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Speaker 1: The Old Mansion by W. Bob Holland down on Long Beach,

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that narrow strip of sand which stretches along the New

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Jersey Coast from Barnegut Inlet on the north to Little

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Egg Harbor Inlet on the south. The summer sojourner at

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some one of the numerous resorts which of late years

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have sprung up every few miles, may, in wandering over

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the sand dunes just across the bay from the village

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of Manahawkin, stumble over some charred timbers or vestiges of

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crumbling chimneys, showing that once years back, a human habitation

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has stood there. If the find rouses the jaded curiosity

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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,

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he will learn that these relics mark the site of

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one of the first summer hotels erected on the New

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

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be informed by Captain Nate or Captain Sam, or whatever

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particular captain it may chance to be. And if by

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good fortune it chances to be Captain Jim, he will

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hear a story that will pleasantly pass away the long

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wait for a sheep's head bite. It was my good

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luck to have secured Captain Jim for a preceptor in

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the angler's art during my vacation last summer, and his

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stories and reminiscences of Long Beach were not the least

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enjoyable features of the two weeks sojourn. Captain Jim was

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not garrulous. Few of the baymen are. They are a sturdy,

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self reliant and self controlled people, full of strong common sense,

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but still with that firm belief in the supernatural which

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seems inherent in dwellers by the sea. The old Mansion,

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said Captain Jim, or the Mansion of Health, for that

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was its full name, was built away back in eighteen

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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

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by a man named Cranmer, And people used to come

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from Philadelphia by stage sixty miles through the pines the

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Hawking and then cross here by boat. Some would stop

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at Cranmer's and others went on down the beach to Homers,

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which was cleared down an end by the inlet. Finally,

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some of the wealthy people concluded that they wanted better

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accommodations than Cranmer gave, so they formed the Great Swamp

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Long Beach Company and built the Mansion of Health. I've

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heard that when it was built it was the biggest

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hotel on the coast and was considered a wonder. It

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was one hundred twenty feet long, three stories high, and

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had a porch running all the way around it, with

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a balcony on top. It was certainly a big thing

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

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of the stage loads of Gape people that used to

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come rattling into Hawkin, each stage drawn by four horses,

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and sometimes four or five of them a day in

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

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in their own carriages and leave them over on the

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mainland until they were ready to go home. There were

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gay times at the old Mansion then, and it made

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times good for the people along shore too. How long

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did the old Mansion flourish, Captain, I asked, well, for

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twenty five or thirty years. People came there summer after summer.

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Then they built a railroad to Cape May, and that

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with the ghosts settled The Mansion of Health what do

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

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said Captain Jim, cutting off a mouthful of navy plug.

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The story got around that the old house was haunted.

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Some people said there were queer things seen there, and

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strange noises were heard that nobody could account for. And

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pretty soon the place got a bad name, and visitors

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were so few that it didn't pay to keep it

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open any more. 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

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in the fifties when the paw Hutan was wrecked on

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the beach here and every soul on board was lost.

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She was an emigrant ship and there were over four

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hundred people aboard, passengers and crew. She came ashore here

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during the equinoctial storm in September. There wasn't any life

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saving stations in them days, and everyone was drowned. You

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can see the long graves now over in the hawk

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and churchyard where the bodies were buried after they came ashore.

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They put them in three long trenches that were dug

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from one end of the burying ground to the other.

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The only people on the beach that night was the

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man who took care of the old mansion. He lived

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there with his family, and his son in law lived

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with him. He was the wreck master for this part

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of the coast too. It wasn't till the second day

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that the people from Hawkin could get over to the beach,

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and by that time the bodies had all come ashore,

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and the wreck master had them all piled up on

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the sand. I was a youngster then and came over

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with my father, and I tell you it was the

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awfullest sight I ever saw. Them, long rows of drowned people,

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all lying there with their white still faces turned up

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to the sky. Some were women with their dead babies

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clasped tight in their arms, and some were husbands and

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wives whose bodies came ashore, locked together in a death embrace.

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I'll never forget that sight as long as I live. Well.

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When the coroner came and took charge, he began to

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inquire whether any money or valuables had been found, but

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the wreck master declared that not a solitary coin had

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been washed ashore. People thought this was rather singular, as

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the emigrants were most of them well to do Germans

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and were known to have brought a good deal of

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money with them, but it was concluded that it had

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gone down with the ship. While the poor emigrants were

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given pauper burial, and the people had begun to forget

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their suspicions until three or four months later there came

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another storm and the sea broke clear over the beach

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just below the old mansion and washed away the sand.

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Next morning, early two men from Hawkins sailed across the

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bay and landed on the beach. They walked across on

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the hard bottom where the sea had washed across, and

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when about half way from the bay, one of the

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men saw something curious close up against the stump of

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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

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they found was a pile of leather money belts that

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would have filled a wheelbarrow. Every everyone was cut open

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and empty. They had been buried in the sand close

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by the old stump, and the sea had washed away

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the covering. The men didn't go any further. They carried

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the belts to their boats and sailed back to Hawkin'

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as fast as the wind would take them. Of course,

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it made a big sensation, and everybody was satisfied that

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the wreck master had robbed the bodies if he hadn't

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done anything worse. But there was no way to prove it,

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and so nothing was done. The wreck master didn't stay

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around here long after that, though, The people made it

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too hot for him, and he and his family went

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away south, for it was said he bought a big

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

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came to Hawkin somehow that he was killed in a

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bar room brawl and that his son in law was

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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, However,

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after that, nobody lived in the old mansion for long.

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At a time. People would go there, stay a week

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or two, and leave, And at last it was given

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up entirely to beach parties in the daytime and ghosts

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at night. But Captain, you don't really believe the ghost part,

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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 em

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if I hadn't seen the ghost, But I exclaimed, you

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saw it. Tell me about it. I've always wanted to

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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,

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said the captain. I was a young feller then, and

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with a half dozen more, was over on the beach

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cutting salt hay. We didn't go home at nights, but

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did our own cooking in the old mansion kitchen, and

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at nights slept on piles of hay upstairs. We were

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a reckless lot of scamps, and reckoned that no ghost

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could scare us. There was a big full moon that night,

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and it was as light as day. The Musketeers was

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pretty bad too, and it was easier to stay awake

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than go to sleep. Along. Toward midnight, me and two

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other fellers went out on the old balcony and began

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to race around the house. We hollered and yelled and

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chased each other for half an hour or so, and

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then we concluded we had better go to sleep, so

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we started for the window of the room where the

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rest were. This window was near one end on the

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ocean side, and as I came around the corner, I

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stopped as if I had been shot, and my hair

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raised straight up on top of my head. Right there

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in front of that window stood a woman, looking out

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over the sea, and in her arms she held a

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little child. I saw her as plain as I see

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you now. It seemed to me an hour she stood there,

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

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was gone. When I could move, I looked around for

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the other boys, and they were standing there paralyzed. They

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had seen the woman too. We didn't say much, and

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

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we bumped out on the beach. The rest of the

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crowd made all manner of fun of us. We had

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had all the ghost we wanted. And I never set

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foot inside the old house after that. When did it

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

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Somewhere about twenty five years ago, a beech party had

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been roasting clams in the old oven, and in some

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way the fire got to the woodwork. It was as

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dry as tinder, and I hoped the ghosts were all

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burnt up with it, and of the old mansion