THE WALKING OF THE GHOST.
When John White took Esther to his house to reside, he performed a
charitable deed, which no man in the village but himself had the heart
to do. Both he and his good wife showed, by the kindness with which they
treated the poor unhappy girl, that Heaven had at least inspired two
hearts with that greatest of all virtues--_Charity_.
It was now January, 1879,--just four months since the manifestations
first commenced. Esther had been at White's residence for two weeks, and
had not seen anything of the ghost. She had improved very much in that
short time, her nervousness having almost subsided, and she was
contented and happy. Mrs. White, who found her of great assistance in
the house, had become much attached to the girl, and treated her with
the same kindness that she did her own children.
Towards the end of the third week her old enemy--the ghost--returned.
While Esther was scrubbing the hall at her new home, she was astonished
to see her scrubbing brush disappear from her hand. When the ghost told
her that he had taken it, she became much alarmed and screamed for Mrs.
White, who, with her daughter Mary, searched the hall for it in vain.
After they had abandoned their search, to the great astonishment of all,
the brush fell from the ceiling--just grazing Esther's head in its fall.
Here was a new manifestation of the ghostly power. He was able to take a
solid substance from this material world of ours, and render it
invisible by taking it into his mysterious state of existence; and, if
he could take one object why not another; if a brush, why not a broom?
But why speculate on so great a mystery? The ghost did it, and as we
must draw the line somewhere, it is better to draw it here than to allow
our minds to become dazed by such fellows as ghosts. Many other
remarkable manifestations continued to take place almost daily for the
next two weeks. The ghost could now tell how much money people had in
their pockets, both by knocking and by telling Esther. He would answer
any question asked in the above mentioned manner, and behaved himself
very well indeed until the end of the sixth week, when his true devilish
nature broke out again. He commenced setting fires about the house, and
walking so that he could be heard distinctly. Of course John White would
not run the risk of having his house burned down. So he persuaded Esther
to remain during the day in his dining saloon, which stands opposite the
well known book store of G.G. Bird, on the principal street.
While standing behind the counter in the dining saloon, also while she
worked in the adjoining kitchen, many new and wonderful things were
witnessed by the inhabitants of Amherst and by strangers from a
distance, and many plans were tried to prevent the manifestations. Among
others, some one suggested that if she could stand on glass they would
cease. So pieces of glass were put into her shoes, but as their presence
caused her head to ache and her nose to bleed, without stopping the
manifestations, the idea was abandoned.
One morning the door of the large stove in the kitchen adjoining the
saloon was opened and shut by the ghost, much to the annoyance of Mr.
White, who with an old axe handle so braced the door that it could not
be moved by any known mundane power, unless the axe handle was first
removed. A moment afterwards, however, the ghost, who seemed never to
leave Esther's presence while she was in the saloon, lifted the door off
its hinges, removed the axe handle from the position in which it had
been placed, and, after throwing them some distance into the air, let
both fall to the floor with a tremendous crash. Mr. White was speechless
with astonishment, and immediately called in Mr. W.H. Rogers, Inspector
of Fisheries for Nova Scotia. After bracing the door as before, the same
wonderful manifestation was repeated, in the presence of Mr. Rogers. On
another occasion, a clasp-knife belonging to little Fred, Mr. White's
son, was taken from his hand by the ghost, who instantly stabbed Esther
in the back with it, leaving the knife sticking in the wound, which bled
profusely. Fred, after drawing the knife from the wound, wiped it,
closed it and put it in his pocket. The ghost took it from his pocket,
and in a second stuck it in the same wound. Fred again obtained
possession of the knife, and this time hid it so that it could not be
found, even by a ghost.
There is something still more remarkable, however, about the following
manifestation: Some person tried the experiment of placing three or four
large iron spikes on Esther's lap while she was seated in the Dining
Saloon. To the astonishment of everybody, the spikes were not removed by
the ghost, but instead, became too hot to be handled with comfort, and a
second afterwards were thrown by the ghost to the far end of the saloon,
a distance of twenty feet.
During her stay at the saloon the ghost commenced to move the furniture
about in the broad daylight. On one occasion a large box, weighing fifty
pounds, moved was a distance of fifteen feet without the slightest
visible cause. The very loud knocking commenced again and was heard by
crowds of people, the saloon being continually filled with visitors.
Among other well known inhabitants of Amherst who saw the wonders at
this period, I may mention William Hillson, Daniel Morrison, Robt.
Hutchinson, who is John White's son-in-law, and J. Albert Black, Esq.,
editor of the _Amherst Gazette_.
Towards the latter part of March, Esther went to Saint John, New
Brunswick, and while there was the guest of Captain James Beck, and
remained at his house for three weeks under the protection of his wife.
Her case was investigated by a party of gentlemen, well known in Saint
John as men whose minds have a scientific turn. Doctor Alward, Mr. Amos
Fales, Mr. Alex. Christie, Mr. Ritchie, and many others witnessed the
manifestations, and talked with the ghost by the aid of the knocks on
the wall and furniture, and, strange to relate, other ghosts came and
conversed also; among them one who said his name was Peter Cox, and
another who gave the name of Maggie Fisher. All claimed to have lived on
the earth before they entered the land of ghosts, but none were
apparently as strong and healthy as the old original fire fiend of the
cottage, who now gave the name of Bob Nickle, and said that when he
lived on the earth he had been a shoemaker. The ghost who called himself
Peter Cox, claimed to be a relation of Esther's, and said he had been in
ghost land about forty years; he was a quiet old fellow, and did all he
could to prevent Bob Nickle and Maggie Fisher from breaking the articles
which they threw, and from using profane language, a habit in which
_they_ were fond of indulging.
Dr. Alward and his scientific friends also conversed with the ghosts by
calling over the alphabet, the ghosts knocking at the correct letters,
and in that way long communications were spelled out to the satisfaction
of those present.
After remaining in Saint John about three weeks, Esther returned to
Amherst, and accepted an invitation to visit Mr. and Mrs. Van Amburgh,
who reside about three miles from the village. She remained eight weeks
with them, during which period the ghosts allowed her to enjoy the calm
repose of a life in the woods, the Van Amburgh farm being literally
situated in the woods.
At the expiration of the eighth week she returned to Amherst, and went
back to Dan's cottage to reside, being employed during the day in
White's Dining Saloon. The manifestations soon commenced again, and were
as powerful as when the author commenced his investigation of the case.