A Liverpool Hotel Haunted.
Extraordinary Phenomena.
The difference between a psychological phenomenon and a weird visitation from the Spirit World has frequently been productive of heated and conflicting controversy between even men of high and well-trained mental attainments whenever a fresh case in point has been brought under public notice; but for whatever side the preponderance of evidence or argument might be claimed the popular mind will not be dispossessed of its pet superstition. What, then, may be a singularly interesting demonstration of psychical force to the scientific mind becomes amongst the masses, and even with a large number of the educated classes, a shadowy, awe-inspiring, unreal being – a ghost.
A well-known hotel, situate in Queen-square, reopens the vexed question of whether a place can really and truly be haunted in the full signification of the term; and the extraordinary movements that are said to have been occurring of late in this hostel, which is one of the most frequented houses of call in the city, certainly furnish conundrums for solution and afford food for deep thought.
In the hotel in question is a double-bedded attic, used as a sleeping apartment for four kitchenmaids, and this is the locale of the “spiritual manifestations.”. It is is stated that three or four nights ago, after the domestics had retired to rest, close upon midnight, and when an almost painful silence reigned in the room, the pillow was pulled from underneath the head of one of the girls and thrown on her face. The maid naturally might have thought that one of her companions was playing a trick, but when, without any sound being heard, the sheet upon which she and her companion were lying, and the upper bedclothes, were drawn off the bed with irresistable force, notwithstanding a strenuous effort on their part to retain them, a mysterious and frightened feeling was at once aroused.
The candle was lighted and the room carefully examined, and the four scared females went to great pains to satisfy themselves that the proceeding was not the result of a “lark.” The room door was securely locked, and there was no other means of egress from the room except a skylight, which also was firmly fastened. The girls were, to say the least of it, puzzled, and after sitting up with each other until long after midnight, they again essayed rest, and this time with success.
On the next evening, the performance was even more mysterious. The domestics retired to rest, two in a bed, lying perfectly still, regarding each other, when suddenly, and during a silence in which a pin could have been heard to drop, the clothes were pulled off both beds, including the pillows and undersheets, as before, and cast upon the boards. A panic this time seized the occupants of the chamber, and they hurriedly made the best of their way to some fellow-servants sleeping in another part of the house. As might be supposed, the event became (and is now) a burning topic, nothing else being spoken of throughout the day.
The particulars were related among others to a very matter-of-fact boots, a veritable counterpart of Sam Weller, and he at first thoroughly enjoyed what he looked upon as a rich joke. A proposition was made that he should investigate the matter, and this task he undertook to perform with celerity. Towards midnight on Sunday he sat in his bedroom awaiting a summons agreed upon, and before long one of the girls hastened to his room with a frightened face to announce “It is there again.” He promptly sped along the passage, the girl remaining behind, and ran up the short narrow staircase that leads to the attic. In the room were the three other kitchen-maids, all, according to arrangement, lying dressed upon one of the beds. The boots locked the door, saw that the skylight was fastened, convinced himself that there was nobody in the room besides the three girls and himself, and that no one could possibly enter. Putting out the candle, but still holding it, along with a box of matches, he laid himself down on the unoccupied bed, facing the three maids on the other bed, only three or four feet away, whose faces he could plainly see.
A dead silence prevailed, broken only by the suppressed breathing of the four people. At length, for the third time, without the least warning and with no sound whatever, the pillow was torn from underneath his head, together with the remainder of the clothes, and cast upon the floor. Simultaneously with this a more intense darkness settled on the room, the bed rocked violently for a few seconds, the room shook, and then all was again still. The completely mystified boots relighted the candle as fast as his trembling fingers would allow, but only to see the clothes in a heap on the floor, and the three pale-faced, terrified girls on the opposite bed. With one accord the inmates of the apartment left it to take care of itself, and at present that part of the hotel is tenantless.
It has been averred by some of those who have been molested that before the bed-clothes and pillows were removed there was no indication whatever to show that the action was performed by human agency, and that the united strength of two sturdy scullery maids in endeavouring to keep possession of the blankets and coverlets was as nought compared to the perfect ease with which everything from the top of the bed to the bottom was simultaneously removed. The matter has created a profound sensation.
Various conjectures are hazarded as to the cause of the ghostly visitations to the hotel attic. Neighbours who relate the facts as here set forth assert that there is no doubt whatever about the reality of this rude and unwelcome visitor from spiritland. Perhaps the psychologists will make an effort to “lay” this ghost of Queen-square.
Liverpool Weekly Courier, 24th September 1887.