GHOSTS OR NO GHOSTS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1944, 20 December 1884, Page 4 (Supplement)

GHOSTS OR NO GHOSTS.

By J. 0.

" Oh, I don't believe in ghosts and haunted houses at all. It is all bosh and nonsense, only dreams of a sickly and depraved imagination. "And why, pray, do you not believe?" said Alf. "Do you question it because of the impossibility or the improbability ? If you take it on the former score you will find some difficulty in your proof, if you admit that there is anything beyond the material — a something intangible to the outward senses ; if you advance the improbability, why you know as well as I do that you know nothing, absolutely nothing, about the matter, and never will know until it is too late for us to benefit from what you have learned." "It is useless arguing about it. It must be simply put out of doors." "Well," my dear felloV, " if that is the way we must look at this question, what else can we say about the thousand and one other questions which arise from the unknown. Remember, your scepticism is only of a very recent d»te, and is a part of that great plague of doubting which assails other dogmas you would lose your right hand sooner than foreswear. Few philosophers, .either ancient or modern, " doubt ' tb.e , < possibility of existence apart from the cqntingenoy.of matter-: — _»♦ , „ «< Q» hang, it,iae^'4on'.t\*ilk;piiyohology. ; We belong, to a :ags, r and ;I< am jqot /gbiftg^io bejiave^e^

rying of a rat over the floor, or the scratching of a mouse behind the wainscot. My own experience is evidence against it sufficient to my mind." " Well, if you want an experimental proof I am glad I can give it to you." " You 1 why I never thought you held oonverse with the invisible. Surely to goodness you're not a medium 1 " " No matter what I am, I will give you a chance of putting your scepticism to the proof— that is, you know, if you are willing, for to tell the truth, without questioning your own courage in the least, I have found you sceptios not too eager to test the truth when the opportunity is offered you. Alf and I were seated in one of the fine old houses of Northern Tasmania — one of those houses which remind us so much of the "stately homes" of the old country. The early colonists of the " Tight Little Island " were thorough Britons, and carried with them all the Englishman's ideas of comfort and stability. Cairnstock House might have been taken bodily by some genius like Aladdin's slave, and placed in the middle of Yorkshire or Surrey, and no stranger would have noticed much difference between it and its neighbors, unless that its broad verandah would look a little incongruous in a country where they think so much of the sun rays that they receive all they can of them, and intercept none that will escape a parasol or umbrella. The surroundings were picturesque in the extreme. At the bottom of a sloping lawn there flowed a broad, silent river, which had in its impetuous youth leaped over a preoipice and thundered in rapids, but now glided calmly and majestically through wide meadows and undulating woodlands. Behind the house the hills rose tier after tier, until they culminated in a peak, whose summit always received the earliest winter's snow. It was a lonely enough position, however, as the nearest neighbor was ten miles away. Alf and his sister lived in the old house, and gracefully played host and hostess to many guests. I had met them in Paris. One Sunday morning while enjoying a contemplative cigar on the top of Napoleon's Arc De Triomph, and surveying the unrivalled urban views which can be caught from that position alone, I was attracted by a silvery laugh, which came from the rosiest lips in that city of the beautiful. Ada and her brother Alf Meadows had been like myself admiring the magnificence of the Queen city. As they were strangers I did the guide to them, and pointed out the beauties of the Tuileries, the Louvre, the Invalids and the other show places. We became friends, and it was not very long until I fairly succumbed, and was the devoted slave of the beautiful Ada. Certainly I was a little taken aback when I discovered my acquaintances came from the opposite Bide of the world, but " love conquers all things," and space in the bargain, and before we had known each other six months I was ready not only to risk a sixteen thousand miles journey, but even veritable transportation itself, provided I could claim her as my own in the end. I had arrived at Cairnstock House the very day (23 rd December) on which the foregoing conversation had taken place, and somewhat unexpectedly, as I had completed some business in Melbourne more quickly than I had hoped. Ada had gone to see some friends, and was not expected home until the next day, and I had to be contented with the company of her brother, a dear, good friend, but scarcely a satisfactory substitute. After dinner I happened to say that the position and surroundings of the house would bring to mind one of those haunted establishments of which old country folk think they have the monopoly. I was surprised to see my brother-in-/uturo take the matter, as the French say, au grand serieux^ and actually consider the possibility of spiritual manifestations. As this was so foreign to his usual devil-me-care characteristics, I ventured on the inevitable chaff, but was still more astonished at seeing Alfs face lose all its buoyancy, and assume something very like the aspect of fear. I had not the slightest idea of what he meant by his final proposal, and asked him to explain himself. He remained for some time in deep thought and at last said : " You have a right to know all about it, and therefore as it is a family matter I shall tell you, though when you have heard the story you will understand why we don't much care to speak about it to outsiders. He paused again and then proceeded : •'My grandfather came out to Van Dieman's Land among the earliest of the colonists. He had been in the army, and therefore very easily got all the fine land which you can see for miles around us. The climate of the country suited him and his family well, and indeed it would have been a wonder if the old warrior had not contented himself in such a country after his life of toil and battle. Unfortunately he had all the sternness and harshness of the soldier, and these were exaggerated by the position of absolute masterdom in which he found himself. You are aware, I suppose, that the convicts were assigned as servants throughout the colony, but you are not aware that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the unfortunates were the slaves, and nothing else, of their masters. Certainly they were the very outcasts and dregs of society, degraded by every sort of crime and ready for any description of villainy. There is scarcely a square mile of Tasmania which has not its tale of murder and outrage, and I remember well all over the island the gibbets on which were hung in chains the bodies of many an outlaw and bushranger. But these wretches were men at least, and they were treated as brute beasts, and we need scarcely say they gave beasts' service. You oannot conceive the horror which this lovely island witnessed — much less can you conceive the causes which in many instances occasioned if they did not account for them. •' My grandfather for a long time had very little trouble with his servants. The strict discipline to which he acoustomed everyone made him feared and respected by all around him, but gained him little good will amongst his dependents. Amongst his assigned servants there was one who had contrived to worm himself a little into the confidence of his master by sneaking and tale-bearing on his fellows. It is one of the misfortunes, or, rather, the penalties of slavery that it insensibly vitiates the character of the masters themselves. The old soldier who detested anything like meanness, tolerated worse than meanness in the people, whom he looked upon as inferior animals, and he thought Limping Joe a very useful creature. Joe, on the other hand, hated the Colonel with all the venom of a depraved heart. The Colonel believed in the cat, and Joe had sworn to be revenged for every weal scored on his back, and they were not few. The villain meditated no small revenge. It would have been easy to have met the old man alone, but the chances of a struggle with him were desperate, and besides his sudden death would have been a poor satisfaction for the years of oppression at which it must be confessed my grandfather was an adept. " A fresh servant was brought from Hobart at the very time Limping Joe's schemes were taking shape in his head. The new-comer was a man who had been convicted of connection with some trade outrage in Sheffield. 16 was a strange time that, when men were driven from home and all they oved for the merest trifle, or if jtfeey shpw.ed < the slightest! opposition to thaalL-powerful ojigarcby. The misfortunes of his life had naturally soared j poor Ned Williams, and the unlucky wretch had come to the very worst place {or sympathy. My grandfather would allow nothing but the most ordinary communication betweea his servants and his family, and the young fellow, innocent »s he was proved to be, was left to brood over the injustice of the world without a word, of consolation or a touch of kindness. No wonder that there was nothing on bis side but sullen submission, and on my grandfather's a determination to « drive the devil out of him.' s ' ' . ",By all accounts Colonel. Meadows made, ,;Caimßl&flk>,a<,heU , to^jop^.Wjlliamay^^The JOplonfll^Afl. >; ,ma^teate;^^ou^^^we, a; ;i*rgevtree?£n;^

building is the old Bridewell to which prisoners ■were consigned before being sent to Hobart, and, Heaven help us, it was rarely without a tenant. That big tree and that paltry house oould tell some awful tales if we could give them tongues. " The Colonel had Iwo children, a girl and a boy, both of whom he loved passionately, as men such as he sometimes do ; but he especially adored the lovely little Ada, the very apple of his eye. You will know whence my sister gets her name. Matters grew worse and worse for Williams, and Limping Joe watohed everything with a tiger's eye. About this time there were reports that a strong body of bushrangers who had kept the western parts of the island in terror had come northward, and then Joe, taking advantage of the despair and wretchedness which possessed Williams' soul, tempted him to join them. Williams seeing nothing but a life of misery or self-destruction before him consented, and one night they settled to start the next day for, the mountains, and appointed a place of meeting. On that next day little Ada was found dead on the bank of the river, and her lovely body was mutilated almost beyond recognition. A bloody knife was found near, and every one recognised it as having belonged to Williams. He was not to be found, and of course the crime was at once laid at his door. Certainly the attending circumstances went far to prove his guilt, and at that time much less would have established it in the eyes of free colonists. No one in the hurry and oonfusion seemed to notice the absence of Limping Joe. ; There was at that time one of the aboriginals hanging about the station. We have contrived to civilise them off the face of the earth, so you will not have a chance of seeing a specimen. His services as a tracker were immediately employed, and soon there was a strong party in pursuit. I need give you no details. It will be enough to tell you that the fugitives were overtaken, and after a fierce struggle Williams was severely wounded and made prisoner. Joe escaped for the time, and as it was thought the murderer was hard and fast no very active pursuit was made after his companion. " The captive was brought here and thrown into that Bridewell. The unfortunate wretch, covered with wound 3 and with a leg broken, was a miserable sight. When he was accused of the crime he denied it in the strongest manner, but his judges were prejudiced, and he was alone. Their passions were excited, and some one more brutal than the rest proposed to roast the prisoner or make him confess. I can scarcely bear to tell you the end, Good God 1 how unlimited power brutalizee us I The wounded man was dragged before a large fire beneath that tree, and hung up by the arms from one oi the boughs, exposed to the double torture of the fire and of his injuries. I cannot imagine that the executioners really meant more than to extort a confession, but whether they meant more or not the miserable man was not cut down until his senses had forsaken his wretched body. As they dragged him back to the lock-up he partially recovered, and seeing my grandfather near he cursed him and his, and prayed that neither his son nor his son's son should ever live to reach his own age. The poor fellow's body was found cold, stiff, and still in the eell — done te death by our omniscient law. The very next day oame his free pardon, his entire innocence of the orime in Sheffield having beer proved. A short time brought the confirmation of his innocence of the murder also. Limping Joe joined the bushrangers just in time to share in a few depredations and in their speedy ruin. He was shot down, and had barely time left to confess that he wae the murderer of little Ada, and that to keep suspicion from himself he had used Williams' knife to do the deed. " These few bald particulars will not be sufficient to make you realise the horrible truth. One almost doubts the goodness of the Creator when we puzzle ourselves to find why such things can be. The share poor Williams had in this world was a very poor one, and I would give all these broad lands that no one of my blood had helped to make his part in life more wretched. Sometimes I think that his ourse must have fallen on us. My father had barely reached thirty-five —William's age was about that— when his dead body was washed up by the river near the spot where his sister's had been found years before. Our poor mother did not surj vive him long, and we were left to the I strangers' care. In all the southern hemisphere we have neither kith or kin to care for us or feel for us. Can it be the curse ? " The story affected me more than I cared to acknowledge. Englishmen are not often brought face to face with such horrors. But I was not going to let a simple story so easily undermine my foredrawn conclusions, and I said to Alf : •• It is certainly a most painful incident to be even remotely connected with, but you will scarcely bring me to believe that the actors in the tragedy have not something better to do than return to the scene. Is it said your little Bridewell is haunted ? To be sure there aren't many places that deserve it more." " You may judge for yourself if you like," said Alf, " but I give you fair warning. I would not pass a night there fpr a kingdom. I have done it once, and once is enough in a life-time." " Well, I shall try it this very night. Ada will not be home until to-morrow, and I may as well spend the time unravelling the secret." "All right; and if you do so no one will thank you more heartily for anything than I shall for this." The conversation turned on other topics, but All's spirits seemed to have fallen to zero, and gradually we became silent. I watched the lengthening shadows of the^ trees pass slowly over the lawn as the sun dipped towards the western hills, and contrasted in my own mind the cold and dreary Christmas landscape of England with the gorgeous brilliancy of the scene before me. I was so absorbed in this that it was with a sudden start I heard three rapid knocks just as the sun disappeared behind a distant peak. I jumped to my feet at once, and was ranher surprised that Alf took no notice unless a Bickly smile on his lips betrayed his having heard it. " What was that ? " said I. "Oh, nothing 1" said he, "or, rather, something we are pretty well accustomed to." Of course I could not show too much curiosity, yet I could not help feeling something uncanny, but this gradually wore away under the combined influence of a stiff glass of toddy and the soothing smoke of a fragrant Havannah. Meantime whatever little preparations were necessary to make the]solitary Bridewell tenantable for a night had been made before sundown, and Alf told me pretty plainly that I should have little chance of company, unless the ghostly, as not a man, woman, or child, for miles around would venture near the little ' building for its weight in gold. This, however, was not going to deter me, and that night I was a lodger in a place which could not boast of one before, during more than fifty years.