Frederick Schmidt, of Middle Village is an accomplished ventriloquist. On Tuesday night about midnight he secreted himself in the Lutheran Cemetery on the outskirts of the village and began to shriek Murder! Murder! Oh, spare my life! at the top of a lofty falsetto voice. Justice Louis P. Knickmann and a large crowd of people were attracted to the cemetery and they all concluded it was a ghost.

The justice chased the voice but could not locate the specter and his hair stood on end along with the hair on the head of everybody present. Finally the voice seemed to hover over the crowd and then the justice and the crowd broke for Middle Village on a dead run. The justice cleared a fence six feet high surrounding the cemetery and was not aware of the fact until reminded of it two hours afterward by one who had observed the feat with astonishment. The justice is a large man. Mr. Schmidt has been smiling ever since.