The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1908-07-30
Weird Experience
With a Ghost

| village In Canaan, delightful old
| Connecticut town bordering upon
Massachusetts. says a writer in the
New York Herald.
Years before this was a prosperous
locality, a large iron ore furnace hav-
ing been operated here until about
| 1890, when It became Improbable
| and was abandoned.
On the Fourth of July | arranged
with neigbbOr to hitch up his horse
with mine to a two-seated wagon, and
with my wife, MIR. j. b. and his wife
and two children, and Mr.. M, We
drove to Torrington, Conn. distance
of about IA miles, where my father
was then living.
We arrived in Torrington about ten
| O'Clock in the morning, and remained
| there until late that evening. Some
| time between 10 and IL o'clock thai
evening we started for home
There was full moon and cloudless
sky, and the distinctness with which
we could see the road and surround
Ing objects was so unusual as to be
commented upon. We drove along
without incident going up over Go
shen Hills, and on through Cornwall
Hollow, until nearing home we had
passed the house where my employer,
Mr.. Yale, lived. Beyond his house
the road ran along at the right of quite
smooth meadow, lying between the
road and a small chestnut grove, about
200 feet away. The road was up grade
nh lrfx
ing, let the horses walk The time,
as near as we could afterward esti-
mate it, was about half an hour after
midnight.
We were joking and laughing, when
suddenly Mrs. b., who sat beside my
wife upon the back seat with her two
children between them, called my
wife's attention to an object which
had apparently just come out of the
chestnut grove and was slowly com.
ing across the meadow toward the
road. My wife looked and exclaimed
that some one was coming toward us
out of the weeds. We all looked in
the direction indicated, but could see
nothing.
stopped the horses and we all con-
tinued to look, when we saw some one
apparently coming around the end OF
the wall to pair of bars opening into
the road. The moon was still shining
brightly, and we all distinctly saw
what looked like some one with
sheet thrown over his head. The OBJ
| ject stepped up to the bars, and, de-
| liberately letting down the next to the
| top bar, came through the opening
made, and after putting the bar up
| again came out into the road and
walked along toward us.
! 1t came along the road perhaps a
hundred feet. or until it reached a
point midway, when it stopped.
| had in mind an occurrence which
happened about a week before this,
when an irresponsible man of the
neighborhood had severely frightened
| my wife and sister, who was staying
with US while l was away at night,
and believing that the same man
might be trying to frighten us, l ex-
| claimed. 81 know who it is. 1t Is
II. S. (naming the man l suspected,,
| and I'll teach him not to try to fright
en- people around here" handed the
lines to Mr. M. and seized my whip,
rawhide with buckskin cracker at
the end, and jumped out of the wagon
and started back toward the object in
the road Mr.. B. followed, but eau.
| tiously kept about ten feet behind me.
AS | got within about six feet of
! this object, which was standing up-
right in the middle of the road. l
raised my whip up over my head, and
with all the force at my command. |
brought the lash directly down upon
| its head and shoulders. To my great
| amazement, there was no resistance
to my whip until it reached the
| ground, and the object before me
| seemed to sink out of sight into the
| ground.
had never believed in ghosts, and
always ridiculed ghost stories, and I
had had no fear or thought of the su.
| pernatural at this time, but this sud
den disappearance in the bright moon
| light of what | had believed without
doubt was a miscreant bent on fright
| ening people sent most startling sen.
sation over me. stared at the va.
cant road before me, which could see
| plainly for some distance, to where
turn hid it from view. / looked upon
both sides of the road, which the moon
lit up with almost daylight clearness.
There were no bushes or trees be.
hind which anything could hide nearer
than the chestnut grove referred to.
beyond the meadow Mr.. B. came up
beside me- We both looked search
ingly around and then at each other.
The mysterious object had absolutely
vanished.
Almost speechless with astonish.
ment we returned to the wagon.
Everyone in the wagon saw the OBJ
ject as it came along the road, covered
apparently by a sheet, which, as it
walked, kept Tapping at the sides as
one with sheet over his head walk
ing and swinging his arms might ap.
pear.
Unable to solve the mystery we