Table of Contents

• Editorial: February Ghosts: Ghost Trains, Presidents, and Eternal Love
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Still Haunts New York City
• The Lincoln Death Train
• Schedule
• What's New
• Ghost Sightings: Orbs at the Merchant's House
• Haunt of the Month: Eliza Jumel, Black Widow
• Classic Ghost Story of the Month: The Ghost In Love

Editorial: February Ghosts: Ghost Trains, Presidents, and Eternal Love

The beginning of winter in New York City brings a magnificent confluence of holidays. A few weeks ago, NYC ushered in the Chinese New Year with a parade in Chinatown attended by 400,000 people. This month's newsletter celebrates the Year of the Dragon with a classic ghost story: a tale from 17th century China by P'ou Song-lin called "The Ghost in Love." We thought it was a nice mix of East and West, Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day.

Certainly we can't think of a better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with a romantic ghost story. For those who are also inclined, we are happy to say we're offering a Ghosts and Poets of Greenwich Village Walk on February 14th. Check out our "What's New" section for info.

We nearly never speak of romance and the Oval Office in the same breath, and if we do it is generally tinged by cynicism, but here at Ghosts of New York we love a good presidential romance! One great presidential romance is that of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. At their wedding in 1843, he gave her a ring engraved with the words "Love is Eternal." Her grief upon his death has been well documented, and she attempted many times -- much to her family's embarrassment -- to contact him after death. Her son Robert had her committed to an asylum, so strange were her ways. However, she was still shrewd enough to get uncommitted despite the odds against her in a male-dominated society where women had no legal rights. When she died in 1882, on her wedding ring, quite thin from wear, the words "Love is Eternal" were still visible.

Naturally, our founding fathers are not without many, many ghost stories of their own, some of which you can find right here in New York City. Lincoln is of course noted for still lingering in the White House, but it is in New York that his "Death-Train" sometimes appears in spectral form on the Hudson Line of the New York Central system. You can read more about it in "The Lincoln Death Train."

And so with thoughts of pining widows, presidents, and phantoms in our heads, we present the February edition of the Gotham Ghost Gazette. May you have a very happy Lunar New Year, a thrilling Valentine's Day and a stirring Presidents' Day!

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Still Haunts NYC

By Andrea Janes

Deep in the alleys of New York City, and lurking through the streets, is a legendary writer who has leaked his tales of the supernatural "headless horseman" into our reality.

During the day, you might hear laughter, and at night, a ghostly gallop haunts the streets, but there's no need to be afraid. Your spook-tacular encounter is none other than one of NYC's most famous ghosts, Washington Irving.

Irving is one of New York's literary ghosts, well known and acknowledged as the author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Irving's spooky tale tells of a character named Ichabod Crane who spends his days chasing his love, a young woman named Katrina Van Tassel. Crane's chasing of the 18-year-old daughter and sole child of a wealthy farmer proves to infuriate "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, who falls subject to Crane's ridicule.

One autumn night, after attending a party at the Van Tassel home, Crane encounters the headless horseman near a bridge and the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. A pursuit through the countryside follows, during which, the spectral horseman hurls his "head" at Crane. The next day, the schoolteacher is missing, leaving behind a riderless horse, a trampled saddle, Crane's hat, and a smashed pumpkin.

This tale has excited readers everywhere and Irving is best known for leaving it to the reader to decide if the horseman was an actual specter or Van Brunt in disguise. Yet, if you are a believer, then you may perhaps relate Iriving's ghostly tale to these spooky encounters around the city.

Irving, who settled in the north of New York, produced "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" close by. After maintaining a permanent residence in 1835, his early stay in the Sleepy Hollow region helped produce the setting for Irving's story and since, this ghostly story has retained its popularity nearly 200 years after its creation.

Some say this famous phantom has since been terrorizing readers ever since he's written his ghostly tales. If you're interested in finding out for yourself, a tour with Ghosts of New York can make you into a believer. Irving may appear right beside you and you may occasionally here a gallop or two, but if you bring a friend with you, you'll be sure to have fun discovering the mysteries that lie around New York City with a couple of spooky surprises.

The Lincoln Death Train

Abraham Lincoln's death train has been reported inside New York City's limits, even inside Grand Central Station, though it did not exist at the time. Before there was a Grand Central, there were rail tracks on Fourth or Park Avenue.

In April 1865, Abraham Lincoln's body began a funeral journey from Washington, D.C., via New York City to his hometown of Springfield, Illinois. Ever since then, in various parts of the nation, the train has been spotted toward dusk on the day it journeyed along for so long.

Some people see a steam train moving slowly away, and with it goes the darkness, the chill and the clouds that obscure the moon. Others claim that they can see inside the train a crew of skeletons. Halfway back in the train is Lincoln's coffin, surrounded by a crew of blue-coated skeletons. Or the train is simply a blur. It has been reported seen between Twenty-first Street and all the way up to Albany over the original path of the old New York Central Railroad.

Wherever the train passes, the clocks become six minutes late. In Spooky New York, S.E. Schlosser retells the arrival of the Lincoln death train inside Grand Central, which was built after his death.

Schedule

For a schedule of upcoming tours, check out our Ghost Central site at Ghosts of NY.

What's New

In February we continue our popular indoor Ghost Walk of Grand Central Station (check schedule for dates and times). And, on Valentine's Day, Tuesday February 14th at 7:30 p.m., we're holding our special Ghosts and Poets of Greenwich Village walk. Discover the romantic poets and ghosts of Greenwich Village and how they go together!

Ghost Sightings: Orbs Caught on Camera at the Merchant's House

Ghosts of New York customer Michael Mak captured this orb in front of the Merchant's House on our Phantom Pub Crawl of January 27th. In subsequent photos taken mere moments after this photo was taken, the orb is gone. Several guides and patrons can attest to seeing orbs and other strange phenomena around the Merchant's House but this is one of the clearest we've ever seen. Is it Gertrude? Or is it Seabury Tredwell himself? Our editor, Andrea Janes, doing double duty as the guide for "Peter Stuyvesant and His Ghostly Friends of the East Village."

Haunt of the Month: Eliza Jumel

Eliza Jumel, the Wrathful Wraith of Washington Heights

Eliza Jumel is a ghost in her own right at the Morris-Jumel Mansion at 65 Jumel Terrace in Washington Heights. Built in 1765 as a summer home for British colonel Roger Morris and his wife, the Morris-Jumel Mansion is the oldest remaining house in Manhattan. It served as George Washington's headquarters in September and October 1776 during the American Revolutionary War.

Eliza Jumel, former mistress of the mansion, has been seen wandering the house in a purple dress, rapping on walls and windows. Eliza and Stephen Jumel took control of the house in 1810. Their marriage was quite tumultuous, as Eliza was supposedly having an affair with Aaron Burr. In 1832, Stephen met his death as he mysteriously fell on a pitchfork. Without wasting any time, Eliza married Aaron Burr. Eliza divorced Burr three years later for still playing around at age eighty. Burr died not long after, and Eliza's mental health deteriorated because of Alzheimer's.

The hauntings began soon after her death in 1865, as Eliza was allegedly seen wandering about the property in a white dress and producing spine-tingling noises. When a psychic went to the mansion and purportedly summoned the spirit of Stephen Jumel, the spirit said that he was murdered and buried alive. In 1964, Eliza, wearing a violet dress, supposedly appeared to some schoolchildren and yelled at them to "shut up!"

Classic Ghost Story of the Month: The Ghost in Love

By P'ou Song-lin

P'ou Song-lin was a Qing Dynasty Chinese writer, best known as the author of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. He lived between 1640 and 1715.

On the 15th day of the First Moon, in the second year of the period of "Renewed Principles," the streets of the town of the Eastern Lake were thronged with people who were strolling about.

At the setting of the sun every shop was brightly lit up; processions of people moved hither and thither; strings of boys were carrying lanterns of every form and color; whole families passed, every member of whom, young or old, small or big, was holding at the end of a thin bamboo the lighted image of a bird, an animal, or a flower.

Richer ones, several together, were carrying enormous dragons whose luminous wings waved at every motion and whose glaring eyes rolled from right to left. It was the Fête of the Lanterns.

A young man, clothed in a long pale green dress, allowed himself to be pushed about by the crowd; the passers-by bowed to him:

"How is my Lord Li The Peaceful?" "The humble student thanks you; and you, how are you?" "Very well, thanks to your happy influence." "Does the precious student soon pass his second literary examination? "In two months; ignorant that I am. I am idling instead of working." The fête was drawing to a close when Lord Li The Peaceful quitted the main street, and went towards the East Gate, where the house was to be found in which he lived alone. He went farther and farther: the moving lights were rarer; ere long he only saw before him the fire of a white lantern decorated with two red peonies. The paper globe was swinging to the steps of a tiny girl clothed in the blue linen that only slaves wore. The light, behind, showed the elegant silhouette of another woman, this one covered with a long jacket made in a rich pink silk edged with purple.05 by http://www.HorrorMasters.m

As the student drew nearer, the belated walker turned round, showing an oval face and big long eyes, wherein shone a bright speck, cruel and mysterious.

Li The Peaceful slackened his pace, following the two strangers, whose small feet glided silently on the shining flagstones of the street.

He was asking himself how he could begin a conversation, when the mistress turned round again, softly smiled, and in a low, rich voice, said to him:

"Is it not strange that in the advancing night we are following the same road?"

"I owe it to the favor of Heaven," he at once replied; "For I am returning to the East Gate; otherwise I should never have dared to follow you."#$# ~~ #

The conversation, once begun, continued as they walked side by side. The student learned that the pretty walker was called "Double-peony," that she was the daughter of Judge Siu, that she lived out of the city in a garden planted with big trees, on the road to the lake.

On arriving at his house Li The Peaceful insisted that his new friend should enter and take a cup of tea. She hesitated; then the two young people pushed the door, crossed the small yard bordered right and left with walls covered with tiles, and disappeared in the house. . . .

The servant remained under the portal.

Daylight was breaking when the young girl came out again, calling the servant, who was asleep. The next evening she came again, always accompanied by the slave bearing the white lantern with two red peonies. It was the same each day following.

A neighbor who had watched these nocturnal visits was inquisitive enough to climb the wall which separated his yard from that of the lovers, and to wait, hidden in the shade of the house.

At the accustomed hour the street-door, left ajar, opened to let in the visitors.

Once in the courtyard, they were suddenly transformed, their eyes became flaming and red; their faces grew pale; their teeth seemed to lengthen; an icy mist escaped from their lips.

The neighbor did not see any more: terrified, he let himself slide to the ground and ran to his inner room.

The next morning he went to the student and told him what he had seen. The lover was paralyzed with fear: in order to reassure himself he resolved to find out everything be could about his mistress.

He at once went outside the ramparts, on the road to the lake, hoping to find the house of Judge Siu. But at the place he had been told of there was no habitation; on the left, a fallow plain, sown with tombs, went up to the hills; on the right, cultivated fields extended as far as the lake.

However, a small temple was hidden there under big trees. The student had given up all hope; he entered, notwithstanding, into the sacred enclosure, knowing that travellers stayed there sometimes for several weeks.

In the first yard a bonze was passing in his red dress and shaven head; he stopped him.?"Do you know Judge Siu? He has a daughter—"?"Judge Siu's daughter?" asked the priest, astonished "Well—yes—but wait, I will show her to you."?Li The Peaceful felt his heart overflowing with joy; his beloved one was living; he was going to see her by the light of day. He quickly followed his companion.?Passing the first court, they crossed a threshold and found themselves in a yard planted with high pine-trees and bordered by a low pavilion. The bonze, passing in first, pushed a door, and, turning round, said:

"Here is Judge Siu's daughter!"

The other stopped, terrified; on a trestle a heavy black lacquered coffin bore this inscription in golden letters: "Coffin of Double-peony, Judge Siu's daughter."

On the wall was an unfolded painting representing the little maid; a white lantern decorated with two red peonies was hung over it.

"Yes, she has been there for the last two years; her parents, according to the rite, are waiting for a favorable day to bury her."

The student silently turned on his heel and went back, not deigning to reply to the mocking bow of the priest.

Evening arrived; he locked himself in, and, covering his head with his blankets, he waited; sleep came to him only at daybreak.

But he could not cease to think of her whom he no longer saw; his heart beat as if to burst, when in the street he perceived the silhouette of a woman which reminded him of his friend.

At last he was incapable of containing himself any longer; one evening he stationed himself behind the door. After a few minutes there was a knock; he opened the door; it was only the little maid:

"My mistress is in tears; why do you never open the door? I come every evening. If you will follow me, perhaps she will forgive you."

Li The Peaceful, blinded by love, started at once, walking by the light of the white lantern.

The next day the neighbors, seeing that the student's door was open, and that his house was empty, made a declaration to the governor of the town.

The police made an inquest; they collected the evidence of several people who had been watching the nightly visitors the student had received. The bonze of the temple outside the city walls came to say what he knew. The chief of the police went to the road leading to the lake; he crossed the threshold of the little edifice, passed the first yard and at last opened the door of the pavilion.

Everything was in order, but under the lid of the heavy coffin one could see the corner of the long green dress of the student.

In order to do away with evil influences there was a solemn funeral.

Ever since this time, on light clear nights, the passers-by often meet the two lovers entwined together, slowly walking on the road which leads to the lake.

Notice: To unsubscribe, please fill out the form at www.ghostsofny.com. If you have trouble unsubscribing, e-mail drphil@newyorktalksandtalks.com

Publisher: Dr. Philip Ernest Schoenberg, drphil@nycwalks.com

Editor: Andrea Janes — Comments, suggestions, and other stuff send to bourbonandtea@gmail.com