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Gleanings From My Autobiography: Recollections Of Odd Experiences In Out Of The Way Corners Of The Earth During Our World Tour

From: Mrs. Tom Thumb's Autobiography
Creator: Lavinia Warren (author)
Date: December 16, 1906
Publication: New York Tribune Sunday Magazine
Source: Available at selected libraries

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NOTHING in my long career has touched me more deeply than the souvenirs that my friends have pressed upon me. In every quarter of the globe I have received tokens of the kind regard of the many people I have met, and of these none was more curious than the elephant that the King of Benares presented to me in India.

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But more embarrassing was the gift offered to me while we were at New Orleans during my first trip South with Colonel Wood before the war. One day a wealthy plantation owner came aboard our floating theater and, noticing that I paid particular attention to a beautiful mulatto girl who was with his company, he offered her to me in the politest manner possible. "You can have her, Miss Warren," he said, "if you will take her home with you." Of course, I couldn't think of becoming a slaveholder; but the poor girl used to visit me at the hotel in the firm conviction that she was my chattel.

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On this trip and a later one I met many of the men who became famous afterward in the great struggle with the Confederacy. At Richmond, Jefferson Davis attended one of my receptions with his wife and daughters. He was a most chivalrous and kindly gentleman, and I have always looked back to that meeting with pleasure. General Robert E. Lee was also one of my guests at that time; and later on, at Lexington Kentucky, I met Mrs. Lincoln, the President's wife, and her mother. We both laughed merrily when the people remarked the resemblance between us.

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When we were at Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1863 we were the pets of the soldiers who were stationed in the town, and every evening the officers constituted themselves a guard to escort us with drawn sabers to the hall in which we gave our entertainments.

The Soldiers' Pets
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The turmoil of the war rendered accommodations at the hotel very uncertain, and when meal time came the officers used to go down into the kitchen to see that we at least should be well cared for. Often Commodore Nutt would go down with them to help choose the food that we preferred. Many times we had a hearty laugh when he came back to our rooms on the shoulder of one of the officers, his arms piled high with fruit and sweetmeats.

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At Frankfort, Kentucky, during the same period we were terrified, one evening at dinner by the announcement that Morgan, the famous guerrilla leader, was coming. Great excitement prevailed, and many of the guests at the hotel were so afraid that they did not go to bed at all that night. Morgan, however, did not come, and so I missed having any real war experience.

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One Sunday evening after we had returned from church Commodore Nutt, Minnie, the General, and myself were gathered in our room, when some one suggested that we pay a visit to our treasurer, whose apartment was on the same floor but around the corner in the long hall. In those days our dresses were dignified by long trains, which naturally retarded our movements somewhat; but when Minnie stepped out into the hall she challenged me with that spirit of vivacity which always characterized her, calling out, "I'm going to see how quick I can get down the hall."

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She ran along, distancing even the Commodore, and soon reached the corner of the corridor which led to Mr. Bleeker's room. No sooner had she disappeared from our view than we were startled to hear her sweet little voice raise itself in fright.

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"What is the matter, Minnie?" cried the General, as we redoubled our speed.

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You can imagine our terror when on turning the corner we found her white as death, leaning against the wall, unable to utter a single syllable, and saw stalking down the hall a figure draped in white, with outstretched arms and staring eyes. Our cries awakened Mr. Bleeker and several of the other guests, and they opened their doors, rushing into the hall in their night clothes; but the figure had disappeared. Mr. Bleeker called up the manager of the hotel and a search was instituted, without avail.

Unveiling of a Ghost
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The General insisted that we would find an explanation in the morning, and he was right, for it turned out the next day that we had met a somnambulist. The poor man was very ill with consumption and had risen from bed that night while his nurse was taking a short nap. The noise of our cries wakened him, and he was as much shocked as we were to find himself in the hall sparsely clad and surrounded by four screeching, diminutive people such as he had never before seen. In our terror I suppose we did not notice him plunge through the door into his own room, and thus we prepared the way for the mystification of the entire hotel.

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That was the most uncanny experience I ever had, and although I may have been a trifle superstitious before that time I have since held the opinion of General Tom Thumb, who always declared that he would never believe in ghosts until he could put his hand on something and find nothing there. Still, there are many things of this kind for which we can find no explanation.

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