Visitors, Not Ghosts, Alarm Negro.
Danville, Va., June 27.
Jim Luck, negro, and owner of the “haunted house” on the Bradley road, near here, has appealed to the authorities for protection, preferring the harmless “spirits” to the incorporated bodies who have for the past 10 days been visiting his home.
Luck declared that neither he nor his family have enjoyed rest since word of the “ghost” became public property, and scores of persons have kept a midnight vigil, enjoying all the thrills of ghost walking.
The crisis came when a party of young men, who, the negro says had spirits of their own, bombarded the house with rocks and brickbats as soon as the nightly performance of strange moaning and unexplained rapping reached them. Luck is willing to allow peaceably inclined citizens to congregate in the haunted room upon application, and he is not charging any admission fee.
The negro and his family have never shown any great horror of the ghost, neither have they exhibited any anxiety, and they are inclined to put up with it, as it has done them no harm during its restless manifestations of a month or more. The activities of the ghost are identical with that which had the town of Bristol, Va., by the ears – weird moans and loud rappings on the walls and floor of one room being almost nightly occurrences. The most startling manifestation has been the removal of pillows from a bed in one of the rooms onto the floor by some unseen force, this being vouched for by several members of the Luck family.
No effort has been made thus far to probe the walls or to tear up the flooring, and Luck and his family show no desire to make a searching investigation into the cause of the mysterious visitation. The seances usually begin about 10 o’clock at night and continue until about 3 o’clock, although there is nothing regular about the habits of the ghost.
One night when a negress who professed to be a medium and undertook the task of remaining alone in the haunted room to parley with the midnight visitor, it did not manifest itself at all.
Altavista Journal, 30th June 1921.