_The Nagles Family._--The following remarkable and ridiculous affair
transpired in a village where the writer once resided. The Nagleses were
Irish. The family consisted of old Nagles, his wife,--who did washing for
my mother,--John Tom and Tom John, besides Mary. The reason of having the
boys named as above was, that in case either died, the sainted names would
still be in the family. This was old Mrs. Nagles' explanation of the
matter.
The old man worked about the wharves, wheeled wood and carried coal, and
did such like jobs during summer, and chopped wood in the winter. I well
remember of hearing stories of his greenness when he first came to town.
He was early employed to wheel wood on board a coaster lying at the dock.
The captain told him to wheel a load down the plank, cry "Under!" to the
men in the hold, and tip down the barrow of wood. All went well till old
Nagles got to the stopping-place, over the hold, when he dumped down the
load, and cried out, "Stand ferninst, there, down cellar!" to the imminent
peril of breaking the heads of the wood-stevedores below.
[Illustration: OLD NAGLES.]
I well remember also the first appearance of the two boys at the village
school one winter.
"What is your name?" inquired the master of the eldest.
"Me name, is it? John Tom Nagles, sir, is me name, and who comes after is
the same."
He always was called by us boys "John Tom Nagles, sir," thenceforward. He
certainly was the rawest specimen I ever met.
One day the old man was wheeling wood on board a vessel. It was at low
water, and there was a distance of sixteen feet from the plank to the
bottom of the vessel's hold. The poor old fellow, by some mishap or
neglect, let go the barrow, when he called, "Stand ferninst, there,
below!" when wood, barrow, and old Mr. Nagles, all went down together. By
the fall he broke his neck. I never shall forget the awful lamentation set
up by the combined voices of the poor old woman, John Tom, Tom John, and
Mary, as they followed the corpse, borne on a wagon, past our house, on
the way from the vessel to the Nagles' residence.
[Illustration: THE NAGLES BOYS.]
On the following day great preparations were made to "wake" the old
gentleman according to the most approved fashion in the old country. There
were many Irish living--_staying_, at least--in that town, and large
quantities of pipes, tobacco, and whiskey were bought up, and the whole
town knew that a "powerful time" was anticipated by the Irish who were
invited to old Nagles' wake. It was an unusual occurrence, and several
boys and young men of the village went to the locality of the Nagles'
house to get a look upon the scene when it got under full pressure. I
certainly should have been there had not my parents forbidden me to go,
and I regret the inability to give my personal testimony to the truth of
the statement of what followed, as I do to what preceded, as related
above.
[Illustration: CHIEF MOURNERS.]
"When the wake was at its height, the room full of tobacco smoke, and the
jovial mourners full of Irish whiskey,--strychnine and fusel oil,--there
was an alarm of fire in the neighborhood. There was a grand rush from the
room, as well as from the windows where stood the listeners, and only one
old and drunken woman remained to watch the corpse. The door was left
open, and some of the young men outside, thinking it a good opportunity to
play a joke on the drunken party, ran into the room, and, seeing only the
old woman, who was too drunk to offer any objections, they removed the
body from the board, depositing it behind the boxes on which the board was
laid, and one of their number took the place of the corpse, barely having
time to draw the sheet over his face, when the 'wakers' returned.
"The candles burned dimly through the hazy atmosphere of the old room, and
no one noticed the change. The pipes were relighted, the whiskey freely
passed, and finally one fellow proposed to offer the corpse a lighted pipe
and a glass of whiskey, 'for company's sake, through purgatory.'
"Suiting the action to the word, he approached, attempted to raise the
head of the 'lively corpse,' and thrust the nasty pipe between his teeth.
"The young man 'playing corpse' was no smoker, and in infinite disgust he
motioned the fellow away, who, too drunk to notice it, stuck the pipe in
his face, saying, 'Here, ould man, take a shmoke for your ghost's sake.'
"'Bah! Git away wid the div'lish nasty thing,' exclaimed the young man,
rising and sitting up in the coffin.
"There was an instantaneous stampede from the room of every waker who was
capable of rising to his legs, followed by the fellow in the sheet, who,
dropping the ghostly covering at the door, mingled with the rabble, and
was not recognized. The priest and the doctor were speedily summoned. The
former arrived, heard, outside the house, the wonderful story, and then
proceeded to lay the spirit by sprinkling holy water on the door-stone,
thence into the room. By this time the smoke had sufficiently subsided to
allow a view of the room, when the stiff, frigid body of old Nagles was
discovered on the floor, where 'it had fallen,' as they supposed, 'in
attempting to walk.' Of course the doctor ridiculed the idea of a stark,
cold body rising and speaking; but the Irish, to this day, believe old
Nagles, for that once, refused a pipe and a glass of whiskey. The few
young men dared not divulge the secret, and it never leaked out till the
entire family of Nagles had gone to parts unknown."
[Illustration: A CORPSE THAT WOULD NOT SMOKE.]
* * * * *
I find a great many ghost stories in books, which are not explained; but
since the writer knows nothing of their authenticity, nor the persons with
whom they were connected, they are unworthy of notice here.