New-York tribune., 1918-11-17
In the Shadow
Many Legends of Old Ho.,..
and Their Spirits

about haunted houses in his weekly a1s.
New Witness"
ut may be stated as brosd inc. :,
all houses once inhabited ard s..,s
empty are haunted houses, hsrr.as
those who have lived in them ,ns AZ
deeds, and standing in the same 49,
to those who have gone out Of them =. ~
corpse does to the spirit which h., ,sfs
it. We are all afraid of emptiness a. M ~.
core of US. You know the eeriness 90 ..s
ing footsteps in an empty house. No,b;s-
tenanted has much power to 6,r,.
unless it be grave.
I'm an empty house we are in III. x.,,..
OF void. In the fields or woods a. 49,.
We arc in the thick OF life, and the h..
above US is populated with suns and worls.
Wherefore to spend night out Of soo,s -
far from being ss terrifying an expsr,.r..
even TO the nervous as night IN an em,,,s
house.
you will find that most haunted bo,,..
are houses that have long stood emptr .ns
from the mere terrifying fact Of ,h.,.
emptiness has sprung in time whole ns..
Of myth and legend.
"But apart from that, there sre bor,..
which affect one curiously, from which =.
soon IS the door is opened a strange bre.,,
comes out to tell you, This house :,
haunted You may sometimes esyor i
in red brick villa which could hay. b,s
only one or two occupations. You win
not SAVIOR it at all in certain old ccnn,.,
houses Of great age, where people b,,.
lived and loved and suffered and died and
sipned and repented for many generation.
You will SAVIOR something wholesome and
sweet by which one conjectures that N.
house, If it has had the common lot and
harbored sinners as we'll as saint, b,,
been washed clean by many prayers. son,.
times q living personality will influence.
house ss much for the time as the dead
folk who have gone out OF it. Such an.
died some years ago in an English nspor
house, an old lady we'll on in the eighties
She breAthed all the enchanted frsgrsnc,
Of Shahespeare's England without III.
shadows and discords which are lost for
US in the play Of lights and the full chorus.
She was descended from q great Eliza.
bethan. While she lived the beautiful old
house. the garden with its pleached auevs
and the fish pond were but her setting.
The frame from. which she stepped forta
must be sadly changed to-day.
Not so far away is house giving on
riverside street. house which wgs ther
when Shakespeare lived, under whose
cedars, upon whose lawns the great Eliza.
bethRn YvococSio,, Yo,oboI
walked-a beautiful old house, and the
gardens inviolate to this day; but as YOU
enter its doors the thing that comes forth
to meet you is evil. The house belonged
to a kings mistress, of quite exceptional
dlssoluteness and cruelty. Her picture i.
fixed in the wall at the head of a stair.
casa wild, laughing, beautiful thing
with floating curls, decollete as only Sir
Peter Lely's sitters we're. She had been 50
evil to all who loved her that the king
who undertook her must have been IS
reckless as His Satanic Majesty Kate the
quean comes from her picture frame at
times to glide by the young and whisper
evil in their ears, and when that happens
may the good angel Of the one she whispers
to be vigilant
"Superstition is the shsdow OF religion,
and where superstition is there must bs
something lacking in the religion, to say
the least. Superstition is most terrifying
and takes its grossest form among pagsns.
But, apart from that, when religion hiss
lett an empty house superstition rushes in
to fill the void. have known q bishops
daughter, who had shuffcd of Christssi.7
as being unworthy an intelligent persons
consideration, turn pale at seeing the nev
moon through glass, and faint because the
bells had rung without apparent cause So
TOO, the table turning, the spirit rappins
planchette and all the rest Of the things BY
which foolish generation plays with th'
things Of the other world
yet among the Celtic peoples, side N
side with religion, there is the belief IL
ghosts. Said very wholesome specinea
OF an Irish priest to me the other day: !
met So-and-So the night he died. Vas
walking home up Gallows HILL and HT
him coming along with his head down; ana
l said to him: "rom, where are you gong
TO this time OF night? heard you ~ershE
we'll. It's in your bed you ought to be-
Not word at all he ssid, but went by me
1 said 60 Father John the next morning. !
met Tom So-and-So in the street last nigA'
and he wouldn't speak to me. wonder
what at all I've done on him." "Surs tho
poor Fellows Dead" said Father John. his
deaths in the paper this morning BE dleo
in che night."'
"Such tale as this is told very Simply
and with no suggestion Of anything un'
usual.
But to our haunted houses. In t.'
town I know best there axe many sus~
"The haunted house which gives you Que
warning is one thing. The haunted hou''
which hides itself under drsb. everyaS!
exterior is in g sense more sinister
know little suburban two-storied hoa''
among cheerful commonplace neignOe'''
which has a weird ghosts ghost e'
walks by daylight, and preferably in 'n'
early morning. A new servant going COVE