A haunted servant girl!
Milwaukee was thrown into a high state of excitement a few days since by the discovery of a haunted house – or, to speak more correctly, a haunted woman, as it was only during her presence that the strange and startling manifestations occurred.
The innocent cause of all the trouble is a Polish servant-girl, 14 years old, of nervous temperament and very timid. While she and the mistress of the boarding-house in which she is employed were engaged in the kitchen the other day washing the dishes after breakfast, a trap door twice opened and closed. This was followed by an egg making its way out of the pantry towards the mistress, who, with the girl, left the room in alarm.
A pan of beans was next possessed sliding off the table, and a currant pie marched after it. Another pie burst, scattering the fruit and crust over the room. A slop-pail in the yard next jumped over the fence, and by this time several persons had collected to witness the unusual proceedings. A heavy earthen flower-basket, buried in the ground, and covered over with earth, suddenly got loose, came to the surface, and took a flying leap over the fence into the next yard, where it slopped over.
While this was going on outside, the manifestations continued inside. Eggs came around corners and hit people out of a direct line of fire.
Some sausages took a journey around the room. Several dishes skated out of the pantry; and a stove cover-lifter struck a person on the leg, hurting him considerably.
One of the best authenticated cases was an incident that particularly impressed a physician of high standing, who was watching developments with a calm, unimpassioned interest. He was sharply scrutinising the actions of the excited girl who had been set by the landlady to sweep the floor of the debris. He commanded a full view of the pantry and the girl. As he was looking on a little china dish came sailing out on an even keel, filled with small tickets of some sort or other. He dodged it, and it slid on the floor, spilled the cards, but was not broken.
While a lady spectator was viewing the debris on the kitchen floor, the kettle on the stove turned over and spilt the water, though no one was near it, and a pan of boiled potatoes which the girl had been directed to peel by the landlord flew into the face of a woman sitting near.
Many other strange things took place throughout the day in and about the house, and are vouched for by persons of veracity.
The poor servant girl denied all knowledge of their authorship, and was so terribly frightened by their occurrence and by the charges of witchcraft made against her by some of the more ignorant and thoughtless of those who had witnessed them, that she tried to commit suicide by drowning in the evening, but was rescued. After this attempt at self-destruction, she was taken home by a physician who had become interested in her case, where she was examined by several professionals, who were unable to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion.
South London Press, 19th September 1874.
Spiritualism in America.
A fertile soil is that of the New World for novelties; and spiritual demonstrations occur there in homelier circumstances and on a larger scale than in this prosaic country. Milwaukie is a lake town and port, great in corn, in cranberries and pork; with a Chamber of Commerce extravagantly protective in its political economy.
Therein also is situated “Giddings’ Boarding House,” doomed since a recent Saturday of August last to enduring fame in the annals of “spiritual manifestations” of the higher and more mysterious class, very much elevated above table-turning and violent rappings and other exhibitions now vulgar and worn.
At 9 A.M. on the day named, Mrs Giddings and her “help,” Mary Speigler, were engaged in the household duties of the kitchen, when suddenly the trap-door of the cellar rose, and on the suspension of some unknown force, yielded to the law of gravitation and again closed. Mrs Giddings thought, as any other sensible woman might have supposed, that one of the boarders was in the cellar, but, on going down there for a plateful of beans, found nobody there; while, on her return to the kitchen, and on her commencement of bean-cleaning, a hidden invisible force was applied to an egg, causing it to leave the pantry and make curves in the atmosphere of the kitchen.
Mrs Giddings dropped the pan and its beans, probably in the hope of catching the egg; but immediately the pan and its contents commenced to skate merrily round the kitchen, and a currant pie began a flight in the same course. Mrs Giddings became bewildered, and Mary Speigler fled for assistance from Mrs Meade and Mrs Reynolds – “two ladies of unimpeachable veracity” – who, on their arrival at the scene of action, were saluted by another currant pie, which exploded, scattering its various parts.
The a variety of dishes, that had previously kept quiet in the pantry, walked out and joined in the general commotion, increased by flying bread, eggs, and sausages; and symptoms of a break-up of the stove into its original parts. Mr Allen, the proprietor of an adjoining tannery, entered the kitchen to ascertain the causes of the “phenomena,” but the cover of the stove immediately jumped out and hit him severely. Dr Mercham, “a respectable practitioner,” was called in, but when he came a large dish immediately leaped out of the pantry at the Doctor. Mrs Meade fled from the kitchen to her own garden, when a piece of rail was propelled after her by some invisible energy, followed in quick succession by a slope pail, succeeded by a flower-pot, and Mrs Meade prudently rushed into her own house and secured the door.
Mary Speigler complained of great pain and pressure on her head, and was removed to her father’s house opposite, when the manifestations ceased. The girl endeavoured to commit suicide in the river during the the afternoon, but was prevented, and her father adopted the curious plan of attempting to beat the troublesome influences out of Mary.
Next morning Mrs Giddings sent over a plate of meat for her unfortunate “help,” and the girl crossed the street to return the plate. No sooner had the kettle, quietly singing on the stove, felt the presence of Mary than it committed suicide by leaping from the stove, and was broken into several lots, each valueless. Not warned by the fate of the tea-kettle, several dishes began to imitate it and their own proceedings on Saturday; and for the safety of her crockery, Mrs Giddings was again obliged to expel her servant.
On Monday, Dr Gray, of Milwaukie, offered the child a home, and all the physicians of note in the city held a consultation on her case. Dr Gray’s crockery, kettles, and stoves remained steady, but the walls of the room, and other articles not easily moved, were severely handled by the girl, who insisted that she was beating off a man invisible to other’s eyes.
On Tuesday evening Mrs Johnson, “magnetic physician” of Chicago, “had a seance” with Mary, during which Mrs Johnson saw at the girl’s right side a demoniac face, then, as in a cloud, the likeness of the girl, which, gradually fading, a dog, like a spaniel, crept slowly towards her. This dog, considered by Mrs Johnson to be Mary’s animal nature, and the agent whereby evil spirits obtained access to her mind, gradually wound round the girl; and at her back appeared a man of monstrous magnitude, who wore a weight suspended round his neck by a chain, which throwing over his neck he stood free from the incumbrance; took a book from his pocket with only one leaf, looked at the girl, then threw a glass at Mrs Johnston, who was holding the girl’s hands; next he made a savage bound at Mrs Johnston, as a disagreeable interloper, and immediately the room seemedd full of fiendish shapes.
The magnetic physician trembled with a fear which she distinctly remembers in her”seance“, and in her dread she prayed, still holding the girl tightly, when the demoniac shapes with their tall leader disappeared, and the physician is confident that the evil spirits are cast out of their victim, to return no more. This is the latest achievement or novelty of Spiritualism in the States.
Falkirk Herald, 17th September 1874.
Thaumaturgists have a capital opportunity just now at Milwaukie, where the boarding-house of a lady named Geddings is the scene of one of the first-class mysteries of the day. The other day Mrs Geddings was making a pie when she saw the cellar-trap rise and fall. She paid no particular attention to the circumstance, but when soon an egg came flying out of the pantry describing a supernatural curve, Mrs Geddings’ attention was excited. After a frying-pan had skated across the kitchen, and a currant-pie jumped over a table, she thought it time to call in the neighbours. These flocked in at the summons of the servant, and were eye-witnesses of what followed. They heard a second pie explode and scatter its contents around; they saw the dishes running after the spoons, and the entire batterie de cuisine playing the most fantastic tricks. Sausages and pieces of bread snowed round; a stick, a flower-pot, and a slop-pail rose of themselves and rushed across the yard.
Dr Mercham, Mr Mead, Mrs Reynolds, and Pastor Jervison beheld this. The Doctor kept his eye on the Polish servant girl, Mary Speigler, and said she could have had no hand in the performances. He further satisfied himself that all the transactions described occurred without human agency. But one thing was remarkable. Whenever any article took wings and flew over her head she would utter a moan, and complain of a painful pressure on the top of her head.
The girl, who is a somnambulist, tried to drown herself, but was saved and taken to her parents’ home in an utterly forlorn and despairing state of mind. She slept at home that night, and the Geddings boarding-house enjoyed a halcyon calm.
But next Sunday Mrs Geddings sent the Speigler family a plate of food, and Mary fetched back the empty plate. Very soon after she entered the kettle flew off the stove and broke to pieces on the floor, several dishes began dancing, and the furniture exhibited the wildest agitation.
Dr Gray, of Milwaukie, now offered this wonderful young female a home secure from the brutality of her parents, and where her case could be made the subject of scientific investigation. Several physicians assembled, talked to her, attempted to mesmerise her, and tried various experiments, but nothing important was elicited, although the patient was terribly affected, shrieking for aid against some invisible assailant, and thumping the doors and walls.
At this point, Mrs Johnson, the Chicago magnetic physician, was called on. This lady sat by the girl’s bed, and had a vision, which was written as she described it. She said she saw at the girl’s side a demoniac face, otherwise the likeness of the girl, in a dark cloud and then the face seemed to fade away, and there was a dog, like a spaniel, creeping towards the girl. The dog wound round and round her. Then at her back was an immense, large man, with a chain around his waist and a weight attached. He drew the chain over his head and threw it down alongside the weight. Then she saw a book in one of his hands, like a cheque-book, with only one complete leaf in it, all the other leaves being fragmentary. Then he peered over the girl’s shoulder – the girl was facing Mrs Johnson, and they wre holding each other’s hands – and took a glass and looked direct in the seer’s eyes. No sooner had he appeared to look into her eye than he made a bound forward towards her that seemed to wake up a number of forms that she had not seen before that were filling the room. But the lady, being in the habit of dealing with such spectres, took the proper steps to exorcise them, and notified that the girl was recovered from that moment.
We have not learned whether the case was perfected, for the correspondent of the New York World stops short at this part of the story. The Cock-lane ghost and all similar narratives fall short, in our opinion, of the Milwaukie episode. It is awful, even to the cheque-book, and has a mingled savour of diablerie and delirium tremens which we have not seen equalled. We await with interest further news of Mary Speigler.
Weekly Freeman’s Journal, 10th October 1874.