Spiritual Guerillas.
A most lamentable comedy of spiritual guerilla war is waging its mysterious course at Cherbourg, where, says the “Newcastle Chronicle” correspondent, the ghosts are wreaking upon the procurator of the Republic the wrongs of the dispossessed cures. The procurator is described as a man much too austere for vulgar jesting, which of course gives a touch of added pathos to the tragio-comic. For more than a month the house of the austere embodiment of pure reason has been most unreasonably haunted.
Every night, almost at the same hour, his door bell begins to “raise” the street without any visible fragment of cause which the least careful of lawyers would consider evidence. Day by day and night by night his windows are smashed by a hail of stones. Often they bombard the procurator at table, thereby, it may be surmised, adding a spice of bitterness to austerity. The other night one of these missiles, though spiritual in origin, was material enough in substance to give the housemaid a black eye, and the procurator preserves another specimen which he fished out of his soup-plate.
The only trace of their presence that the felon elfs have left were a bottle of wine and some solid food found in the hay loft as the sequel to some “noises”, and confiscated in the most austere manner.
The presbytery near by has been suspected, but that has been empty for several weeks. The procurator’s dwelling is a perfect network of hidden electric alarms, but the spirits defy such devices.
Globe, 17th January 1907.
Haunted Houses.
A great deal is being heard of haunted houses in various parts of the country. The latest story of the kind comes from Cherbourg, where for six weeks a house occupied by the procureur of the Republic has been visited almost daily by mysterious beings. So runs the story. These singular visitors are said to break windows, smash crockery, and throw all sorts of articles about.
And this state of things goes on in spite of the fact that the house is being watched night and day. One of the servants was wounded in the temple by an object thrown by invisible hands. She had to be attended by a doctor. There is a curious detail in the story. Every night the street lamp which stands in front of the house is extinguished.
The authorities are doing their best to make the acquaintance of these ghosts. Electric wires have been laid in the house, so that when the visitors enter they may incautiously get into contact with the wires, and so reveal their presence to the central police commissary, the special commissary, and to the detectives. Cherbourg is greatly excited over its haunted house.
Morning Advertiser, 17th January 1907.
A “Spook” that drinks wine.
The latest case for the Psychical Research Society will be almost official work, for the house which has been haunted is that of M. Osmout de Coursigny, Procureur of the Republic in the town of Cherbourg, an important personage in a lively place.
Every night at a certain hour the lantern over his door is extinguished, stones rattle against all his windows, back and front, and when he sits down to dine, gravel and pebbles are thrown by some mysterious agency into his soup. His garret has been invaded, but the visitant there seems to have been material enough to consume wine and viands.
Electric traps have been set to catch the intruders, but no discovery has been made.
Portsmouth Evening News, 21st January 1907.