The Dixboro Ghost, Act V

Act V Scene i

SD: [The home of John Geddes] John Geddes, Fanny Geddes, Jackson and Isaac. arriving: William, Joseph, John Whitney, Joseph and Jane.

Neighbors, come in! Kids, little Johnny has been excited, waiting for someone to play on the sled- he has tired me out! Fanny will have hot coco for you when you tire of the cold. The sled is in the shed by the door. Come in and be seated, Fanny has coffee and cakes as well.

Already the chill of winter is about to break, and parliament of fowls about to start the Chorus of their council for St. Valentines Day. How are your new cabins houses and stoves been set against this winter?

Jackson: We have some caulking yet to do, but keep most the wind out! Isaac’s house is warmer, having been the better sealed. Still, we make a room of heat between the stove and fireplace that is usually quite inhabitable. [seeing Joseph and jane paying with Johnnie out the window] How has he been, now that the distraction of work has slowed for the freeze?

He has been alright considering- seeing Jane cheers him considerably.

Geddes Our main objective will be to keep him safe. Since no body of the former Peddler was found in the well or in Frain’s Lake, the law cannot proceed. There is no Justice of the peace in Superior now in any case, old Vorheis home and incapacitated. We should have another seated by the Fourth of July,

Isaac: We have been amused to see in the press that old Vorheis has lost a wallet, and another found a wallet. Someone ought tell them!

Geddes: I may get up toward Brookville soon, and see him on the way, if he yet lives.

William: Mr Geddes will run for Supervisor, though his jurisdiction will not extend quite to Dixboro, which apart from the County government and courts, remains a bit lawless.

Geddes: Old Frain has seen nothing rise up these many years, but again, it is not clear we would have found it were it there. Quite like a lazy criminal, though, to avoid the labor of a digging.

Jackson: James has threatened suits for slander against any accusations. The town is in quandary, having been told by the Peddler and his team of scientific experts that such as Isaac are inclined to visions, and there is no such thing as ghosts. They say the story has been invented to deprive James and his creditors of his rightful property.

Geddes: Well, we simply do not know about such things. The only ghost of THAT sort in the scriptures is that seen by Saul, who on the day after his necromancy met his death foretold by the ghost of Samuel, summoned by the Witch of Endor! And of course we are forbidden to consult the dead intentionally- but these visions are beyond strange, and like nothing of which anyone- Woodruff and Allen included, have ever heard.

Isaac: I am myself amazed, but oddly not disturbed, as though viewing from a distance, and all the while going about my family and business.

Geddes– In the nine appearances, there is a pattern and the purgation of the wish of Martha for revenge.

Isaac– indeed, after hoping that James would repent, she did appear twice in daylight- supposed for damned spirits to be prohibited.

Geddes: So it is astonishing and natural in its account, and quite unlike any human or poetic invention.

Jackson. Indeed we have a string of deaths around the town beginning from that Peddler which look in hindsight to be more than accident.

Geddes: John Sinclair by the mill, and Martha this past year, John, their young son, and Ann. James also had had a child with Ann [speaking ominously] who was said to have approached too near the fire.

Jackson: Oh, I had not made that connection, but the number of corpses does begin to appear more than chance.

Geddes: Now, we have evidence that one of these deaths was murder, though we do not have evidence by whom the murder was committed, and suspicion is not sufficient to proceed and arrest this string of deaths. While we cannot yet proceed by law, we can do certain things- indeed as Isaac you have done- to inhibit James from further harm, and keep watch over Joseph according to the intention of the vision.

.Isaac: It does appear as though James may be removing those who know about his first crime.

Jackson: That secret known to Martha when first she tried to flee back to Canada.

William: Indeed, she does seem to be an honest ghost, reporting histories from before Jackson was even a resident of Dixboro.

Geddes: We will see what emerges, and look for opportunity, all the while keeping the threat of disclosure weighing on this James, and wait for him to make a mistake. Sometimes all one can do against the most heinous crime is to know it- and know it together-yet this knowing strangely can make all the difference. Oh- here is the address of the Wagoner in Ypsilanti- he will order your axle and spring. He is up in the newer town, by Abail’s Hotel, up cross street, and over the river, then right on Hamilton.

Fanny Geddes: And here are cakes and more coffee! And hot cider-the kids are coming in from the cold.

V, Scene ii William Mullholland house

[Joseph awakens in the night, and finds William at the stove.]

Joseph: I dreamed that at some future time, but in this town, a man was tarred and feathered for beating his wife. His friend had taught him to do it, and they were drinking and beating the poor women. Then I saw James and his friend the Peddler. They were arguing beside a cauldron of something like boiling lead, then James tried to throw the Peddler in, but he pulled him in with him as he fell.

William: The wage of sin is death. But vengeance belongs not to man but to the Lord- the uplifted arm is broken. Likely He knows you would have cause if any ?had. But let be- as Geddes says. Things may yet crumble around this brother of mine,

who will surely lose his whole life to have what is his brother’s. Let be.

V, Scene iii Ypsilanti

[Wagon shop, with clerk]

Isaac: Over a year, it has been, since this wagon broke down stranding us in Dixboro, and finally I get around to getting the parts to fix it.

Jackson: The toil of our days has not allowed us leisure to repair the toil of our days. [To the Clerk] Had we not one ox and one wagon between us, we would have had to fix it somehow. What commotion is that in the street?

Clerk: Oh, that is but the locals all yipped up again. You have not heard? A Doctor Blackwood is demonstrated against, and is to be tarred and feathered in effigy- unless he comes into the office today, in which case he may be tarred and feathered in person. He is accused of seducing a female patient, as revealed in confession on her deathbed. Though no one doubts the truth of her word, yet nothing can be done by law upon the word of an ill woman, and she- being dead- can no longer testify. The doctor has been expelled from church by the Presbetyrians, by a narrow vote. The citizens in frustration- including Starkweather and others from Plymouth- have chosen to demonstrate their disgust, and probably will drive this Blackwood out of town, if nothing else can be done for lack of good court evidence.

[Isaac and Jackson looking out the window. Split stage shows James and the Peddler, stepping out from the office of his lawyer to see the citizens demonstrating around a tarred and feathered effigy of Dr. Blackwood.]

James: What commotion?

Citizen #1 : Blackwood is so high the law cannot reach him. So be it ever to domestic tyrants!

Citizen #2: [to James] The man who is the original of the effigy is a doctor Blackwood, who abused a poor woman in his care, and was revealed on her deathbed.

Citizen #1: This will show him what he has to fear if not the law. He will not come in to the office today!

Citizen #2 We’ll give him homeopathic cure!

John Van Fossen: As published in the Sentinel of March 3rd, 1847 [he reads] Whereas Thomas Blackwood stands charged by the confessions of the late Henrietta Bagley, attested to by her oath duly administered, and confirmed by her dying declarations with her seduction under circumstances of gross aggravation in violation of the rights of hospitality and professional confidence which has resulted in her death. And whereas the lamented death of his victim has interposed, we fear an effectual barrier to his conviction of this offense by the laws of our county, it is resolved that we assemble and express, that we believe the dying declarations of this woman over his simple denial, and that it is the duty of every citizen to use his influence to bring this man to justice.

Citizens: It is resolved

James: [To Pedder] Lets away! Quickly. Quickly, let’s away!

Isaac: She has told her secret.

Jackson: And poor Mr. Bagley will have retribution. John Geddes is said to have cast the deciding vote for expulsion from the Church, where he is now an elder.

V, Scene iv July 4th, 1847. Geddes, Jackson and Isaac and families arriving at the Esak Pray farm in Whitmore Lake, in 3 wagons.

Thomas: We have to talk to a horse about a man.”

Izzy: a man about a horse!

Rachael: There behind the house, you see? Izzy, go with him.

Izzy: Indeed, I have no choice! [Isaac, Geddes and Jackson all laughing]

Rachael: Do not make fun of your father.

Isaac: Since as Geddes says, “the Dixboro millers have ab-sconded,” we will be more at liberty for festival than Last year.

Geddes: What was their name, Bell something… plundered considerable, they did.

Jackson: Now disappeared without a trace. No one expects their return, and the mill property of James is to be sold at auction, by William and their father Sam. But Look there is John Allen, and his beautiful daughter Sarah, come with William Allen to celebrate the Fourth with Old Van Eyke!

Denton: The Mill could burn tomorrow, and it would worry no one, but be an act of surgery.

Allen: There are not many of us left from before the Panic. John and Fanny- so good to see you, Jackson, Abigail, youngsters, and this must be the famous Isaac Van Woert.

Isaac: And the lovely Rachael his wife.

Allen: So does the beauty of the soul of ladies shine through their countenance, and far exceed the artificial by the natural cosmetics- let them apply sweetness while gazing at the angles in their mirrors!

Geddes: A principle for princesses.

Allen: I am honored to meet you, having heard so much about your truly extraordinary testimony. And this is Sarah my lovely daughter, and this her gold pocket watch bought with no slight prompting for her birthday by her now impoverished father. Her mother has absconded back down South- having plundered considerable.

Geddes: [laughing]

Sarah: Daddy!

Rachael: Sarah, this is Jane Whitney of Dixboro, and her cohort Mr. Joseph Crawford.

Sarah: [Sarah half curtsies, and Jane and Joseph nod a greeting] Pleased to meet you! They will have plenty of games after dinner, and dancing! Father is only playing it up for votes, as he may run for governor.

Geddes: That should work to balance the budget!

Denton: You have heard of this one from the college boys at the medical school, of whom she is far famed as the fairest of Ann’s Arbor!

Allen: She feigns her blush. Samuel Denton! Glad you could make it- it has been a while. Olney, too is here somewhere about Helping Eyke. But Sam, We have here Isaac, the seer of the ghost. After dinner, we will hear his tale, and I will relate some sayings of The venerable Sweedenborg, my mentor of late. He says that ghosts are souls that do not or cannot realize that they are dead. And that each is in a way stuck in something.

Jackson: Denton is the man who examined Martha before she died, and is the only one who knows the terrible crime that she revealed. He is the coroner of the inquest who determined that she was indeed poisoned.

Denton: By persons yet unknown.

Rachael: Sealed under the privacy of his Hippocratic oath. And yet she came to tell a secret, and she thought she had. Her other secret is regarding what occurred regarding Frain’s Lake and the well. And the trouble in her mind given her by John, and the man they would not let her have in Canada.

Isaac: This one said “they kilt me-” and so in some sense knew that she was dead. What she realized gradually was that she hoped that James would repent, and did not seek vengeance, but may have crossed the bounds of death for the safety of her child- who is Joseph there.

Rachael: So the secret she has told may also be that the limit of death dissolves before a mother’s love.

Jackson: Doctor, when Isaac and I were in Ypsilanti, we happened to see the hanging of that Dr. Blackwood in effigy, and this seemed to persuade this James that it was his time to cut mustard.

Denton: Well, as we say in the Senate, better to lose most than all.

Allen: Come you shall tell me of your experiments with wild grape wine from Ann’s Arbor, and alcohol from corn as antisepticus.

Denton: The antisepticus has strangely come out weak for some reason, but as we shall see today, the wine is strong enough! Come, let us celebrate our nation’s birthday!

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