1961-03-25 — Page 18

Page

Does Joe Baldwin's ghost still wander the tracks searching for its head?

THE legend of the A worker on the railroad line

Maco ghost was born when Joe Baldwin died.

-now called the Atlantic Coast Line has this to say:

"When I was a very young boy, I remembered my father saying the lights appeared re- gularly, weaving silently near the trestle over Hood's Creek.

Joe was a railroad conductor 100 years ago before trains were hitched by modern coupl- ings. In those days trainmen ghost light one night while re- "Some years later, I saw the had to stand between cars while turning home from a fishing trip connecting and disconnecting with two neighbourhood them. The cars were joined It seemed to be weaving along with chains and pins,

directly over the track, about

boys.

One day in 1867, hear five feet from the ground. Farmer's Turnout now Maco, North Carolina-Joe was con- necting a train. Suddenly the train lurched backward.

Joe was crushed to death.

But in his hand was his faith- ful lantern, still burning eerily in the Carolina moonlight.

Weeks after the tragedy, a mysterious light appeared along-

When a second light appeared, we took off across a cornpatch like lightning""

The ghostly light caused one villager to hire a detective to visit the place, all the way from Washington.

Comment

;

for

official-a vet-

One railroad eran of 40 years railroading- has seen the light from the cab of his locomotive. He knows of times when trains have stopped because of the weaving lanterns.

One time, he and his engineer began to brake the train upon disappeared. seeing the lights. But the lights

Scoffers

Scoffers explain that the lights are nothing but the reflection of automobile lights from a nearby highway. But there were no automobiles in 1867.

Also, the railroad has been rerouted with no apparent effects on "Joe Baldwin's" little game.

Nor does the weather or sea- sons seem to be connected with,

But Joe Baldwin was too fast the lights. Sometimes they side the tracks. The popular for the sleuth, whose only vanish for months at a time, story was that Conductor Blad- official comment was that the only to reappear several nights win, decapitated, took nightly lights were not a jack-o-lantern. in rapid succession. walks in search of his missing head.

Another

Six years later, a second light appeared. The pair of them would meet, going in opposite directions. Some said that Joe's. head was out looking for his body-and vice versa.

Nothing short of the 1886 earthquake could call 'a tem- porary halt to Baldwin's track- walking habits. After that they stopped for a while,

How Amaze Your TO FRIENDS

1.TIE ONE END OF A 15-* INCH-LONG BLACK THREAD. TO THE TIP OF A BLACK

UMBRELLA.2.PUT FREE

3.TIE

THREAD

END THROUGH A LONG NEEDLE AND PULL THREAD THROUGH A SMALL ORANGE

AROUND A

PIN AND BURY

PIN IN

ORANGE TO HOLD THREAD IN POSITION

NEEDLE

PIN

THREAD

4.PRACTICE ROLLING THE ORANGE AROUND THE RIM

OF THE UMBRELLA... (IF THREAD IS TOOLONG, TAKE UP SLACK AT TIP OF UMBRELLA)

༤

A machine gun detachment from nearby Fort Bragg at Fayetteville was set up to solve or blow holes in the mystery. They did neither.

The mystery of the Maco ghost is as far from solution today as it was in the 1860's.

-Steve Libby

STAMP NEWS *

NDER

the Nanking

open trade with Chină which had been sought for more than 200 years.

Five treaty ports were opened to foreign trade and residence: Amoy, Canton, Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai.

es-

British consulates were tablished in each of the treaty ports, the consular officers act- ing as postal agents.

•

Hong-

With the added trading facili- ties in these five ports kong's commerce flourished, and postal traffic rapidly increased.

"without

been

some

A receiving office fee or postage" had established at Canton for years; it had been closed in 1839 when, with an Anglo-Chinese war impending, British subjects withdrew to Macao.

Mail matter received at the consular postal agencies was for- warded to the Hongkong post office for onward transmission.

To cope

with the increased work a pair of smaller hand stamps were received from Lon- don in September, 1844: the new PAID stamp was used in con- junction with the new date stamp.

PAID

AT

SONG KONG

HONG TONG

20 OC 1857

other; two alre:dy four were in general 1856.

all

in use;

use until

stamp

in

A rectangular PAID was additionally provided 1846; this was also used in con- junction with the

two date the stamps.

These two hand stamps were

concurrently with

used

The engineer, threw on the brakes and the lights disappeared.

You can make your own fan

TERE is an easy fan to make. All you will need is a circle of cardboard as large as you wish your fan to be, and a straight stick, pencil, or ruler, for | the handle.

a

Cut the round piece of card board by using a plate or. pot lid for a pattern. With your crayons decorate your fan by drawing flowers all over it. Or,1 you could cut flowers from seed catalogue to paste on

been After your fan has decorated, .lace the handle through short slits you cut in. the cardboard, Let the handle* reach all the way to the centre of the fan; this makes the --fan stronger and keeps it from bend- ing when in use.

Alma C. Denny

INSERT STICK `IN SLITS OF FAN FOR HANDLE

ZOO'S WHO WHO

WELL

THE AFRICAN

BLACK RHINOCEROS............

ELOGS OFTICK: BIRDS SERVE

THE RHINOS AS SENTINELS

AND THEY PICK TICKS. OFF HIS BACK AND WARN HIM OF APPROACHING DANGER-

THERE ARE FIVE KINDS OF RHINOCEROS IN THE WORLD TO DAY.. (IN AFRICA, THE BLACK AND WHITE,)IN ASIA, THE GREAT INDIAN, THE JAVAN, AND THE SUMATRAN. FOSSIL REMAINS INDICATE THAT THE EARTH WAS INHABITED BY. MÁNY VARIETIES IN PREHISTORIC TIMES THE WHITE RIKINO, THE LARG- EST OF ALL IS SECOND IN SIZE TO THE ELEPHANT

THE INDIAN RHINOIS.. THE BEST LIVING EX- AUPLE OF WHAT PRES HISTORIC ANIMALS

LOOKED LIKE,

NOW DIM THE LIGHTS AND YOU ÄRE READY TO AMAZE YOUR FRIENDS

100

THE FADING JOYS OF WINTER

-Credit card to Roy Fay, Hongkong.

THY