A Mystery.
Mysterious stone throwing is getting so common a nuisance that it behoves the authorities to use a little more exertion, coupled with a slightly increased modicum of sagacity, to discover the perpetrators of this mischievous practical joke, and when found to severely punish them.
On Wednesday evening Bermondsey was kept in a pleasing state of excitement by one of these fine and protracted displays of this supernatural stone-throwing. From four o’clock in the afternoon until half-past eleven at night, stones and other missiles were discharged from an uncertain quarter against 56 and 58, Reverdy road, with the result of injuring two children, breaking every window, and destroying several articles of furniture.
A considerable number of police were scattered about the neighbourhood, but could discover nothing, and the natural inference is that if the police could not find who threw the stones, they were not thrown by mortal hands at all.
Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, 8th May 1872.
(original report ‘An extraordinary story’ in Pall Mall Gazette, 26th April, but no overt suggestion that supernatural: A correspondent who says he was an eye-witness vouches for the following story:- From four o’clock yesterday until half-past eleven last night, the houses No. 56 and 58, Reverdy-road, Bermondsey, were assailed with stones and other missiles coming from an unseen quarter. Two children were injured, every window broken, and several articles of furniture were destroyed. Although there was a strong body of policemen scattered in the neighbourhood, they could not trace the direction from whence the stones were thrown.)