The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-12-18
SP00K HALTS HORSE
And Warns Farmer Against Going
49, &
to His Home.

He Was Delayed Until Daylight and
When He Reached Home Finds
Death Trap.
When a Society for Psychical Re
search holds its next meeting it.
might call before it. Charles Henry
Durand, a farmer living about three
miles from Caldwell, N. j., and hear
his story of how his life was saved
by strange apparition he met in the
roadway on Monday night.
Since the death of his wife Durand
has lived alone in the farmhouse. He
was on his way home from Peterson
after dark Monday night, when his
horse stopped still in the road and
refused to move. The horse trem-
bled so violently that Durand strain
ed his eyes in the darkness to learn
what the animal had seen.
He says he saw a flicker of blush
light, which moved toward him until
it was beside his wagon, and then
took on a misty shape. He says he
recognized the form and the voice of
the apparition. 1t repeated to him
three times the warning, "Do not go
home for several hours" "
With the cold chills running up
and down his spine and the goosehesh
standing out over the body like a
man with chill he tried to drive on
after the apparition was gone. The
horse refused to bulge. The animal
had broken out in a cold sweat.
Durand says he unhitched the horse
and blanketed him. 1t was then
about II o'clock. For two hours he
worked with the horse, which SEEM
ed afflicted with the ague. After
hitching up again. he drove slowly
to his home.
1t was then nearly 8 o'clock. He
put the horse into the barn and went
inside the house. The first sight that
met mis- eye was muddy footprint,
Durand found that nothing had been
taken, although the house was a bit
upset. He found a window on the
ground floor that had been opened
in his absence, showing how the in
truder had entered. The farmer
looked into closets and out-of-the-
way places and then decided to go
upstairs. When he started up he saw
at once that some one had been
there. There were footprints on the
stairs and in the hall leading to his
sleeping room.
Lighting his way before him and
stepping cautiously, feeling that
some danger was lurking ahead of
him. but determined to face it at all
hazards and nave the dread that
possessed over him, Durand ap-
preached the door of his room. 1t was
open, as he had left it.
When about to enter, Durand stop
ped and looked closely. Across the
door at a height half way to his knee,
so that his foot or shin must strike
it, was a string, instinctively. the
farmer says, he felt that something
threatened his life. ,
: To the man of the woods, used to
the snaring Of birds and animals, the
string across the door suggested a
spring or a trap. Durand went down.
stairs and returned with an umbrel-
Ia. He stood against the wall of the
hall and with the umb ella handle
gave the string a pull. Instantly
there was a report and a bullet i'm
beded itself in the end of the wall.
Investigation later showed it was at
about the height of a mans chest.
Durand then entered the room and
found q revolver fastened to a dress
er. The string led from the trigger
TO-. the door. 1t was ingeniously ar
ranged to shoot the person who en-
tered the room.
Durand believes that the person, or
persons, who visited his home did so
with the intention of killing him, and,
not finding him home, arranged the
trap. He says he has a suspicion as
to their identity and knows the rea-
son for their enmity that prompted
the attempt upon his life. His neigh
bors say whatever feud there is must
have existed before Durand moved
into the neighborhood where he now
lives.
He believes the apparition in the
road saved his life. He says he rec
ognized the figure and the voice. and
it was of a person now dead of whom
he was fond. Further than this he
refuses to talk. Durand never has
believed in spiritualism. His exper-
fence has pretty we'll unnerved him,
although he is not the kind of man
who is easily Gnnerved.