The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-10-07
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

1
 been chased by ghosts
 And yet belief in spooks and spirits
 IS not confined to children, unless you
 are among those who look upon the
 negro race as a people yet in swaddling
 clothes, for a large per cent of them still
 cling to the superstitions which are root
 ed in the dark continent from which they
 came.
 ] About a year ago, on a cold, rainy night, I got off Lakeview car and as
 usual had to wait for the Mountain Ter
 race. It was while standing under the
 shed that I overheard one negro say
 to another, Dick Hawes' ghost is march,
 ing tonight"
 | 1 was all attention, for I had defended ! Dick and familiar with his little home
 that housed the awful tragedy and which
 sat scarcely hundred yards from the spot I was now occupying. I knew the gruesome story of how he had dragged 1 the bodies of his wife and daughter along
 the street and over the brow of the hill | to the lake.
 | l was all attention as I listened to the conversation which was intense and real 1 istic, as ons told the other how some
 while back he had been coming down from the top of Chestnut Hill and how
 he "had seed Dick Hawes' speerit as he
 breshed by him with his shirt tail flap ping in the wind" The strange thing is. he spoke in way that carried con- viction, and his listener never questioned his account, but eagerly drank it in as a fact.
 A bit after this episode I had to ride out one night on dray to show the ne- gro drayman whom I had picked up down by the postoffice to haul out load for me. It was a bad, windy night, but every now and then the moon peeped out from behind cloud. It was before the street improvements. Clairmont ave- nue was but an unlit country lane, dark and full of holes. An owl hooted and the negro by my side shivered
 To try him out I told him about the conversation I had overheard at Noun tain Terrace station, and the more l talked the more restless he got. Finally to cheer him up I said Now, l know you have got too much sense to believe in ghosts" to be quickly told, Vet 1 does, boss" Why, what makes you be- lieve in them, there isn't any such thing" "Yes, there is, case I had a hant' to follow me home once from church." And then and there he told me one of the biggest cock and bull stories I had ever heard in my life, and he believed every word of it was the gospel truth. He
 informed me that he believed in the story about Dick Hawes
 It's funny how one thing recalls an- other. I do not know when I have thought of 1t before, but quarter of century ago I was living in an uptown board ing house in New York, at which a num- Der of actors and actresses and those
 engaged about theatres lived. I got many
 insights into the stage from the gossip from the inside, but I am not going to tell it at this late day.
 was sitting one night in dimly lit
 parlor. It was in the days of ''parlors before they were superseded at least in
 name by drawing rooms l was be- heath piano lamp reading the after
 noon paper, when charming woman
 with the soft voice which next to that
 of southern women Is the sweetest music in the world, greeted me, and said, Put down your paper and come and sit by my side and talk to me, for I am home
 sick"
 did so, for knew that she had some thing she wanted to talk about rather ! than be talked to, and that it would be we'll worth hearing, for she had told me some wonderfully clever tales of Eng fish life, for she was gifted character actress. and the best recounteuse have ever met. Now I do not hope to put
 down on paper the play of her face, the
 sparkle of her eyes. or the marvellous changing tones of her voice, or the sig nificance of her gestures. She was an
 artist to her finger tips. and knew how to create an atmosphere for her acting, even though she was wasting 1t on young American.
 Looking me straight in the eye. she flung it at me as if she hoped by the mere question to make me limp and | ready to be moded at will, Do you be- That is just what I would have replied a year ago, but now I am not so sure for I had my nerves shattered. my soul
 shaken. and my imagination to run iriot
 until I was on the border of hysteria all on account of weird voice and | flickering light
 'It was bad season in London and l
 missed an engagement and Jack,I my hus-
 band. and had to give up our suite of apartments to look for cheaper quar- ters. After days search towards eve ming we found what we wanted and at
 a most reasonable figure. We hired | them immediately and went out to a nearby cafe for dinner, and all the while
 congratulated ourselves on our fortunate pickup in our rather straitened circum- l stances.
 Tired out we retired early was, however, bit wakeful and heard q voice