It is said that this remedy eventually reduced the offenders to general good behavior. There is no foundation whatever, for the report that Cumberland has had more than its share of witches. A few families, not more probably than half a dozen, would include all those who have wrought these mysteries west of Spring Hill and Amherst within the lifetime of any but the patriarchs. It is doubtful if there are now more than two or three survivors of the many who have seen the Evil One in any of the shapes which he is wont to assume. Not long ago there were those whose evidently genuine accounts of diabolical visits were calculated to keep small boys from going out at night. It is not necessary to explain these things. But we will understand them better if we keep in mind the fact that in New England over a century ago, when the Cumberland settlers came thence, ghosts and witches were plentiful enough, and that the Yorkshire colonists who located in the country had attended the meetings of John Wesley to whom, as he has himself recorded, the Devil in the form of a beast sometimes appeared. The secluded life of a settlement apart from the outside world, and the home training of the young in the shadows of the forest, by parents bringing their beliefs from over seas, would not be likely to induce scepticism in the second generation.
A Strange Spectre Daily Haunting Niagara’s Lonely Places
Kingston Daily Whig, November 22, 1880
The town of Niagara is in a state of excitement over a ghastly apparition which has haunted the place of late. The experiences are growing more numerous, and even men are chary of going abroad after dark. A farmer leaving town the other night about eleven o’clock, the moon being bright, avers that he saw the thing rise from among the tombs, in the churchyard, and trail toward him. It had the semblance of a woman with long white garments and fair hair, apparently floating, or else with far more than the average length of limb. The farmer closed his eyes, and turning his horse drove back into town at a furious gallop, his animal seeming to share the fright. He never looked round until safely in the heart of the town. Another account states that at one of the lonely crossings in the outskirts of the place the woman was seen crouching beside a low fence. The spectators, two in number this time, did not at first recall the stories of the apparition, and went toward the thing under the impression that some vagrant was crouching there for shelter. As they went near, a peculiar sensation affected them both, and without speaking to each other or exactly knowing why they stopped involuntarily and turned away. As they did so a shuddering thrill went through them, as they say, and they broke into a wild run for the nearest lights.
Other tales have contradictory points, but all agree that the apparition has the form of a woman, and possesses a strange floating motion. There is much speculation in the place over the matter.
Five successful burglaries have been accomplished, and three unsuccessful ones attempted, and the evil deeds are still going on. It is possible that the burglaries have been committed by the ghost, although there is nothing to show this positively.
Professor De Morgan
Toronto News, April 19, 1883
Dr. Briggs, when quartered in the Hill Country, used to meet once a week with the officers and others; the custom being to breakfast at each other’s houses after the sport was over. On the day for Dr. B.’s turn to receive his friends, he awoke at dawn and saw a figure standing at his bedside. Having rubbed his eyes to make sure that he was awake, he got up, crossed the room, and washed his face in cold water. He then turned, and, seeing the same figure, approached it, and recognized a sister whom he had left in England. He uttered some exclamation and fell down in a swoon, in which state he was found by the servant who came to call him for the hunt. He was, of course, unable to join his hunting friends, who, when at breakfast on their return, rallied him as to the cause of his absence. In the midst of the talk he suddenly looked up aghast, and said in a trembling voice: — “Is it possible that none of you see the woman standing there?” They all declared there was no one. “I tell you there is; she is my sister. I beg of you all to make a note of this, for we shall hear of her death.”
All present, sixteen in number, of whom Sir John Malcolm was one, made an entry in their notebooks of the occurrence and exact date. Some months after this, by the first mail from England that could bring it, came the news that the sister had died at the very time of the vision, having on her deathbed expressed a strong wish to see her brother, and to leave two young children in his charge.
STRANGE PREMONITION OF IMPENDING FATE
We have been informed by a strange coincidence in the death of the late Alderman McPherson, which involves the mysterious to such a degree as to make it one of those unaccountable illusions which sometimes occur as a prescient to some impending fate. The facts abound so much in the marvellous, that, were they not given on the undoubted authority of the bereaved widow, who now is left to mourn the loss of him whose death was so strikingly revealed to her, we should not attempt to rehearse them. On the Thursday night previous to his death, the deceased gentleman was awakened by the continued sobbing of his wife, whose cries, though asleep, were distinctly audible to several of the inmates of the house. Awakening her he inquired the reason of her incessant moaning, when she informed him that she had had a dream, in which she saw the two gentlemen, who were afterwards the first to tell her the sad news, enter the house and actually inform her of his death. Every circumstance was so vivid, that she remarked it as something peculiar, and besought him on the Saturday morning, when he went away, to be careful of himself, as she felt confident that something unusual would shortly occur. True, in her premonition, he never returned alive, and on the Rev. Mr. Scott and his friend Mr. Lester, entering her house on the same evening, to inform her of his death, she did not wait for their announcement, but holding up her hands in despair, said, “Is he dead?” and without waiting for an answer, fell exhausted on the floor. The sad coincidence of the actual circumstances as they occurred, with the dream, marks it one of the strangest on record. — London C.W. Prototype.
Moose Jaw Times, October 4, 1895
Not many years ago, people used to sneer at ghosts and ghost stories much more than they do now, and one would constantly hear people whisper to one another (while some individual was relating his or her experience): “Ah! it is very odd that these ghost stories should always be related at second or third hand. Now, I want to see a person who personally has seen the ghost, and then I will believe!”
Yes! People are more accustomed to hearing about ghosts now; and yet, even now, should it be a wife, daughter, or sister who ventures to narrate some supernatural experience, she is pooh-poohed, or laughed at, or told to “take a pill.”
Now, I have seen a ghost — and am prepared to attest most solemnly to the fact, as well as to the truth of every word here set down. I have, of course, avoided names, but nothing else; so, without further preamble, I will state my case.
Some years ago I became the object of the infatuated adoration of a person of my own age and sex; and I use the word infatuated advisedly, because I feel now, as I did at the time, that neither I nor any mortal that ever lived could possibly be worthy of the overwhelming affection which my poor friend lavished upon me. I, on the other side, was not ungrateful towards her, for I loved her in return very dearly; but when I explain that I was a wife and the mother of young children, and that she was unmarried, it will easily
