rkable about the matter, however, was that throughout our walk I had conversed with the man under the impression that he was that other dead man, and, whether by coincidence or not, his replies had never once suggested to me my mistake.
As soon as I finished, Jephson, who had been listening very thoughtfully, asked me if I believed in spiritualism "to its fullest extent."
"That is rather a large question," I answered. "What do you mean by 'spiritualism to its fullest extent'?"
"Well, do you believe that the spirits of the dead have not only the power of revisiting this earth at their will, but that, when here, they have the power of action, or rather, of exciting to action? Let me put a definite case. A spiritualist friend of mine, a sensible and by no means imaginative man, once told me that a table, through the medium of which the spirit of a friend had been in the habit of communicating with him, came slowly across the room towards him, of its own accord, one night as he sat alone, and pinioned him against the wall. Now
Someone else's story, told as an anecdote, is never as involving as the narrator telling his own story as it happens. This is a revenge-from-the-grave ghost story related among friends that has too many vague details to suck in a reader. The writing isn't bad.
(1892) Ghost (Specter revenge) / Short story (Magazine article)
From Sept. 1892 issue of 'The Idler'
R: * * * *
Plot bullets
You talk with an acquaintance.
You find out later he died before that meeting.
Does this man have unfinished business.
One of my favorite humorist/satirists also spins a good ghost story.
