Murder mystery of long ago solved by diggers in trench.
(From Saturday Night’s Sporting Extra of the Free Press).
New York, Aug. 29.
In one of the beautiful old houses overlooking the Hudson, at Grand View, near South Nyack, there’s a ghost – not the common variety of wraith that inhabits dusty attics, but a most active apparition that sits bolt upright on a sofa in broad day, walks unbidden into the bedroom, tumbles the soap and towels about, turns on the water, turns off the lights, causes doors to open and shut, and does sundry and divers things that nothing but a real ghost could do, and a capable ghost at that.
This uncanny visitor makes his appearance in the residence of Mr and Mrs J.M. Blauvelt, who occupy one of those fine old houses on the west bank of the Hudson. Mr Blauvelt declares he has never seen the wraith, but that does not alter the fact that his wife and butler have seen it repeatedly, and Mr Blauvelt says that Mrs Blauvelt usually knows what she is talking about.
It was two months ago that the ghost first made his appearance. He was sitting on a couch in Mrs Blauvelt’s sitting room as plainly as any piece of furniture in the room. It was in the middle of the afternoon, and at first sight Mrs Blauvelt thought an elderly man had wandered into the house. She spoke to him, but no answer came. Again she spoke, and as she moved toward him, or it, the form seemed to dissolve and float away. Naturally the incident upset her and she told her husband about it. He laughed. Then she told some of the older neighbours and they asked her to describe the form that she saw. She did so. She told of the stooping form, the deep eyes, the beard, and as she proceeded several of the neighbours held up their hands and exclaimed, “Why, you are describing Uncle John Collins!”
“I knew who Mr Collins was,” said Mrs Blauvelt, “and surely there was no reason why his ghost should haunt me or the house. Mr Collins built and occupied the house for many years, and was a most estimable old gentleman. He died a natural death and the property is still owned by his children. Certainly there was no excuse for the appearance of a ghost in this house, but that did not prevent one from appearing.” Mrs Blauvelt stated that she tried to put the matter out of her mind, but immediately strange things began to happen. One day, a short time after the visitation in the sitting room, the butler came running to her saying that he had seen the form of a strange old man going into the bathroom. “What did he look like?” asked Mrs Blauvelt, and Radcliff proceeded to describe precisely such a form as Mrs Blauvelt had seen.
It was not long after that when towels were mysteriously removed from the bathroom and left in fantastic shapes in various parts of the house. Whenever all the occupants left the house, things were sure to be turned topsy turvy. Clocks stopped, trunks were unlocked, furniture displaced, but there was never any evidence that these things had been done for the purpose of plunder. Then the ghost began to play the mischief with the electric lights. One night while the house was in utter darkness, lights began to flash and go out in such an uncanny way that Mrs Blauvelt nearly fainted. As a test all the occupants of the house went out one night, leaving all the electric lights turned off, and a few minutes after their departure a brilliant light was seen to gleam in the hall. Returning they found the electricity turned on in that one place.
Ottawa Free Press, 31st August 1908.