Haunted Coal.
Something very queer seems to have been happening in the Wild Plum school-house, 20 miles from the town of Richardton, North Dakota. There was a bucket of coal near the stove. Before the horrified eyes of the teacher and her eight pupils the coal began to move in the bucket, then several lumps jumped right out of the bucket.
One of them hit a boy on the head. Then the bucket turned on its side and the coal that was spilled began to burn. The window blinds started smouldering, a bookcase caught fire and a dictionary moved.
This all sounds like one of those haunted school stories until you learn that when school officials arrived on the scene the pieces of coal they picked up were still reacting to the mysterious force and trembled in their hands.
The State fire marshal says he is sending the bucket, dictionary and a sample of the coal to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington.
Daily News (London), 15th April 1944.