1 00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:11,320 Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck, 2 00:00:11,360 --> 00:00:15,000 Speaker 1: there's Terry. Let's get reading. Yeah, this year we decided 3 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:18,439 Speaker 1: to do a little shorty Halloween too, because you know, 4 00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:21,960 Speaker 1: we did our short stuff on Ambrose Beers started poking 5 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:25,440 Speaker 1: around his short stories, and he wrote some super short 6 00:00:25,440 --> 00:00:28,880 Speaker 1: ones that are kind of tailor made for this. I think. Yeah, 7 00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:32,280 Speaker 1: it's almost like he was born in the nineteenth century 8 00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:34,519 Speaker 1: thinking one day, Josh and Chuck are going to have 9 00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:37,920 Speaker 1: short stuff. I want to give them something to work with. Maybe, 10 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:41,800 Speaker 1: so so to prepare everyone for our Halloween Spooktacular, which 11 00:00:41,800 --> 00:00:45,680 Speaker 1: will be out tomorrow. We wanted to do this, right, Chuck, 12 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:49,160 Speaker 1: you want to start? Uh? Yeah, what's um? Let's start 13 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:51,800 Speaker 1: with the story One Summer Night. This is a good one. 14 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:54,800 Speaker 1: This is a good one. Here we go, One Summer 15 00:00:54,920 --> 00:01:00,720 Speaker 1: Night by Ambrose Beers. The fact that Henry Armstrong was 16 00:01:00,760 --> 00:01:03,440 Speaker 1: buried did not seem to him to prove that he 17 00:01:03,520 --> 00:01:06,080 Speaker 1: was dead. He had always been a hard man to 18 00:01:06,120 --> 00:01:10,039 Speaker 1: convince that he really was buried. The testimony of his 19 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:14,640 Speaker 1: senses compelled him to admit his posture flat upon his back, 20 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:17,679 Speaker 1: with his hands crossed upon his stomach and tied was 21 00:01:17,760 --> 00:01:21,760 Speaker 1: something that he easily broke without profitably altering the situation. 22 00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:26,120 Speaker 1: The strict confinement of his entire person, the black darkness 23 00:01:26,120 --> 00:01:31,120 Speaker 1: and profound silence, made a body of evidence impossible to controvert, 24 00:01:31,959 --> 00:01:37,640 Speaker 1: and he had accepted it without Cavill Henry Cavill, but dead. No, 25 00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:42,880 Speaker 1: he was only very very ill. He had withal the 26 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:47,120 Speaker 1: invalid's apathy, and did not greatly concern himself about the 27 00:01:47,200 --> 00:01:50,760 Speaker 1: uncommon fate that had been allotted to him. No philosopher, 28 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:54,440 Speaker 1: was he just a plain, commonplace person, gifted for the 29 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:58,360 Speaker 1: time being with a pathological indifference the organ that he 30 00:01:58,400 --> 00:02:03,320 Speaker 1: feared consequences with his torpid so with no particular apprehension 31 00:02:03,520 --> 00:02:06,760 Speaker 1: for his immediate future, he fell asleep and all was 32 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:09,440 Speaker 1: peace with Henry Armstrong. Before we go on here, Chuck, 33 00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:10,960 Speaker 1: I just want to point out, so this man has 34 00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:15,240 Speaker 1: come to his senses in a coffin, been like, well, 35 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:17,800 Speaker 1: I guess I'm dead, and then went to sleep. But 36 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:22,720 Speaker 1: then then he went to sleep. That's some mellow gold totally. 37 00:02:23,160 --> 00:02:26,359 Speaker 1: You want me to pick up here, please, But something 38 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:29,720 Speaker 1: was going on overhead. There was a dark summer night 39 00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:34,920 Speaker 1: shot through with in frequent shimmers of lightning silently firing 40 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:39,320 Speaker 1: a cloud lying low in the west, and pretending a storm. 41 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:43,760 Speaker 1: These brief, stammering illuminations brought out, with ghastly distinctness the 42 00:02:43,919 --> 00:02:47,440 Speaker 1: monuments and headstones of the cemetery, and seemed to set 43 00:02:47,480 --> 00:02:50,480 Speaker 1: them dancing. It was not a night in which any 44 00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:54,120 Speaker 1: credible witness was likely to be straying about a cemetery, 45 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:56,800 Speaker 1: so the three men who were there digging into the 46 00:02:56,800 --> 00:03:01,600 Speaker 1: grave of Henry Armstrong felt reasonably secure. Two of them 47 00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:04,960 Speaker 1: were young students from a medical college a few miles away. 48 00:03:05,320 --> 00:03:08,960 Speaker 1: The third was a gigantic man known as Jess. For 49 00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:12,160 Speaker 1: many years, Jess had been employed about the cemetery as 50 00:03:12,240 --> 00:03:14,800 Speaker 1: a man of all work, and it was his favorite 51 00:03:14,840 --> 00:03:18,600 Speaker 1: pleasantry that he knew every soul in the place. From 52 00:03:18,600 --> 00:03:21,000 Speaker 1: the nature of what he was now doing, it was 53 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:24,720 Speaker 1: inferable that the place was not so populous as this 54 00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:29,200 Speaker 1: register may have shown it to be. Back to you, Charles, 55 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:33,160 Speaker 1: back to you outside the wall, at the part of 56 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:36,240 Speaker 1: the grounds farthest from the public road, or a horse 57 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:39,960 Speaker 1: in a light wagon waiting. The work of excavation was 58 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:43,080 Speaker 1: not difficult. The earth with which the grave had been 59 00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:47,080 Speaker 1: loosely filled a few hours before, offered little resistance and 60 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:50,240 Speaker 1: was soon thrown out. So they're Grave Robin here, right. 61 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:52,360 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it ties him very nice to do our 62 00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:56,040 Speaker 1: episode on Grave Robins. Right. Removal of the casket from 63 00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:59,360 Speaker 1: its box was less easy, but it was taken out 64 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:03,280 Speaker 1: where it was a prerequisite of Jess, who carefully unscrewed 65 00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:06,240 Speaker 1: the cover and laid it aside, exposing the body in 66 00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:09,920 Speaker 1: black trousers and white shirt. At that instant, the air 67 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:14,200 Speaker 1: sprang to flame. A cracking shock of thunder shook the 68 00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:21,800 Speaker 1: stunned world, and Henry Armstrong tranquility sat up with inarticulate cries. 69 00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:24,520 Speaker 1: The men fled in terror, each in a different direction, 70 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:27,880 Speaker 1: for nothing on earth could Two of them had been 71 00:04:27,880 --> 00:04:32,560 Speaker 1: persuaded to return, but Jess was of another breed. In 72 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:35,599 Speaker 1: the gray of the morning, the two students, pallid and 73 00:04:35,640 --> 00:04:39,200 Speaker 1: haggard from anxiety and with the terror of their adventure 74 00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:43,799 Speaker 1: still beating tumultuously in their blood, met at the medical college. 75 00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:47,960 Speaker 1: You saw it, cried one god, Yes, what are we 76 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:51,000 Speaker 1: to do? They went around to the rear of the building, 77 00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:53,919 Speaker 1: where they saw a horse attached to a light wagon 78 00:04:54,400 --> 00:04:56,599 Speaker 1: hitched to a gate post near the door of the 79 00:04:56,640 --> 00:05:01,159 Speaker 1: dissecting room. Mechanically. They entered the room. On a bench 80 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:06,480 Speaker 1: in the obscurity sat Jess. He rose, grinning. I'm waiting 81 00:05:06,520 --> 00:05:09,600 Speaker 1: for my pay, he said. Stretched naked on a long 82 00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:13,840 Speaker 1: table lay the body of Henry Armstrong, the head defiled 83 00:05:13,839 --> 00:05:21,520 Speaker 1: with blood and clay from a blow with a spade. Wow, 84 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:24,560 Speaker 1: so jest to care business? Huh he did? He said, Oh, 85 00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:26,680 Speaker 1: you're gonna sit up right now while I'm trying to 86 00:05:26,920 --> 00:05:28,920 Speaker 1: make some money. No, we're not going to have that. 87 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:32,800 Speaker 1: We're going to put you back in the grave. Well 88 00:05:32,839 --> 00:05:35,080 Speaker 1: that was great, but we have more to come. Everyone. 89 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:37,360 Speaker 1: We have one more short story from the great Ambrose 90 00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:58,280 Speaker 1: Beers that we will read after these commercial messages. All right, 91 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:01,839 Speaker 1: So Chuck, we're gonna do president a hanging it. Okay, 92 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:08,160 Speaker 1: I'm gonna start this one, all right. An old man 93 00:06:08,279 --> 00:06:12,800 Speaker 1: named Daniel Baker, living near Lebanon, Iowa, was suspected by 94 00:06:12,839 --> 00:06:16,320 Speaker 1: his neighbors of having murdered a peddler who had obtained 95 00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:19,599 Speaker 1: permission to pass the night at his house. This was 96 00:06:19,640 --> 00:06:22,839 Speaker 1: an eighteen fifty three when peddling was more common in 97 00:06:22,880 --> 00:06:25,919 Speaker 1: the western country than it is now and was attended 98 00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:29,960 Speaker 1: with considerable danger. The peddler with his pack, traversed the 99 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:33,520 Speaker 1: country by all manner of lonely roads, and was compelled 100 00:06:33,560 --> 00:06:37,599 Speaker 1: to rely upon the country people for hospitality. This brought 101 00:06:37,680 --> 00:06:40,880 Speaker 1: him into relation with queer characters, some of whom were 102 00:06:40,920 --> 00:06:43,919 Speaker 1: not altogether scrupulous in their methods of making a living, 103 00:06:44,440 --> 00:06:48,520 Speaker 1: murder being an acceptable means to that end. It occasionally 104 00:06:48,520 --> 00:06:51,760 Speaker 1: occurred that a peddler with diminished pack and swollen purse 105 00:06:52,200 --> 00:06:55,239 Speaker 1: would be traced to the lonely dwelling of some rough character, 106 00:06:55,880 --> 00:06:59,640 Speaker 1: and never could be traced beyond. This was so in 107 00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:02,719 Speaker 1: the case of old man Baker, as he was always called. 108 00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:06,560 Speaker 1: Such names are given in the western settlements only to 109 00:07:06,720 --> 00:07:10,480 Speaker 1: elderly persons who are not esteemed to the general disrepute 110 00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:14,040 Speaker 1: of social and worth has affixed the special reproach of age. 111 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:17,320 Speaker 1: A peddler came to his house and none went away, 112 00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:22,160 Speaker 1: and that is all that anybody knew. All right, So 113 00:07:22,200 --> 00:07:25,920 Speaker 1: we're talking about peddler's being murdered on the road. I 114 00:07:25,960 --> 00:07:30,440 Speaker 1: have to say, Ambrose beerst makes me look succinct. Yeah, 115 00:07:30,440 --> 00:07:33,320 Speaker 1: he can write a paragraph about like a lightning bolt 116 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:38,680 Speaker 1: flashing the sky in parentheses. All right, here we go. 117 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:42,520 Speaker 1: Seven years later, the Reverend Mr Cummings, a Baptist minister 118 00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:45,600 Speaker 1: well known in that part of the country, was driving 119 00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:48,640 Speaker 1: by Baker's farm one night. It was not very dark. 120 00:07:49,320 --> 00:07:51,560 Speaker 1: There was a bit of moon somewhere above the light 121 00:07:51,680 --> 00:07:55,000 Speaker 1: veil of mists that lay along the earth. Mr Cummings, 122 00:07:55,040 --> 00:07:57,840 Speaker 1: who was at all times a cheerful person, was whistling 123 00:07:57,840 --> 00:08:00,560 Speaker 1: a tune which he would occasionally enter up to speak 124 00:08:00,560 --> 00:08:05,040 Speaker 1: a word, a friendly encouragement to his horse. Get on, boy, 125 00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:10,040 Speaker 1: like that, that's friendly. As he came to a little 126 00:08:10,040 --> 00:08:12,200 Speaker 1: bridge across the dry ravine, he saw the figure of 127 00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:15,680 Speaker 1: a man standing upon it, clearly outlined against the gray 128 00:08:15,720 --> 00:08:19,239 Speaker 1: background of a misty forest. The man had something strapped 129 00:08:19,240 --> 00:08:23,000 Speaker 1: on his back and carried a heavy stick, obviously an 130 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:28,240 Speaker 1: itinerant peddler. His attitude had in it a suggestion of abstraction, 131 00:08:28,920 --> 00:08:32,400 Speaker 1: like that of a sleepwalker. Mr Cummings reined in his 132 00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:35,600 Speaker 1: horse when he arrived in front of him, gave him 133 00:08:35,600 --> 00:08:38,800 Speaker 1: a pleasant salutation and invited him to a seat in 134 00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:44,080 Speaker 1: his vehicle. If you're going my way, he added. The 135 00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:46,680 Speaker 1: man raised his head, looked him full in the face, 136 00:08:47,160 --> 00:08:51,160 Speaker 1: but neither answered nor made any further movement. The minister, 137 00:08:51,640 --> 00:08:56,680 Speaker 1: with good natured persistence, repeated his invitation. At this the 138 00:08:56,720 --> 00:08:59,400 Speaker 1: man threw his right hand forward from his side and 139 00:08:59,480 --> 00:09:01,720 Speaker 1: pointed word. As he stood on the extreme edge of 140 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:05,480 Speaker 1: the bridge. Mr Cummings looked past him over into the ravine, 141 00:09:05,800 --> 00:09:09,079 Speaker 1: saw nothing unusual, and withdrew his eyes to address the 142 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:15,319 Speaker 1: man again. He had disappeared. Wow, I think you can 143 00:09:15,320 --> 00:09:19,280 Speaker 1: take his home. Okay. The horse, which all this time 144 00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:23,000 Speaker 1: had been uncommonly restless, gave at the same moment a 145 00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:26,680 Speaker 1: snort of terror and started to run away. Before he 146 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:29,480 Speaker 1: had regained control of the animal, the minister was at 147 00:09:29,520 --> 00:09:32,120 Speaker 1: the crest of the hill, a hundred yards along it's 148 00:09:32,120 --> 00:09:35,120 Speaker 1: like a football field. He looked back and saw the 149 00:09:35,160 --> 00:09:37,800 Speaker 1: figure again, at the same place and in the same 150 00:09:37,840 --> 00:09:40,320 Speaker 1: attitude as when he had first observed it on the 151 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:43,920 Speaker 1: twenty yard line. Then, for the first time, he was 152 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:47,320 Speaker 1: conscious of a sense of the supernatural, and drove home 153 00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:51,160 Speaker 1: as rapidly as his willing horse would go on. Arriving 154 00:09:51,200 --> 00:09:54,640 Speaker 1: at home, he related his adventure to his family, and 155 00:09:54,760 --> 00:09:58,400 Speaker 1: early the next morning, accompanied by two neighbors, John White 156 00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:01,800 Speaker 1: Corwell and Abner Ray, Sir, surprised they didn't talk about 157 00:10:01,840 --> 00:10:05,560 Speaker 1: those guys here, returned to the spot, they found the 158 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:09,800 Speaker 1: body of old man Baker hanging by the neck from 159 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:13,280 Speaker 1: one of the beams of the bridge. Immediately beneath the 160 00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:18,000 Speaker 1: spot where the apparition had stood. A thick coating of dust, 161 00:10:18,480 --> 00:10:21,760 Speaker 1: slightly dampened by the mist, covered the floor of the bridge, 162 00:10:22,240 --> 00:10:25,080 Speaker 1: but the only footprints were those of Mr Cunning's horse. 163 00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:30,079 Speaker 1: In taking down the body, the men disturbed the loose, 164 00:10:30,160 --> 00:10:34,559 Speaker 1: freeable earth of the slope below it, disclosing human bones 165 00:10:35,040 --> 00:10:38,400 Speaker 1: already nearly uncovered by the action of water and frost. 166 00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:42,760 Speaker 1: They were identified as those of the lost peddler at 167 00:10:42,760 --> 00:10:46,360 Speaker 1: the double inquest. The coroner's jury found that Daniel Baker 168 00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:50,440 Speaker 1: died by his own hand while suffering from temporary insanity, 169 00:10:50,679 --> 00:10:54,680 Speaker 1: and that Samuel Morritts was murdered by some person or 170 00:10:54,840 --> 00:11:03,800 Speaker 1: persons to the jury unknown. The end one of the 171 00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:07,960 Speaker 1: least satisfying endings of any short story, Samuel Moritz. They 172 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:11,000 Speaker 1: didn't even name the guy until that point. Oh yeah, 173 00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:14,160 Speaker 1: I thought that was great. I mean, I love Ambrose 174 00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:16,840 Speaker 1: Beers for some reasons, but not for that reason, you 175 00:11:16,840 --> 00:11:18,240 Speaker 1: know what I mean, to get the feeling that like 176 00:11:18,400 --> 00:11:20,640 Speaker 1: at the end of that book, he's just like, face 177 00:11:20,720 --> 00:11:25,319 Speaker 1: down in a like a methodone torpor right, and a 178 00:11:25,480 --> 00:11:30,040 Speaker 1: trough of whiskey. Well, Chuck, I think that was short stuff. Huh, 179 00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:33,880 Speaker 1: that's right, Special Super Short Halloween Edition. The point of 180 00:11:33,880 --> 00:11:36,440 Speaker 1: this is to get your prime for tomorrow's spectacular. So 181 00:11:36,520 --> 00:11:39,640 Speaker 1: don't miss it, everybody. And because I said don't miss 182 00:11:39,640 --> 00:11:46,959 Speaker 1: it everybody, that means short Stuff is Stuff you should know. 183 00:11:47,080 --> 00:11:49,680 Speaker 1: Is a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For 184 00:11:49,760 --> 00:11:52,560 Speaker 1: more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, 185 00:11:52,640 --> 00:11:55,440 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.