Daily Kennebec journal., 1904-06-15

known, showed itself to be the result
of some fun-making and a genuine
scare to those who participated in it.
The scene of the incident was the Of
flee Of the Johnson house and for sew
eral minutes it was a lively one, DUR
ing which the inmates of the hotel, the
night watch and all on the street were
drawn to it.
The affair grew out of a general con-
versation during the day, Monday, be-
tween the night porter of the hotel, who
is of foreign nationality and good-na-
tured, and several of the employees of
the hotel. The theme of the conversa-
ton was principally of people who
walked in their sleep and it was claimed
that one of the party was addicted to
that habit and the claim was doubted
by the porter. The conversation took
turn toward ghosts and the porter's
deadly fear of sometimes seeing one
was learned and it then entered the
head of one of the party to try his cour-
age, that evening. The matter was
here dropped and nothing more was
heard of it until after the Pullman
train from the east, when che night
porter had returned from the depot and
was engaged in his nightly task Of
washing the floor of the hotel office.
Everything was quiet; the lights in
the room were burning in fewer num-
bers than earlier in the evening and
conditions were particularly favorable
for the scene which followed. The por-
ter was bent over his mop busily en-
gagged in cleaning the floor when Il
slight rustic in the doorway leading in
to the Office was heard and the worker
partly stopped his labor and straight
ening up bit, cast his eyes on form
dressed all in white, with flowing hair.
finger pointing heavenward and eyes
uplfted toward the ceiling.
The figure remained motionless, while
over the body of the surprised porter
crept chill that grew more intense when
the white-robed form made a step toward
him. 1t was then that he let out a
screech that would be worthy of an In
dian brave and made break for the
door that was his only means of escape.
His fear was made greater when the
ghostly form glided back and cut off his
retreat and again advanced toward him:
never changing its position of the raised
eyes and pointing finger.
Advancing to the farther end of the
room the figure wandered aimlessly about
and during this time the thoroughly
scared porter bOted for the street. where
he called for help at the top of his voice.
This gathered a crowd that lined up In
front of the window and watched the
white form in the dimly lighted room
and wondered the cause. No one seemed
to care to investigate and the porter.
meanwhile, sought the night watch for
aid.
Bv this time the joke began to dawn
on some of the spectators and when the
night watch arrived on the scene they
were put wise, and on being urged by the
porter to enter the office and in the same
voice cautioned not to be hurt by the
white visitors, feigned fear and left the
affair to work out its own end. When the
banjo machine began to play in the of
flee the porters fear was not lesSened
and while fearing the destruction of this
machine he dared not enter to shut it off.
The affair had an end as all things must.
The white form disappeared and quiet
was resumed. When the office was bright