Free Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into Pennsylvania by Bathroom Readers’ Institute Page B

wagons. And about a week later, when the Confederacy was defeated at Gettysburg, the inn acted as a stopping point for the retreating troops.
    The Cashtown Inn has changed hands several times over the past 150 years, and at times, it fell into disrepair. (One owner nearly sold the building to a condo developer.) But in 2006, Jack and Maria Paladino bought the place and restored it as a bed-and-breakfast.
    Haunted Happenings: Employees and visitors often report paranormal activity at the inn. One employee claimed thatan invisible figure pulled her ponytail. Others mentioned a rocking chair that moved by itself, doors that slammed of their own accord, and a Confederate soldier who roamed the hallways and knocked on the door of room #4. One guest said someone mysteriously packed his suitcase, and others heard the faint voices of children playing. For their part, the owners say that their dog and parrot seem to simultaneously follow invisible things with their eyes.
    In December 2007, the Sci-Fi Channel television show Ghost Hunters filmed an episode about the Cashtown Inn. The show’s investigators visit supposedly haunted places and try to expose frauds or find nonparanormal explanations for strange activity. But they couldn’t explain the happenings at the Cashtown Inn. The group stayed overnight there and reported a variety of bizarre occurrences, including a picture frame that turned over on its own and boot steps on the top floor. One of the investigators also noted that, while he was sitting on a sofa, the cushions moved as though an invisible person had sat down next to him.
Bethlehem: Lehigh University’s Linderman Library
    The Ghosts: An unidentified ghost, possibly Lucy Linderman
    The Story: Lucy Packer Linderman died in 1873. In her honor, her wealthy father, Asa Packer, donated $500,000 to Lehigh University to build a library. The original structure went up in 1878, got an addition in 1929, and underwent a renovation between 2005 and 2007.
    Haunted Happenings: An unidentified ghost (whom some claim is Lucy Linderman herself) reportedly likes to haunt the library and tease the people who work there. One of the library’s assistants, Gayle Nesbeth, told a story of going to the library’s basement and finding about 150 magazines pulledoff of their shelves and restacked in an artful design. Some suspected a student prankster, but the doors were locked when Nesbeth went into the basement. She said, “The designs were just beautiful, like an architect had done them . . . I would love to know who did it if it wasn’t a ghost because it must have taken hours to complete.”
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    Did You Know?
    If western Pennsylvanians had gotten their way in the years before the American Revolution, there would have been 14 colonies. Settlers in Pennsylvania’s western frontier—and in most of what’s now West Virginia, the Maryland panhandle, and parts of eastern Kentucky—didn’t think the government in the urban East empathized with their rural needs. So they suggested creating their own colony. In 1775, they petitioned the Second Continental Congress to become a colony called Westsylvania. But with the colonies on the verge of a revolution, the congress decided to ignore them. For the next several years, Westsylvanian supporters refused to be silenced, but in 1782, a Pittsburgh lawyer—and advocate of a strong national government—went to the Pennsylvania general assembly with his own legislation: make it an act of treason for citizens of an existing colony to petition for a new state. It worked; the threat of treason quashed the Westsylvania movement and the areas remained part of their original colonies.

The Weather Prophet
    You’ve seen it on the news and even in that Bill Murray movie: Every year, groundhog Punxsutawney Phil looks for his shadow. If he sees it, we’ll have six more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t, spring is sure to come early—or so