“Spook” Mystery Puzzles Portland.
Portland, Ore., July 25.
There may be no such things as ghosts. Mrs Lester Humphreys isn’t sure though. The Humphreys home, on Portland Heights, has been the scene recently of “queer doings.” On various occasions when the family has been away, members have returned only to find things in an uproar. Furniture, clothing and valuables were strewn everywhere. But save only once, nothing has been taken. Once the house was set afire.
During the past three months, five invisible attacks have been made on the house. The affair is a complete mystery and gives rise once more to the much-believed haunted house theory.
Some time ago Mrs Humphreys was called to her dining room by the maid. There, in the centre of the room, a wrinkled old Chinaman with a huge sack on his bent back stood jeering. Mrs Humphreys stopped in amazement. The Chinaman shuffled forward, grinning. The young wife screamed and the figure, or apparition, or whatever it was – vanished!
Again, when Mrs Humphreys had been away from the house only a short while, after a time when extra locks had been placed on all possible points of entrance, she found bedding had been tossed to the floor, a flower basket hung on the chandelier, pictures turned in odd ways, silverware strewn about and chairs and carpets put on the dining room table.
Aside from the ghost thoery, which most of the people out here – including Mr and Mrs Humphreys emphatically do not believe, it is the popular impression that some man, sent to prison by Humphreys when he was US district attorney, is nursing an old grudge. If such is the case, it probably accounts for his having stolen only a diamond ring, a little money and a stick pin. The case is the strangest in this city’s history, and police are bending every energy to trap the spooks, which they believe to be decidedly material.
The Edmonton Bulletin, 25th July 1923.