A Haunted House.
Readers of newspapers are seldom called upon to peruse detailed accounts of supernatural occurrences. Superstition went out as the printing press came in, and yet we have a plain, circumstantial account of a seemingly supernatural affair to lay before the readers of the inquirer this morning. We say seemingly, because we believe that there is some trickery in the case, though thus far it has baffled detection.
In South Fifth street, in the old District of Southwark, stands an unpretending three-storey brick house; the front apartment of the first floor is used as a dry goods store, and the remainder of the building is occupied as the dwelling place of the proprietor of the store and his family. These people have lived in this house for the past ten years, and have found it a comfortable residence until last Thursday evening, when their troubles began.
Three young ladies of the family, after having retired for the night in their usual apartment, the third story front room, were awakened by a clattering on the floor, and on rising to ascertain the cause of the noise they found that their combs, brushes, head dresses, &c., had been thrown upon the floor; they replaced them on the top of the bureau and again retired, and again the articles were thrown upon the floor. They arose a second time, somewhat alarmed. To heighten their trepidation, a large looking glass jumped from the wall into a far corner of the room and was shivered to pieces. They awoke their father, and he came upstairs to be astonished by the mantle ornaments jumping from their accustomed positions and waltzing around the floor. There were strange knockings in the ceiling and walls. There was no more sleep for the family that night.
With daylight they became calm, but while the lady of the house was placing the breakfast dishes on the table, a saucer sprang from the table, flew against the wall, and was broken into a dozen pieces. The members of the household, who are not over nervous, partook of their morning meal, and commenced the business of the day.
On Friday night the annoyances began again; doors flew open with great violence, and ivory ornament jumped from a table through a pane of glass, and clattered on the pavement below. The mantel ornaments again became erratic, and chased over the floor; pictures became loosed from their fastenings, and flew across the rooms with remarkable velocity, at times dashing the glass to pieces, and damaging the frames, and in other instances sustaining no damage from their rapid transit and sudden stoppage.
Not liking to have the ornamental furniture destroyed, the mirrors were unhung, and placed upon the floor. But this did not deprive them of their power of locomotion. One large looking glass took a zig-zag flight across a room, brought up against an opposing wall, and smashed out of all the semblance of a respectable reflector. It was a night of horror to the afflicted inmates of the three story brick. Next morning their dishes jumped from the dresser, and dashed themselves to atoms against floor, ceiling and walls. The morning meal had to be partaken from the laps of the haunted people. During Friday they removed all their pictures, looking glasses and valuable mantel ornaments to the house of a neighbour, where they still remain.
The master and mistress of the family being communicants of the Baptist Church, imparted the circumstances of their strange visitation to their pastor, and on Saturday evening, that gentleman, accompanied by another clergyman, went to the haunted dwelling to pass the night. With one of these clerical gentlemen we had a protracted interview. He is a very clear minded scholar, has received collegiate training, and during his studies paid considerable attention to the seeming phenomena of natural philosophy. He assures us that he entered the haunted house with the belief that the inmates were the dupes of trickery, and he left the house yesterday morning perplexed in the extreme.
Soon after he entered the parlour a hymn book was projected from a table and thrown with violence against the door. With his own hands he picked up the book and replaced it; before his eyes the volume was seized with an invisible force, and for a second time thrown across the room, and a testament sent to keep it company. Again the books were replaced, and again sent whirling across the room, at times making the entire circuit of the apartment, then they would fly off at a tangent and come to a full stop violently against the wall. Bibles, testaments and hymn books were endowed with strange powers of volition during several hours of Saturday night.
Both of the clergymen present did their best to discover some trick by which the inanimate objects were made to circumnavigate rooms in so mysterious a manner, but in vain; they could discover no clue to the mystic movements.
Many other mysterious manifestations took place on Saturday evening; a writing slate was projected against the ceiling and broken to pieces; the model of a boat was sent sailing through the air, and finished its aerial voyage by a violent but against the wall. The well known picture of the late President Lincoln and his son Tad, was taken from a nail on the wall, by the unseen force, sent diagonally across the room with great swiftness, and dashed against an opposite wall with such force as to break the glass, crushing the pictures into minute pieces. Over this picture hung a green baize bag, such as legal men carry; the picture, although hanging under the strings of the bag, was removed as stated, while the bag itself was undisturbed.
A young gentleman present who expressed himself an unbeliever in supernatural phenomena, was roughly jostled by strong, though invisible hands. The violent manifestations continued for about three hours, when they ceased.
Yesterday morning they began again. A servant of the family, while cleaning the dishes, had a tumbler fly up from the wash pan and strike her violently in the forehead, leaving an ugly mark in the shape of a flesh wound. The keys flew from out the locks of doors; the few remaining dishes threw violent somersaults from shelves to floor. A last attempt was made to set the table yesterday for the Sunday dinner in vain; the plates jumped off the table and went to atoms against floor and ceiling, so the hapless family ate their Sabbatical dinners from their laps.
A daughter of the family, on her return from church yesterday, on entering the parlor, had her bible torn from her hands with such force as to tear the cover entirely off.
Even the bread became endowed with life, and went spinning over the table in the most eccentric manner. During yesterday afternoon there was comparative quiet; there were rumbling noises, but no movements of inanimate objects. Our reporters visited the house during the afternoon; they heard the strange, unaccountable noises, but saw nothing in transition through the air. Broken dishes, shattered mirrors, damaged books and the absence of all ornamental furniture bore ample evidence of the strange annoyance to which the dwelling was subjected.
By the urgent request of the family we suppress the number of the haunted house, as it would become uncomfortably crowded with curious visitors. The facts are substantially as above stated. The pastor of the church to which the family belong, passed last night in the haunted house. One of the attaches of the Inquirer shared his vigils. The family in this house are all opposed to the dogmas of spiritualism, are communicants of the Baptist Church, and bear a high character for Christian integrity and rectitude.
The only theory advanced thus far by the superstitious to account for the outbreak of these mysterious manifestations is that they are caused by a lady who boarded in the family for some months, and left the house on rather bad terms with the inmates. This woman is reputed to be a spiritualist, and it is said by some that she has conjured the evil spirits into the house. Those in the immediate neighbourhood who profess spiritualism are considerably exercised by these manifestations. – Phila. Inquirer of Monday.
Delaware Republican, February 8th, 1866.
A fairly representative example of manifestations reported from time to time at different places in the United States, may be borrowed from the Philadelphia Inquirer of Monday, February 5, 1866. A house in South Fifth Street, Philadelphia, had been occupied for ten years by a family consisting of father, mother and three “young ladies,” their daughters. We also hear of a servant in their employ. There is no mention of any previous disturbance during the tenancy, but suddenly on the night of February 1, 1866, the three girls who occupied one bedroom, were awakened by a clatter, caused, as they found, by their brushes, combs and other toilet appliances having been thrown on the floor. Much bewildered, they replaced them, but after an interval the same thing happened a second time; moreover, a looking-glass which hung against the wall “jumped” from the nail into a corner and was there shattered to pieces. They fetched their father from his bed, but he was unable to discover anything which would account for the phenomenon.
Of the next morning nothing much is recorded, save that a saucer flew off the breakfast table and was broken. But in the evening a perfect stampede set in among the chimney ornaments, with the most disastrous results. Not only were there many breakages of vases and small articles, but pictures and mirros began to be involved in the disturbance, so that the family thought it wise to take them down hurriedly and lay them upon the floor in the hope of preventing further damage. No great success, however, attended this manoeuvre. One large looking-glass, “taking a zig-zag flight across the room,” struck the opposite wall and was smashed to atoms. In the end, the victims of this visitation removed such breakable possessions as they most prized to a neighbouring house, where they seem to have remained in security.
The evidence upon which we are asked to believe this story is rather characteristic of what so often happens in such cases. When the matter began to excite attention in the city, Press reporters flocked to the spot, but on their arrival the more violent manifestations were suspended or had already ceased. Speaking of the Sunday afternoon (February 4th), the newspaper from which I am here quoting remarks: “Our reporters visited the house, they heard the strange, unaccountable rumbling noises, but saw nothing in transition through the air. Broken disthes, shattered mirrors, damaged books and the absence of all ornamental furniture, were ample evidence of the strange annoyance to which the dwelling had been subjected.”
The editor, or whoever was responsible for the article in the Inquirer, is careful not to commit himself to any belief in the operation of a supernatural agency. He suspects “some trickery,” while at the same time admitting that nothing of the sort had so far been detected. He jeers at the Spiritualists, and in a later notice remarks that “there are unbelieving heathens who unhesitatingly assert that the Spiritualists are at the bottom of the entire affair, and that they got the exhibition up for the purpose of making spiritualistic capital.” At the same time, he is, perforce, constrained to add: “the family, however, all solemnly aver that they are not Spiritualists themselves, and have not the slightest belief in such nonsense.” That this was, in fact, the case seems to be conclusively proved by the statements of the Inquirer’s own reporters. Evidentially speaking, the most satisfactory piece of testimony in the whole account is contained in the following passage:
“The master and mother of the family being communicants of the Baptist Church, imparted the circumstances of this strange visitation to their pastor, and on Saturday evening that gentleman, accompanied by another clergyman, went to the haunted dwelling to pass the night. With one of these clerical gentlemen, we had a protracted interview. He is a very clear-minded scholar who has received a collegiate training… He assures us that he entered the house with the belief that the inmates were the dupes of trickery and that he left it yesterday morning perplexed in the extreme. Soon after he entered the parlour a hymn book was projected from a table and thrown with violence against the door. With his own hands he picked up the book and replaced it. Before his eyes the volume was seized by an invisible force and for a second time thrown across the room, and a Testament sent to keep it company. Again the books were replaced, and again sent whirling around the room, at times making the entire circuit of the apartment; then they would fly off at a tangent and come to a full stop violently against the walls. Bibles, Testaments and hymn books, were endowed with strange powers of volition {sic} during Saturday night. Both the clergymen present did their best to discover some trick by which the inanimate objects were made to circumnavigate rooms in so mysterious a manner, but in vain, they could discover no clue to these unaccountable movements.”
For the other phenomena we have no better authority than the statements made to the reporters by members of the family; but the incidents related, if untrue, do credit to the liveliness of their imagination. One of the daughters, we are told, on her return from church on the Sunday, had her Bible snatched from her hand with such force as to tear the covers utterly off. “The keys flew out of the locks of the doors; the few remaining dishes threw violent somersaults from shelves to floor.” It was impossible to lay the table for Sunday dinner; the plates jumped off the table, and the hapless family had to eat their meal from their laps. As the servant was washing up some of the few unbroken remnants of the crockery, a tumbler flew up out of the water and struck her forehead with such force that her face was cut as well as bruised. Even the bread seemed endowed with life and went spinning in eccentric paths over the dining-room table. We are told finally that the inmates of the house were driven to distraction by the crowds of would-be visitors who besieged them, that a posse of police had to be stationed before the door to keep them out, also that it was found necessary to remove two or three of the ladies to other quarters, “their nervous system having been utterly shattered by the excitements of the last few days.”
Extravagant as are the incidents recorded above, one finds it difficult to suggest any plausible explanation for the concoction of such a narrative. It is incredible that the whole story can be a joke. The street in Philadelphia is named, even if the number of the house, “at the urgent request of the family,” was suppressed in the communications first published regarding it. The fact that pictures and other more fragile property were removed elsewhere and that some of the occupants were forced in the end to quit the scene of turmoil can hardly be an invention. But such drastic measures are not usually resorted to by a middle-class family – they kept a “small dry-goods store” – without grave cause. There do not seem to have been any mischievous children concerned in this case and no motive can well be imagined for seeking notoriety at the expense of much inconvenience and a considerable destruction of property. Lastly, the inmates, being pious Protestants and strongly opposed to Spiritualism, are not in the least likely to have been familiar with poltergeist phenomena. In fact, before 1866, very little had been printed on the subject. Nevertheless, the manifestations they describe are in striking accord with those which have since been recorded by a multitude of other witnesses in every part of the world.
In ‘Some early American poltergeists’, by Herbert Thurston, In ‘The Month’, December 1934.