Evening Star Newspaper, April 7, 1935, Page 58

F2 WHEN A GHOST RIDES ALONG OLD TEL THE SUNDAY By Mary Porter Russell. T IS 1n the twilight that the man appears—the gaunt. still, man with the ravaged face. He is on horseback, and his horse walks slowly, always slowly, with the mournful solemnity of a funeral march. The man looks at the horse now and then a little furtively, as if fearful of the animal's censure fer a deed long done. Beside him he leads another horse, a horse that is strange- ly riderless. This apparition is said to have been seen frequently years ago by travelers on the old Telegraph road between Alexandria and the historic Pohick Church, where George Wash- ington was once a pew holder and an officer. Pirey Hill, across from Hay- fleld, the Lund Washington estate, marked the exact spot of the grim horseman’s appearance. The main road has been changed since then so that it no longer follows the same route around Piney Hill and few motorists now venture on the old, un- kept road, whose uneven surface holds perils for the automobile as well as & promise of ghostly encounters. Miss Virginia Bell and her sister, Miss Leila, are perhaps the only per- sons in the neighborhood of Pohick Church who remember 2ctually hav- ing seen the horseman and can de- seribe him at first hand instead of through hearsay. It was Miss Vir- ginia who consented to tell the tale. “See the horseman? Indeed I did! More than 30 years ago, 1t must have been, but I can see him as plainly still as if it were yesterday!” HE afternoon sun came through the windows of Miss Virginia's ancient hcuse. All the way to the time. I can tell you about it better after the sun goes down.” | Miss Virginia does not claim to be | | an authority on ghosts and she re- | fuses to argue with those who believe them non-existent. “I can only tell you what I have seen,” she says, “and you can form your own opinion. Of | course, this part of Virginia is filled | with ghost stories and to most of them. I pay not one bit of attention. It's just the ones I really know something about that I ever tell. After all, when you have seen a thing with your own | eyes—well, there are certain things in | this world that are hard to explain— ! that's all. T don't know of any ghost stories about Pohick Church itself. That's strange, isn't i{t? One would suspect | it of being full of them. it's so very | old, you krow. Did I tell you our pew was next to George Washington's?” | here's a good story about the | altar rail,” Miss Leila volunteered. “A ‘Yankee soldier took two of the spokes | from the rail during the Civil War. | Nothing was known of them until a | few years ago, when he wrote from California that he had the spokes and would send one of them back if the church would forward him the post- age. Wasn't that just—" “But that isn’t & ghost story,” said Miss Virginia. “We don't know of any spooky tales about this house we live in, either, though visitors insist we must be keeping something from them. I tell my sister that perhaps | we just don’t see them. It is said, you know, that some ghosts are vis- | ible only to certain eyes.” | “Maybe you'd think ghosts had something to do with our drawing room ceiling falling in.” Miss Leila threw open the door of a nearby | | room, revealing the devastation with- in. The plaster had fallen from the entire middle portion of the ceiling and lay in cracked ruins upon the floor. Plaster dust lay in a chalky film upon the closed piano, upon the curved legs of parlor chairs, upon old mahogany tables. “It happened this morning while we were at church.” The light came dimly through the | shaded windows and fell upon a | broken vase in Miss Leila’s hands. | “We don’t use this room much now. | It is where Virginia and I had our STAR, WASHINGTON, D. €, APRIL 7, 1935—PART FOUR. Across the Potomac There Travels a Man on Horseback, According to the Old Story— And Here Are Some of the Inti- mate Détails—But There Are Other Virginia Ghosts Also, and Nearly All of Them as a Result of Unhappy Love Affairs. (T ’,w;r!["///,/‘f Vldad2 2 7 ,,'m’ 20 else could it have been? He was such a splendid young man, you see, with, seemingly, everything in the world to live for. | “One evening during the Christmas | season. he came down fo dinner in | evening dress, his diamond studs sparkling in the light of the candles. Immediately after dinner he went up to his room and a shot was heard. When they got to him he was dead, and that is all any one ever knew about It, “"Well, it wasn’t long before those who slept in the room began waking up in the middle of the night and seeing the young man standing at the foot of the bed, dressed just as he was on the night of his death. A professor took over the house for a while and they say that his daugh- ter, who had been off at school and knew nothing of the matter, ran screaming from the room on her first night at home, too hysterical to tell what had happened. “Long after this time my mother and I were guests in the house, and when we were shown to our room we had no idea it was the one in which the tragedy had taken place. “But that night I waked up sud- denly and there was the man directly in front of me, his hands grasping the foot of the bed. The first thing I remember seeing was the diamond studs. They must have been excep- tionally fine stones, for even in the mroonl;lum they seemed to flash sparks 2 e, “It’s & funny thing, but I can tell you for a fact that I wasn't particu- larly frightened. I was more inter- ested than anything else, I think. I noticed how handsome he looked and thought how beautiful it was that he had died for love. I was young, you see, and sort of romantic.” Miss Leila was waiting at the fire- side. “I'm glad I didn't go with you; the minister called while you were gone. Did you tell about the slave boy, Virginia?" “Not yet,” said Miss Virginia. “Take off your coat and sit down,” she said. “I didn't actually see this ghost Leila is talking about, but the story came to me straight from the grand-niece of Mrs. Lee, who did see it, and who related her experience to the mem- EGRAPH ROAD There was a good-natured young boy among her slaves whom she used as & fire boy. This lad, whose name was Dave, came to her one day and begged to be allowed to go to Alexandria on the ‘long boat’ Mrs. Lee warned him that the men who had offered to take him were bad characters, but he wanted 50 much to go that she finally consented and gave him an empty bottle, asking him to bring back some wedicine, “The boy didn't get back that day and the next morning when Mrs. Lee awoke there was no fire in her room. Dave stood there on the hearth, how- ever, shivering and shaking from head to foot. “‘What's the matter with you, Dave?’ she asked him. ‘Why didn't you get back last night? And where is my medicine?’ “The boy looked at her in a stran eerie way. ‘Miss Mary,’ he said, ‘I's dead.” “He told her then that the men had thrown him overboard and that his body was caught in some rocks at the botiom of the Occoquan River where it empties into the Potomac. The medicine, he said, was in his pocket and there was a lemon peel in the bottle for a stopper. “The members of Mrs, Lee's family were slow to credit her story, but upon her insistence a party was sent out to search for Dave's body. It was found in the exact spot he had de- | scribed, and with it the bottle of med- | icine, with its lemon peel stopper.” | "THE shutters were banging in a | * rising wind, and Miss Leila rose | to close them. “It's going to be a black, night,” she said. “I'm sorry you have to get back to Washington.” “Yes, it's too bad” said Miss Vir- | ginia. “You mustn't leave until I tell you about the house where the screams are heard and where clothing is moved all over the house, up and | down stairs. An Army officer bought the place and he didn't believe the | tales until after he had spent his | first night there. Well, that first | night——" | “Don't tell her that one,” Miss Leila interrupted. “She’ll have to pass the | house on her way home.” center of the room it shone, and met: beaus when we were girls.” there the glow from the open fire.| After the chilly dimness of the par- Yheir united radiance brought out l0f the living room seemed bright and warm. But even here the sunlight rich lights in the fine old rug. A gus disappearing and the breeze breeze pushed the curtains gently in- | through the windows was no longer ward, bringing with it the fragrance | gentle. There were shadows finally in all the corners and the hall through of hyacinths and of daffodils. Holly | the open door was filled with gloom. trees could be glimpsed through the| «we might start now for Piney fluttering curtains—holly trees unbe- | Hill.” Miss Virginia went into her lievably loaded with yellow berries. | bed room for & wrap and returned to Miss Virginia's hands were thin and | éia(,?s_‘h;n‘:fy‘gglzl}gele Ag::éugg: :{ white above the tea table. “There is the doorstep, past the magnolia trees no possible doubt that we saw him. I and the daffodils and the strangely could tell you about it better if we'd | Yellow holly we made our way to the “George was driving and Leila and I were in the back seat of the carriage. All at once Leila turned around and looked to the rear ‘Look, Virginia,' she asked, ‘who can that be?'” - \ bers of her family, substantiating it | “I suppose I'd better not.” said Miss with proof. ‘vmnma “When I recall that poor “Mrs. Lee (of the prominent Lee | colonel—" family) lived in Colchester, Va., in a The sisters sat there looking into house which has since then burned |the fire, and their faces were grave down. This was before the Civil War. | and thoughtful. PUBLIC LIBRARY ing Field Marks of All Species Found in Eastern North America, by R. T. Peterson. 1934. PEP4431. | *“This book was written for ‘popular’ BIRDS. drive up toward Piney Hill” She glanced at the sunshine on the rug. | “Wait until twilight, if you have the Virginia National Forest a Benefit OUNTAIN LAKE, the newest na- tional forest development in Vir- ginla, gives promise of proving a real benefit to the State through a sus- tained yield of forest products and the accompanying employment of hun- dreds of families in the area. The Mountain Lake unit lies on the watersheds of the James River and of other important streams, notably the New River. It includes large sections lying between the George Washington National Forest and the North Caro- lina line in Bath, Alleghany, Bland, Botetourt, Craig, Giles, Montgomery, Pulaski, Roanoke, Rockbridge, Russell, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington and ‘Wythe Counties. In this large unit, comprising 1,977,- 816 acres, something like four-fifths of which is classed as available for purchase, the primary considerations for establishing a national forest unit are watershed protection, erosion con- trol and demonstration of forest man- agement. Many depleted stands of timber in this area are capable of im- provement into good producing forests. The permanence of large pulp plants and other forest products’ industries and wood-working plants in this re- gion is dependent upon the forests for continuous supplies of raw materials. Stream-flow regulation by forest in- fluence is important to local and municipal water supplies, to naviga- | tion and to the utilization of water- power. ; As lands within the purchase unit are acquired by the Government, at least 3,445 families stand to benefit by a share in the employment needed for development and management of the forests. Several C. C. C. camps may also be employed in improyement ‘work. ‘The timber resources of the area at present are considerable. It is esti- mated that one-fifth of the area bears some timber of commercial size. About half the area is cut over or burned off, but is restocking to trees. It is estimated that 25,000 acres is failing to restock and should be planted to trees. Major species of timber of the region are Appalachian hardwoods, white and yellow pine and hemlock. Forest Service officers say that de- velopment of the proposed unit would stimulate the practice of forestry by farmers and small land owners by providing examples of well-managed stands and would also assure sustained production of the raw materials needed to insure permanent operation of wood- using industries within its zone of in- fluence. This, in turn, would con- tribute to the employment of farm labor for Winter work in the woods and community dwellers for work in the fabricating plants. ‘This section of Virginia enjoys a fourishing Summer tourist business, and recreational opportunities inci- dent to national forest development will also result in large social values. Grass Curbs Duststorms. 'HE seemingly hopeless task of pre- venting the duststorms which have been one of the phenomena of the drought in the West is not so hope- less as appears on the surface to be e case. Correction of the situation calls for little more than a change in the use to which the section now be- ing eroded is put. Certain soils are more susceptible to wind erosion than others. These areas have been well indicated. The Department of Agriculture rec- ommends that the land be turned into grass or pasture land. A heavy coating of sod with its intertwined roots serves to hold the soil in place, while — | rival at his destination. waiting car. A bird dog raised mourn- | ful eyes in adieu. A squirrel darted across the path of the car and glanced triumphantly backward upon safe ar- “I'm glad you like the grove,” said Miss Vir-| inia. “Yes, the trees and shrubs are very old.” | my time, of course. Well, one day two‘ strangers—but I mustn't get ahead of my story. I want to tell you what we | saw first, and what he heard after- | NJOT more than two or three miles j R i G T D G | up the road from Miss Virginia's | what I'm going to tell you—that we | lies Hayfleld, once the estate of George | saw what we saw without knowing | Washington's kinsman, Lund Wash- | anything. ;M_gtt_m: “This is Piney Hill.” Miss | “Leila and George and I had been | Virginia indicated the unimpressive | to town. George was our brother. slope of ground rising across from | And what do I mean by town? Why, | the estate. “It's rather bare now, but | Alexandria, of course. We'd been to once it was a thick oak grove. The town, and were getting back just as | hill got its name from a huge pine | twilight was coming on. It was about tree on its very top. Picket. were|as dark as it is now. George was stationed there during the Civil War.” | driving and Leila and I were in the | “And is this where the horseman back seat of the carriage. All at once | appeared?” Leila turned around and looked “No, this is all new road. Drive through the window at the rear. She | up a little farther and we'll see if it's | tried afterward to remember why | | possible to turn into the old one.|she had turned, but she could never| iHere it is to your left. Now if|think of a reason why she should | you can keep from getting stuck in | have done it. I heard her draw in | the mud—" her breath. ‘Look, Virginia,’ she asked, | Mud. Rocks. Crevices. Mysterious | ‘Who could that be? | shadows. “I looked back and saw a thin, | This is the very spot. | doleful appearing man riding a tired | “Stop here. ‘The spot where the man disappeared, | gray horse. He was leading a brown | I mean. You see, it was his disap- | horse, which also seemed tired. Both | pearance that was unnccuuntable.‘ horses were loaded down with saddle | ‘When we first saw him we thought he | bags. | was tlesh and blood.” “**Who in the world?’ I said. You| The car relaxed sighingly into a|see, we knew every one around this muddy hollow. There was no sound | part of the country and neither of us | very slowly, but curiously they stayed the same distance back of us. “‘George, don't go so fast’ said Leila, ‘If we go slowly maybe he'll | morning? was the last thing Leila | said before she went to sleep. “Leila was teaching then and as | soon as she got to the school house horse, leading the brown horse, which | was riderless. The next day the | woman was found in the grove, hang- ing from a tree, her hair loosed and catch up with us' George slowed | the next morning she called the chil- | falling in a golden cascade almost down until the carriage was barely dren of the caretaker at Hayfield to|the length of her body. The man moving, but still the horses stayed | her and asked them who the man was | Was neither seen nor heard from their pace was unchanged. ‘It’s funny,’ said Leila. We looked at each other, both of us puzzled, and more nervous than we would let on. A bare second later Leila turned again to peer through the window. This time her voice was shaky. ‘Virginia,’ she said, ‘the man is gone!’ “I looked back and when I saw there was nothing there but a long bare stretch of road my heart came straight up in my throat. "GEORGE laughed at us for being so excited. back only once very briefly and had not been affected as we had by the creepy aspect of the stranger. ‘You girls beat any one I ever saw for making a mystery out of nothing at all’ he said. ‘The man evidently turned in at the Hayfield place.’ “‘But he couldn't have gotten out of sight in the second I wasn't looking,’ Leila insisted. ‘We could still see him if he were going to Hayfield. and He had glanced | | “We didn't have a visitor,’ they told her. | *‘But you must have’ said Leila, ‘for we saw him on the road and | there was nowhere else he could have | gone’ She told them then about the {stranger and they listened, very frightened. she said. | *“‘You saw the hogseman! | cried, and, talking all together, they | told her the story. I don’t know how it happened that we hadn't heard it before, but I give you my word that we hadn’t. It was as new to { us than as it is to you now. “As I was telling you, this old | Telegraph road was once the main highway between the North and the | South. Well, the story goes that one day two strangers, & young man and a young woman—very beautiful they say she was—were seen riding down and the woman on a brown one. They evidently had come a long distance, for the horses looked tired and the | saddlebags were covered with dust. they | the road, the man on a gray horse | |the same distance behind, though |who had visited them the night before. until many years later, when those who frequented the old Telegraph road began to meet him at twilight | near Piney Hill, wretched and forlorn, | as I have described him, riding always | slowly and leading the brown horse | after him.” ih ISS VIRGINIA leaned back in the car, her eyes searching the darkening landscape almost hope- | fully. “I've never seen him again,” she said. “I can't begin to tell you | how vivid the picture was. is an awful thing, I guess. Never have I seen a man look so wretched.” She was silent while the car made |a protesting retreat over the rough roadway. It was growing dark rap- idly now. | mered in the sky, but no moon was visible. | “There’s just one other ghost I've | seen with my own eyes,” she began, | when the main road was reached. “Maybe you've heard about old Gen. Mercer’s son killing himself. Because Remorse | A few faint stars glim- | now, and the dusk was deepening. 'had ever seen the man before. Be- |you know perfectly well we could." “Long ago this old Telegraph road sides, he was dressed in strange, old- | was the main highway between the | fashioned clothes, and his whole ap- North and the South,” said Miss Vir- | pearance was somehow disquieting. | ginia. “People rode horseback from |‘Who could it be?’ I asked George.| State to State. Sometimes whole ‘Now I wonder,” he said. George families of strangers would pass by,| wanted to know, too, but he insisted their horses loaded with saddle bags, | on teasing us, trying to make us one or two children riding back of | think we were inquisitive. the mother, perhaps, and a baby on a| “We were going at a good pace and “I agreed with her at.the time, but that night we talked the matter over and decided George must be right. It seemed incredible that the man could have turned into Hayfield without our seeing him, but there was no pos- sible alternative, as there was no other The woman's head was drooping a of the prominence of the family his | little, as if the weight of her golden ' suicide created a sensation at the hair, piled high on her head, was |time, and pulling it forward. l “When the travelers came to Piney | country from one generation to Hill they turned in at the oak grove, | another. What everybody wanted to an action which struck those who | know was what his reason could have the details have been handed down in this part of the’ | saw them as very strange. The hill- | been for doing it. The majority de- | turn off the main road and no woods | side, as I told you, was thick with | cided it was because of an unhappy in which he could have been hid from | trees at that time. Just before dark |love affair, and my own opinion is pillow in front. That was long before | the man’s horses seemed to be walking | view. ‘I'll find out all about it in the | the man came riding out on his gray | that they were right. After all, what HIS is the most important sea- I son for the bird lover. Mi- gratory visitors who are sel- dom seen are stopping for a brief moment at the back yard bird bath and a trip afield is {Tich in reward for the trained ob- | server. The Public Library presents & selected list of bird books published during the last four years. Many other volumes are in the library’s | collection, including the well-known works of Chapman, Reed, Blanchan, etc. Readers are invited to consult the library's catalogue or ask the assistant at the information desk for further information. The older stand- ard works are at all the branches, as well as at the central building. Popular Guides. Check-list of North American Birds. American Ornithologists’ Union. Fourth edition. 1931. PE.Am37a. A new edition of this valuable list, carefully revised and brought up to 1930. | Birds You Should Know. by T. W. Burgess, 1933. PE.BS13. “Speaking of pocket-guides and | their pictures, those in the tiny new commonly good, remarkably so, con- sidering their small size and the book’s small price.”—M. L. Becker. Birds, North America, East of the Rocky Mountains (excluding birds of prey), by W. H. Carr. 1931. PE.C24. Color illustrations and excellent de- scriptions make this a valuable hand | book for field use by the amateur. The Life of Birds, by T. A. Coward. 1931. PE.C833L. “There are chapters on the char- acteristics of birds, their courtships and mating, nesting, food, migration, enemies, economic values and bird protection.” A FIELD GUIDE to the Birds: Giv- 3> °90s, ANOTHER LOCA H B0Y MAKES GOOD: 3.TAYLOR CRONIN, 8 WASHINGTONS LEADING ARITONE, SIGNS OP WITH ORIMROSE & DOCKSTADER'S MINSTRELS. <m| IGNS EMEMBER WHEN WEZL TRY ITONTH Z\THER , NEXT TIME,ELMER . AND SEE |F PAW LIKES \T_THAT WHAT DO YOUL REMEMS| THOSE WERE THE HAPPY DAYS— “Voices of Yesteryear” —By Dick Manstfield ® x4 | ‘Birds You Should Know' are un- | | Glimpses of Familiar Birds; Land | | guidance. It is distinctly for ama- teurs, beginning or advanced. * ¢ * It is, in fact, a fine compendium of ‘field marks’ and the ‘field mark’ is as helpful to the wandering bird student as *he highway signs are to a motoring tourist.”—John Kieran. Bird Portraits in Color: Two Hundred and Ninety-five North American Species; by T. S. Roberts. 1934. PE.R58bp. The 92 beautiful color plates of the “Birds of Minnesota” are re- issued with a condensed text which is largely new. “The book is perfect | for every one.” “Bird Watching.” Autobiography of a Bird-Lover, by F. M. Chapman. 1933. E.C3659. “We have long been acquainted with Dr. Chapman’s bird books. We have here the most fascinating of them all; his autobiography. * * * Many photographs serve as illustrations, | with some plates by Fuertes, whose exquisite colorings have no peer.” How to See Birds. by E. F. Daglish. 1932. PE.D13h. “The book is particularly good for beginners, because it gives salient points and does not smother the in- experienced bird lover with a mass of detail.” Distinctive wood cuts by the author are used as illustrations. | Why Birds Sing, by Jacques Delamain. | 1931. PE.D37.E. “In ‘Why Birds Sing’ one finds close observation and intelligent reflection. | * * * It is a modest book of singular authenticity and charm, totally free from the mawkish sentiment of so much that passes for natural books."— Lewis Gannett. Bird City, by E. A. McIlhenny. { PEMI184. “The author takes his two small grandsons into a Southern swamp, where during a single day these three companions see enough to satisfy the adult naturalist a year. * * * The abundant illustrations include the finest collection of bird photographs the reviewer remembers to have seen in any American book”—Books. The Art of Bird Watching, a Prac- tical Guide to Field Observation, by E. M. Nicholson. 1931. PE. N52a. “The book will help even the oldest and most highly experienced bird watcher to give precision to his fleld work, and may inspire him to an ambition to contribute definitely to ‘me general sum of knowledge. No other book covers the same ground.” Bird Notes, with Questions and An- swers, by H. L. Rhodes. 1932. PE.R346b. 1934. Attracting Birds. Birds and Bird Houses, by Robert Becker. 1934. PE.B383. “This compact little hand book on birds is designed to aid bird fans in their efforts to protect bird life and to increase the number of feathered residents on suburban home sites, farms and estates, and in communi- ties.” My Bird Boarders; stories of adven- ture at the unique cafeteria for birds, conducted by the author for the past 25 years at Cleveland Park, Washington, D. C., by Frank Bond. 1933. PE.B643m. Of especial interest to Washington readers, who will be tempted to pro- vide similar accommodations for the birds of their neighborhood. A Decade of Bird Banding in Amer- ica, by F. C. Lincoln. 1933. L. Smeé5. 1932, v.1. Local Bird Refuges, by W. L. McAtee. 1931. RG.83.7Un3f. v.66. Describes the means of providing bird refuges on farms, wood lots, roadsides, community parkings and rallroad right-of-ways, municipal THE YODELER WAS A POPOLAR PARLOR RTAINER AND YOLR FIRST ATTEMPTIWITH “THE QUIVER YOULU D » POTIN YOUR VOICE \MPRESS Your BESTGIRLS FATHER, BY SHAKING YOOR ADAMS APPLE BACK AND FORTH,WHILE YOU WARBLEO FR\TZ EMMETS,“CUCIKO0 SONG . parks and picnic and fair grounds, school and college grounds, ceme- teries, reservoirs and golf courses. - Milk Production Drops MILK production in the United States is lagging. This is due largely to the high cost of feeds and t,h‘elk comparatively low return for the m . Despite the tariff of 14 cents a pound on butter, the extremely low prices abroad have stimulated importation of butter. The foreign price plus the tariff is almost up to the American leved at the present time, sections where the soil is heavier can be devoted to the crops ordinarily Taised on the eroded land. @ “imES) REMEMBER THS ONE? WASHINGTON CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC, 1004 ~F~STo NeWo 0.B8.BOULLARD, f Dieecvor. H SPECIAL CLASSES IN YODELING. ONSWER TO LAST WEEK'S QUESTION, HAT NOTABLE EVENT OCCORED BETWEEN WASHINGTON AND? GEORGETOWN, AVG, 6~18922 ANSWER, HE FIRST CABLE CAR RAN FROM GEORGE TOWN TO THE NAVY YARD. =<4 - e ArSOBRTATION ON PALAVE, DEC.271880- "ENTE China Buys Rice. CH!NA. greatest producer of rice, this year will be a heavy im- porter as well. The effects of last year's drought are being felt now, and in order to meet the great demand for food, 1,333,000 short tons of cleaned rice will be bought abroad for use in the republic. Japan, heavily stocked with the grain, expects to ship considerable to Ber neighbor. A O