Caution to Journeymen Printers.
The following curious story is gravely stated in a French paper: – Towards the close of the last year loud groans and sighs were repeatedly heard to issue from a corner of the printing office of M. Lahart, of the city of Constance. The devils (boys in the office) laughed a the commencement, but in February following the groans were accompanied by a loud knocking in the wall. The printers who cursed and swore at the unquiet spirit also received cuffs and blows from an invisible hand. One man, who was the greatest reprobate in the office, seldom entered without having his hat knocked off.
The men in a state of horror ran to the Capuchins, and begged for the assistance of the church. Several priests of that order accordingly attended with books proper to exorcise the spirit; but notwithstanding the exorcism, the noise continued three days. The ghost became more outrageous, and actually threw the letters in the office against the windows. The riotous conduct at last compelled the compositors to quit that part of the printing house.
A foreign exorcist they brought a piece of the true cross, which he laid upon a table, but it had no effect – the ghost continued his disturbance of the workmen, and beat one of the Capuchins so severely that he was obliged to retire to his convent. At last, with the assistance of holy water and blessed sand, they confined the spirit in a corner of the wall, where the Capuchins brought him to terms. After prayers and fasting, the evil spirit exclaimed, in a voice which shook the house, “the curses and blasphemy of the workmen brought me here to make one amongst them, and I will retire to trouble the place no more, provided they abstain from execrations and drunkennness.”
The house has since remained uninhabited, and the deception undiscovered.
London Moderator and National Adviser, 9th May 1821.