All Paris is at this moment astonished at a phenomenon in the streets – an inexplicable mystery exists that baffles the lynx-eyed police – all the populous quarter of St Genevieve, of the Sorbonne, and the Place St Michel are astounded at it.
In the preparatory works for opening a new street from the Pantheon to l’Ecole de droit crossing la Rue de Gres at the height of the ancient church which has served as a school and a barrack, at the extremity of a plot of ground where stood an ancient Ball-room, is a wood and coal yard adjoining a house elevated one story above the lofts.
It is this house – separated some distance from the street and also from the houses which are being pulled down, by the large excavation of the ancient walls of Paris constructed by Philippe Auguste and now laid open to view – that is the scene of a shower of projectiles which by their volume and the force with which they fall have laid the house open, shattering the doors, breaking all the windows, destroying the furniture, and giving it the appearance of having been battered by a catapult or bombarded by a battery of artillery.
Whence come these projectiles – heavy paving stones, fragments of ruins, &c., which from their weight and the distance they are thrown, could not be hurled by the hand of man – it is impossible to discover. The police and even watch-dogs cannot fathom the mystery: they are lost in conjectures.
Last night as the agents of the police were stationed in every direction, a tremendous stone was thrown against the barricaded door, and a building stone fell like a shell amongst the police with a noise like thunder. The stones are hurled with a mathematical precision to the spot occupied by the house.
The public attribute all to supernatural causes, since not long ago the bells in a house were rung by invisible means, and a shower of money descended in the Rue Montesquieu.
Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 17th February 1849.
The Parisian Poltergeists
Perhaps the most remarkable of all poltergeists was that which haunted the Sorbonne quarter of Paris for three weeks in January, 1849, and was described in the official “Gazette des Tribunaux” on the authority of the police investigations. A new street was being made from the Sorbonne to the Pantheon. At one spot there stood an old house, which for three weeks was assailed every night by a regular hail of projectiles, such as paving stones and ashlar, from the demolished buildings, which gutted it as if it had come through a bombardment. They rained down on the house in full view of observers stationed on neighbouring roofs, seemingly coming from a great height, and never deviating from their well-aimed course. The police were utterly baffled.
Wigan Observer and District Advertiser, 27th August 1904.
Un fait des plus singuliers, fait qui se reporduit chaque soir, chaque nuit depuis trois semaines, sans que les recherches les plus actives, la surveillance la mieux entendue, la plus persistante aient pu en faire decouvrir la cause, met en emoi tout le quartier populeux de la Montagne-Sainte Genevieve, de la Sorbonne et de la place Saint-Michel. Voice ce que constate, d’accord avec la clameur publique, la double enquere judiciaire et administrative a laquelle on procede sans desamparer depuis plusieurs jours:
Dans les travaux de demolition ouverts pour le percement d’une rue nouvelle qui doit joindre la Sorbonne au Pantheon et l’Ecole de droit en traversant la rue des Gres a la hauteur de l’ancienne eglise qui a successivement servi d’ecole mutuelle et de caserne d’infanterie; a l’extremite d’un terrain ou existait autrefois un bal public, se trouve le chantier d’un marchand de bois au poids et de charbon, chantier que borne une maison d’habitation, elevee d’un seul etage avec greniers. C’est cette maison, eloignee de la rue d’une certaine distance, et separee des habitations en demolition par les larges excavations de l’ancien mur d’enceinte de Paris construit sous Philippe-Auguaste, mis a deconvert par les travaux, qui se trouve chaque soir et toute la nuit assaillie par une grele de projectiles qui, par leur volume, par la violence avec laquelle ils sont lances, produisent des degats tels, qu’elle est percee a jour, que les chassis des fenetres, les chambranles des portes sont brises, reduits en poussiere comme si elle eut soutenu un siege a l’aide du catapulte ou de la mitraille.
D’ou viennent ces projectiles, qui sont des quartiers de paves, des fragmens de demolition, des moelions entiers qui, d’apres leur poids et la distance d’ou ils proviennent, ne peuvent evidemment etre lances de main d’homme? C’est ce qu’il a ete jusqu’a present impossible de decouvrir. En vain a-t-on exerce sous la direction personnelle du commissaire de police et d’agens habiles une surveillance de jour et de nuit; en vain le chef du service de surete s’est – il rendu avec persistance sur les lieux; en vain a-t-on lache chaque nuit dans les enclos environnans des chiens de garde; rien n’a pu expliquer le phenomene que, dans sa credulite, le peuple attribue a des moyens mysterieux; les projectiles ont continue de plenvoir avec fracas sur la maison, lances a une grande hauteur au-dessus de la tete de ceux qui s’etaient places en observation jusque sur le toit des maisonnettes environnantes, paraissant prevenir d’une tres grande distance, et atteignant leur but avec precision en quelque sorte mathematique, et sans qu’aucun parut devier dans sa courbe parabolique du but invariablement designe.
Nous n’entrerons pas dans de plus amples details sur ce fait, qui trouvera sans doute une explication prochaine grace a la sollicitude qu’il a eveillee. Deja l’enquete s’etend sur tout ce qui peut se rattacher dans ce but a l’application de l’adage: Cui prodest is auctor. Toutefois, nous ferons remarquer que, dans des circonstances a peu pres analogues et qui produisirent egalement une certaine sensation dans Paris lorsque, par exemple, une pluie de pieces de menue monnaie attirait chaque soir les badauds de Paris rue Montesquieu, ou lorsque toutes les sonnettes d’une maison de la rue de Malte etaient mises en mouvement par une main invisible, il a ete impossible de parvenir a aucune decouverte, de trouver une explication, une cause premiere quelle qu’elle fut. Esperons que cette fois on arrivera a un resultat plus precis.
Gazette des Tribunaux du 2 Fevrier 1849.
A most singular fact, a fact that has been repeated every evening, every night for three weeks, without the most active research, the best heard, the most persistent surveillance being able to discover the cause, has the whole neighbourhood in a stir, the populous of the Montagne-Sainte Genevieve, the Sorbonne and the Place Saint-Michel. Here is what is observed, in agreement with the public clamor, the double judicial and administrative investigation which one proceeds without dismantling for several days:
In the demolition work opened for the construction of a new street which must join the Sorbonne to the Pantheon and the Law School by crossing the Rue de Gres at the height of the old church which successively served as a mutual school and infantry barracks; at the end of a land where a public ball(room?) once existed, is the site of a merchant of wood by weight and charcoal, a site bounded by a dwelling house, raised on one floor with attics. It is this house, set away from the street a certain distance, and separated from the houses in demolition by the large excavations of the old surrounding wall of Paris built under Philippe-Auguste, deconverted by the works, which finds itself every evening and all night long assailed by a hail of projectiles which, by their volume, by the violence with which they are launched, produce such damage, that it is pierced during the day, as the window frames, the door jambs are smashed, reduced to dust as if it had supported a siege with the help of a catapult or grape-shot.
Where do these projectiles come from, which are blocks of cobblestone, fragments of demolition, whole marbles which, according to their weight and the distance from which they come, obviously cannot be thrown by human hands? This has so far been impossible to find out. In vain they have exercised day and night surveillance under the personal direction of the police superintendent and able agents; in vain the head of the security service went persistently on the spot; in vain have guard dogs been released every night in the enclosures; nothing has been able to explain the phenomenon which, in their credulity, the people attribute to mysterious means; the projectiles continued to crash into the house, hurled from a great height above the heads of those who had been observing themselves onto the roofs of the surrounding cottages, appearing to come from a great distance, and reaching their goal with precision in some mathematical way, and without any appearing to deviate in its parabolic curve from the invariably designated goal.
We will not go into further details on this fact, which will undoubtedly find an explanation in the near future thanks to the solicitude it has aroused. The investigation has already extended to everything that can be linked for this purpose to the application of the adage: Cui prodest est auctor. [who would be getting the advantage]. However, we will point out that, in more or less analogous circumstances and which also produced a certain sensation in Paris when, for example, a shower of small change attracted the onlookers of Paris every evening in the Rue de Malte were set in motion by an invisible hand, it was impossible to arrive at any discovery, to find an explanation, a first cause whatever it was. Hopefully this time we will arrive at a more precise result.