The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-16
THE QUEST OF TIE ONE-LEGGED GHOST Weird Search for the Long
 Lost Member SHOOK WAS IN HARD LUCK The Druggist Persists and Gets Ear of the Audience Over the Professor
 With His Scientific
 Decoctions.
SHOOK WAS IN HARD LUCK

The stick is not destroyed It is simply changed from matter of a low order to matter of a high order; from a mate rial body, as we say, to a spiritual body though in either form it is equally mat ter. Now if one of the gases liberated by the burning of the stick should be endowed with intelligence and the power to retain it's particles in their original form, there would float off through the air an invisible stick, the ghost of the stick we might say. So it is with death It is only a change of the matter of which we are composed from a solid to a gaseous state; from matter in slow vibra- ton to matter in such rapid vibration that it is invisible. 1 have an idea that what we call the spirit is a gaseous vapor having the shape of the body which it permeates and, perhaps, re- taining that shape after its separation from the body by the chemical process called death. This vapor carries away with it the intelligence which we name the mind. Now, suppose this vapor to have the power, under certain conditions, to reduce the rapidity of its vibration, so that it could be seen, what would we have?"
 "A spook," hazarded the red-headed man in the corner.
 Sdlu the pTOleSSOFs d NlS- ib1e ghost, and that, I think"
 q saw ghost once," interrupted the druggist from Kankakee. "It was the"
 that, I think" pursued the professor, 'is the explanation of the"
 the funniest thing that ever happen ed," persisted the druggist. Ut was about
 ''explanation of the phenomenon which has puzzled"
 "-about five years ago one winters night that"
 The professor opened his mouth, but seeing that the audience was with the druggist he closed it again and kept 1t closed.
 "I was sitting in my dining room" continued the man from Kankakee, "eat- ing a cold snack that 1 had taken from the refrigerator I had come home late, the cook was in bed and my wife was away. There was no one else in the flat For a long time we had been bothered by strange noises at night. Regularly. at about 1 o'clock in the morning, the sound-I could not at first define it-came up the front stairs, pass ed down the hall and ceased at point opposite my bedroom door. Night after night I dashed to the door, threw it open and saw-nothing at all. It was such a queer noise. I couldn't under stand it. Sounds like a man hopping on one foot said my wife, and that seemed to describe it. But she got so nervous over it that I had to send her to her mother for long visit. The cook slept at the back of the house and knew nothing about it. We took precious good care that she didn't learn.
 "On this night I'm telling you about I was enjoying a bit of cold chicken and bottle O elaret, when I heard that noise coming up the stairs, slow and heavy, just as if a man had hold Of the banisters and was jumping up one step at a time. When it got to the top it came faster-hop, hop, hop-down the hall. I did not move but I listened, when I could feel my hairs arranging themselves in pompadour style Hop, hop hop, 1t came right through the closed door or the dining room where l sat. Then the light suddenly grew dim and at the other end of the table I saw a luminous vapor which gradually took the human form and in a moment there stood before me a man, to all appearances of flesh and blood and as solid in substance as was myself He was tall and slim or build. full bearded, and he wore an old white hat blue jumper and overalls, for I noticed without surprise that his right leg was missing. There was SIX or eight inches of the stump left, on which the unused portion of the overalls was folded and tied The light brightened up again, and as it did so he extended both arms toward me.
 ".Don't get scared, sir, he pleaded; .please don't get scared. It won't be no good if you get scared. I ain't a-goin to hurt you
 "Oh. no I wasn't scared not bit. was inst stiff and my backbone felt like an icicle made of liquid air, which, you know. is the coldest thing on earth. But managed to get my tongue to working after some effort, and assured him that wasn't in the least frightened-Why should I be? That was tickeled to death to see him-which wasn't any Joke-and wouldn't he have seat, and sit down.
 'Thankee, sir; thankee,' he says. I'd like to mighty well but 1t don't do no good. I just goes right through 'em
 Too bad,' I says, but have glass of wine, anyhow; you look tired.
 .An expression of anguish passed over his face.
 "aNo-no-no-thankee sir he stam- nnered. I can't do it. It don't seem to touch the right spot any more. Seems to go right down without stoppin anywhere Pm a ghost. you know And he sighed deeply.
 roo bad repeated, and stopped, not knowing how far it's proper to go Tn sympathizing with a ghost
 You bet it's too bad he says It's tough: that's what 1t is, it's tough. Teller don't know what fine thing it is to he alive until he's dead.' And then he heaved another sigh that made my bones quake.
 .Rut that aint the worst of it, he went on: 'leastwise it ain't for me. reckon I'm the most onluckly spook this eide of the undertakers, sir; and that's ,,bat been wantin' to see you about, sir
 wanting to see me about? l gasped syvhat in the world did you want to see me for?'
 well. sir he answered, rolling his hat in his hand in an embarrassed sort of way. T thought maybe as now you could help me find my leg
 CT was too astonished to speak.
 oeyou see sir he went on, it's this avav I ain't got but one leg. One morn- in, when I was on earth I got run over hv milk wagon Right out in front q, this house it was, sir. An they brought me in here, an a doctor took my leg away from me when I wasn't lookin' an thev buried It. they said somewhere in the hack yard. I don't guess you was here then. Well, as long as I was livin,' sir. if didn't bother me much, for I got n wooden leg. But when I came over here sir. I couldn't bring my wooden leg
 I cfaxt t1nt h