A Yankee Ghost.
Mr Patrick W Reardon, of San Jose, in the United States, has every right to consider himself an ill-used man. For no fault of his own, he has been subjected to most injurious treatment at the hands of a ghost. The matter came about in this way. Some time ago, an eminent individual named Tiburcio Vasquez, a resident in California, got into trouble with the law on certain questions connected with burglary and murder. The quarrel terminated in what the local papers styled “a little difficulty with a halter.”
Prior to his final exit from an ungrateful world, Mr Vasquez promised to return from spirit-land in ghostly form, and astonish his fellow-citizens with some lively pranks. As he had never kept a promise during his mortal life, this threat produced little impression, and the matter was beginning to fade out of public memory when Mr Pat Reardon, of San Jose, began to be strangely visited.
Every night the windows of his modest dwelling were assailed with volleys of stones, hurled by invisible hands. It was in vain that he placed a cordon of policemen round the premises. The storm of missiles continued with unabated force, until the house was a mere wreck. Thereupon Mr Reardon migrated to another quarter of the town, in the belief that he would escape further molestation.
Vain the expectation! No sooner was he comfortably established than a heavy downpour of stones set in, with the result of smashing every pane of glass in his new house. Once more the persecuted man had recourse to the police, and this time with good effect. Not that they apprehended the persecutor. That was beyond the power of the most astute detective; but they saw a large number of stones get up from the ground of their own sweet wills, and hurl themselves against the windows with immense force.
What was to be done under such very exceptional circumstances? The police could not say. So Mr Reardon went to a distinguished medium and laid his unhappy case before the spirits, with a fee of five dollars and a promise of another five if they enabled him to apprehend the culprit.
The latter task was declined by the medium, but he earned the unconditional fee at once by declaring that the offender was none other than the ghost of the deceased Mr Vasquez. This assertion was corroborated by the fact – of course it was one, like the rest of the narrative – that the stones, which were perfectly different from those ordinarily found at San Jose, corresponded exactly with the strata of the mountains where Mr Vasquez formerly carried on his peculiar business. The only point requiring elucidation is, why the ghost should have selected as its victim a gentleman who was in no way concerned with the halter difficulty.
Globe, 20th May 1876.