Gettysburg's ghosts By Allyson Davis Staff Reporter amd367@psu.edu The Central Pennsylvania area is filled with haunted houses, haunted hayrides, and mystical mazes for the Halloween season. Jason's Woods in Lancaster, along with Field of Screams, are just a couple of places where people fulfill their desires to be scared. But what about going to really haunted places with people who have experienced paranormal activities? These are the ghost tours you can find in Gettysburg. They have run all summer and now into fall and their Halloween ghost tours are the ones worth seeing. A group of students and I took the Midnight Ghost Tour on Friday, Oct 28. This tour started in a nearby parking lot next to a brick wall. The story here was that a young lady loved to walk the wall and used to talk about how she loved Gettysburg and how she wished she could stay forever. Today, it is said that a ghostly figure of a young girl walks that very wall. Apparently, The graves of Union and Confederate soldiers may offer more than they appear. Often people on the haunted tour feel hands on their shoulders. she is planning on staying forever. The group is led into a cemetery. In this cemetery lies Union and Confederate Soldiers. There have been stories of soldiers walking the cemetery in search of their loved ones. After the cemetery tour, the group was led to the outside of the Haunted Orphanage. The orphanage was started after the Civil War, and this is where orphaned children of Union families went. One caretaker of the orphanage was very evil. There are stories about how she would chain the children to the wooden fence outside the orphanage on a hot summers day. The children would get no food or water and would be left there for days. Wild dogs would run to the fence and lick the sweat off the children. The Haunted Orphanage was started after the civil war and was home to children of Union families. Evil spirits are said to still haunt it. Other stories shared were how she would lock the children in the outhouse for days without food or water. There was a room in the orphanage where she would lock all the children without food, water, or light. Another horrifying story was about a 15- year-old girl who became pregnant. When it was time for the baby to be due, the caretaker cut open the expecting mother, took the young fetus out, and left them both to die. This woman was very evil, and would continue to torture the children that stayed there Entertainment Photos by Allyson Davis/ The Capital Times until they were able to leave or until they died. When walking into the orphanage, a person feels great sadness. When I walked down the dark staircase I was overwhelmed with sadness, so much to a point where I wanted to cry. At the bottom of the staircase a woman, who is a medium, met the group. This woman speaks with the dead and can sense paranormal energy. She told us stories about the young children that were beaten and tortured. She told us their spirits were still very much alive in the house. We were able to take pictures and she explained the different things we may find in them. In some pictures you may see orbs, which is a ball of paranormal energy. In a lot of the pictures I took there are tons of orbs. I would also like to point out that the camera I used was digital so there wasn't anything on film that would make the orbs show up randomly. The medium explained that the The Capital Times, November 7, 2005 Online dating communities DATING cont'd from 10 connected on the web through friendster.com. Joining the site allows a person to do things such as stay in touch with friends, find and reconnect with old friends, be reminded of friends' birthdays, and browse the profiles of other people with similar interests. The site, which has received rave reviews from popular media sources like Time, Newsweek, Esquire, Wired, Vanity Fair, CNN, and The Boston Globe, is praised for its easy access and the connections it builds between students. Students also have the ability to turn to Internet dating websites if they are seeking more than just a friendship. A quarter billion people formed relationships thanks to the website Match.com. The site boasts they have inspired twice as many marriages as any other site. While many students might not be looking for something quite so long term, the site does promote numerous singles that are only looking for short-term relationships. There is a fee for the site depending on the length of service desired, but it is free to browse through the singles and create a your own profile. Once a membership is obtained, a person gains the ability to write to children that died there are in a much happier place where they can't be harmed. Occasionally, she said children like to come out and play and every now and then a guest on the tour may experience the feeling of someone touching them or hear a child's laugh. None of these other singles and see additional photos that may be posted on their profile. Another dating website is eHarmony.com, which boasts a profile based on 29 dimensions the site deems necessary for a good, healthy relationship. To begin your membership on the site, which also requires a fee based on length of service, you must first answer a 500 question profile. The site will then eliminate 99.7% of people they determine to be people that are not a good match for you. From there, applicants can look at profiles of those that do match them and have the ability to contact those that they are interested in. Freshman Lindsay Cotton said, "I think that internet dating could possibly work for teens, but I tend to be a bit skeptical. When you see the commercials for dating services you typically see adults and I think that the site works better for adults. I feel this way because the site appeals to those who are looking for longer term relationships and most teens aren't always looking for that." So whether you are looking for a friendship, or a little something more, before you head out on another disastrous blind date or spend another Saturday alone, try the World Wide Web. occurred on our tour, but she shared stories where they did. So, if you are looking to fulfill your desires to be scared and aren't in the mood for anything fake or made up, take a ghost tour of Gettysburg. It is sure to keep you well entertained and make you wonder if there are real ghosts:
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