THE SPECTRE OF THE GULCH.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 578, 26 April 1876, Page 3

THE SPECTRE OF THE GULCH.

A Strange Story. ( A r em York Herald.') McClollau’s Gulch has just been thrown into a state of unaccountable excitement by the appearance there of an electric spectre, which has driven the camp from its propriety. The circumstances attending this remarkable episode are as follows ; —Some months ago John Hewitt, a miner, sharing the cabin of William Burton, died, leaving his partner, to whom he was tenderly attached, in great distress They had come to Montana together, and had never been separated for even a day ; had endured privations, and had naturally shared the perils and dangers of the mines. But early in the autumn Hewitt sickened and died, and his old partner has secluded himself more and more ever since. The other night the whole camp was aroused by a succession of piercing shrieks in his lonely cabin. Bushing pell meli into the house neighbouring miners discovered Burton on his knees facing the single glass window in his cabin, his eyeballs nearly protruding from his head, his hair on end, and his face white and haggard from a deadly terror. It was some moments before he could be got to speak, indeed before his paralysing fright could be removed. Even then he could only point to the solitary window, and muttering hoarsely “ Lock there?” In the gleam of light a human face was distinctly visible, apparently pressed against the window pane. A closer examination proved it to be the perfect likeness of John Hewitt, resembling in outline and character the negative of a photograph, but nevertheless a clearly defined likeness of a miner. While eating his supper, Burton happened to glance .that way and was horrified at what he supposed was the spirit of his dead friend come back to haunt him. In the awful horror of the moment he shrieked aloud, but the cold and passionless face, from whi h his eyes never turned, still rivetted his look with a stony glare. Thorough examination revealed the facts as they are here recited. The likeness is indelibly impressed on the window pare, but the'.question is still unsolved how it came there. Some suppose that during the lifetime of the deceased it must have been photographed by a shock of lightning and remained until now undiscovered, and revealed at last by an accidental glance of the surviving miner. It can only be seen at night, and in the glow of the lamp, and this circumstance strengthens the theory of an electric influence. Others imagine, and among them the miner, that it is a spiritual visitation, meant to further an inscrutable purpose, which will in time be revealed,