Marseilles is very excited. A house in the Saint Laurent quarter has been the prey to strange noises for the last three days, and the inhabitants are terror-stricken, and believe that it is haunted. The noises, strange to say, occur only in the daytime. Early each morning a strange rumbling sound is heard, after which, at intervals throughout the day, and until dark, the rooms of the various flats, and sometimes room doors within them, are loudly knocked and hammered at. Sobs are also heard at intervals, which seem to come out of the very walls themselves. When the proprietor of the house, an old lady, who pooh-poohed the idea of a ghost, called at the house the mysterious sounds came on with such violence that she fled in terror. The priests have sprinkled holy water on the premises, the police keep careful watch, but the ghosts still rap as loudly as ever.
Shields Daily Gazette, 25th September 1900.