Caution to Journeymen Printers.
The following curious story is gravely stated in a French paper: – Towards the close of the last year loud groans and sighs were repeatedly heard to issue from a corner of the printing office of M. Lahart, of the city of Constance. The devils (boys in the office) laughed at the commencement, but in February following the groans were accompanied by a loud knocking in the wall. The printers who cursed and swore at the unquiet spirit also received cuffs and blows from an invisible hand. One man, who was the greatest reprobate in the office, seldom entered without having his hat knocked off.
The men in a state of horror ran to the Capuchins, and begged for the assistance of the church. Several priests of that order accordingly attended with books proper to exorcise the spirit; but notwithstanding the exorcism, the noise continued three days. The ghost became more outrageous, and actually threw the letters in the office against the windows. The riotous conduct at last compelled the compositors to quit that part of the printing house.
A foreign exorcist they brought a piece of the true cross, which he laid upon a table, but it had no effect – the ghost continued his disturbance of the workmen, and beat one of the Capuchins so severely that he was obliged to retire to his convent. At last, with the assistance of holy water and blessed sand, they confined the spirit in a corner of the wall, where the Capuchins brought him to terms. After prayers and fasting, the evil spirit exclaimed, in a voice which shook the house, “the curses and blasphemy of the workmen brought me here to make one amongst them, and I will retire to trouble the place no more, provided they abstain from execrations and drunkennness.”
The house has since remained uninhabited, and the deception undiscovered.
London Moderator and National Adviser, 9th May 1821.
Spiritual Facts.
Towards the end of the year 1746, sighs were heard issuing from the corner of M. Letart’s printing office, a counsellor of the town of Constance. At first the workmen only laughed, but the following year, in the beginning of January, they heard the noises louder than ever. Loud knocks were heard on the wall, in the same corner where they had first heard sighs. The printers even received blows, and their hats were thrown on the ground. They had recourse to the Capuchins to exorcise the spirit, and the noises ceased for three days, at the end of that time they recommenced louder than ever, and the types were thrown against the window.
They sent for a celebrated exorcist, who endeavoured to exorcise the spirit for a week. But again the spirit boxed the ears of a young workman, and the charmer having completely failed in his endeavours, returned home. The spirit then continued his manoeuvres, hitting some, pelting others, so that the compositors abandoned that corner of the printing office, and placed themselves in the centre of the room, but without any effect.
They therefore sent for other exorcists, one of whom possessed a piece of the real cross, which he placed on the table. The spirit however, did not cease to torment the workmen, and beat the Capuchin brother who accompanied the exorcist, so that they were both obliged to retire to their convent. Others came, and mixed sand and cinders with holy water, and sprinkled the floor, and having armed themselves with swords, they struck right and left in th eair, to see if they could not wound the spirit, and tried to detect traces of footprints. At last they perceived that he was hemmed in on the top of the stove, and they remarked on the angles the prints of his hands and feet, and also on the cinders and sand. They succeeded in chasing him from there, and then perceived he must be under the table, having left on the floor marks of his hands and feet. The dust that all this disturbance caused in the room made them desist from their pursuit, but the chief exorcist having pulled a board from the corner where the noise was first heard, found some feathers, three bones wrapped in a dirty cloth, some bits of glass, and a bodkin in a hole in the wall.
He blessed a fire now lighted, and threw all these relics in, but hardly had he returned to his convent when one of the workmen came to tell him that the bodkin had jumped out of the flames three times, and that the workman who was putting it back with the tongs was violently struck upon the cheek. The remains were then moved to the convent, where they were burnt without any resistance, but the workman who carried them there, saw a naked woman on the market place, and for some days deep groans were heard there.
Soon after the disturbances recommenced in the printer’s house, the spirit administering blows, throwing stones, and molesting the servants in many ways. M. Letart, the master of the house, received a severe blow on his head, two workmen were flung out of one bed on the floor, so that the house was completely deserted during the night. On Sunday a servant carrying some linen was pelted by stones, and another day two workmen were thrown off a ladder.
(To be continued.)
The Spiritual Times, July 15th 1866.