FAMOUS GHOSTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 23, 27 January 1923, Page 19

FAMOUS GHOSTS.

(By OLIVER E. CARRUTH.)

The Ghost Which Haunted a> Lake Ship. "With ihe story of the ghost which saved the eMp 'Society" In 1664 by warning Captain Thomas Rogers to cast the lead, may 'oe compared that of a haunted ship, an account of which appeared In the "Chicago Tribune" In March, 18S3, many years before the advent of prohibition. This ghost was not friendly, and gave no ■warni'n; to prevent shipwreck. On the contrary, It vra» evidently an omen of evil.

Two -men bad fallen from a lake ship and the report epread that the vessel was unlucky. "Accordingly," wrote one of the crew, "on ite arrival In Buffalo, the men went on chore ac soon as they were paid off. They raid the dhip had lost her luck. TYhHe we were discharging at the elevator, the story got round and some of the grain trimmers .refused to work on her. Even the mate was affected.

"At last we got ready to ea.il for Cleveland, where ■Wβ were to load coal The cn>. tain managed to get a crew try going to a crimp, who ran them in fresh from salt water. The crew came on board twKvthinls drunk and the mate 'was eteerlng them into the forecastle, when one of them stopped and, pointing aloft, asked' *Wlmt you got a figurehead on <ihe mast if or.' The mate looked and then turned pale. 'It's (Bill, , he said, and with that the whole lot Jumped ou the dock.

"I didn't see anything, but the mate told the captain to look for another officer. The captain 'was so much affected lie put mc on another schooner, and then shipped a new crew and sailed (for Cleveland. Uβ never got there. Be woe sunk by a steamer off Dunkirk."

The Vision of Brutus on the Eve Of Fhilippi. Everyone who bas read or seen ■Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" knows of the ghost of Caesar which appeared to Brutus before the fatal battle of Phllippi, in Macedonia, 42 B.C. Brutus and Casshis, conspirators of the band whtoh, etew Oaeear, were killed. 'Plutarch, the famous Greek historian, give* a ellghtly different version of this celebrated apparition. He tells the etory aa foHowe:— "Brutoa waa about to move with bis whole army. One dark night, having only a small lamp in Ills tent, which save but a feeble light, Ms -whole army being wrapped In etlence and. eleep, be waa plunged in deep meditation, a thousand different thoughts revolving In tola brain, Tien suddenly be heard someone enter bis tent. Looking toward the opening toe saw a monstrous figure with a horrible countenance, which approached him and stood by Ihls bedside without speaking.

"In a flrm voice he Inquired, "Who art thouT Art thou a man? Art thou a godl Wherefore dost thou come into my tent, and what wilt thou? , Tlhe phantom replied: 'Brutus, I am thj evil genius and thou wfflt Boonseeme on the plains of PhlUppl. , 'Well. , said Brutus, unmoved, then, we shall meet again there,' after which the phantom vanished. 'Brutus then called his attendants, who said they had neither seen nor heard anything.

"When the day broke lie sought Oassius, to -whom he related the vision. Tlben Cttseiusi who was a disciple of the doctrines of Epicurus, replied that the senses were deceitful, and that imagination created a, thousand etraiige and ihldeoois phantoms. "Besides,' said he, *your body, exhausted and •heated i>7 exertion, also heats, subtilizes and perverts your imagination. It is not possible flhat demons and genii can, exist; but even if there were such tilings it is absurd to suppose that they would, assume the appearance and the voice of

Plutarch does not state w"hat effect the words of Oassiue !had on iPlutus, but history telle us that twenty days later, on the very plalna of Pihillppi, 'Brutus died by failing on Ihfs award. Bo Ida evil geiiiua kept bis word.

The Ghost Which Haunted a Murderer. In 1623 or 1624, a man named Fletcher, a landowner of Rascal, in Yorkshire, England, married a young woman who lad formerly been (friendly with 'Ralph Hayna!K an innkeeper, Hvtng near ißascal, and whose sister lived with Ihim. ißecoming tired ot Fletcher, the yorang woman, with Kaynal and a man named March Dunn, plotted the death of her tmsband.

In May, Baynal and Dnim Willed Fletcher by drowning Ihlm while lie was returning from the town of Hefby. Fletcher's wife, who knew bow the murder was to be co'mmftted, save them a eack jr which the body -was placed. The corpse was then buried behind Ray rial's barn, in a spot from which, they lhad diug Vbe roots of an old oek and lad planted with mustard seed, tue better to conceal the crime. The neighbours were orach surprised at the absence ot Fletcher but Ms wife explained that lie 'had lied tc be out of way of a writ.

Xo inquiry was made and it appeared as if the elayere would not l>e found out. But the ghost was only biding its time to betray toe criminals, if Vhe story Is to be beltevedi On July 7, while Kaynal \v-as saddling his horse to attend a fair, the ghost of Fletcher suddenly started up before Urn and exclaimed, "Oh, 'fiaipli, repent, repent, for my vengeance Is at baud:" From that time until his imprisonment, the spirit is said never to have left Kuyual. He became melancholy and. sleepless.

Raynal's sister, (hearing from another person of the appearance and alarmed on her own account, revealed the story to Sir WiHl-am .Sheffield, a magistrate, who lrved at Rascal.

■Rayna], Dunn and Mrs. Fletcher were aill arrested and confined in York prison. They were tried, condemned to death, and were finally executed on the very spot where Kletdier had been l)uried»