The Times-Democrat from New Orleans, Louisiana • Page 33

WOMAN'S SECTION WOMAN'S SECTION NEW ORLEANS, SUNDAY, MAItCH 2, 1013. i Yt rvTyTTi IJjWF wl tHY III msmmmmtx I 1 VI II' hi1' 'A j'ift iliitTTrTT.u 19 v-; t. -y vDO PfM: J' 1 I mn, i I 1 ifml4 i i' Vv zr Ui I 1 i (JCTAGrO- vj; 'frr rt "rvr -J ---i -XTXr UtJ-Lyr JfettVS AWIYGrTOT rjUDWrL r-I--- X' A mmmmmmTmmmHB III t'K'r? -rO r-rr i.f. i2 7 I I 2w ivr f's it ii if ii ---s. a -5 rf 'r? i i'v ys They aver tiiat the flace.

which is in the basement; is haunted also by one of their own numter. an olil nhite-haired cdored man named Osborne, who died several years ago. He Is never actually seen, but the sounds of his brush and pail, with the "slosh" of spectral water, can often be heard from dark corners, as he scrubs the martin fioor, his industrious "spook" continuing the work which In life he was accustomed to perform. Sc me of the strange noises of the Capitol are doubtless attributed to cats, which in the winter time Invade the hvge building, finding a warm refuge there, wandering about the corridors, and often making night hideous with tbelt yowlings, enormously magnified and Mrs. Meade was plainly to be distinguished in a pane of one of front windows.

It was clearly 1a ure of an old. lady, and the more markable because this ts the very window at which Mrs. Meade was accun-tcmed to sit every day during many years. Such Images in windows, how-eier. have been occasionally observed elsewhere, and the explanation of them seems to be that they are actually photographs.

Glass contains substance which are sensitive to light, and thus a permanent Impression may rotrelvably be made on a window pane by a person sitting near It for a onn period of tlin In one The New National Theater 1n Washington baa a well-authenticated ghost- acoustically by the echoes. But these WV1 Kill sfe cSg. re Just ordinary tramp pussies. There 1 I Mil IBII i it is averred, a d'mun cat that haunts the Capitol, though fortunately It Is rare ly teen. Its last recorded appearance was In 1862, when It was shot at by a sctthman.

And no wonder, for this fearful grimalkin, of no more than com GHOSTS CUT AN IMPORTANT FIGURE IN AFFAIRS AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL mon siz when first espied, swells to the dimensions of a small elephant when an attempt Is made to corner It. that of John McCulIough. who made his first appearance there Sept. 1. It ia said to have been his favorite playhouse.

He was greatly admired to Washington, and his last appearance on the same stage was In 1VM. when. In the decay of his wonderful powers he died not long afterward from paresis--he pre. ented a pitiful spectacle. In the role of Vlrginlus.

Old employes of the theater declare that In later years they have seen bis ghost again and again, costumed as Virgtnlus, his favorite part. Appealing from the wings at one side of the stage. In some hour when the playhouse Is darkened and empty, he struts across in long strides, sirikes an attitude, and presently vanishes behind the wings oppostte, Watchmen. It Is said, will not on the stag of the New National If they can help it The famous Octagon House, so called by reason of Its shape, stands on the northeast corner of Eighteenth street and New Tork avenue. It was occupied for The White House Notoriously Infested by Them Eut the Worst Haunted Building Is the Capitol Sneak-Footed Specters of Statuary Hall.

The Demon Cat Something Unique Among Phantoms. Gen. John A. Logan's Midnight Promenade. while by President Madison and his wife.

Dolly, after the White House had been burned by the British In 1314. Later on tt fell Into disrepair and considerable disrepute, owing to the fact that It was supposed to be haunted. Indeed, up to torrnpnntliBrr of The Tiiira-Drnocnit dozen years ago, when reconstructed Washington. Feb. 26.

1913. A r-t Mil UpT for office purposes. It was the most notoriously haunted house In Washington, no tenant being obtainable for It, even with discarded furniture, stacks of trunks and quantities of miscellaneous junk, representing gifts sent to the White House by well-meaning but foolish peo nI.Kim:XT ELECT WILSON he comts to Washington will take up his residence In a hSUntOlt I. Ill v. The Uhll.

tl.n.. though offered at a merely nominal rental. after the lights are out. It was on this very stage, by the way, that Wilkes Booth played on the night of April 11. and Abraham Lincoln, seated In a box, applauded w-ltli curdiai admiration the man.

who. could he have only known It, was destined to be hia murderer. AT MOUNT VERNON. GHOST OF A CAT. 13 J's long neon famous for Us The most Interesting of thse i urre were many popio wno saia iuai, passing by, tbey had aeen ghostly faces I at the windows of the empty house, and I Strangers who visit Washington always at night lights moved to and fro Inside.

One of the stories connected with It was that of a negro alave who had either go to see Mount noii, the home of he Father of His Country, and thre th" can find a ghost or two If tli look hard for them. The ancient kl'ctien I co t- been whipped to death In the attic or tortured to death In the cellar. But the most remarkable specter associated with the place was that of a cat, which sat cn the starts a viewless cat, invisible to the eye. but which was nevertheless suf nected with the mansion by a colsenade. the of which la hollow beneath, air! here, on quiet moon! evenings, footsteps are sometimes distinctly beard, pac ficiently material to trip people up when tbey stepped oi It.

The story told to account for the spec ing to and fro. Those who ought to know most about the matter are confl-l-ot Ii declaring that they are the foosteps of the immortal George himself. tral cat is as follows: In the earlier half oi the -nineteenth But tt Is the bedroom In wht-h he dtd ple. Now (since the reconstruct on) it 1 Is occupied as servants' quarters, ar.d the rhade of Mr. Harrison ts seen there no longer.

Of all places In Washington, however, the one most Indubitably haunted is the room In the Capitol now known as Statuary Hall, which formerly was the chamber of the House of Representatives. It was there that John Quincy Adama died he was a member of Congress for nineteen years after he relinquished the Presidency and the seat he occupied when fatally stricken by paralysis Is marked to this day by a brass star set in the marble fioor. They do say that his ghost frequents the place, an amiable and harmless specter, and that his footfalls bwt of them a word presently. There was a member of the Capitol police, not long ago. who made format affidavit that, entering Statuary Hall one night, he beheld there the entire House of Representatives of 1S4S.

assembled as If for law-making purposes a phantom legislative crew, including Mr. Adams himself, and many other pedagogues familiarly known in history, but long dead. All of them, to a man, turned and looked at him as he came in a mysterious and ghostly light illumined the scene, but not one of them said a word. The police officer was dismissed for drinking, and the charge may have been Just, but there are other watchmen at the Capitol who shake their heads solemnly when the matter is mentioned, and say that If they chose, they likewise could tell of strange happenings. that positively known to be haunted.

His ghost. It is true, was never eer century there lived in the Octagon Houe an ectntrlc and eldeUy gentleman, who, having on remarkably pretty daughter, entertained a good deal. wished to trarry a young lawyer of very moderate there, but many people wb have rlept In the rom have been awed by a view ppertcrs ts tliat of a woman with a cap of antique pattern, a jurment resembling a rliawl. anl uijeiy dirfcn-led hoor-mirts. Sin- is sen not at inuinipht.

at is customary with most well-regulatej ghosts, but just before davbreak. gliding louly alonic the wide hallway, which ex-tind. lengthwise through the middle of the White House. It is always from the west end to the cast that she mov, and when khe reaches the closed double doors, which give entrance to the East Krtm. she passes throueh them, as If they offer no obta.

le. and vanishes. Nobody tan tell with posit! veness, of course, but the supposition is that th phantom Is that of Abigail Adams, the t.rrt mistress of the White House. She toott tip her residence a the mansion in th- autumn of ism, when it was as yet by no means finished; and history that sht used the East Room (originally intended for a banqueting halli as a Uundry. dn lns the family wash there.

But of what account Is one ghost, more or less, in the resident's Palace as tt was called in the early days of the republic? No man's ambition to occupy It was evrr lessened by Ftories of the "haunts" that infest it. The most familiarly known and best authenticated of White House specters if that of Abraham Lincoln. So far as can be ascertained it never appears elsewhere than on the stairs the double that is to say, which formerly led tip to the executive business offices. At the present time sip.c the reconstruction of the mansion by Roosevelt the upper oor is occupied wholly by bedrooms. LINCOLN'S GHOST.

means, who loved her, but the father would net fceir of the match. The mate he had chosen for her was a wealthy less and brooding presence. There Is feeling is of the nearnegu of an Invisible specter. And. indeed, Washington, might appropriately haunt this chamber, the furniture of which la the same as friend of his own, not very youthful, whom he brought heme constantly and encouraged to consider himself a fjture son-in-law.

This did not please the girl. who disliked the man intensely, and when he occupied It. The bed, with Its four slender posts and He original curtain of white dimity, ts the one la whk he died; and In a corner nearby Is ana old camp chejtt; al.io his liquor rase, with there were quarrels. As for marrying him. she declared poinlblank that she clatped behind him, and with an aspect would not.

bottles big enough to bold nearly a gallon apiece. One evening, when the dispute on the subject had been renewed, the father of extreme melancholy. Always pacing up and down, as if waiting for something or somebody, he vanishes, when ap- wai exasperated to the point of using One night, not very long ago. Mrs. William Beale and a friend slept 1.1 Washington's bedroom, or tried to do so.

violent language and threats, so that at Iioached, like a magic lantern picture. Being nervous, they surreptitiously lighted The Senate wing has a similar ghot GHOSTS OF STATUARY HALL. lut in thi case the phantom has been length the young lady bade him goodnight suddenly, left the room, and started up the stairs to bed. Unfortunately, the old who had lost bis temper entirely, followed after her to satisfactorily identified. It is thai of Gn.

John A. Logan; and. If the stories told are true, at exactly half an bour after midnight, every night la Ihe year, h-? comes cut of the room of the Com who, visiting Washington, have been conducted as sightseers through the Capitol. But Imagine, if you can. the same place in the gIMm of night, when the ordinary daytime noises are absent.

There is absolute silence, and the white marble statues of great men, dead and gone, ranged around the walls, seem to gesticulate with their outstretched arms and to point as with ghostly fingers. Were there nothing else, the scene, at such an hour, wculd be grewsomely suggestive of the spectral. But. under these peculiar circumstances, the nocturnal intruder observes a most singular phenomenon, which has never been adequately explained. His footsteps, as he walks across the hall, are cloely followed by other footsteps, not apparently bis own.

and the latter always move a little faster, as If to seem, with their patter-palter, to be on the point of overtaking him. He looks around instinctively, but sees nothing. Presumably parts of the Capitol. Tears ag- a member of the watch, on duty at night, became convinced that some living persons wao had no business there were hioing, perhaps for some dishonest purpose, within the precincts of the building. Accordingly, he provided himself with a pair of rubber fhoes.

and taking no light, stole softly through the corridors, with the ide of capt-jring the supposed intruders. Time and again be got the footsteps cornered In a place where there was seemingly no possibility of scene, but invariably thereupon they were I ard from another direction, and could never be overtaken. FAX SPECTERS. There are. moreover, at least four well-authenti -ated specters that haunt different parts of the Capitol.

One of thtse that of a tall military-looking tlenen, dressed in a frtv.k coat, with a Icr.g mustacne and goai.ee. On many an occasion be ha tx-en gem at night have his say out. and even pursued her up the steps. What she then said so angered him that he either struck or pushed her with some violence. She lost ber balance and stepped with all her mlttee on Military and Militia, beneath the Senate Cham ber, open th door slow ly closes It silently behind him.

and pr- It Is a satisfaction, where things ap-paritional are concerned, to have daylight and public testimony to help In forming judgment. Happily, this is not altogether lacking in the case of the ghosts of Statuary Hall. For more than a generation past the guides of the Capitol have called the attention of wondering visitors to the strange echoes and other acoustic phenomena of this remarkable room. There Is something positively uncanny about them for example, the distinct audibility of the lowe whisper uttered a long distance away. If speaker and listener respectively stand on certain marble bricks indicated to them.

cteds with noisless tread along the cor a candle In a basin of water lights of any kind being forbidden In tha mansion, for fear of Are. When at length It went out with a sputter, both women were startled and Heightened; and the a discussion began. "My dear, you are on the side of tie bed where Washington lay when he died." said Mrs. Beale. "No, I am not," replied her friend.

"lit died on your side!" The argument lasted for aa hour, but they could not settle the question between them, and there was no more alee? for either of them, that night. RENE BAC1IK. To an elderly woman "home" always Is the town where her children aj buiicd, nalaicisU Mill Letex. weight upon her pet cat. which was at her skirt.

It uttered a yell, and she fell diwo the stairs. When she was picked up It waa found that ber neck ridor to westward. His long black Lair, sret mustache, ind broadbrimmcd Mr. Lincoln (so witnesses of the phe-toirtnei aver) ts always seen walking ii. the stairs.

It is impossible to mistake his tall, awkward hgure and i-btmbling eait. Wnc.n he gets to the top. he looks arour.d. smiles sadly, and iiappears. One might imagine that he melted Into mist.

In earlier years the attic was said to haunted by President William Henry J'arrisca (who 5id in the White House) though why ue thould have selected this part of the mansion for his phantasmal activities is not easy to exDlain felt hat make recognition of him bs- was broken LAST OF AX OLD LADY. yoad possibility of taistake. The negroes who come there In the early morniny hours to clean up before Another old-time Wahir.gtoa residence davbreak in the winter are dreal was that of the Meade family, and some fuily afraid of meeting the general" thing of the supernatural was supposed This will be a matter of familiar recol- I it is caught but a curious kind of echo, walking about the corridors beneath the to conaeviea wiin it lor no other ghost, ana so. at once upon tneir ar The attic then a lumber room, fUled lecUoa to tens thausaada of people Siauiax sounds footsteps cauat otacr llouae of ReprcscaUUvcs, hia tan da rival, tier turn cn all tue electric ligaUh reasua ttxaa tat a likeness tas deal 4..