Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1905-01-07
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5 Braves Ghostly Anger s

Especial Correspondence


Will Farmer Blais and his two fear
less sons succeed in lifting the hoo
doc of a half century from their new
1y acquired home? This is question
which agitates the residents of Little
Canada and the people of Marlboro,
Mass.
Ever since the genial Canadian
moved into the old Cyrus FELTON,
house and induced his two sons to
share the ghostly vigil with him the
eyes of the neighborhood have been
glued to the house. and the people
who know the CHASTITY history of the
homestead have been waiting the out
come Meanwhile, the new owner tills
the soil, looks after his hens, smokes
his pipe in seeming enjoyment, while
over the place hangs dread super
stition and an air of mystery that for
years kept the place tenantless, and
which even now prevents the women
of the family of the owner from COM
ing to live at the farm.
Traditions of the Old Place.
1T is we'll for Farmer Blais and
the two sons that they do not think,
because it is this thinking which has
produced mania and which has taken
away the senses of the people who
have lived in the old FELTON, place"
So say the neighbors. The story, or
tradition, runs thus:
Over century ago, when Marlboro
was but village and Northboro lit
tie more than a settlement, the Eel
ton family built the house and out
buildings For fifty years the house
was a resting place for travellers and
place of entertainment for the
naOn1a A. Ia IA
for dancing, and many a joyful party
stayed till dawn before rousing the
sleepy horses and driving back to the
village.
1t was in the fifties. while one of
these parties was in full swing, that a
bride and groom from Worcester
alighted from the stage coach and
asked for lodgings for the night. At
midnight, while the musicians were
resting for a Money Musk to follow
after Virginia Reel" and while the
!, young couples were seated or stand
ing around the hall, that a woman's
~ was heard. Then all was still.
was such a blood-curdling cry-so
nlled with anguish and fright-that
the faces of the women blanched and
they chung tightly to the arms of their
escorts.
The landlord and one of the young
men, more daring than the rest,
climbed the stairs and made for the
door of the room where the young
couple had retired scarcely an hour
before. The door was pushed open.
The lantern in the landlords trem-
bling hand shed a light over the room,
and there on the floor, near the open
window, lay the young bride with a
hideous cash in her white throat The
I>-sr1
boro woods days later, a raving man
lac.
THAT started the hoodoo," say the
neighbors, and the tragedies which
have followed seem to indicate a ter
rible mental spell, sort of telepathio
wave, or suicide y-suggestion process
that turks within the walls of the
place. 1t is for students of psychol
-ogy to determine the exact causes
but the facts are matters of current
knowledge as cleaned from the GOSSIP
of those who live in the neighbor
hood.
Tragedies That Followed.
Ten years after the mysterious kill
ing of the young bridde, traveller, tc
whom the story was told one evenins
as the patrons of the inn sat around
the fireplace. was found in the morn
ing with his throat cut. stretched out
on the floor near the open window
A month later the landlord died
and one of the sons undertook to rur
the. hotel. Its popularity was waning
however. and he. finally abandoned il
to another brother as a homestead
In the early seventies a stranger
stopped at the house one winter even
ing and asked for shelter, as it wa.