The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-07-27
Ghosts That I Haunt
National Capitol
Stories About Nightly Visitors in Halls at Washington

Probably the most thoroughly
haunted building in the world is the
United States capitol. not less than
fifteen well authenticated ghosts in
Testing it.
Some of these capitol ghosts are of a
more than ordinary alarming charac
ter. The Demon Cat is said to have
made it's appearance again, after
many years of absence. This is a truly
horriic apparition, and no viewless
specter such as the invisible grimalkin
that trips people up on the stairs Of
the old mansion which President Mad
ison and his wife Dolly occupied after
the White House was burned by the
British The feline spook of the cap
itol possesses attributes much more
remarkable, inasmuch as it has the
appearance of an ordinary pussy when
first seen, and presently swells up to
the size of an elephant before the eyes
of the terrified observer, says the Los
Angeles Times.
The Demon Cat, in whose regard tes-
timony of the utmost. seeming anthem
ITCHY was put on record nearly a half
century ago, has been missed for many
years. One of the watchmen in the
building shot at it then, and it disap-
peared. Since then, until now, nothing
more has been heard of it, though one
or two of the older policemen of the
capitol force still speak of the spectral
animal in awed whispers. Their work
when performed in the night, requires
more than ordinary nerve, inasmuch
as the interior of the structure is liter
ally alive with echoes and other sug-
gestions of the supernatural. In the
daytime, when the place is full of peo-
pie and the noises of busy life, the
professional guides make a point of
showing persons how a whisper ut
tered when standing on a certain
marble block is distinctly audible at
another point quite a distance away
though unheard in the space between.
A good many phenomena of this
kind are observable in various parts
of the capitol, and the extent to which
they become augmented in strangeness
during the silence of the night may
we'll be conceived The silence of an
ordinary house is oppressive some
times TO the least superstitious indi-
vidual. There are unaccountable nois-
es, and a weird and creepy sort of feel
ing comes over him. He finds himself
indulging in a vague sense of alarm,
though he cannot imagine any cause
for it, Such suggestions Of the SUI
pernatural are nagnified a thousand
fold in the capitol, when the watch
man pursues his lonely beat through
the great corridors whose immense
spaces impress him with a sense of
while the shadows thrown |
by his lanterns gather into strange and
forms.
One of the most curious and alarm |
ing of the audible phenomena observ- I,
able in the capitol, so some of the |
say, is a ghostly footstep
that seems to follow anybody who
crosses Statuary hall at night It was
in this hall, then the chamber of the |
house of representatives, that John |
Quincy Adams died. Whether or not :
1t is his ghost that pursues is a ques-
ton open to dispute, though it is TO /
be hoped that the venerable expires |
dent rests more quietly in his grave. /
At all events. the performance is I'M
pleasant, and even grewsome, for him
who walks across the historic floor,
while the white marble statues of the
dead statesmen placed around the
walls seem to point at him with out
stretched arms derisively. Like the
man in Coleridge's famous lines, ne
Walks in fear and dread
Because he knows a frighful fend
doth close behind him tread"
At all events he is uncertain lest
such may be the case. A bold watch
nan attempted not long ago to in
these footsteps. He sus-
oected trick and determined to make
his invetigation on scientific principles.
He bought a pair of rubber shoes.
With the aid of which he proceeded to
examine into the question. In the
stiffness of the night he made a bust
ness of patrolling that portion of the
principal government edifice, and, sure
enough, the footsteps followed along
behind him. He cornered them; there
vas no possibility for the joker to get
away. But, moment later the steps
we're heard in another part of the
had evaded him success
uIly. Similar experiments were tried
IN other nights, but they all ended in
he same way.
About fifteen years ago there died in
an old gentleman who had
,een employed in the library of con- b
,ress for more than thirty-five years.
The quarters of this great book col
ection. while housed in the capitol
we're Interestingly restricted, and much
# the cataloging was done by the
'eteran mentioned in a sort of vault
n the Subcellar This vault was
with musty tones from floor
o ceiling, and practically no air was
Omitted. 1t was a wonder that he ,
ived so long, but when he came to 1
lie, he did it rather suddenly. Any
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