The Haunted House
Curious affair reported from Ronquerolles.
The special correspondent of “Le Journal,” writing from Clermont, says: – There is no doubt that the hamlet of Ronquerolles, near Clermont-de-l’Oise, is fast becoming a place of pilgrimage for spirits and amateur detectives. This place possesses a haunted house. But this vagabond spirit has not take up his abode in a comfortable villa, provided with “great masters” and family plate, as is genearlly the case. Instead, he has preferred to instal himself in the cottage where Madame Douvry, a modest washerwoman washes the linen of the Canton in order to feed her four children.
The house consists solely of a room and a loft. Knowing that the Douvry family live in the room, the spirit has taken up his abode in the loft, and for the last three weeks he comes back every evening to th egreat consternation of the rightful owner, and the landlord, Monsieur Rety, who lives in a neighbouring house.
The spirit manifests his presence from 9 o’clock in the evening till one in the morning. He begins by making sounds on the floor as if playing the piano like a virtuoso; then when he has finished his scales, he scratches the wood for a long while, just like a cat scratching with his paws.
The gendarmes from Clermont came to see. Three nights after each other an Adjutant and four men slept in the house of Madame Douvry. The first night the Brigadier remarked to the Adjutant Avarre that they should clear out the loft, to which the Adjutant agreed. The hay was then cleared out, and the Brigadier went to live in the loft, a torch in his hand, while the Adjutant was also installed beside him, and the men mountedguard around the house.
The serenade began. “Something is happening under my feet,” said the Brigadier, while the Adjutant thought it was overhead.
One evening as the gendarmes were getting ready to leave, and as the Adjutant was saluting Madame Douvry, the ghost, which likes to show its spirituality sometimes, began to speak, and in a cadaverous voice it uttered the sounds “Ta g!” Then it began to tap as if playing the piano.
Since then the ghost manifests itself rather irregularly, but the other night it made a great row. At the same time Madame Duvey, ceasing to be frightened, is getting used to her visitor, and says she doesn’t mind harbouring it so long as it is not wicked.
But this is how the affair is getting serious. Some amateur detectives come every night around the haunted house in order to surprise the ghost. The other night a superintendent from the College of Clermont, aided by police literature, introduced himself into Madame Douvry’s courtyard for the purpose of catching the ghost, while that same evening a workman from the village installed himself near the house with the same intent. “There is the ghost,” said the workman, on hearing the other fellow moving in the dark, while the university man exclaimed, “Oh, hold on, I’ve got him,” and jumping one upon the other, like the Homeric heroes, these two “spirits” delivered a certain number of blows, of which their own bodies became the victims!
Evening Herald (Dublin), 26th November 1925.
A Patriotic Ghost.
“Marseillaise” sung to police.
Paris, Wednesday.
For weeks now, the little village of Ronquerolles, in the Oise Department, has been the scene of a comedy which has continued far longer than practical jokes of such a nature generally do.
A washerwoman, Madame Douvry, living in a tiny house consisting of one room downstairs and an uninhabited attic upstairs, declares that her nights have been rendered miserable by the rappings of a spirit. the cottage is built in between two other buildings, and her ordinary brick walls of the usual thickness, presenting no secret nooks where a practical joker might be concealed.
Neighbours who were called in were able to attest to Mme. Douvry’s good faith. Every night she and her children were kept awake by the mysterious tappings, the “spirit” apparently answering with one blow for “Yes” and two for “No.” In this manner it expressed its dislike of Mme. Douvry and its wish that she should leave the house. Finally, Mme. Douvry called in the police.
Representatives of the law were posted in the attic and the courtyard, as well as in the room downstairs, but this made no difference to the merry antics of the unseen inhabitant. It even succeeded in insulting one of the gendarmes in good French, being in too much of a hurry to reply to wait for the customary procedure of knocks on the ceiling.
During the past week nothing more had been heard of this “most bewildering ghost,” when suddenly, at six o’clock in the morning, it again renewed its activities. The neighbours were called in, and one of them proceeded to go through a series of tests, asking the “spirit” to rap out the first letter of his name. Six knocks were given, presumably indicating “E.” The unseen visitor then obligingly knocked at different points of the wall indicated.
On arrival of a body of police, it rose nobly to the occasion, rapping out the “Marseillaise” with great precision. The gendarmes, determined this time to make a capture, turned the house upside down, and dug a hole six feet deep in the courtyard, all to no purpose.
Meanwhile the Mayor of Ronquerolles is receiving so many letters from self-styled spiritists, offering their services and inventions, that the current business of the village is being held up.
Reuter.
Aberdeen Press and Journal, 4th December 1925.
Disrespectful Ghost.
Mocks police who are after him.
For some time past the police and population of Ronquerolles have been in a ferment about the activities of a “ghost” which haunts the cottage of the widow Douvry (says the Paris correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph”). Up to now the spirit has confined his mischief to knocking on walls and ceilings and talking disrespectfully to the police who hunted him.
The strangest thing about the affair is that the haunted house is a very small place of only one storey, save for a tiny space between slates and ceiling, in which it is impossible to believe a man could hide without being quickly discovered. Yet night after night, with neighbours sitting up with her, and the police keeping a careful watch around the house, Mme. Douvry has been disturbed by repeated knocking. The knockings have continued even when independent observers have occupied the space under the slates.
Yesterday a spiritualist who had been called in asked the ghost to knock if he was present. The response was a loud hammering on the wall, which, by the way, is a solid structure of brick. On being told that his hunters were prepared to shoot at sight, the spirit laughed and said: “Fire away, you will never get me.” He or it passed a still more severe test when a lieutenant of police, placing his hand on the wall, said “Knock where my hand is,” and the thud that followed was quite accurately placed.
A spiritualist then said: “Tell me the first letter of my Christian name.” This was spelt out without hesitation. Police enquiries are continuing, and the general public is doing voluntary guard duty, but the only result up to now has been that two of the volunteers have thrashed each other, each believing that the other was the “ghost.”
Lancashire Evening Post, 3rd December 1925.
“Ghost” Mystery Solved.
Paris, Tuesday.
For some time past the home of a Mme. Douvry at Ronquerolles has been the scene of curious manifestations which caused the belief that the house was haunted. The police having been called in to investigate were not long in finding out that the eldest son of Mme. Douvry was the cause.
He was a ventriloquist, and obtained the “haunted” effects by the use of a long-forgotten subterranean tunnel. He will be medically examined.
Exchange.
Aberdeen Press and Journal, 9th December 1925.
Prosecuting a “Spirit.”
Why there were strange noises in French cottage.
Paris, Friday.
The “Spirit” of Ronquerolles, whose rappings and scrapings for many weeks baffled the local gendarmerie, many curious spiritists and innumerable newspapermen, is to be prosecuted on a charge of having “defied” the police.
The eldest son of Mme. Douvry, who after much pressing at last admitted that it was he who was responsible for the extraordinary noises in his mother’s cottage, has explained that his idea was to make his mother leave a village where there was no cinema and where he had to walk several miles to his work. The result of his scheme was the complete mystification of hundreds of people for several weeks and column articles in the newspapers practically every day. The country lad may claim to have brought off the most successful joke that has been played on the French Press for many years. — Reuter.
His success is said to have been due to ventriloquist activities.
Halifax Evening Courier, 11th December 1925.