Ghosts in the Kitchen.
Much amusement has been caused by the adventures of a family occupying an appartement in an old house in the Rue de la Sourdiere, Paris. Part of the kitchen – which is very large – has been lately used as a bedroom by a relative, who is in Paris on a visit. The chamber thus contrived is divided from the kitchen by a partition. A few evenings ago, says the Paris correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, this person was awakened by a tremendous din in the kitchen, and on proceeding thither she found that all the pots and pans, which had been suspended neatly from pegs on the walls, had been thrown on the floor. The family were aroused and search made, but no clue to the mystery was forthcoming.
On the following night not only was the batterie de cuisine again flung to the ground, but the shelves attached to the walls had shared the same fate. The glass of the partition was smashed, a heavy deal dresser was overturned, and some charcoal that was on the range had fallen into the middle of the kitchen. On this occasion one member of the family was actually in the room while the furniture was being toppled over, and in the morning, after everything had been set to rights, the strange scene was repeated. The architect was sent for, but could give no explanation. The appartement adjoining the kitchen is empty at the present moment.
People have named the place the “Haunted House,” and the dwelling place is now besieged by visitors eager to inspect the scene of the disturbances. All the pots and pans have been removed in despair; but these extraordinary phenomena are repeated, any article laid on the range being invariably precipitated therefrom after the lapse of a few minutes. Such, at least, is the story related by the tenant and his family.
Congleton and Macclesfield Mercury, and Cheshire General Advertiser, 10th December 1892.
“Flying Crockery.”
The apartment situated on the second floor of No 20, Rue de la Sourdiere, Paris, has, for the last few days, been the scene of extraordinary phenomena, in the form of dancing furniture, flying crockery, and other of the vagaries to which haunted houses are a prey.
The tenants, M and Mdme Ablat, have called in the neighbours, who have been witnesses to the phenomena, which are not only perplexing but disastrous. Two large lamps have been smashed, a crucifix suspended on the wall hurled through a glass door, porcelain shattered, nails drawn out of the walls, &c.
The police have been called in, but have not succeeded in laying the ghost, and the commissary of the arrondissement has notified the Prefecture of Paris.
Hull Daily Mail, 12th December 1892.
The Paris correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” sends a remarkable story which goes to prove that there is nothing new under the sun. It turns, says that journal, on the undeserved tribulations undergone by a family occupying a suite of rooms in an old house in the Rue de la Sourdiere. Part of the kitchen – which is a very spacious one – had been shut off by a glazed partition to serve as a bedroom for a lady relative of the family, who was in Paris on a visit. A few evenings ago the lady visitor was aroused by a tremendous disturbance in the kitchen, and on entering she found that all the pots and pans which had been suspended from pegs on the walls had been dashed to the ground.
The whole family had to wake up and search for the cause of all this din; but nothing resulted from their investigations. On the following night, not only the cooking utensils once more came to grief, but the very shelves nailed against the walls fell down bodily. The glass of the partition was smashed, a heavy deal dresser was upset, and some charcoal from the stove was projected into the middle of the kitchen. On this occasion one member of the family was actually in the room while the furniture was being hurled about in all directions, and the next morning when all had been set to rights again, the extraordinary scene was repeated.
An architect was sent for, but he could offer no explanation of the mysterious proceedings. Then the improvised bedchamber adjoining the kitchen was abandoned by its occupants and the noises ceased: but not before there had run through the entire neighbourhood a rumour that the house was haunted, and this report led naturally to the place being besieged by a mob of curious impertinents who were anxious to know something about the ghost or ghosts who were supposed to have played their pranks there. It is even stated that the cure of the parish had been consulted with a view to the rites of exorcism being performed in order to expel the fiends from the old house in the Rue de la Sourdiere.
It will at once strike persons with good memories that mishaps of a precisely similar nature befell an innocent family inhabiting a country village in England about a dozen years ago; while there is upon record another curiously analagous case which occurred at Wickham, in Hampshire about half a century siince. The victim in this case was the village dressmaker. Her goods and chattels went night after night to wrack and ruin, and the strangest of noises were heard in different parts of her residence. The poor woman lost her servant and her lodgers, and, more than that, her customers, since no one would venture to employ a dressmaker who lived in a house which was reputed to be haunted. Naturally the oldest, ugliest, and poorest woman in the hamlet was suspected of having bewitched the house; but nothing definite could be brought home against the poor old crone, and the villagers hesitated to employ such an heroic measure as dragging her to a horse-pond. How many kindred instances of nocturnal disturbances attributed to supernatural agency have taken place within the present century it would be difficult to ascertain.
The method for bringing about such confusion and havoc is an entirely simple one. All that is required is a coil of thin wire, which is wound without solution of continuity round the light articles which are to be broken, while a stronger wire is used for the environment of the legs of chairs and tables. And all that the person or persons have to do who wish to frighten the inmates of a house half out of their wits is, when they have disposed of their wires according to their inclination, to tug at them; or, better, to wind the wires on to reels which they hold in their hands. While they are thus winding, the crockery and the pots and pans are flying about the kitchen, the furniture is dancing minuets in the drawing-room, the pictures in the dining room are tumbling out of their frames and unutterable disorder reigns in the bedrooms – sheets, blankets and bolsters falling about, and jugs and basins and looking-glasses cracking in all directions, while the bed-curtains are torn from their rings and the fireirons execute apparently supernatural sarabands.
Hampshire Advertiser, 7th December 1892.
The ghostly season has been opened this year in the Rue de la Sourdiere, either by the same company of spirits who gave a series of performances in a different locality last winter or by a fresh troop. The question remains unsettled, for even the spiritualists who are on speaking terms with the people who have no bodies have been unable to identify or come to an understanding with the ghosts that have been playing such curious high-jinks in Paris during the last two or three years. Those now haunting the house in the Rue de la Sourdiere amuse themselves in exactly the same way as the others who so upset the nerves of a quiet family last winter – with this difference: that the new set (assuming that they do not belong to one travelling company) appear to confine their antics principally to the kitchen. They have a peculiar liking, or hatred, for all cooking utensils; for any saucepan or frying-pan that may be hanging against the wall is sure to be pulled off its nail and thrown on the ground. There is nothing for a cook to tdo in such a kitchen but to lament or execrate. The waltzing of the saucepans, the frying-pan, and gridiron at night has been something unspeakably infernal; for these things when they jump off their nails do not remain where they fall, but get up a dance, and keep it going with a disregard of propriety quite bacchanalian. At length the ghosts (the ghostly theory is admitted in default of a better one), finding their game with the cooking utensils rather slow – although this was not the impression of other people – turned their attention to glass and crockery, and either threw it at one another or smashed it from love or mischief and sheer devilry. The night on which this took place was too much for the nerves of the people who occupied the lodgings. They deserted their rooms and took refuge with a neighbour. The police have visited the premises, prepared to draw up a proces verbal against the ghosts if the phenomena were repeated in their presence. But while they were there the pots and pans and broken crockery remained quiet. This is what happened at the time of the previous outbreaks of the supernatural. Not a ghost can be found that will perform in the presence of a police-officer. This is sufficient proof that the spirits who are causing so much trouble again are French: it is evident that the national respect for uniforms clings to them even when they have left the flesh.
St James’s Gazette, 8th December 1892.
A Ghost in Paris.
Policemen have queer duties to perform from time to time, but it is seldom they are asked to deal with ghosts. There is a ghost at present giving great trouble to a respectable family dwelling in Paris. It is to be assumed that these haunted people have tried all the usual means of dealing with a ghost, and have failed to impress upon it the desirability of a little less partiality. According to the Paris correspondent of a London paper, M. Loze, the Prefect of Police, has asked for a detailed report on the extraordinary incidents which have occurred during the past week in the Rue de la Sourdiere, and as soon as this account is forthcoming he will instruct an official and an architect to hold an investigation, with a view to ascertaining the cause of a state of things which has compelled the tenant of the so-called “haunted” dwelling to leave his appartement. Matters have come to such a pass that M. Albat and his family can no longer tolerate the din emanating from the kitchen, where the pots and pans are continually falling about.
As yet no one is able to volunteer any plausible explanation of the mystery, as the neighbours are all quiet and orderly people, and only the concierge has access to the empty room adjoining the kitchen. The particular apartment chosen by this eccentric ghost for a display is not one usually selected as a playground by sportive shades. But it may serve to indicate the precise character of spook. Can it be the ghost of some unsatified gourmand still in search of some palate-tickling delicacy from which retributory gout cut him off in his career as a guzzler? Or can it be the departed shade of some angry guest for whose digestive powers an ill-cooked repast had proved too much? He, at least, might be expected to enjoy, in the glimpses of the moon, playing football with the pots and pans from which came the fatal feast. Mayhap it is Mahatmas, some of Mrs Beant’s brood of astrals, vainly seeking “reincarnation” even in a beefsteak. But it is most likely that the concierge knows more about the secret of these nocturnal noises than anyone else. It is quite likely that this official may not like the disturbed family, and may be even inclined to favour the ghost theory. It is more than probable that policemen and architects will do more to solve the mystery than has yet been done.
New Ross Standard, 17th December 1892.