Shy of the microphone?
Ghosts failed to operate on broadcast night.
An attempt has just been made to broadcast the strange noises which ghosts are said to have been making for some time past at a farm at Daux, near Toulouse. Listeners tuned in to “Radio Toulouse” in vain, however, for the spirits refused to appear before the microphone.
Members of an Italian colony at Daux (according to the “Telegraph”) have been filled with terror of late by tales of supernatural happenings at the farm, known as “The Hangar,” which is occupied by an Italian and his family. The farmer asserts that he has been awakened at night by sounds resembling sometimes the clanking of chains, and on other occasions the cries of wild animals. Wild, gay songs have also been heard proceeding from space. Terrifying shadows have been seen on walls, and two bullocks, a cow, and a prize pig have died for no apparent reason.
A local Italian priest has made unsuccessful efforts to exorcise the evil spirits. As night was falling a number of reporters from a Paris newspaper made people living at the farm tell their stories before the microphone. Then towards midnight the lights were put out, and everyone waited for the ghosts to do their turn. But nothing convincing was heard.
Nottingham Evening Post, 10th February 1932.
Rector’s eye was blackened by a ghost.
Mysterious noises over radio.
Evil spell.
Toulouse, Saturday.
The whole of France listened-in to an attempt to broadcast sounds in a haunted farmhouse in the village of Daux, reputed to be the meeting place of spirits. A speech by the Mayor preceded the broadcast,which was an indecisive noise, indistinguishable from atmospherics. The Mayor explained that the mysterious occurrences at the farmhouse included an epidemic – a mixture of influenza and palsy. He had heard noises suggesting that the house was collapsing. A farmer’swife swore that she saw a white person emerge from the chimney, and residents of the village discovered the contents of the house to be topsy-turvy.
The Mayor convened the council, which summoned an Italian priest, who had rid an Italian village of the evil. “If he cannot exorcise the evil spirits from the farm,” the Mayor said, “we intend to burn it.”
Ghosts apparently are also busy in England, according to the “Daily Sketch,” which describes the pranks of a muscular spook at a rectory in Suffolk. The ghost, it is stated, throws iron bars, pepper and bricks at the rector and his wife. It has broken windows and also blackened the rector’s eye.
The Evening News (Rockhampton, Qld), 15th February 1932.