The Indianapolis journal., 1903-01-16

graves. just as they appear in the ceme-
terry. But at the foot of each grave stands
something no visitor has ever seen, and Tor
the peace of his mind IL is to be hoped
never will see. At the foot of one grave
stands Rev. DIR. Cole a former president
of the seminary, in full canonicals. AT the
foot of the other grave stands the counter
felt presentment of its occupant, woman
who in life was a benefactress of the
school. This ghost has apparently chosen
his haunt in a less urban region and among
less cultivated people than the theologians
OF Nashotah. Indeed the scene of his
walkings is most artistically chosen in the
midst of a wild and savage landscape that
would have delighted Dore. Indeed. il is
another Brittany, both in topography and
ethnology, for that weird, strange land of
Wisconsin's lead region, with it's cairns
and pinnacles and citadels of rock. its
tied by Celtic folk, Welsh and their kindred
OF Corn Wales, and a sprinkling of Gal
wegian Irish, notable ghost seers all. The
of the days when the population of the
region was Anglo-Saxon, Virginians and
Kentuckians. He is supposed TO be the
wrath of a man killed in the lead mining
days before the civil war. At any rate he
appears in Ridgeway township, at the spot
where the house of this murdered man
long stood. rotting heap of blackened
boards. The first person TO see the ghost
see IL generation after the murder
committed-waS one DR.. Cutler, of Dodge
vile. county seat of Iowa county. next
doctor was driving homeward after visit
to a patient in the country, he was sud-
denly affrighted at seeing dark figure
seated on the pole between the horses.
The reins slipped from his nerveless hands
and the horses dashed away at full speed,
the specter riding the pole nothing dis
commoded by the shaking he getting.
Up hill, down another. and To- the
specter vanished. The doctors story found
little credence. He was known to love the
flowing bowl, and his friends said he had
4 wa m
a specter Of delirium tremens, a mania
a potu. But the doctor declared he was
sober. He recalled the fact that a year
previous, when he really was a little full,
while passing the self-same haunted spot,
ne had become aware OF dark and silent
stranger sitting beside him in the carriage.
For mile the stranger rode without say
Ing word, and all at once he was gone.
AT the same time the doctor had asked no
question of his drunken wits and had con-
sidered 1t a strange experience and nothing
more. He was now convinced that the
man beside him and the thing on the end
OF the pole were one and the same, and
tnat being not of this world. Whereat
the people laughed-in the daytime
THE DOCTOR INDICATED.
But not long afterward the reputation of
the doctor received sudden and terrible
vtndication. as he was himself afterward
to vindicate it almost as terribly John
Lewis. father of Evan Lewis, champion
sports everywhere. was a prosperous farm
er living in the vicinity of Ridgeway, a man
of sober life. undaunted courage, and pos
sessed of the tremendous physical strength
his son had inherited. He was returning
home one fall evening after spending the
day assisting friend in butchering The
night was not dark, and when he drove
near the haunted spot he determined to
cur across lots TO reach his home He was
approaching the stone wall at the roadside
to climb IL when his attention was arrested
Dy the sight OF figure that seemed to
have gathered itself together out of the
just now tenantleSS air and stood confront
ing him in a menacing attitude. He knew
or no enemy, and highwaymen were un-
known In that retired quarter of the State
He decided that some one must be trying to
frighten him and so he hailed the figure
and no response being given he advanced
upon 1T. The figure did not bulge. but
stood a towering shape of blackness a
gigantic and grizzly thing.
Some unaccOuntable awe and the un-
canny hugeness of the thing made Lewis
decide TO avoid conflict, and, drawing his
butchers knife from his pocket, he started
TO pass by, when the figure, raising it's
arms with a forbidding gesture, stepped
athwart his path. Obeying a hasty i'm
pulse that was more ghastly and soul-chill-
his keen knife Next morning a neighbor
found Lewis lying inside the wall in a
Semi-consciouS condition. OF what hap
pened a1ter ne had struck with his knife
he had but vague impressions. He said he
had been hurled in the air if in the vor-
tex of a cyclone, pounded crushed into IN
sensibility. He died a few hours after he
was carried home, asserting with his dyin <
| breath that he had come to his end by a
supernatural agency.
Thus did the death of John Lewis make
| the first vindication of the reputation of
DR.. Cutler and the scoffing ceased. But
a second and a third time was the doctor
| to be vindicated. A dressmaker encoun-
afterward died by the shock occasioned by
! the intense fright. At last, DIR. Cutler
| himself, serving the ghost for third time
finally and triumphantly vindicated his
word, though at the cost of his own life.
| dying as the result of fright