Grand Forks daily herald., 1915-05-29
STORY Of A RUINED CASTLE, A
GHOST AND EIGHT WORN SOLDIERS
Men Live in Building They Think is Haunted by the Spirit
Of its Former Inhabtant and Believe They
ss% See Her at Night.
nv Herbert Corey.

(Copyright 1915, by Herbert CoreE,)
Berne, Switzerland, May 29.-This
iE nbtsa story of the war, although the
scene liz laid just behind the battle line
In France. 1t is not fiction. AT least,
1t: IL not the writer's invention. 1t is (.
story of the supernatural. but even the
man who told it does not claim for 1t
any evidential value whatever. Per-
haps it is to be regarded chiefly az
picturing Of that neurotic condition
that half insane nervous exaltation--
in which men of a certain type exist
during those period OF "let-down
which como between battles From
having been keyed TO the point OF
highest tension they arc suddenly
translated to the most detecting mon
otony. They have nothing to do ex-
cept eat. and sleep, and go through
mechanical round of seemingly rca-
s0nless duties. Franz Bender told the
story In the Hotel Bellevue last night.
He had it from a friend in the French
army
''0ur regiment. had been sent back
for q. rest said Andre Faulnis, after
having been. roughly handled Nordun
Eight OF us. all young mon of Paris.
wefe qiaTthred in an old chateau
within hearing of the guns. Tho
modern part of, the building bad been
destroyed hy the German shells. We
ed castle that dated, perhaps. from
the first crusade. 1t had not been oc-
c1lpied for generations
There will he a ghost here said
Rene JacobN. Tlc laughed as he
spoke. He is a rynic. is Rene. y con-
tributor to the, Paris reviews. yonng
man of most advanced views on all
matters pertaining To morality. An
other of our party was Albert Morgan
OF a family that had been French for
three generations. Morgan was reared
in the Pyrenecs and drank in supersti
tion with his mother's; milk.
Sick in Mind and Body.
"l will inquire said Morgan.
There was an old woman living in
the neighborhood. \ toothless, leath-
cry. bright-eyed old cronc who refus-
cd to he driven from her home by war.
Every morning she tapped her way to
the door OF the castle in which she had
been q domestic in her youth. Some
times she sold us eggs or " pint of
milk. More often she begged from MS.
Morgan became great friends with her.
They would sill for hours before the
little ilre in hcr hut--a fire for which
he provided the fuelwhile she told
him her peasant lore of vampires and
wercwulves and familiar spirits. ia
coby asked him about the castles
ghost.
There is Il ghost. said Morgan. Sc
r}ously. Ut is tho spirit OF Il lady OF
the caste who was not buried in con-
secrated ground
"Wc all laughed. and no more was
said ut the time. But time hung hcav-
lily on our hands. our physical
strength had been sapped by the hard
ships OF the trenches. and our nerves
had been shattered by the murderous
shells. During the daytime we were
inert as browsing animals. We rarely
spoke TO each other We sat in the
sun and let our sick minds play among
our morbid fancies. At night. as we
slept. rolled. in our blankets upon. the
stone sfionr. some ones voice would be
continually heard in his dream. We
lived over again those horrible mo-
ments Of the past. We struggled.
writhing there In the tirelight--we
prayed for mercy. The corpses of five
men lay along the road which led up
from the chateau gates. But we would
not bestir ourselves to bury them. We
We're not siclt-we had not been
wounded: hut we were mentally and
physically PROSTATE.