Los Angeles herald., 1906-05-20

haunted and that such thing as rent
ing IL was not to be thought Of
Mrs Shepherd was perplexed, wor-
ried. The more she thought of It the
more II worried her. Through her
agent she caused inquiries to be made,
who promptly reported that every
evening after nightfall, lights we're
seen in the old cottage, although the
shutters were tightly closed, and no
living person had been seen about the
premises Investigating neighbors
found nothing for their palms. Upon
their approach the lights vanished and
ell was silent as the grave. In the
daytime the house presented normal
appearance at night 1t was decidedly
spooky.
Mrs. Shepherd heard, marveled and
investigated. In the end she heard
Of an old lady who was not at all
afraid Of the dark rumors current about
the ancient house, and who expressed
her willingness to live there till she
died, if--she could manage to pay the
rent. This difficulty was quickly over
come by Mrs. Shepherd, who promptly
informed the would-be tenant that she
was welcome to live there for the rest
of her days, provided-she would dis
cover and Danish the ghosts. This was
agreed to and the plucky and aged
tenant entered upon her new duties
with q zest
It took her Just one night to clear
UP the mystery. In her vocabulary one
contemptuous word summed up the sit
uation which had bothered the neigh
borhood for months. "Tramps" was the
single word and further Investigations
proved its truth. Tramps they were
who had entered the lonely house at
nightfall and by the aid Of a tallow dip
IL. H.. H. 49,
pole had flashed ghostly signals at
correct ghostly intervals, and by maxi
ing shodowy terrors appear behind
closed blinds had succeeded In terrify-
ing an entire neighborhood, only too
prone to superstition, until routed by
an American woman who feared moth
ing, not even the real ghostly figures
which might have been.
When Mrs. Shepherd first gave per-
mission to her tenant to enter upon
the undisputed possession of her cot
tage, Los Angeles was but a group of
adobe houses, thanked by an undesir-
able but flourishing Chinese quarter
stray colonies of gambling dens where
congregated nearly all the motley popu-
lation of the town. This dweller on the
hilltop has been a witness to all that
has taken place in the struggle for
civilization and many incidents have
impressed themselves upon her mind.
II remember" she says when l
could look down on the city, only it
wasn't a city then, but just crowd Of
horses and men, and all you could see
at night was a few candles scattered
about in the gambling dens and eating
houses. They hadn't anything but can
dies in those days, and 1t was certainly
dim in comparison with what they have
now, but don't know but that 1 liked
the old way best. 1 used to have to
strain my eyes to see any light at all
sometimes, and when lamps came into
use after a while we thought there
could hardly be anything better. But
even those weren't good enough after
a while, and so when the city houses
and streets had gas put in them we
thought that was the greatest thing
possible 1t seemed light and brilliant
enough for palaces then, but-well,
that had to pass. like everything else,
and 1t wasn't many years after the gas
that l saw a big pole put up down
there on the plain. and 1 made sure
something was going to happen, and
it did
THAT was only one of many changes,
but 1 used to sit up here and watch
that light gradually advancing and get
ting better and bigger and more bril-
liant, till couldn't help thinking how
like the light of the heavenly city 1t
really was. The view from this hill
gives splendid panorama of the city,"
she went on, "and when people wanted
to see it they had to climb to the top,
and it wasn't an easy walk at all, so
one day they established pulley line
to run up the hill, and as it was so
steep they called it Angels Flight
The top of the hill is called Angels
Rest now, and the cars that pull you
up are named Sinai, Horeb and Olivet.
So you see, it was quite natural
should think of the heavenly lights
every time / saw the lights getting big
ger on the levels above. l never use
the cars, though. The same old steps
are best for me.
Yes, I've seen a good many strange
things in my time. There was one of