Newport weekly independent., 1902-09-19
COVER GHOST IS KNOWN.
Death of Citizen of the Missouri Town Reveals the Author of
 Much Mischief

When Thomas ?. Ogden died few days ago the ghosts at Gower, Mo-, ceased terrifying the residents of that town. Ogden, on his deathbed, con- fessed that he had been the ghosts" about GoWer. For several years he terrified the village. and while playing one of his jokes he caused young man to lose his life by running against tree. At another time he came near being the cause of citizen of Cover being lynched says a special St. Jo- seph lMo) correspondence of the Chicago Inter Ocean.
 In the livery stable in Gower were box stallsSfor the horses. Posts were set in the ground between the stalls and planked up on each side. Ogden bought long rubber tube and, con- cealing hims elf in the haymow, let the tube down between the boards on one side of a stall. Then he groaned into the tube and the sound of his voice was carried down to point close to the ground. In little while the groans attracted the attention of the men employed about the barn. They tore the boards off one side of the stall, but Ogden drew the rubber>tube up, and they found nothing. The boards were replaced and the groans were heard again.
 There lived in the neighborhood a man who boasted that he was not afraid of "ghost or devil" and he was employed to locate the cause of the groans. He said they came from the bolt of he ct II and mi tn Drl- with pick and shovel. While he worked the voice of the ghost" en- couraged him. and when the pick struck rock the "ghost" declared that he digger had struck his bones. Several hundred men stood around waiting for a solution of the mystery. When night came a lantern was hung up in the stall, and the man who was not afraid of ghosts worked on.
 Ogden threw a white blanket down on the man at work in the stall and he leaped out of the hole with a fright ened yell, running toward the door with the blanket clinging to him. The crowd scattered and one man ran against tree and was killed. When some of the men ventured back to the place the "ghost" begged them to continue the work of digging, but none of them would go into the stall. The owner of the stable finally closed the place and built another barn.
 On hill near Gower stands an old mansion built in the style that plant CTS affected before the war. It had been vacant number of years when Ogden conceived the idea of giving it the reputation of being haunted He had lights fitting about the place at night, and people going near it could hear screams and hollow groans. The doors would slam. and the place was stunned even in daylight. It was inn possible to sell the house, and it stands to-day weather-beaten wreck.
 Ogden contrived a network of wires in the cemetery near Gower, to which he attached balls of cotton soaked in kerosene. These he would light at night and work the whole by means of long string reaching to thicket, considerable distance away, in which he concealed himself. The dancing lights in the graveyard attracted the attention of people the first night, and before Ogden quit he had an audi ence of more than a thousand stand ing at a safe distance and watching the strange sights. Many people would not go into the graveyard in daylight after that, and some of them removed their dead from the dreaded place. Afterward the ghostmaker of Gower fixed up white figures in the cemetery, and they could be seen swaying about to the accompaniment of his groans and screams. The cemetery is almost abandoned now on account of the repu- tation given it by the ghosts"
 Ogden has confessed that he haunt ed many of the houses about Gower, and that he is alone responsible for the reputation that has attached to the place of late years. When he played "ghost" in the livery stable in Gower he made the ghost declare that he was the spirit of a man James Woodward had killed and buried in the stall and the excited crowd gathered about the place came near lynching Woodward.
 When he realized that he was on his deathbed Ogden called in number of his friends and made confession. He expressed deep sorrow for having caused the death of young man who ran against a tree in his fright, and said he had always refrained from frightening women and children as much as possible.
 Happens That Way Occasionally.
 Mrs Upiohn-Haven't you taken