Year: 1869

We clip the following from the Nashville
Press and Times of the 5th inst:


On the evening of December 3Oth, Mrs
Caroline Proud, who lives in South Nash
vile, at the house of her brother, was the
subject of a strange hall1cination, or spec
tral appearance which is worthy OF men
ton. On the afternoon of the day In ques-
ton Mrs. Proud had been arranging large
box of family effects, among which were
number of things which belonged to her
father, now dead something like six years
She read several letters which she received
from him shortly before his death, and had
arranged some family papers which had
been bequeathed her. She says she was
conscious of having the scenes of her
fathers illness and death, and the subse-
quent breaking up of their household
wildly brought to her remembrance by her
unusual employment. These impressions
were deepened by the sudden remembrance
that it was on the afternoon of December
| 80, six years before, that her father had
breathed his last After having arranged
the papers, books and documents (there
was a large box of them, and considerable
time was eon5umed) she Joined her broth
ers family in the sitting room and engaged
in pleasant conversation for more than half
| an hour, during which time all the gloomy
| anu SOInDT6 E6uGcClOnS winch naQ possessed
| her while looking over the family relics


were dissipated, and she was in an exceed
| ingly pleasant frame of mind when she
arose to 60 into distant apartment to get a
| long unused article of apparel which she
designed fixing over for New Years mas
querade party. She left the family room
humming familiar air, traversed the hall,
climbed the stairway and reached the apart
ment. A subdued light shown into the
room through thick curtains, and the air
was close and uawholesome from long con-
fRement, as the place was used as a sort of
store-room for articles seldom needed.
Around the walls hung various articles of
clothing of male and female attire, and sun
dry boxes were piled up in the corners,
while a roll of carpeting and an old hearth
rug occupied the centre of the floor.
Hardly had she advanced a step into the
! room, when pausing to let her eye become
accustomed to the light, which was rather
| dim even at MONDAY, but was becoming
somberer as daylight faded away, she saw a
vivid and startling apparition. Right be-
fore her, and between the carpet and the
farther wall, she beheld the image of her
/ father He was dressed in black, with
white neck tie as had been his custom on
the Sabbath, and in his hand he held a
! prayer-book The face was wildly natural,
but wore a mider and more benignant look
than during life, and the eyes, with an eZ-
preston of love and sympathy, gazed full
upon the daughter


Mrs. Proud is not a timId woman, and
accordingly steadfastly regarded the appari-
ton, expecting to see it dissolve into some
strange arrangement of the articles of cloth
ing hanging against the wall, but she looked
in vain, the image, meanwhile, becoming
more distinct, and at last starting as if to ap-
proach The astonished and terrified
woman saw no more.s A sudden and agon-
lied shrek startled the house, and when
the family came rushing to the spot they
found her lying senseless in the doorway


with the key of the room still clutched fast
in her hand Restoratives were applied, and
the woman was soon able to relate the cause
of her terror. Meanwhile, the room had


been carefully examined, but nothing was
out of place, nor could any unusual appear
ance be discovered. The window was


fastened and the undisturbed dust on the
floor showed that the place had not been
entered for months


Mrs. Proud was III with fever for several