True Ghost Stories.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVII, Issue 14, 6 October 1906, Page 37

True Ghost Stories.

BY ROBERT LEFFINGWELL. Old fashioued ghost stories nearly at? ways used t<> have a queer setting. lhej| were generally laid in the dark, ini strange scenes, in out-of-the-way placet where witnesses were impossible. very conditions made the role of the skeptic easy. But here are stories of ghosts seen under commonplace, everyday surroundings, and told in a plain, matter-of-fact way that carries conviction. Two at least of these ghosts were seen in full light, and al! the are corroborated by others than tlx?, narrators, which makes it impracticable to laugh them out of court. There was always something hard to shake off about the ghost story; it is so old and so universal. Our ancestors', as far back as one cares to go. had ghosts, They were, so to speak, part of the household furniture. Like the woman in the organ-builder’s story wliieh follows. and were handed down with th<s rest of the heirlooms.

There are many good old houses ic England where there have lieen family, ghosts for generations—regular visitants, to be taken for granted, just as the secret staircase, the ruined in oat, and the family portraits. ’The <aino thing is true in less degree in New England. Then? are old Salem and Boston houses that have their ghosts, which time cannot lay; but in their appointed seasons they walk, ami may still be seen upon their way. A little while ago science was going to explain or expel the ghosts. But they; are still here. They have even grown more apparent. Instead of vanishing, they have tome into clearer light, and soon we may be writing their biographies. It is, in fact, from the dattu collected by scientists and skeptics that these stories are taken. The narrators tell the tales in their own words: A BRITISH ARMY OFFICERS STORY. About Christmas time, some years 1 ago, being officer on duty, I was seated at the mess-table at Aldershot. Thcr® were ten or twelve other officers presents and among them John Atkinson, the surgeon-major of the regiment, who sat on my right, but at the end of 1 he table farthest from me and next to Bussell. I was sitting at the end of the table and directly facing the window. “At about eight forty five p m. Atkinson suddenly glared at t .<* window at his right, thereby attracting the notice of Russell, who, seizing his arm, said: ‘Hood gracious, doctor.’ What’? the matter with you?’ “This caused me to look in the direction in which I saw Atkinson looking, viz., at the window opposite, and I there saw (for the curtains were looped up, although the room was lighted by * powerful central gas-light in the roof and by candle on the table) a young woman, in what appeared a soiled or somewhat worn bridal dress, walk or glide slowly past the window from cast to west. She was about, at the centre of the window when I observed her, and outside the window. “No person could have actually lu'cn in the position where she appeared, aS the window in question is a iHiuf thirty feet above the ground.” The second has an almost epic simplicity ami an unstudied pathos: A little boy in a Yorkshire town lay sick unto death, llis mother had dieit some years before. Beside him watche* his elder sister and a friend of his mot her. The friend distinctly saw t he mother come and stoop over the boy caressingly. Next day the bov died. When the sister and the friend were laying him out, the latter said Io the former: “I had a singular experience in this room last night.” “Yes, I know,” replied the sisterj; “you saw mother. 1 saw her too. ’-ho came over and kissed Hughey.” THE COLLEGE MAN’S STORY. Behind this strange record tlierel seems to be u talc of romance and <>t strife that suggests the days of Seott’a novels: “In the spring term, 1898, I had gone to lied unusually late, about hall-past one in the morning, and shortly after! getting into bed I heard a noise in myj sitting-room, and called out: ’Who’s there?’ Receiving no answer. I got out of bed and went into my sitting-roomb It was a moonlight night, the blind was

•p. and there was atill a fire burning in the grate. ' "I saw a figure standing by the window with its back turned to me, which, as soon as 1 entered the sitting-room, turned round and walked toward me. It was about the middle height anti loosely dressed, as I thought in gray. The face was a long, cleanahaten one, cadaverous, and at the same time pitiful in expression, and I am perfectly confident- when I say that 1 could *ee right through the figure and distinctly saw the bars on the window through it. "I was naturally excessively frightened. and for a second could do or say nothing. Then I turned and bolted into my bedroom and locked the door, and shortly afterward heard a shuffling noise as of some one leaving my room and passing along the passage. I then lit a candle and went into my sittingroom again, and saw nothing. "I did not- see anything more of it, though several other men in college hail similar experiences of it until Michaelmas term. 18f>8. Then came my second experiecne. ( had. been working till eleven. and then went- to bed. Sometimes in the night, I cannot say exactly when, 1 was awakened by a sound in my room. 1 lit a candle, and went into my sittingroom to see who was there. For some moments 1 saw nobody, and was going back to bed when I caught sight of a figure standing in. a corner of my room. Jt was exactly simitar to the one I had seen three terms previously: the face had the same pitiful and mournful-look-ing expression, and it advanced toward me. holding out its hands as if it wanted something. "I remember no more. I was terribly frightened and fainted right away. I was found by my scout the next morning, when he caiue to eall me, lying in front of my fireplace- with the extinguished •iiidle on the floor." The story is corroborated by a fellowstudent. who further says, in his narrative. after recounting several appearances of the ghost: "After this the same thing liapjiencd two or three times, and I was able to see that the figure appeared to lie dressed in knee breaches and stockings of a dark texture, and each time ail if. did was to gaze sadly at me. I was never able, to cltallenge it, I suppose on account of fright." • A GHOSTLY’ DUEL. One night I was awakened, and. sitting tip. thought I heard a slight noise in my sitting-room. 1 listened, and it seemed to continue, as though a scuffle was going on. I readied out- of bed and pushed open the door, which I could reach from the lied, and looked into the other room. "ft was moonlight, and the light was coming in from the quadrangle, although the blind was drawn. The noise was still going on in a dark corner of the room, and. sis 1 looked, two figures emerged from the dark into the patch of light which came through the window. They appeared to Is- fighting; I can only so describe it. ft was just as though I was watching the enactment of a duel; for though f could see no weapons, yet the figures were apart, ms! one, for certain, had his hand tower a the other. There was no imagination about this. I had to watch it in spite of myself. And .one figure was, I feet sine. the figure of my previous visitant. •. I don’t know how short or long the time was in which the scuffle lasted, but presently-there was a slight thud, and then my sitting-room door shut audibly, as though some one had gone out. Then I jinn[ied out of bed and. striking a match, inspected the room: but there .was nothing to lie seen. Naturally, f came to the conclusion that -some of the men were playing a joke upon me. and in the morning I went to everyone in turn to know if they had been in my room, as } had enough of it- They all emphatically di-clainud having done so. and a meeting was convened to consider the matter. I am sure from that time that nobody had part in it. and it was then that I was told'Of the supposed ghost." : THE MALtGttANT HEAD. tine wonders what explanation could bi- offered for the apparent malignity liebind this appearance; “It M was’ in the morning of a day. in the .spring of 1875 that I saw the head, which-was afterward. seen by another mfnjber. of our faniiV. 1 had been sent out.of the room -for Mime'one. nnd as I looked up to call JHiem. I saw the moat horrible head looktag »v«w the balusters at me.

“It the face of a man, but the hair was long, like a woman's. The parchmentlike akin was drawn closely over the face and gave a skull-like look to it. The mouth, full of great teeth, was twisted in a horrid leer; but what frightened me most was the expression of the eyes; they were so light and full of the most wicked cruelty, as if they had existed for the sole iHirpose of trying to terrify a little child, sueh as I was then. “1 had a great feeling of indignation in my heart, as I stood, for what seethed ages to me, looking at it; for 1 could not draw my eyes away. Then I went quietly back to the room I had eotne from, and being prc.ud ami sensitive, never told any one a word about it for many years." The mystery is only made the deeper by the corroboration of the girl's sister, who saw the strange portent live years later. The ghost described was seen from time to time by members of the family - was the way she was dressed, a long figure, alluded to in the household as ‘•the lady.” Having related the experiences of other members of the family, the narrator continues: “I saw the ‘lady,’ as we called her sometimes after this. I heard one of my sisters come up-stairs, and was just going up when 1 saw that Mary was not al-me. Her companion was tall and had yellow hair; but what struck me most was the way she was dressed a long gown, the waist right under the arms, and covered with small Howers. "Then for the first time it dashed across my mm" that there was something strange about the person 1 had seen, and whom I had not lost sight of for a minute, until Mary had gone, when she had walked across the room beyond my view. I went in and looked, but eould find nothing that would in anyway account, for it. The room was only about nine feet by five, had a large window facing, the door, and was. lined with shelves all round, with absolutely' nowhere for anyone to hide. I told one of my sisters about it, and, she asked me not to mention it to Mary, as she had been feeling rather nervous. "The next time she was seen was when my father was dying. My eldest - sister, who was sitting up with him. on January 21, 1900. came downstairs for something, about half-past twelve a.m., anil.,passed a figure in black on the front stairease. .She was too much troubled to take much notice at the time, but thought again about it in the morning and told me of the occurrence. My father died at ten o’clock, which was about half an hour after she had told me what she had seen. "Another strange thing happened the night after he died. My brother Fred and I were sitting in the drawing-room, after all the others had gone to bed. We had been there for perhaps half an hour when the piano began to play of its own aceord: it started at middle C and went down in minor thirds. 1 heard it first, but made no remark, having often heard it before, and so had other members of the family; but at the second or .third note Fred jumped out of his chair, saying: ’Whatever is the matter with that, piano?’ He was as white as death. "‘Don’t touch it!’ I said, and going across took 'out the knee and front boards, during all of .which time it went on with its weird runs. When it was alt exposed, we saw that the wires were all vibrating, but the hammers were not moving. I had thought it . might possibly lie a mouse or a rat: but, of course,’ when 1 had opened the piano I saw that .was. not the explanation. It'still went on till we heard my brother Charles unbolting the door of tlie kitchen passage, and called for him to come into the drawing-room, when it stopped and did not make itself heard again. (In connection with “this incident, it should be mentioned that the narrator is by occupation an organbuilder.) "Nothing further was heard or seen till February 18. when I saw the apparition again. When I got to the . top of the stairs I saw that the door of’my father’s room was”'open, the gas full up. and standing before the dressingtable, resting her hands on it and gazing into tin* mirror, was the apparition. I stood still for a second, then moved to try and see past the figure into’ the mirror in order to’get a ’ view of her face. The first part of this was easy, as the dressing-table was in the corner, diagonally ,to the door, so that by moving a little to one side I “could sec well into thy glass, when what wav my surprise to see that there was no

retlection. Just as I made this discovery she turned |>artly round, but not enough to enable me to see her face, and moved across, the room beyond, my vision. I rushed in; but there was nothing to be found." • SOME UNANSWERED QUESTIONS. What is to be thought of these records* They awaken many echoes in ■file memory. One recalls -Aeneas attempting to clasp the form of Creusa and finding it slip from him—as unsubstantial as the-air. And one thinks of the strange Biblical vision that the Witch of Endor conjured up to" face the frightened King of Judah. The explanation eludes our minds afs the ghost eludes the grasp. ' ! 1 " ” “Why,” the reader will ask, “do apparitions so often appear at or near the time and place where death is coming* Do spirits revisit the scenes of their own most memorable experiences in the flesh* Ar?"there malignant as well as

benevolent _ visitants from - ttw 4th* world* Docs an unhappy or unhallowed end make a ghost walk?” He who asks such questions must as yet go unanswered. They have baffled all inquirers. The stories here collected may throw some little light upon tha matter; but like all other ghost storied they thfiffl' us -Waek upon Hamlet’s reflection wlien he looked upon his father’* spirit: - There" arc more things in Heaven and earth. Horatio.*;—• Than ire ilreaiut of in your philosophy.