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Post by dem bones on Dec 22, 2023 8:48:41 GMT
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Post by helrunar on Dec 22, 2023 16:36:50 GMT
Love Chrissie's drawing. I look forward to catching up with some of the fabulous goodies posted here recently.
cheers, Hel.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 4, 2024 12:31:08 GMT
GHOSTS! Helpful and Harmful Apparitions. It was reported some time ago that a Hamburg gentleman had been able to turn factory fiddles into divine instruments as a result of a tip given him by the ghost of the great Stradivarius. Sceptics only laughed, and a few of them declared that the time was sadly overdue for spirits communicating something really useful to terrestrial dwellers. One would think, it was pointed out, that the ghost of the man of science, seeing his successor groping, would simply itch to put him on the right line. And the ghost of the historian, it was felt, might surely clear up famous mysteries by the direct interrogation of authorities. A friendly call, the sceptics urged, would settle for all time whether Shakespeare was Bacon, and if Homer was one man or a Greek syndicate. After reading a book, entitled "Ghosts Helpful and Harmful," by Mr Elliot O'Donnell (London: Rider. 5s) the critics, it is to be feared, will be more critical and more impatient than ever. "In this volume' (he writes) "it is my aim to try and show that certain spirt entities, on the Other Side, take as keen an interest in what goes on in this material world that they not infrequently intervene, either directly, that is to say, by adopting some auditory or visual phenomena, or indirectly, through the medium of a dream. " Ghosts he divides into those that are helpful and those that are harmful, and he cites a large number of what he believes to be indubitable manifestations of each. Among the former are a ghost dog —"a shaggy-haired apparition with big, fiery eyes" — a ghost that wanted to pay its debts; and a telephone ghost. No spirits of celebrities with really valuable information figure in the list. Among the malevolent entities are a few murderers who have apparently learned nothing and forgotten nothing since they took up their present abode as they are charged with frequenting their former earthly haunts and continuing to carry out cold-blooded infamies. Mr O'Donnell is of opinion that the Crumbles district where Miss Irene Munroe and Miss Kaye were murdered is haunted not by one ghost but by several, and that the ghostly influence there is for the most part evil. "I believe that Field, and Gray, and Mahon were all seriously affected by it, though Mahon's past suggests that he more than met it half-way." Several stories of strangulation in haunted rooms make somewhat creepy reading, suggestive of the weirder conceptions of Edgar Allan Poe. One of them tells of a bed in Malta which was haunted in a singularly unpleasant manner. "Everyone that slept in it underwent the tortures of strangulation." A 'Mr G.', greatly daring, volunteered to solve the mystery provided that help would be close at hand and available. This stipulation was agreed to and the hero retired to bed. "For some time all was quiet, and nothing occurred to disturb the watchers till two o'clock. They then heard the most harrowing sounds, as of someone choking, proceeding from the room, and, upon opening the door instantly, saw bending over the bed in which Mr G. lay, an old woman, who was obviously engaged in strangling him. " The rescue party, without a moment's delay, rushed to the unfortunate victim, but as they approached the bedside the would-be murderer vanished. Spooks were ever tantalisingly slippery. — L . B. Y. — Aberdeen Press & Journal, 24 December 1924
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