otice, to the
same effect, appeared in the Sunday issue of a leading journal on the
same morning. The news dealers and street-carriers caught up the novelty
instanter, and before noon not a copy of the "Sunday Mercury" could be
bought in any direction. The country issue of the "Sunday Mercury" had
still a larger sale.

On Sunday morning, every sheet in town made some allusion to the Ghost,
and many even went so far as to give the very (supposed) number of the
house favored with his visitations. The result of this enterprising
guess was ludicrous enough, bordering a little, too, upon the serious.
Indignant house-holders rushed down to the "Sunday Mercury" office with
the most amusing wrath, threatening and denouncing the astonished
publishers with all sorts of legal action for their presumed trespass,
when in reality, their paper had designated no place or person at all.
But the grandest demonstration of popular excitement was revealed in
Twenty-seventh street itself. Before noon a considerable portion of the
thoroughfare below Sixth Avenue was blocked up with a dense mass of
people of all ages, sizes, sexes, and nationalities, who had come "to
see the Ghost." A liquor store or two, near by, drove a splendid
"spiritual" business; and by evening "the fun" grew so "fast and
furious" that a whole squad of police had to be employed to keep the
side-walks and even the carriage-way clear. The "Ghost" was shouted for
to make a speech, like any other new celebrity, and old ladies and
gentlemen peering out of upper-story windows were saluted with playful
tokens of regard, such as turnips, eggs of ancient date, and other
things too numerous to mention, from the crowd. Nor was the throng
composed entirely of Gothamites. The surrounding country sent in its
contingent. They came on foot, on horseback, in wagons, and arrayed in
all the costumes known about these parts, since the days of Rip Van
Winkle. Cruikshanks would have made a fortune from his easy sketches of
only a few figures in the scene. And thus the concourse continued for
days together, arriving at early morn and staying there in the street
until "dewy eve."

As a matter of course, there were various explanations of the story
propounded by various people--all wondrously wise in their own conceit.
Some would have it that "the Ghost" was got up by some of the neighbors,
who wished, in this manner, to drive away disreputable occupants; others
insisted that it was the reveng