The Dixboro Ghost, Act IV

Act IV

[IV, Scene i]

SD: [Jackson and Isaac setting off from Hawkins with Betsy and Hawkins’ wagon, East on Plymouth-Ann Arbor road]

Isaac: She seems to proceed about her work happily.

Jackson: Even the beast enjoys to do its proper work. We cannot break this cart as well, we will have no wheels between us for her to pull.

So I have asked her if I should inform the public. She gave but a cryptic answer, looking off into the future, saying that their time would come. I have brought my notebook.

…and this again in broad daylight, wide awake.

Jackson: She knows of the questioned deed of John that likely caused her to stay in Dixboro after learning of the secret of John and James. She knows the name of Frain’s Lake, and of the incident of the disappearance of the Peddler by the well in ’26, now nineteen years ago. These are things that you, a newcomer, are learning for the first time, all stunningly accurate.

Isaac: I find it oddly not disturbing, but to move me to do my duty, which may prevent harm.

Jackson: This child of hers with John was lost not too long after he was born, and in hindsight is yet another dark possibility that appears. And darker still, This James too lost a son, his child with Ann, who at two years of age is said to have wandered too near the fire, and burned to death. This was just before the second marriage of James to Emily Loomis, his present wife. When the child died, the incredible incident was then received with the benefit of doubt- what could be done, if again nothing could be shown?

Isaac: She said James could not repent, though she has come to wish that he would do so- as though her spirit had been purged of her justifiable revenge. She seems to learn, and as though from angelic beings- as when she realized that James could no longer hurt her- but that Joseph was in danger.

Jackson: Coincident with her appearance now for the second time in daylight, contrary to the proverbial habits of such apparitions. We do not know for sure, but this James may well be murdering his way to fortune in this new West, so many souls have disappeared in this town within the range of his conceivable entrepreneurial and speculative interest.

Isaac: Such men do occur, as Richard the Third of England, who would wade through blood to seize the crown, visited by specters in his dreams of those he had killed, and so weighted down for battle.

Jackson: So might this darkened soul for land.

Isaac: That is Ann the wife of James, Martha, John Sinclair, John the son of John and Martha, and the son of James and Ann- a bit ahead of chance even for the harshness of the land- for Dixboro is yet a very small town.

[Arriving at the Whitney House]

Jackson: And there he is, At work already when the sun is just yet rising on the frosty dew!

Isaac: Another golden eagle for your pocket for the First of the month,

Jackson: The which, though heavier, should make your days work lighter.

Joseph: It is not yet November, though I thank you for the timeliness. The means have well supplemented William and his house of merry refugees, as he takes in all he can, and must make do.

[They talk as Joseph works, and the split scene switches to inside the Whitney house]

John Whitney: Hawkins has arrived! Our Halloween princess has had time aplenty for her vainer hours at her glass.

Martha Whitney: Jane does not purse her lips but while adjusting her garland, and has fallen into a stare at young Joseph there! Look, out the window! Through the glass.

John Whitney: Do not tease your sister – he for whose mourning our Halloween and Harvest festivals will be subdued. No parties this year, but only bobbing apples and candies for the children- and should I achieve them alone , the baking of the sweets, so long it is your mother has been gone- hurry, child.

Martha Whitney: Your trance must now be broken, Jane, and come along. Confuse not compassion for admiration, my young sister.

John Whitney: A garland of purples for her head, and whites-

Martha Whitney: For enchantment- and purity! [laughing]

John Whitney: Miss Clark will be impressed.

Martha Whitney: As will our college boys, now graduating doctors of the University. This man-boy is just the one to work our labors in stone and cut our wood.

John Whitney: Who will find her as charming as the famed Sarah Allen, the vintage fruit of Ann’s Arbor and the pride of Miss Clark and of her father.

Martha Whitney: and as charmed- I must say your second daughter is more beautiful than I. Especially in her rose bud blush!

John Whitney. Each has his gifts- ours is to cultivate what springs up from the ground, onto the Lord’s Redemption.

Jackson: My Whitney! How goes your homesteading! And shepherding of these, so blushing as the rose of May and strawberry of the first of June? And what is this, a princess?

Martha Whitney: And I am Rumpelstiltskin- here my wool for weaving and my fleece of gold.

Isaac: Surely Jason and his Argonauts have quested in the wrong quarter for the Golden Fleece.

Jane: And sugar cubes for our blessed Betsy to deliver us in ease to school. [Jane gives Betsy sugar]

Martha Whitney: She is not Arthur’s Guinevere, though beautiful she be,

[looking to Joseph] Sure she is to lure the glances of the college boys away from me!

Jackson: Aboard! We will be late for school if the road is rough!

[Betsy swipes flowers from the garland on Jane’s hair]

Joseph: She likes your flowers as well- having fleeced you of your sugar.

Jane: I hope the flowers do not make her ill.

Isaac: She bears her burdens this day yet with joy, though by our days return with wheat and iron, we shall see.

John Whitney: Here is an eagle- will you pick us up a shovel if you see one good?

Jackson– We have your order, too and will see what is sold about the town, while this princess and Rumpelstiltskin attend their school. Let us be gone. The morning withers, and your lessons will not wait long.

IV, ii

[Miss Clark’s school, Ann Arbor]

Miss Clark: One purpose, then, of Halloween is of course to test and overcome our fears, often irrational, as ladies- and even grown men- have of the darkness, some long after the fancies of childhood are to be left behind. This occurs from lack of practice and reflection- one must accustom oneself and one’s eyes to walking in the dark…[Jane appears at the door] Do not fear to enter late, but quietly-

[Enter Jane and Martha]

Our ox has eaten purple flowers from my hair, and from this become ill, we fear, so we, have with lots of fresh water at the well have treated her.

Miss Clark: Sweet Pea- lf she has not eaten too much, her survival is likely. She may feel the worse for a while. As we were saying, ladies one purpose of Halloween is that we learn to face our fears. As doctors and soldiers must, of things such as blood and bodies of the dead, witches and ghosts and the like. As we have with each holiday in our calendar, so in this we will devote a lesson, so that we may know something of where these things originate- that is, from where these things we practice come. Does anyone know the meaning of this day of dress up that we call Halloween? Why do we do such things as carving Jack o’ lanterns, apple bobbing, and trick nor treats? Hot cross buns and candies, and dressing up in figures we are not, some frightening and some enchanting? Anyone? [2 students raise their hands].

Student #1: It has to do with the harvest, a celebration of plenty after the labors of a hard summer.

Student #2: And that is when the pumpkins are ripe, and cornstalks gathered.

Student #1 And Sunflower, hemp or tobacco plants sheeted in the fields as ghosts.

Miss Clark: Indeed. That is an interesting observation about the sheets of ghosts. Every people seems to have a harvest festival, and some of these practices surrounding ours may be thousands of years old or even older. One may even think the tobacco sheeted against the frost looks like the sheeted dead, as those who waken from a coma in some dark and lonely mortuary. As we were saying, ladies, one purpose of Halloween is to learn to face our fears. [Turning to the blackboard] The word Halloween is a contraction of ‘Hallow evening,’ or All Hallows Eve, the day before All Saints Day, or All Hallows Day. This is a day for honoring all the saints. ‘Even’ is how the Scottish say ‘evening.’ The day is for the lighting of candles for those who have recently passed away, a part of most traditions which we have kept from the ancient Roman Church. Among the Scottish and the Irish, from time immemorial, their pagan harvest festivals included such a night, called Samhain, or summer’s end. On this night, lanterns were made of candles placed in large turnips, and apple bobbing somehow used in prognostication of the future. It is thought that the costumes and trick-or treating, called by the Irish “souling,” was an attempt to stay the malice of the recently departed, if these did hold against others any vengeance for some trespass they had suffered while alive. One prince, a Christian minister has said: “It was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until all Saint’s Day, and All Hallow’s Eve provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving on to the next world. In order to avoid being recognized by any such that might be seeking vengeance, people would don masks or costumes to disguise their identities the souls of the dead were also said to revisit their homes, seeking hospitality. Candles, or soul lights, would be lit, and prayers offered. The scary faces carved on turnips and jack o’ lanterns, lit with candles, are said to be to scare away the bad spirits or ghosts. In Europe and France it was believed, as will be said, that the dead of churchyards a rose for “one wild, hideous carnival of macabre dancing.” People then dressed as corpses. In Ireland, men would sometimes dress as women, and women men. These spirits all troop home to churchyards at sunrise, as Horatio tells Hamlet, explaining why their ghost had left as the crowing of the rooster announced, and Puck is told by Oberon. For ghosts are said to be spirits stuck somehow yet in the mortal world, left still with cares unresolved, as though they cannot yet leave.

All Hallow’s Eve became the last day of October when all Saints Day was moved, by Pope Gregory, the Fourth Pope of that name, in the year 835, to coincide with the Scottish Samhain and harvest celebrations. All Souls Day, November 2nd, is different yet from all Saint’s Day, the third day of Allhallow’s tide, a day set aside as well to pray for the souls of the faithful that are in Purgatory. So we now have candle lighting for the souls and hot buns marked with the cross, once called soul cakes, and baked also for the dead. Reading then from our text of Emma Willard, when- “as this had spread throughout Rome despite persecution and indifference- Constantine embraced Christianity, whether from truth or policy-” do you have this, on page 164?- “women then were taught they were co-heirs with men in the blessings of the Gospel, and then felt their equal value as immortal beings, and thus learned to respect themselves and to ensure the respect of men-” and so not to fear such things- then Christianity was joined to many things of the Pagan world and Roman Empire, with prefectures, diocese and provinces. As Geoffrey of Monmouth in his History of the Kings of Britain, writes, then the Christian orders descended onto the pagan and Druidic offices and districts, with Flamens and Archflamens becoming Bishops and archbishops. Then might the Emperor, and no Bishop, have been head of the Church. And again from page 164: “and surely it was not in the Spirit of Christ, who said ‘My Kingdom is not of this world,” that Constantine made it the religion of the Empire. And from henceforth, we find its heavenly influence sullied by mingling with earthly things…For then as Isaac Newton writes, there came to be established the honoring of the bones of saints and dead men’s souls- worshiping, he calls it, and this idolatry of relics continued throughout the medieval days of knights and ladies.

And on page 248, The Church “made merchandise of natural affection, requiring that masses be paid for by the people, to take their dead relatives from Purgatory and send them to heaven.” Confession was used to gather political secrets (p. 427), and canonization authorized men to worship what God has forbidden (p. 993). By the time of Pope John XV, 20,000 of the Inquisition worked in Spain alone, to re enact the Roman persecutions of the Martyrs, yet dressed in the garments of a Christian. This went on until, oddly indeed, on the first of November, or October 31st, Martin Luther nailed his theses to the door of the Church of All Saints at Wittenberg 1517, and Protestantism and the Reformation then began, even on All Saint’s Day, or even Halloween. Then Purgatory itself came much into question, as though the image were instituted as a mere way to collect indulgences, and it was recalled, as by Newton, that the honoring of saints and collections of relics was not original to the Christian Church, but rather are practices that entered well after Constantine. And so it is that Shakespeare’s Hamlet returns from school in Wittenberg to see to his surprise the ghost of his deceased father- come from Purgatory! But of much import, and for our present purposes, the Christian images and orders were mixed with the older and more local traditions and festivals of the people, and many of our doings on this day- alms and praying for the souls of our recently departed on their way to heaven, are derived from that mixing. So it is with apple-bobbing and the roasting of nuts, kinds of divination, the apples inscribed with names of potential husbands and wives, since it was thought the entry to these realms was somehow more open on this day, or that it is a liminal time when the boundary between this world and the next was thinned. So it was thought that then young ladies might see, as in a glass, the husbands of their future days.

[Jane, gazing out the window, faints.]

Martha Witney: Jane has fainted.

Miss Clark: Here are salts. She will revive and be well.- there- Jane? Rest a while, and we will break for lunch. Our ladies may yet be educated if they should ever cease to faint!

IV, Scene iii

Ann Arbor: The shop of William Percy, esquire, books and medicines

[Door Chimes. William Percy Esq, looking out the front window]

Percy: Jackson Hawkins! What a bright eyed ox you have! And a garland of white flowers!

Hawkins: She had purples as well- but she has eaten them! She is Betsy- not Elizabeth, mind you- and is the prize of this man, Isaac Van Woert, our new pioneer from Livingston NY.

Percy: Pleased to meet you [shaking hands]

Isaac: likewise

Hawkins: We have deposited the Halloween Princesses at their school, and have been about our shopping, and seeing that you are now in, must wile away the day while we wait for their lessons to finish. Have some of these fine apricots gathered from Allen’s. But this, sir, is a Van Woert- the grandson of that famed Isaac Van Woert, who with his fellows captured Major Andre to reveal the treason of Benedict Arnold.

Percy: I am honored to meet you. The deed likely prevented the betrayal of West Point, and the likely failure of the Revolution. So much is owed to the integrity and fidelity of a few, in circumstances that may seem small.

Isaac: Myself, I am but this carpenter, who with my family was headed here, to Ann Arbor, when our Detroit cart broke down. Well, before we could repair it, we are swept up in the bustling new economy of Dixboro, and employed by this fine Hawkins in immediate and emergency carpentry, employed and housed by this man and his fair Abigail, within a single day- though I alone have yet made it to Ann Arbor, just this day.

And what brings you to the shop today?- the apricots are perfect. These are over at Allens?

Jackson: Not any longer! We have bought all we could carry! But we come to you first as apothecary, though perhaps too for some advise, as you are a Justice of the Peace. We have a matter of some grave concern about our town, and a question has been raised regarding medicines, and poisons. Have you knowledge of a liquid called the Balm of Gilead, among things sold or taken on the advise of doctors?

Percy: There is of course the liquid sold called Wistar’s balsam of Wild Cherry- which is neither a balsam nor a balm, if it is indeed distilled of the bark of wild cherry trees, seeds or something other. But a balm is a plant soaked in oil. That of Gilead, as in the song, was that very one used in the old church as an anointing oil, in sacraments- such as last rites- and this was made from a shrub grown in the gardens of Solomon the king around Jericho, a gift from the Sheba Queen- though we do not know if the original balsam bush even still grows there, as nothing much else does. But this is the balm famously referenced by Jeremiah when he asks, “Is there no balm in Gilead? To heal the sins of his idolatrous nation, about to go into captivity. Gilead was famed for balm long before Solomon, as Joseph, when seized by his brothers to be sold into Egypt, was sold to a train from Gilead exporting balm. A recipe is there in the book of Exodus, long before Solomon- but that was not to be imitated. Another of that name is made down South sometimes from a pine resin, but this is no more than turpentine, and in my opinion not a medicine at all.

Jackson: Could such a turpentine have been administered by the Peddler? Yet nothing of the sort is sold here in Washtenaw or Detroit by this name?

Percy: None that I have seen. Dr. Denton at the University may know more.

Jackson: But to the point, which is much more than that- There have been quite a number of deaths in Dixboro over the past few years, and two especially oddly similar in their decline, as though from some slow but mortal poison. Do you recall a widow of Dixboro, Mulholland, who but recently followed her husband in death?

Yes, and John her husband, who had property divided here in Washtenaw court just before he died. His brother was once fined with captain Dix- I believe for illegal dealings in liquor. We have now in our courts a proceeding to invest this James Mullholland as the executor of the property of his deceased brother- to pay his brother’s debts, he says, for which this Martha due to illness has failed to produce the assessment before she too died. We know these things from talking to our village president and your uncle Olney, and we gossip like old widows about this town, for apricots! A judge may soon decide this case.

Jackson: Then Martha would have likely seen her small estate dissolved, even for debts belonging not to her or even to her husband John, if James would even pay debts at all, and their young son, orphaned, would be also dispossessed.

Percy: The issue is complicated, as it is said the division was left imperfect just before John died, leaving some matters to- shall we call it- judicial discretion.

Jackson: Witnessing the harsh treatment of this Martha and his wife Ann, our town has been under some pall and common suspicion, yet unspoken due to propriety. Then when this man Isaac by chance was stranded, and the house of Martha uninhabited, we contracted to house him there just across the Plymouth road, yet still we told him nothing of who had lived there. But I tell thee, Percy, after we settled into our carpentry, Isaac reports seeing the specter in the house so matching the description of Martha as she was dying as to strike us all with amazement- Abigail and Mrs Hammonds as well. Still before anyone had told of how she had died or our suspicions, he sees the specter again, telling of how they had “kilt her,” speaking in the Irish accent that was hers, and reporting that her son Joseph was in some danger, and that she wanted him to keep her papers. These appearances continued, now eight in all, including many elements of truth and mystery which no newcomer could know of or invent. One included an apparition of a scene so like that seen by Mrs. Hammonds as Martha was dying as to strike the poor woman into frightened amazement. It is Mrs. Hammond who who knew of the “Balm of Gilead” shown in a vial- indicating that the doctor had indeed called it by that name. We had taken Martha to Doctor Denton here at the university, but too late, and nothing could be done.

Isaac: The specter, looking poisoned, then indicated that it is James and the peddler who have killed her. We do not know how this balm of Gilead might be involved, but a medicine from the doctor would not cause her long decline, and she was long too poor to see a doctor. It is suspected that James and the Peddler were either treating her or poisoning her. There are some other details. I will give sworn testimony to all I have seen, and have recorded each apparition as these have occurred.

Jackson: Long ago, it is said that a peddler disappeared at the well where his horse and cart were found as though simply abandoned. Since that time, there are about 6 unusual deaths surrounding this James, for which the town has now common suspicion, but no evidence.

Percy: Nor can we proceed without further evidence. We do not know what such specters are, nor how to express the convergence, obvious to you, of the veridical and the dream. The daimon of Socrates is said to transmit warnings due not to the disturbance but the placid harmony of such a soul. And sometimes it seems that the soul of a whole community or town will seek to purge some inhuman crime or villainy- though appearances of such detail are quite rare- I have not heard the like. I will endeavor to speak with Dr. Denton, and consider too with Olney what might be done. We cannot even contact the Justice of the Peace in Springfield, so we can only act through the county, though that may be enough if we proceed cautiously.

Jackson: And minding our own business well, take care for the common weal.

Isaac: Here come our Halloween celebrants ready for their way home. I have made a copy of my notes, of the now eight appearances, and have said that I will swear to the testimony, more faithful to what was written than to grammar.

Jackson: With apricots and peaches too for Betsy and for all. This is Rumpelstiltskin, and that a princess.

Percy: I am pleased to meet you all.

IV, Scene iv

[Dixboro, Whitney residence. Isaac, Jackson, Martha and Jane arrive as Joseph works]

Isaac: The sun declines, and shadows grow.

[Jane and Martha hurry in past John Whitney, who enters]

Jackson: Your shovel, sir, if you are not yet exhausted.

[Joseph holds a bucket of water for Betsy, who drinks]

Joseph: It will come in handy tomorrow, the fence completed.

Jackson: And apricots for you, or a water filed peach! Come, if you are done, and we will see you washed at Clements well.

[Enter Whitney]

Whitney: I have baked the Hot cross buns with some effort and assistance, according to our Rachael’s recipe and minute advising, marked as alms. 71, she is! And still sharp in memory.

Jackson: Come with us to Clement’s store to see the children.

Whitney Take this dozen to the store, for the treats. We must stay here, to placate the goblins with whatever we have at hand as well. Mum has foreseen that they would throw my gate up into the tree.

Jackson: And here are tarts of thimbleberry, baked at the Washtenaw coffee House!

Whitney: Did you happen to see Allen there?

Jackson: We did not, though the modern proprietors keep his orders well from reverence- while Allen himself barely keeps his single law room nearby. We are on to the store!

Isaac: My Rachael will be there.

Joseph: I will precede you on foot, luring this tired beast with sweet grasses and clover to liven her step.

Jackson: William will likely meet you there, that after some feasting you will find you way home on this eerie evening.

…

Act IV scene v

[Arriving at Clement’s store. Joseph exits to the water pump]

Isaac: Look, over the hill, there comes the Princess Jane!

Jackson and Martha her sister- as Rumplestilskin!

Isaac: Do not let Betsy see her friend, who has so plied her with treats, she will do no hauling for others. Let us go in for dinner and festivities. We have yet another bushel of aprocots- you will take a peck home for William and Mary?

Joseph: Sure, and we thank you. And look, the children know where the goods are stored, as they complete their ghostly rounds.

[Rachael Van Woert enters with 4 boys, kissing Isaac’s cheek.]

Boy 1: Look! I am Chief Shavehead, Master of this my Rouge River! You must pay the toll, or pass by another way!

Boy 2: And I am Chief Tonquish, shot by general Macomb for shooting a settler who opposed my thievery of a loaf of bread. “Run Topinabee, My son, Run!”

Boy 1: My dad said that is what the Indian chief said! “You must pay the toll.”

Boy 3: And I the villainous Governor of Ohio, Robert Lucas: “Assemble the Court at Toledo to stake our claim! We are a state, while they are but a measly territory of ague infested with mosquitos!

Jackson: A stunning resemblance in both deed and speech. Summon the Militia at Mount Salem!

Isaac Jr: And I am the headless Horseman, my brother here the famous Ichabod Crane,

Thomas: This pumpkin here, his head in hand.

Rachael: To be Thrown at his brother by the tulip tree? Would you do such a thing on Halloween?

Isaac Jr: If he does not give me his licorice in exchange for lesser candies!

Rachael: For there in Sleepy Hollow, where your grandfathers lie in rest awaiting, there sits the unmarked grave of Hessian corpse found headless after a cannon assault, as the British held the field, and to this day it is said he rides the misty bog in search of the completion of his grave.

Boys: Ayyh!

Hammonds: The boys cry!

Abigail: Hello, Martha!

[Joseph and Isaac, facing away from the door, are startled. Isaac spills his glass.]

Martha: Rumpelstiltskin is here! This is my straw, and this my golden fleece.

Rachael: And the Princess Jane!

Jackson: With flowers yet as fresh as morning!

Jane: Those that have yet escaped the jaws of my friend Betsy.

Clements: The bar is open: Let there be ale and apple jack for all, grape juice and wild grape wine and Jellies made by Mrs. Hammonds. Jane, do not mix them up!

Martha: I think we have got the wine!

Clements: A little bit is fine.

William: Joseph may have what he likes for the occasion, being now admitted to majority.

Isaac Jr: If he should get a mustache soon enough, it will be the only way!

Joseph: ” I will haunt you with this pumpkin head! [Chasing Isaac Jr about the store while all laugh, returns]

Rachael: And so it is, there are in the story clues that the horseman seen by Ichabod was in truth his rival for the love of his Katrina. A man named Bran, who chased Ichabod from the hollow by his headless deception- the clues given by Mr. Irving are the great height of the headless rider, the smashed pumpkin in the street and such- the truth behind the legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Isaac: Indeed, it is not the dead that we must fear.

IV, scene vi

Scene: Detroit Office of Zina Pitcher

Pitcher [opening the door] Well, Senator Denton!

Denton: And you our almost governor, Dr. Pitcher!

Pitcher: Come in, come in. Is the lunch not good at the capitol? Won’t you join me? The ladies have brought me perch from Kingsville.

Denton: That must have been your rose that I saw leaving- as a weed she grows.

Pitcher: or as a thistle! She risks her own life with us to nurse the patients. In al we somehow avoid illness, and stand to care for those that have fallen ill. How goes the Senate?

Denton: To get our measures through this Polk congress will be near impossible, and the appointment of judges with its attendant corruption likely to continue. Some even in our county are bought with liquor and gifts and there is little we can do about it, where the deed itself goes unseen, then strangely go the verdicts in the light of day. The people get a sense of this corruption, and can vote a problem judge from office.

Pitcher: The state congress has set the manner of appointment, and may yet amend this in the future, when the foreseeable have become evident I busy myself less with politics, more with the hospital and school these days-. where a good day’s work yields profit when one retires at night. There is so much to be done, We seek a new site for the surgery at St. Vincent’s and will expect more customers soon, should Texas be added and war with Mexico result.

Denton: The Judicial matter is near to the particular purpose of my visit. We may have a matter in Dixboro requiring more a surgeon than a doctor of the polity. It seems too that I have made a terrible error in the treatment of a woman brought to me in grave distraction, and as it turned out, near to her death. whom I treated as a favor to a relative of Olney, one Jackson Hawkins of Dixboro.

Pitcher: I may have met the man at the meeting where John Geddes spoke.

Denton: This poor woman, the Dixboro neighbor of Hawkins, insisted- as often the mad do-that someone was trying to kill her. This someone would seem to be her brother in law, involved in an inheritance dispute. In addition, she said she knew a terrible secret which she would divulge to me, though only upon condition that I would agree to bleed her to death immediately, in order that she might end her misery.

Pitcher: A circumstance more difficult than surgery! For such a malady, the cure itself might bleed her of her burden. The new experimental methods show no benefit from bleeding, as coheres with reason.

Denton: We would send her back to Dr. Rush for such a remedy!

Pitcher: Nor knew she that our oath is to heal and not to kill?

Denton : Nor even to practice such supposed cures as mercury and bleeding, with only custom, and no reason nor evidence of a cure. And so reneging on my bargain, I thought it just to send her home, with remedy for her pathe, like to treat like, you know- a liquid I on a sudden called the balm of Gilead- brown from my boiled coffee- in a vile, using illusion to illusions as a magician or peddler of folk cures, that hope might supervene or supersede upon despair. I could think of nothing else to treat the poor mad maid, so quick as silver, which I would not prescribe- least of all to one already troubled in the mind.

Pitcher: Rush too allows treatment of the mad by childlike illusions, as well as by the truth. One wonders what was the true cause of her decline.

Denton: This woman Martha, though, continued in decline, soon to die, as I thought then, from the very madness in which she thought herself to be pursued and wished to be bled.

Pitcher: And now you think your diagnosis to be wrong?

Denton: Some questions in hindsight do arise. As was said, her brother in law James Mulholland, having interest in her property from her deceased husband and his brother John, may well have poisoned her. For the effects are not unlike that of arsenic, or lead from wounds of buckshot or the battlefield, or indeed the hatter’s mercury, Rush’s calomel, once given too to heal. Her sister Ann, the former wife of James, former wife, declined and died in much a similar way, and there have been a number of surrounding deaths now in that darkened and stagnant town.

Pitcher: Much can be told if the body were to be exhumed.

Denton: And that is just what has been requested by a Justice of the Peace in our county, and by some concerned citizens of the town. And for this we would of course request your expert assistance, along with Allen’s oversight- as he was the coroner there in days past. We hope to act as quickly as possible, of course, as well to preempt interference as to avoid stirring the already disturbed town- more of which you may soon hear.

Pitcher: As no surgeries are scheduled- yet- tomorrow I might be there, if the University and laboratory can be prepared.

Denton : I will return then to the capitol for the afternoon session. When you come, I will tell more, and of my researches on oil and corn. We have an alcohol by-product in the lab that may be useful against infection in surgery.

Pitcher: And after surgery, to heal the surgeon! Your dinner conversation I will long to hear.

Denton: Give my regards to Ann [they walk out of the office]

Pitcher: Ha! The education of the ladies indeed begins at home!

Denton: Of daughters looking over the fence of the young men’s Lyceum

Pitcher: Indeed we will now send them to Miss Clark! Now that the University has moved from here to there.

Denton: Should the capitol of The Straights be ever lost to British arms again.

[Exit Denton]

Pitcher: Well it would be if the surgeons or physician’s art

Could heal the maladies of the mind

Or treat the sorrows of the human heart

And polities in kind.

A window into men's souls to peer

To see what workings working there,

Lead one to harm another,

As though from some mortal fear.

IV, scene vii

[At the fountain on the North side of Plymouth Road just East of town]

Student: We have seen enough that the case is to be reopened, and that is all we need to know, he said.

Student #2: Be sure to hide the bottle when he comes.

#1: We are of age, nor will Denton know where we have gotten it.

#3: Unless he drinks.

#1: He might if it were English Tea. Nor will he know his distillation to be weakened with our water. He makes it not to drink, but for experiments.

#2: By about this much [Drinks].

#1 A tip to our promised five dollars for the assistance of our arms this dreadful night.

#2 We dig upon the inquest of the county coroner.

#3: And the suggestion of a ghost.

#1: The labor will keep off the chill of the night as well.

#3: Are there any ghosts in scripture?

#1 None.

#2 One. The specter of Samuel, summoned by the witch of Endor, to report to Saul his imminent death.

#1 None- for we are Protestants, and must not return as ghosts.

#3 Yet Catholics might come back whenever they like?

#2 “And she will be to thee like an Ariel,” by which he means he will regard Israel no more than as a ghost.

#3 She is said to walk the night

#2 Is Mason a kind of Protestant?

#3: The shipwright or the carpenter

May indeed then build stronger,

The works of the gravedigger,

Lasting no longer.

#3 There!

#2: It is nothing!

#3 It is Denton!

Denton: Gentlemen! Your arms [handing them shovels] We will keep silence, in care for the peace of the town, nor to have our efforts known or interrupted. Our work should go fast enough in ground so newly dug. Then rest we, for Dr. Pitcher will come tomorrow from Detroit, to preside and assist our inquiry- as may Allen, the former coroner. Keep silence, For the house where she was seen is nearby- there. and work silently when we are there.

#1: Foul deeds will rise,

Denton: Though all the earth o’erwhelm them to men’s eyes.

IV Scene viii

[Van Woert’s bedroom]

Isaac: I dreamed there was a noise, and that her grave was now disturbed

Rachael: Sleep, my dear. [She goes to sleep]

Martha appears in the bedroom doorway, dressed in white, standing straight, and looking pale]

Martha: I don’t want anybody here. I don’t want anybody here! […muttering explanation] … Joseph… Joseph.

[Speaking to Isaac]

I wanted to tell a secret, and I thought I had.

[She disappears]

Isaac: What secret? My papers.

Rachael: On the bureau.

Isaac: Sleep now. I will up and write, and tell you in the morning.

Rachael: I thought I heard a wagon on the road.

Isaac I have seen her again. She says she does not want anyone here.

Rachael. Now that Hawkins roof is shingled, their house will soon be vacant. I will speak to them tomorrow.

Isaac: Joseph will then be without the revenue, but it seems that is how it must be.

Act IV, Scene ix

[James at the mill]

Lawyer: One Perry has brought a motion, and testimony is to be sworn. There is to be an inquiry regarding Martha and her death,

James: with slanderous rumors, probably due to my brother William and this Hawkins- would they might go the way of these rats!

Lawyer: It has been rumored that her ghost was seen- By the carpenter Isaac who now rents the house from Joseph, hired by Hawkins. There is suspicion of her poisoning.

[James, pacing and looking away, turns]

Go to Detroit, and file charges of slander against this Perry and this Hawkins! This can only be the orchestration of the opinion of the town to rob me of my brother’s lands- [looking at the lawyer] to pay his lawful debt. Here is gold and drink a plenty to cover inconveniences. I will soon have it back in damages. My Peddler will escort you, and bring liquor to cover the cost of judgement- with more to come upon your successful return, in proportion to your achievement.

[to the peddler] Go with him. Devise means to convict this seer of madness. For EVERYONE knows there are no ghosts. Aside And well you know your fortunes hang with mine- This town is ours– and will be if you proceed correctly. Take this address. We will have this visionary diagnosed and defamed publicly, even by science.

Peddler: We will do our duty, so please your prosperity.

IV, scene x

[Clement’s store. Clements and Mrs. Hammond preparing the counter. Enter Charles Woodruff, editor.]

Clements: Mornin’ Mr. Woodruff! Delivering your own offspring, I see. Is your paperboy ill?

Woodruff: Mornin’ Clem. No- I have heard of the strange events around Dixboro here, and thought to come investigate for myself. Word spreads like ripples in a pond, more diffuse the further from the center. So I come on business as well as pleasure, as a reporter for my Sentinel, concerned chiefly with the public truth.

Clements: Whereas the private gossip is your matter of pleasure!

Woodruff: It is good to see you Clem, and well! And you look good, too!

Clements: We tread water, staying afloat. Well, set up at the counter there by the stove. Mrs. Hammond has brought eggs and muffins. freshly baked with apricots. Set your papers there by the Argus. Your receipts from a few weeks past are here- are things well at the paper?

Woodruff: Well enough, as money does seem to loosen, and the people to better afford such a luxury. But it does seem that ole Felch has taken the county, except for Salem, and with that, the state. Old Van Fossen, “Locofocos,” he would call them, these new supposed Democrats. We’d bust our sides laughing ’til our supper’d come out! [Mrs. Hammond giggling].

But to business. I have been around Ann Arbor, following reports, and have in my possession a copy of a public and legal deposition regarding the detailed visitation of a specter or ghost, and that there are to be this day filed suits for slander of one James Mulholland by said ghost, that he is alleged or suspected in the murder of one Martha Mulholland his sister in law, with whom he had some dispute in property of her late husband his brother, and is suspected to have poisoned. Do you know the whereabouts, where I might find for interview, one Jackson Hawkins, relative to Abail Hawkins of Ypsilanti and Olny Hawkins, President of Ann Arbor?

Clements: Oh that Jackson Hawkins [they laugh]. He may soon be coming by for an early lunch, especially if Mrs. Hawkins has been too busy to fetch up a lunch. They have been finishing his new frame house before Whitney’s, just across from the very house in question. He has been building, and his house is nearly completed, so they are likely moving over to it. If he should smell Mrs. Hammond’s muffins, he should be by shortly.

Woodruff: Indeed, these are without peer, in the glory of fresh butter- nonpareil, they say. Now, of the man who has seen the specter…

Hammonds: He is Isaac Van Woert, a newcomer to our town, and a man of good character.

Clements: He is from New York State, Livingston country…A carpenter- a good hard worker, worthy of credit, and a father of two boys.

Hammond: … and of the Methodist Church. He could not have known many things regarding Martha or her recent death that he said the ghost revealed to him, and then to our amazement proved to have been just what we had seen.

Clements: For us, we are circumspect to avoid the hazard of rumor. But he was told nothing even of the death of the mother of his new landlord, let alone her illness and the particular circumstances of her death, which he then reported to various of the stunned residents of Dixboro.

[page 84]

For before he knew there was a James or any peddler involved, long illness, stomach pains, nor questions regarding Martha’s husbands,

Hammonds: nor vial of Balm of Gilead,

Clements: she gave reports and detailed answers to questions this newcomer had not time to ask, let alone invent. Nor knew he of the danger to her boy.

[A bell is heard approaching. Enter Isaac and Jackson]

Jackson: What odor wafts divine?

Clements: Mrs. Hammonds has made muffins with apricots.

Hammonds: The secret is vanilla! Imported here to Dixboro from Samsons of Ypsilanti.

Jackson [to Isaac]: We will have you moved by evening, enlisting Betsy to the wagon.

Isaac If we can find her! I believe she is with her flower maiden friend over at Whitney’s.

Jackson: We will take our lunch with us, as it does appear there will be traffic here today.

Clements: Good morning Jackson, Isaac. Charlie, this is Isaac Van Woert.

Jackson: Good mornin’ to you Clem, Charlie. What brings you about? Have you lost your paperboy?

[The Pedder’s bell is heard outside]

Woodruff: I have read his deposition, and indeed come to gather report objectively for what may soon appear in press, and of various suits for slander…

Jackson: We are as yet unaware…

Woodruff: Though it is noted, no accusation of slander is leveled against the seer.

Isaac: Of the singularity of my position, I am aware, and would gladly evade, if one could be permitted by the truth’s regard.

Jackson: That is, he speaks as I do and as you report, from duty once content to have been private.

[Enter Peddler, Phrenologist and Magnetist]

Scratchton: I am Professor Stillson Scratchton, Expert Magnetist, from Detroit.

Itcher: And I am Dr. Itcher, Phrenologist.

Scratchton: Can you direct us to the house where the ghost has appeared?

Itcher: And to the man whom these apparitions have assuaged?

Clements: I cannot, but these men might.

Scratchton: I have come to measure the house, thereby guaranteed to detect any spirit, if present, in the objectivity of modern Newtonian science.

Clements: Come in, gentlemen, we have muffins, cider, and fresh eggs.

Isaac: [To Jackson] We’ll have him peddling!

Lawyer: This man here is Jackson Hawkins, to be charged in our courts with high slander, and this his cohort in conspiracy, the carpenter arrived from Sleepy Hollow to defraud my honest master James Mullholand of his just inheritance from his natural brother and partner John, needed to pay the debts incurred by this brother, as will here be scientifically proven before the eyes of all the town [4 people gather]- the simple folk of this fair community of Dixboro, whom they intend now to deceive, in the first degree of grave intent. For all do know, as has been proven by science, that there is no such thing as ghosts!

Jackson: What then has this magnetist come to detect?

Peddler: Mere popistry, and a lie intended to deprive my master.

Itcher: And yet it may be madness, and not intent. I am Dr. Itcher from Detroit, and this Scratchton my assistant. We bring to these backwoods of Dixboro the modern methods of phrenology, the science of the mind, and challenge this seer to submit to examination. For in this most practical of all sciences, we have discovered, by the genius of Dr. Francis Galt- distinguished European physician- Come. the examination will be as certain as it is brief and painless.

Scratchton: …and can be accomplished over breakfast.

Clements: Be seated [To Isaac] Charles Woodruff of the Ypsilanti Sentinel is here, and has seen a deposition from Ann Arbor.

Isaac. Oh. [pause] I will come in and sit, for I am able to do no more than give honest testimony, of that which I have been advised by law to keep further silence. Yet I will submit to your examination- for one telling such an account might well be mad.

Itcher: That we shall tell with certainty by modern science, by the size and shape and anomalous bumps and impressions of the skull. I have examined thousands, and am able thus to tell the humours of a man, phlegmatic, sanguine, bilous, and …

Scratchton...[Counting on his fingers] bloody.

Isaac: Is that not sanguine? You will be brief? For I must get about my day, which will consist in moving out my family from the house you come to measure with your lodestones. The place is now nearly empty.

Peddler: He will be shown to be either slanderous or mad, as all do know there are no ghosts. The very thought was invented to gather fees to spare relatives from Purgatory- the greatest swindle of ever.

Isaac: Tell us Peddler, what medicines have thee? Perhaps a Balm of Gilead, to heal the soul sin sickened?

[The Peddler goes white and silent] But let us sit.

Itcher: Now, there are 27 mental organs, 8 peculiar to man. Propensities as that for music or religion will be evident in certain lobes of the brain, the which, developing, give to the skull its overall shape. The very size of the skull indicates intelligence, and so we measure with our caliper, thus, and record such data into formulae- for the brain is but an organ of the mind…, and so the mind a mere manifestation of the brain, as has been shown repeatedly by our science.

Citizen: Should one be hairy about the neck and smell of liquor, we might tell he shall be mean.

Jackson: That would be choleric. He will surely have there a ridge for genius, where indeed he rapped his forehead on the beam! A knot, indeed! Good man, he is a carpenter, of faithful lineage, and sane.

Isaac: Tell nothing- for anything we say will only be used against us.

Mrs. Hammond: He is a man of good character…

Citizen: And everyone knows there is no such thing as ghosts. That his mind has got away with him, we must consider…

Itcher [calculating on paper] Our determination is that the subject is inclined toward the Bilious, and such are well known by science to be inclined to visions- that is- to seeing things that are not there.

Citizen #2 And perhaps he is…yet how could such true things have been known as have been revealed to one who is but a sojourner in the town?

Citizen: Fool! He might have been told and brought here, and put up to it.

Lawyer: in the effort to deprive James Mulholland of what is rightly his.

Scratchton: That is by far more likely, should we find there are no ghosts at the house.

Itcher: Come, let us inquire empirically.

IV, scene x

John Whitney: Soon the first snow will cover the ground, and we will be gad we got the wood in while it was easy.

Jane: we are glad to borrow Betsy.

John Whitney: And she to see her friend. It is good to see your spirits rise and smile a bit in so sad a time.

Joseph: Her grave has been disturbed. I saw it this morning on the way.

Martha Whitney: And the carpenter has moved out. There was some commotion at the store, and a whole parade of folk have gone to the house with a magnetist, upon report of the seeing of a ghost.

John Whitney: They seem intent, and there will be little harm done if we ignore them, and keep to our work. They come with the Peddler to Clement’s store. Does James claim a right to dispose of the place?

Joseph: He may have found it strange to see the house rented, though he does not seem to have bothered my tenants. So far as I know, the house of Hawkins is near finished.

John Whitney: and so the family may find his old cabin to have yet the better stove, with winter coming.

Joseph: I care not, except that William may be out the expense of my upkeep. With his Ark of 8 and livestock to keep, I try too to cost him nothing and add a little.

John Whitney: A hard working boy will always cover his keep.

Joseph: My wages here are well, [looking at Jane] and pleasantly earned.

John Whitney: So we will mind our own business, as Franklin says on his cent.

Martha Whitney: The commotion is that they say your mother’s ghost has been seen, and James is now nearly accused of her murder,

John Whitney: if his severity were not enough to make him suspect.

Martha Whitney: Frain’s Lake is to be searched as well. Sometime before you and mother, or anyone else we know came to Dixboro, a Peddler disappeared, and his cart was found undisturbed, his horse at the well, where John and James had a tavern.

Joseph: So have I heard in part from my mother in her terrified murmurings.

Martha Whitney: They say her spirit has appeared too this Carpenter Isaac, confirmed by many details he could not have known, told to him by- your mother. He has given sworn testimony attempting to report what she has said: You may as well know, as the reporter is at the store, and promises thatn the account is news, and will be printed in his pap[er. There is to be an inquiry of the coroner at Ann Arbor to determine whether your mother was poisoned.

John Whitney: It is also good that you know even more to stay cear of James until the issue settles. He of course has sought to be named executor to dispose the estate of his brother to repay certain supposed debts-

Joseph: Though my step father had divided their interests just before his death, and these then descended to my mother.

John Whitney …Except for the finalizing action of a single appointed Judge, who strangely may also decide these current cases.

Joseph: My mother had some papers pertaining which have disappeared. Oddly, then, she thought the medicine given her by Dr. Denton was then mis-set in the bureau, and a bit fuller than it had been. We thought she suffered delusion- as too she often did as she was dying.

John Whitney: Poor women, entrusted to those who most meant her harm. John Geddes, too, who lives just south of William there, has planned to call a meeting after Christmas, when the results of these inquiries become more clear.

IV, Scene xii

The Mill, with James and the Peddler

Peddler: The people of the town have been reminded that there is no such thing as ghosts, and have been informed by our expert that this Isaac is merely Bilious, and hence inclined to visions as in epilepsy. 2 Gallons.

James: and the magnetist:

Peddler: One gallon. He investigated the cabin where the apparition is said to have been seen, confirming that there are no strange vibrations in the air, as are made on the surfaces of pools stilled- by spirits in the spirit realm.

Wait until our suits for slander are served upon those busybodies. To involve themselves in the properties of others! They may get what they deserve- I will own this whole town! Has the liquor been delivered to the Judge?

Peddlar: Far more than men men can drink. And your experts all well paid. There was a reporter there at the store , one Charles Woodruff from Ypsilanti, who plans to publish a report.

His Journalistic posture may yet add weight to our assertions, the skepticism beneficial to our suits. We will have our legal representative alike threaten him with actions, should he overstep our favorable reporting, or fail to report the new opinion of the town….Would that I had that little rat Crawford! Set the poison for the rats!

Peddler: There is yet plenty remaining.

James: Balm of Gilead [He laughs]

Peddler: Or temper of that remedy.

[Page 94]