The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1904-10-08
SAN SPIRIT Walking
MARION HARLAND RELATES A
MYSTERIOUS EXPERIENCE
OF HER EARLY LIFE.
A True Ghost Story-medilerrane-
an Adventure OF Jafa-Touyists
Boarding Ship in
Storm.
By Marion Harlaud.


pened when | was a young girl.
vas then had nay first glimpse {
what people call a ghost" wi
not try to explain the apparition. bl
will simply tell what / saw.
We lived in Virginia, and the hous
in which had my experience ha
been ours for several years. II wa
a large, square house, with a dee
hall running through the center. A
the right Of this hall, As you entere,
the front door, was a great drawing
room; behind this was the cham
Der, occ~upied-as was the fashion I,
southern honesty the master an
mistress-my father and mother. d
the other side of the hail was a sor
OF ante-room. a cross.passage. out O
which the staircase ran up 10 the sec
ond hoor. An arch, in which huns
a Venetian blind door, separated thi.
from the main hall, and another arch.
way, like it, filed with a Venetian
blind, divided the front hall from the
back. Next to the a~ute-ehamber was
The dtning.room, back OF that a small.
or apartment-my OWL room. I give
these details in order 10 explain where
The Thing appeared.
My father allowed his chill,
dren to talk of ghosts" and we were
brought up with no superstttions. As
the trend of our minds was not toward
the supernatural, it was all the stran-
ger that ! should see what I did.
Saw the Ghost" Walk.
IL came n night when | had call
ers--a Jolly company of girls and young
men. The evening passed rapidly and
pleasantly with music and merry chat.
My father and mother lad gone 10
their room, but not to bed. As the last
guest departed | fingered to arrange
the scattered sheets of music upon the
piano and to eXtinguish the hall and
draWing-room lights. Then, taking
from the hall table my bedroom lamp,
which stood ready lighted. | went 10
The chamber" to say goodnight, NV
mother sat by the hearth fire reading, |
NY father stood near her, winding his
For a few minutes we 'chatted |
the guests Of the evening and of
he songs that had been sung, then.
iissing my father and mother good
iight, started for my room. Il carried
n my hand the lamp | had brought
nto the chamber with me. The lamp
ave an excellent light, and | held 1t
n front Of me. In closing the door
Il my parents foom | faced that of my
'Wn apartment just across the passage.
MS passage was narrower. than was
wide front hall. being, I think.
.ardly more than six feet in width
nd separated from the other hall, as
" explained, by Venetian blind
oors. These had latched after lock-
ig the front door. The back door was
ways bolted after the servants went
their quarters in the evening. Just
5 shut the chamber door behind me
litte woman started right out of the
pposlte door, gllded slowly along the
all, her head bowed down upon her
ands, her whole figure cruuching As
went, and vanished at the green
Iinds.
F.,
Passed Through Closed Doors.
VINO was that?" | wondered. with a e..
tile gasp. Then | reflected that It
probably one OF the servants
1ubtless my own maid, prone, as j.,
Ie manner of her race, to falling
'leep ON the least provocation--who
lving slumbered the first part of the I
'enlng In my room, was slipping out ]
the way when she heard me com 9
noticed that she moved like a l.
I. was about to accost her when g
It'll a shock came the thought: How S
Md she get through those blinds r
lthout opening them?" and, following t
nifty upon that, came the apprecia- b
OF the fact that she had not S
my door. which wac erin o,oaas v
i.oh' oi me-put that she came out I
,
leu 'Ae door, shak- :
6 iiNe al aspen leaf, and announced
az ! hau seen a ghost" My father ',
ine IN a chalr and taking my y
up iron my trembling hand,
archeu every corner of the house. "
! iound nothing strange, Front and "
doors were still locked, and the v
'netiah plinds Unattached. But the !,