Indian Ghost Stories

I do not know whether writing ghost stories is a mistake. Most readers will like a ghost story in which towards the end it is found that the ghost was really a cat or a dog or a mischievous boy. Such ghost stories are a source of pleasure, and are read as a pastime and are often vastly enjoyed, because though the reader is a bit afraid of what he does not know, still he likes to be assured that ghosts do not in reality exist. Such ghost stories I have often myself read and enjoyed. The last one I read was in the December (1913) Number of the English Illustrated Magazine. In that story coincidence follows coincidence in such beautiful succession that a young lady really believes that she sees a ghost and even feels its touch, and finally it turns out that it is only a monkey. This is bathos that unfortunately goes too far. Still, I am sure, English readers love a ghost story of this kind. It, however, cannot be denied that particular incidents do sometimes happen in such a way that they take our breath away. Here is something to the point. "Twenty years ago, near Honey Grove, in Texas, James Ziegland, a wealthy young farmer won the hand of Metilda Tichnor, but jilted her a few days before the day fixed for the marriage.