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The Old Mansion by W. Bob
Holland down on Long Beach, that narrow

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strip of sand which stretches along the
New Jersey Coast from Barnegot Inlet on the

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north to Little Egg Harbor Inlet on
the south. The summer sojourner at some

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one of the numerous resorts which of
late years have sprung up every few miles,

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may, in wandering over the sand
dunes just across the bay from the

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village of Manahawkin, stumble over some
charred timbers or vestiges of crumbling chimneys,

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showing that once years back, a
human habitation has stood there. If the

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fine rouses the jaded curiosity of the
visitor sufficiently to impel him to question the

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weather beaten old bayman who sails him
on his fishing trips, he will learn

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that these relics mark the site of
one of the first summer hotels erected on

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the New Jersey Coast. That's where
the old mansion stood. He will be

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informed by Captain Nate or Captain Sam, or whatever particular captain it may chance

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to be. And if by good
fortune it chances to be Captain Jim,

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he will hear a story that will
pleasantly pass away the long wait for a

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sheep's head bite. It was my
good luck to have secured Captain Jim for

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a preceptor in the angler's art during
my vacation last summer, and his stories

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and reminiscences of Long Beach were not
the least enjoyable features of the two weeks

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sojourn. Captain Jim was not garrulous. Few of the bay men are.

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They are a sturdy, self reliant
and self controlled people, full of strong

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common sense, but still with that
firm belief in the supernatural which seems inherent

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in dwellers by the sea. The
old Mansion, said Captain Jim, or

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the Mansion of Health, for that
was its full name, was built away

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back in eighteen twenty two, so
I've heard my father say. There had

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been a tavern close by years before
that was kept by a man named Cranmer,

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And people used to come from Philadelphia
by stage sixty miles through the pines

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the Hawking and then cross here by
boat. Some would stop at Cranmer's and

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others went on down the beach to
Homer's, which was cleared down an end

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by the inlet. Finally, some
of the wealthy people concluded that they wanted

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better accommodations than Cranmer gave, so
they formed the Great Swamp Long Beach Company

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and built the Mansion of Health.
I've heard that when it was built it

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was the biggest hotel on the coast
and was considered a wonder. It was

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one hundred twenty feet long, three
stories high, and had a porch running

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all the way around it, with
a balcony on top. It was certainly

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a big thing for those days.
I've heard father tell many a time of

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the stage loads of gate people that
used to come rattling into Hawkin, each

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stage drawn by four horses, and
sometimes four or five of them a day

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in the summer. A good many
people too, used to come in their

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own carriages and leave them over on
the mainland until they were ready to go

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home. There were gay times at
the old Mansion then, and it made

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times good for the people along shore
too. How long did the old Mansion

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flourish, Captain, I asked,
well, for twenty five or thirty years.

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People came there summer after summer.
Then they built a railroad to Cape

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May, and that with the ghosts
settled The Mansion of Health what do you

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mean by the ghosts? I demanded, Well, you see, said Captain

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Jim, cutting off a mouthful of
navy plug. The story got around that

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the old house was haunted. Some
people said there were queer things seen there,

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and strange noises were heard that nobody
could account for. And pretty soon

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the place got a bad name,
and visitors were so few that it didn't

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pay to keep it open anymore.
But how did it get the name of

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being haunted? Captain Jim, I
persisted, Why it was this way,

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continued the mariner. Maybe you've heard
of the time early in the fifties when

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the paw Hutton was wrecked on the
beach here and every soul on board was

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lost. She was an emigrant ship
and there were over four hundred people aboard,

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passengers and crew. She came ashore
here during the equinoctial storm in September.

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There wasn't any life saving stations in
them days, and everyone was drowned.

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You can see the long graves now
over in the hawk and churchyard where

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the bodies were buried after they came
ashore. They put them in three long

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trenches that were dug from one end
of the burying ground. To the other.

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The only people on the beach that
night was the man who took care

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of the old mansion. He lived
there with his family, and his son

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in law lived with him. He
was the wreck master for this part of

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the coast too. It wasn't till
the second day that the people from Hawkin

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could get over to the beach,
and by that time the bodies had all

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come ashore, and the wreck master
had them all piled up on the sand.

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I was a youngster then and came
over with my father, and I

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tell you it was the awfullest sight
I ever saw. Them, long rows

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of drowned people, all lying there
with their white still faces turned up to

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the sky. Some were women with
their dead babies clasped tight in their arms,

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and some were husbands and wives whose
bodies came ashore, locked together in

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a death embrace. I'll never forget
that sight as long as I live.

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Well. When the coroner came and
took charge, he began to inquire whether

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any money or valuables had been found, but the wreck master declared that not

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a solitary coin had been washed ashore. People thought this was rather singular,

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as the emigrants were most of them
well to do Germans, and were known

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to have brought a good deal of
money with them, but it was concluded

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that it had gone down with the
ship. While the poor emigrants were given

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pauper burial, and the people had
begun to forget their suspicions until three or

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four months later there came another storm
and the sea broke clear over the beach

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just below the old mansion and washed
away the sand. Next morning, early

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two men from Hawkins sailed across the
bay and landed on the beach. They

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walked across on the hard bottom where
the sea had washed across, and when

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about halfway from the bay, one
of the men saw something curious close up

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against the stump of an old cedar
tree. He called the other man's attention

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to it, and they went over
to the stump. What they found was

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a pile of leather money belts that
would have filled a wheelbarrow. Every one

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was cut open and empty. They
had been buried in the sand close by

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the old stump, and the sea
had washed away the covering. The men

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didn't go any further. They carried
the belts to their boats and sailed back

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to Hawkin as fast as the wind
would take them. Of course, it

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made a big sensation, and everybody
was satisfied that the wreck master had robbed

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the bodies if he hadn't done anything
worse. But there was no way to

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prove it, and so nothing was
done. The wreck master didn't stay around

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here long after that, though,
The people made it too hot for him,

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and he and his family went away
south. But it was said he

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bought a big plantation and a lot
of slaves. Years afterward, the story

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came to Hawkins somehow that he was
killed in a bar room brawl and that

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his son in law was drowned by
his boat upsetting while he was out fishing.

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I don't furnish any affidavits with that
part of the story, though,

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However, after that, nobody lived
in the old mansion for a long at

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a time. People would go there, stay a week or two, and

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leave, And at last it was
given up entirely to beach parties in the

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daytime and ghosts at night. But
Captain, you don't really believe the ghost

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part, do you, I asked. Captain Jim looked down the bay,

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expectorated gravely over the side of the
boat, and answered slowly, Well,

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I don't know as I would have
believed in them if I hadn't seen the

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ghost. But I exclaimed, you
saw it, Tell me about it.

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I've always wanted to see a ghost, or next best thing a man who

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has seen one. It was one
August about eighteen sixty one, said the

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Captain. I was a young feller
then, and with a half dozen more,

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was over on the beach cutting salt
hay. We didn't go home at

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nights, but did our own cooking
in the old mansion kitchen, and at

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nights slept on piles of hay upstairs. We were a reckless slot of scamps,

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and reckoned that no ghosts could scare
us. There was a big full

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moon that night, and it was
as light as day. The Musketeers was

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pretty bad too, and it was
easier to stay awake than go to sleep.

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Along. Toward midnight, me and
two other fellers went out on the

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old balcony and began to race around
the house. We hollered and yelled and

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chased each other for half an hour
or so, and then we concluded we

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had better go to sleep, so
we started for the window of the room

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where the rest were. This window
was near one end on the ocean side,

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and as I came around the corner, I stopped as if I had

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been shot, and my hair raised
straight up on top of my head.

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Right there in front of that window
stood a woman, looking out over the

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sea, and in her arms she
held a little child. I saw her

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as plain as I see you now. It seemed to me an hour she

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stood there, but I don't suppose
it was a second. Then she was

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gone. When I could move,
I looked around for the other boys,

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and they were standing there paralyzed.
They had seen the woman too. We

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didn't say much, and we didn't
sleep much that night, and the next

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night we balked out on the beach. The rest of the crowd made all

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manner of fun of us. We
had had all the ghost we wanted,

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and they never set foot inside the
old house after that. When did it

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burn down, Captain, I asked, as Jim relapsed into silence. Somewhere

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about twenty five years ago, a
beach party had been roasting clams in the

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old oven, and in some way
the fire got to the woodwork. It

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was as dry as tinder, and
I hope the ghosts were all burnt up

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with it, and of the old
mansion,