or
carriage wheel. The dog, instead OF
searching for treSpaSsers, appeared to
be relieved to get out Of the house, and
when we went back it was with some
difficulty that | got him in again. But he
utterly refused to 90 into the dining
room. As for the cat she disappeared
for three days It's the most eXtraor-
binary performance | ever saw | re-
marked to Pettus. 'and | can't imagine
what the cause Of it was
NbIutlhluS IldSNth utibNH SpHi l'pIls
said Pettus That is unmistakable to
me-
"Then we diligently examined the room,
shaking the curtains, inspecting the
wainscoting, moving the furniture, sound
ing the floor and going through all the fa-
miliar proceedings of such n search. But
everything was right and tight, not rat
or loose board, window shutters hooked
tight and the sashes fastened, not the
slightest evidence that vermin or any
kind Of intruder could have got into the
room. and there was no warrant for be-
lieving that Hube and the cat would
have been terror stricken at any terres-
trial Intrusion
"Finally we returned to our original
positions, made Huhe lie down again on
the rug gave the fire poke and waited
20 see if we could induce n repetition of
the disturbance. But, OF course that is
something which, | suppose you know,
never can be done, and about ! O'Clock
we went to bed don't think we either
of us said much about it to the family the
next day, for fear that they would natu-
rally attribute it to the whisky bottle.