Do Dogs See Ghosts?

Some timo ago I had something to say on animal inunortality. In that article I briefly referred to the argument, now not uncommon, that some animáis appear to have intercourse with beings, or forms and states of being, unseen by us. This on the face of it is not improbable; but it may be a stretch of our own imagination to assttme that this is a visión of ghosts. But if it can be shown first that, as Wallace affirms, objective phantasms appear to men sometiines, and to dogs sometimes, then it wotild be hardly fair to assume that men are to have a spirit life hereafter and the dog not. It might become necessary for ns to shove back onr dividing lino between immortals and nonimmortals, and take over on our side at least some of the beasts. 1b the Indian riglit who, in Pope's language, believes "his faithful dog will bear him company" in the spirit land? There seems, however, to be a conviction 11 the minds of some observers that dogra not only soinetimes, but at all times, sei and hear what we do not hear. First of all. in justice, let us get the facts, or the averred facts. lu Rod anc Gun appears the following letter: "Sir there is reaaon to believe that animak can see spirits. At any rate, I have a very remarkable fact to relate. There ÍS in Devonshire a large, rambling olc house, which has long had the reputa tion of being haunted. Family after family tried to niake it their home. One after another they gave it up, all for the same reason - that was frequent spectra! ongoings in one of the corridors. Sometimes the ghost was seen by one member of tho household, while it was invisible to others close by," which, oi course, would indícate that the seeing, or not seeing, depended on the ocular condition of the family. At least, a skeptic would strongly urge that the probabilities were in favor of visual delusion. "Sometimes mj'sterious sounds showed the ghost to be about, while he was not visible to any of the watchers." A SCARED DOG. Hearing easily follows hysterical seeing. I have myself seen wires and lampa when I knew none existed. "The family that last occupied tlie house thought a fierce dog might settle the problem, on the supposition that a human trickster was at the bottom of the disturbance. On the first night of the dog's residence the spectral ruttlings were heard. The watchers took thj dog to the corridor. True to the instincts of his nature he rushed to the front, barking savagely. Suddenly, when half way through the corridor, the dog stopped and gazed upward in evident terror. His tail dropped, and then he retreated trembling. But to the human eye nothing was visible." This story is authenticated as coming from persons of unquestioned veracity and excellent powers of judgment. If yon will excuse me for turning aside from the ïnain thought I will give one or two illustrations to show that ghost seeing is not so improbable as you have judged. Fanny Kemble tells us that when residing in Rittenhouse square her maid, sitting so that she faced and could see the staircase and upper landing, saw the door of her bedroom open, and an elderly Toman in a flannel dressing gown, with a bonnet on her head, tome out, walk the whole length of the passage, and then return deliberately in the same manner. The inaid knew her mistress was down stairs, and also was confident that no such person as she saw cotüd be in the house. Having good nerves, the woman did not at first teil Miss Kemblo what she had seen, bnt ransacked the rooms to see if she could so've the puzzle, all the time afraid her mistress would be disturbed by some similar apparition. She afterward came on a portrait in the honse suddenly that was an exact copy of her ;host. A good chance, of course, for an unaginative maid, or a cunning one, to work up a fine yarn. Yetit is something hat Miss Kemble believed the girl did see an anrarition. STRANGE CASES. The Epworth parsonage case, involving John Wesley, is of great value because it links botli man and beast in the ïensing of apparitions. Mr. Wesley says: Soon after our large inastiflf dog came and ran to shelter between ns. While he distorbances eontinued he nsed to lark and leap and snap 011 one side and he other, and that frequently beforeany erson in the room heard any noise at all. int af ter two or three days he used to remble and creep away before the noiae )egan. And by this the family knew it was at hand; nor did the observation ever fail." The testimony here is cerainly credible merely as honest asseveration, bnt we are f ree to judge whether t was some electric or niagnetic phenomenon that the dog feit or was ghosüy presence. A very strange case is reported by Mr. Hodgson in September, 1890, in which a white lady appeared. "The third night he haunted man's dog cronched and tared, and then acted as if driven around he room. Brother saw nothing, but ïeard a kind of mstle, and then the poor :og howled and tried to hide, and never dgain would that dog go to that room." ïobert Dale Owen reports a case of a lannted man who had not been able for -ears to keep a dog. I confess these cases 11 seem different when looked at with some knowledge of dog nahire. I am ure that a scared man would scare a