Extraordinary Affair.
Practical joking.
The borough of Bolton has been started from its propriety, in consequence of the general spread of a story, that some unearthly visitant had taken up its abode in a lawyer’s office, No. 6 Acres Field, where it was ransacking drawers, upsetting tables and writing desks, scattering papers in all directions, and driving the clerks out of their wits.
The circumstances, as they have been detailed to us, by those who have been duped by some clever tricksters, are these. On Friday afternoon, a boy in the office of a professional gentleman went to the public library, requesting the woman who lives on the premises, and was in the adjoining room, to attend to any one who might come in during his absence. On his return, he found the drawers of his desk pulled out, and an inkstand thrown into one of them, and upset. He called to the woman to know who had been in the office; but she declared that no one had been there, and the opening of the drawers and the upsetting of the inkstand remained to them a mystery.
The boy having closed the drawers, and replaced the inkstand on his desk, sat down to write, but no sooner had he done so, than the drawers, one on each side of him, began to open at a slow and steady pace. He became alarmed, and called to the woman in the next room. When she came to him, he said, “See, the drawers have opened again of themselves.” She replied very naturally, “Nonsense, you must have left them open.” He, however, assured her that he closed them when he came in.
She was still incredulous, and the drawers were closed again, but to her utter consternation the drawers began to move slowly back again, and also a third drawer, in another desk to the left. They both became alarmed and the woman ran out. The boy then locked the centre drawer of his desk, and closing the others, went out into the lobby after the office-keeper. He remained there a few minutes , and when he went back, the drawers were all open, and the lock of the middle one was still shot up, although there was no damage to the part which should have held the lock.
The woman and the boy now became more alarmed than ever, and having looked about the room without finding anybody, the female went to a neighbour’s house, and brought in two or three women with her. In their presence the drawers were again closed, and the same slow movement back again was the consequence. The women now became terror-stricken, and the neighbourhood was alarmed. Several persons now came in, and amongst them two or three young men who were very active in seeking the “ghost.”
By this time a young gentleman, who is an articled clerk in the office, returned from his dinner, and in his presence the drawers were again closed, and the middle one locked. It does not appear that they began to move at once, as the party present retired for a few minutes, but on their return the drawers were all open, and the lock of the middle one was shot as before!
Subsequently another trial was made, the middle drawer being locked by a gentlemen who lives in the same street. The result was the same, with this addition – a slate which lay at the bottom of one of the drawers was reared up and stood against the front of the desk!
It was suggested that the rooms up stairs should be examined, and the party went above. In the room of the articled clerk a round mahogany table had been turned upside down, and beneath it was a bundle of papers, the “ghost” having, apparently, being anxioius to avoid making a noise on the floor. A writing-desk which stood upon the table had also been partially removed.
The searchers now went into the room of the professional gentleman, who was himself from home, and there they found his letter-box in the fire-place. From thence the party went to the top rooms, but found no traces of the articled clerk, they found his ledger on the fire-place, and two ink-bottles, which had been on the mantelpiece, on the top of it. This time the desk was removed, one end being upon the floor and the other leaning against the table; and the careful “ghost,” to avoid a noise by the falling of the inkstand had set it down very quietly on the floor!
This scene being over, the party returned to the proprietor’s room, and found that in their absence the “ghost” had spread three briefs and two plans upon the floor, and had upset the proprietor’s arm chair. As the ghost searchers went from room to room, they found that something had been removed. In short, so long as the volunteer searchers remained on the premises, the “ghost” continued its pranks, either striding across the floor, ringing a bell, removing the foot mats, or some mischief or another.
But from the moment that they left, the “ghost” ceased, and has not since been heard of. It can hardly be necessary to add, that this mischief is evidently the work of “practical jokers;” but on this occasion they have carried the matter too far.
Manchester Guardian.
Caledonian Mercury, 15th August 1855.