Evening Star Newspaper, January 8, 1933, Page 64

2 g e Rl stick could descend it was torn from her grasp by an invisible hand and flung across the terrace! Then the harpist glided to the end of the terrace and vanished. The princess was convinced that she had seen the White Lady of thc Hohen- zollerns; and since there {5 a widespread belief in German foiklore that ghosts are closely connected with hidden treasure, she also believed that the spot where the White Lady had disappearsd marked the hiding place of the treasure. Workmen were procured; the ierrace was torn up, and below it, to the prin- cess’ great satisfaction, were found . traces of a much earlier building. When these in turn were removed, there was revealed 2 gaping hole, the entrance to a subterranean vault. Certain that she would find hidden treasure, the princess herself was the first to descend the lad- der that had been thrust down into the vault. By the light of a lantern she Jooked about; there was nothing to be seen save the damp stonework which glistened sinisterly in the dim light. But what was that in the corner? Ap- proaching avariciously, the princess stooped down, hoping to find a bag of gold. Then with a cry she fell back, dropped the lantern, sprang to the ladder and trembling and screaming ran to her own apartment. Workmen hurriedly 'descended to see what had alarmed the princess. In a corner of the vault they found the cause of her terror—a human skeleton, with an iron collar attached by an iron chain to the dungeon wall. They had found not treasure, but the remains of thé White Lady. It was at this point that the Kaiser came into the story. He became vastly interested and ordered that the records be searched. " A FTER laborious search it was discov- ered that the White Lady was in- deed the Countess of Orlamunde. She had been a noted beauty of her day and had attracted the attention of a mar- grave of Brandenburgh. By promises of marriage he had made her his mistress, and to him she had borne two children. His affections having cooled, the mar- grave then announced his intention of marrying a princess. The countess, crazed with love and jealousy, poisoned her two children. The deed so disgusted the margrave that he ordered the countess put to death by being entombed alive in a dungeon below the palace foundations. The beautiful woman was chained to the wall and, the entrance to the dungeon having been bricked up, was left to die a lingering death. Glamis Castle in Scotland, the seat of the Earl of Strathmore, where the Duchess of York spent her childhood, is one of the most ancient edifices in Scot- land, and it is in connection with this castle that some of the strangest ghost stories are told. One portion of the castle is believed to have been in exist- ence in 1033, and here King Malcolm IL is said to have been murdered by the Macbeths—as told by Shakespeare. The weirdest story centers round a secret so terrible that as recently as 1905 the earl said to friends: “If you could guess the nature of this secret you would go down on your knees and thank God it was not yours.” Though the family refuse to reveal it, the secret is gen- erally thought to concern a certain room in the castle. The location of this room and its contents can be known at the same time to only three people—the Earl of Strathmore, the heir and the earl’s factor. There are several theories about the mystery room. One tells that the fourth Earl of Crawford, known as “Earl Beardie,” occupies the chamber and is still alive despite the report that he died in 1454. Earl Beardie was a man of black character, much given to gambling, we are told, and on account of a hasty vow he was doomed as a penance to be confined within the secret chamber, playing at dice there until the Day of Judgment. Many attempts have been made by irresponsible persons to unravel the mys- tery of Glamis. More than once heirs have promised that they would divulge the secret as soon as they heard it from their fathers’ lips. But when the time had come at last not one has ever given a hint as to its nature, There are many remarkable stories to be told of the catacombs of Paris, those e e - < S N / 7 C S ;i ~ ) A E ) k 3. THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D.. €, FANUARY 8 1938 tortuous burrowin®s that wind beneath the city streets. Some years ago a party of workmen were repairing the drains beneath the Palace of the Louvre. They were far below ground, digging a new channel for drain pipes, when one of the men uttered a cry and vanished from sight. The ground had caved in, and he had dropped into a black, yawning pit. He was only slightly bruised, and as soon as a lamp had been lowered to him, he said that he was in a narrow, bricked channel. M. Delange, an authority on antiqui- ties, was called in, and with two fellow And then, swinging his lantern aloft, he found himself in an immense cham- ber with a vaulted roof. In the corners were accumulations of rubbish which looked as if they had once been boxes or chests. But the most extraordinary sight that greeted the eyes of the explorers was to be seen in the center of the room; for there, seated on a chair, with arms resting on a massive table, was the fig- ure of a man! “He was dressed,” said M. Delange, “in the fashion of a bygone age; upon his head was a wide-brimmed hat which concealed his features. He sat with downcast gaze, as though waiting pa- The Tower of London. Reputed to have more ghosts than any other place in ngland. investigators and two workmen he de- scended into the passage. It seemed to lead from the Louvre toward a place corresponding with the Place Vendome. Going carefully forward, the explorers were able to proceed for 600 yards. AT this point the passage branched two ways. But one arm was found to be blocked up with debris a few yards from the junction. M. Delange and his companions advanced down the other arm. But here again they soon found their advance barred; but this time it was by something more interesting than a mass of rubble. A door! This door was constructed of iron studded with massive bolts, and ap- peared, when knocked upon, to be of extraordinary thickness. Special tools had to be obtained by M. Delange to open it. How to Care for Your Books BY ROBINA C. CLARK. NY one who values the contents of books and treasures a col- lection, however large or small, cannot be wholly indifferent to their outward appearance or their preservation. Nevertheless, save for an occasional dusting, books are frequently neglected, while meticulous care is given to the preservation of fur- niture, bric-a-brac and draperies in the same household. The physical care of books, to keep them in good condition and to make them more truly a part of the decorative interest of the living room, requires more detailed attention. Books in the private home library have a way of getting themselves into a la- mentable state before the owner is aware that they have deteriorated. Too often, indeed, the owner has never even considered that books require any care other than dusting from time to time. The result of this negligence is a collec- tion of poor, dry, parched volumes that creak and all but groan to the human touch, or, on the other hand, books that are mildewed and sticking together, and when opened exude an unpleasant odor of mustiness. The overheated atmosphere of many modern homes, or continued exposure to direct sunlight dries the oil which is the life blood of leather bindings and exacts its terrible toll in decay which takes many forms. One expects long life and service of fine leather bindings, but many people do not know that such wear is entirely conditional upon their “tiently for some one or something. As- tonishing as was the presence of this being in this closed subterranean cham- ber, it was not so remarkable as the man'’s size. He was not a man; he was a giant.” At first the explorers almost thought the man to be alive, so lifelike was his attitude. But as M. Delange reached out and touched the figure, gently it vanished, falling into a cloud of dust. Almost as interesting as this story of the mysterious find are the conjectures as to the why and wherefore of it all. M. Delange went deeply into the mat- ter and concluded that the passage and vaulted room must have been built in the time of King Francis I, mention be- ing found of the construction of a treas- ury in which certain secret war funds were housed. Then it appears to have been forgotten. being properly nourished and cared for. Dryness rots leather and renders its sur- face easily scratched, cracked and other- wise marred. In extreme cases it be- comes powdered and dusty. The book not only takes on a rusty and scuffed appearance, but becomes broken along the hinges as a result of the line not being kept flexible. Also, brittle backs are easily broken when the book is pulled from the shelf. (And it is a sad fact, but true, that books are generally “pulled” when taken from the shelf.) And a broken back in a book, as in a human being, is not conducive to a long and useful life. Dampness, on the other hand, is not only detrimental to the binding, but is even more ruinous to the paper. In severe cases, where the condition has been of longz standing, ugly brown stains appear which cannot be successfully eradicated. With book troubles the proverbial ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, for when deterioration has once set in nothing can effectively restore the ailing volume to its original healthy con- dition, although further deterioration can be retarded and the life of the book materially prolonged. The first preventive measure, it will readily be seen, is to place bookshelves where there will be the least exposure to excessive dryness or dampness. -A fireplace grouping, therefore, however homely and inviting it appears, is not Continued on Fifteenth Page = When Henry IV came to the throne the nation’s treasury was nearly ex- hausted; but almost immediately after his arrival at the Louvre he became well supplied with funds. Coincidental with his sudden change of foriune was a minor event, yet one that had its sig- nificance to M. Delange. Henry IV had a bodyguard whose cap- tain was one Jules Fecamp, a man of extraordinary build, being more than seven feet in heighth. This man, it was noticed, disappeared within a few weeks of Henry's arrival in Paris. Can we say that M. Delange forced his way into the long-lost treasure house of Francis I? Also that it had been pre- viously discovered and ransacked by the followers of Henry IV, or at least by the captain of his bodyguard? And did Henry for some reason leave Jules locked in this vault? Even Windsor Castle is credited with a ghost. The wraith is that of a woman, and is said to haunt particularly the queen’s library and the east terrace. ONE of the more startling stories in connection with the Windsor Castle ghost includes the experience 86 years ago of a sentry on duty on the east ter- race. i The sentry’s spell of duty was nearly over when his attention was attracted by something moving slowly toward him from the end of the terrace. The sentry took a few steps toward the figure. Then the moon came out clear from behind a cloud, and the sentry felt the hair rising on the nape of his neck. For there, advancing toward him, was the figure of a woman with her face veiled, dressed in black. The sentry raised his rifle to the “ready” and was about to challenge when the woman flung herself on her knees and vanished. The man was frightened. He retired to his box and awaited the coming of relief. And when he got back to the guard room he related what he had seen. No doubt his comrades made fun of him. Some weeks later he again saw the ghostly figure approaching. This time he managed to utfter a challenge and as the apparition%ontinued to advance, the sentry raised his rifle and fired. The shot brought the sergeant of the guard, who found the sentry in a state of collapse, babbling incoherently about the hooded woman. Later, while awaiting court-martial for unsoldierly conduct on guard, he de- scribed what he had seen. Officers learned that his description tallied with the stories of previous appearances of the ghost of Windsor Castle, and al- though they could not admit officially that there was anything at all in the man'’s story, their efforts resulted in his receiving only a nominal sentence. The stories of the Windsor Castle ghost all correspond. She is always tall and thin, always dressed in black, and she always wears a hood or veil. This was the description given in 1896 in what is looked upon as one of the most authentic stories of her appear- ance. A Guards officer, reading in the queen’s library one night, happened to glance up from his book and saw a° woman who was tall and dressed in black, walking away from him. Positive that this was no mortal being, the offi- cer followed. But after walking ahead of him for a few steps, without looking back, the ghost suddenly vanished. i NOW we come down to quite recent times, for this wraith was reported seen again as recently as June, 1926, this time in the Saxon Tower. Here a sol- dier was surprised, knowing that the tower had been untenanted for more than a year, to see a woman looking out one of the windows. She was tall, dressed in black, and as usual had her face partly concealed by a hood. He saw her quite distinctly for a moment, and then she vanished—“as if she had fallen through the floor,” he said. A few moments later he saw the same apparition on the battlements, and as he was watching, it faded slowly away. Whose is this ghost that elings so per- sistently to Windsor Castle? There is very little definite information, but my own opinion is that it is of no less dis- tinguished a person than Queen Eliza- beth, the famous virgin Queen of England.