The Caledonian-record. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1920-current, 1922-03-28

afternoon two score or more
yell's ago when ''Joe" Letter tried
to bankrupt the Armours.
To have attempted to convince
that circle of eye-witnesses that
they had been deluded and that
there was any molkeydoodle bust
ness about Santum's ghost disport-
ing in the moonlight atop a bould-
Ell would have resulted in hard
feelings toward those of a skepti-
cal slant of mind.
On that night in the long ago
Horatio Eddy "put one over" in
the parlance of expert ghost de-
tectol.s of today, OH that little band
of men and women gathered be-
meath the stars, but the descendant
of some of the party still cling to
the belief that thier ancestors were
on that occasion, in close commun-
ication with the spirit Of long
time dead Indian.
The party that sat on the rail in
the moonlight and communed with
the ghosts of redskins included
Andrew Beebe of Ludlow, Mary
+. Jewett and Albert Frost of Rut-
land, Charles Wakefield of Boston,
James Little of Lake George N.
Y, and Mrs. Caroline GOss of
Hudson, Wis.
The moonlight ghostfest was
only one of perhaps thousand in
cidents in the career of these mas
ter ghost producers-the Eddys.
1t has been said that witchclaft
was inherited by Julia MacOmbs,
but the investigators have never
reported the truth of such allega
tons.
The repertoire of the Eddy's
ghost factory was almost unlimited
There was the stunt of producing
for the credulous a woman on a
white horse; the spinning ghost
gaunt fingers fed the flax from her
distaff to her rapidly driven wheel
the "circle room" where William
and Horatio reached out beyond
the confines of the material world
into the land of spirits and brought
spirit messages from the dead.
A favorite feature of the Eddy I
seances was the presentation of
ghost babies.
There were comedy ghosts, the
malicious barber, the smoking
squaw and a performance of must
cal wraiths.
Table tipping, ringing Of gongs,
spirit writing and such exemplif-
cations of the supernatural were
commonplaces in the Eddy broth
ers' program.
Probably one of the best stunts
ever attempted by a Chittenden
ghost was the welding of copper,
although this was only second in
the line of ghostly accomplish
ments to the shawi-making of San,
tum's ghost. There were ghosts of
many nationalities in Chittenden a
half century ago, the departed
spirits of Russians, Germans, Can
adams and others visiting the
home of the Eddys.
But there were skeptics that
came to Chittenden and among
them was professional ghost
hunter employed by the London
Graphic The latter became in
colved in ~controvSy with a Her
aid representative, the latter in
sisting that there were many uney-
plainablc things about the Eddy
case.
After the Eddy brothers had
travelled over the world and con-
nected thousands of spirits with
earth folks the takers confessed
that they had duped the credulous
and today the story of the Chitten-
den ghosts has been forgotten cX-
cept by a few persons.
Among the adventurous spirits
from Rutland who sat in to sean
ces in the Chittenden ghost shop
were the present referee in bank
ruptcy, Thomas H. Browne, like
wise exalted ruler of Rutland
lodge of Elks, ana the we'll known
tobacconist, Lew abraham.
There were of course, others but
only a few remain who can pose
as eye witnesses to the material
ization Of spirit folks in the Eddy
home.
n -