The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-06
From the Chicago Inter-ocean.

l"HERE was a certain Pisander whose name has been preserved in one of A the proverbfal sayings of the
 Greeks, because he lived in continual fear
 of seeing his own ghost. Just that thing happened to the German poet Goethe. One day when he was out riding in a spot somewhat removed from the usual
 haunts of men he saw horseman ap- preaching him, and as it drew near he
 saw that the rider was no less person than himself-his other self-though dressed differently. Twenty years after he found himself, quite without fore l thought of the matter, in the same place
 on horseback and dressed just as was the
 apparition of himself which he had met
 there two decades before.
 Newstead abbey, the home of Lord Byron, has the reputation of being haunt ed by more than one specter, and many curious noises and strange sights have been heard and seen by residents and
 visitors there. But the best known and most noted specter connected with the place, and fmmortalized in Byrons verse, is the Goblin Friar.''
 The particular chamber which this specter is supposed especially to fre- quent, and which is known par excellence as the haunted chamber adjoins By ron's bedroom. Lord Byron and many
 others not only believed in the existence of the Black Friar, but asserted that they
 had really seen it. It tdid not confne it's visitations, however to the haunted chamber" but at night walked the clois-
 ters and other portions of the abbey. This apparition is the evil genius of
 the Byrons, and it's appearance portends misfortune of some kind to the member of the family to whom 1t appears. Lord Byron fully believed that he beheld this apparition a short time before the great est misfortune of his life. his ill-starred
 union with Miss Millbanke. Alludlng 10 his belief in these things, he said: I merely mean to say what Johnson said, | That in the course of some six thousand years
 All nations have believed that from tho dead
 | A visitant at intervals appears; And what is strangest upon this strange head,
 l Is that whatever bars the reason rears | 'Gainst such beliefs, there's something stronger still,
 In it's behalf, let those deny who will | Epworth Parsonage, the home of the l Rev. Samuel Wesley, father of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was | "hanted" by a spook whom they called
 "Old Jeffrey John Wesley himself gives
 long and circumstantial account of the remarkable disturbances at Epworth,
 which continued for a series of years.
 This spook never appeared in visible form
 and never answered back when spoken
 to. except by "rappngs." One night, when the children were frightened by tl;e
 disturbances, the elder Wesley said to !t: 1 Thou dear and dumb devil, why dost
 thou frighten these children, who can
 not answer for themselves? Come to me | in my study, that am a man." Instantly
 it knocked as if it would shiver the board
 to pieces, and nothing more was heard
 that night. But the next evening. when
 Samuel Wesley attempted to enter his
 study. the door was thrust back with such violence as to almost throw him
 down. However. he thrust the door open
 and went in. Presently there was a
 knocking first on one side and then on the other, and after a time in the next room.
 | My father and mother had just gone
 to bed," says John Wesley, citing another
 instance of these mysterious disturbances, "and the candle was not taken away,
 when they heard the three blows, and a
 second and a third three, as it were with | a large oaken staff, struck upon chest
 which stood by the bedside My father
 immediately arose, put on his nightgown,
 and hearing great noises below, took the
 candle and went down; my mother walked l by his side. As they went down the
 broad stairs they heard as if a vessel full of silver was poured upon my mother s
 breast, and rang jingling down to her feet. Quickly after there was a sound as : if large iron bell were thrown among