A Haunted House.
A correspondent writes:-
“Mr. Fernandez, Assistant Steward in the Lunatic Asylum, who is living in a house in a cul de sac, called Abraham’s lane, in Pursewalkum, reported to the Commissioner of Police about 10 days ago that his house was being pelted with stones at night. Mr. Fernandez has been living here for about a month, and for the past ten nights he has been pestered in the manner mentioned.
Inspector J.H. McCoy and Sub-Inspector H.A. French, with a posse of constables, visited the place. The constables were placed, some in the house, others around outside and some a distance around th ehouse. While the Police officers were seated in the open courtyard of the house with Mr. Fernandez and his family, bricks kept falling, some of them between the constables standing at hand, but they hit nobody.
The party then proceeded indoors and bolted all the windows and doors, and still the brickbats kept on falling. Mrs Fernandez’s sister, an elderly lady, asserts that while she was seated in a room, the windows being closed, she saw a large stone come, she does not know how, through the window and fall on her chest and roll off, doing her no harm whatever.
The Police are perplexed and everyone who knows of this incident is ready to assert that the house is haunted.”
Madras Weekly Mail, 3rd October 1901.
A Haunted House.
Sir, – I have, with a certain amount of amusement, read the letters addressed to you regarding “A Haunted House,” and quite agree with “Scrutator” that because the Police have not detected the author of the stone-throwing it is necessarily the work of ghosts. My experience is as follows.
For months, off and on, especially on dim moonlight nights, stones used to fall on the roof and into a dormitory of a Boarding School and terrify teachers and children alike. At first these visitations took place at midnight, but, growing bolder, the night visitor took to coming at about 8 p.m. or even earlier, very often as soon as daylight vanished. Police assistance was asked for and obtained, but consisted in a few Policemen (usually four) coming every other night and placing themselves on the verandah of the school house with two large lanterns burning brightly! On being told light was likely to keep the visitor away, they replied they were afraid of the dark and were there to keep the place quiet, and that they could not catch ghosts.
This sort of thing went on for a few weeks, and finally the Policemen told our servants they had seen a figure arise out of a well, in which, in years gone by, a lad had been drowned. This settled matters and every native about the place declared it was the Pesharshee (devil), and it could not be caught and that the stone-throwing would go on till some one died of fright!
However, not seeing the force of this, or of having disturbed nights, I determined to see what a lady could do in the matter. The stone-throwing had now become almost a daily occurrence; so one night I retired after dinner, presumedly to the drawing-room, but in reality – unknown to any native – to an empty room in the Boarding School, taking with me our dogs, a sharp fox terrier and a powerful Australian hound. After waiting in total darkness for half-an-hour I heard unmistakable signs of our nightly visitor’s approach. The dogs showed signs of unrest; however, I kept them quiet and waited.
Within a few minutes a shower of stones on the roof and the screams of the school children informed me the usual pranks were going on. I opened the door and told the dogs to “go catch.” Within a minute a howl of fright was heard and a rush into darkness! Presently the dogs returned with bloody fangs! I have not the faintest notion who they went after, but certainly “it” possessed flesh and blood! From that time to this – and it is now quite five years – no ghost, devil or stone has disturbed our slumbers. Thus, where Police and servants alike failed stone-throwing and nightly disturbances were stopped by two dogs and A Lady.
Madras Weekly Mail, 10th October 1901.