A Shower of Nails.
Mr Schrieber, the lighthouse-keeper at Point Isabel, Texas, recently deceased. At his former residence, now occupied by his widow, demonstrations occurred on the evening of Oct.12th, of a nature very mysterious to Mrs Schrieber and others. It consisted of an attack upon the house by a number of shingle nails. Nothing special was said of the matter until the next night, when, about dusk, a shower of nails struck the house, varied by an occasional oyster-shell and clod of earth. People gathered but could not tell whence the missiles came.
The next night the bombardment was continued, brickbats being added to the nails and oyster-shells, and every now and then an old scrap of copper or iron-casting. Several persons were struck, and the bricks rolled through the house or entered at the windows.
At the latest account, says the Galveston News, from which we gather these statements, the affair remained unexplainable, though many attribute the disturbance to “ghosts,” as they term them. It is further said that about ten years ago the house of the County Clerk was similarly bombarded, and all efforts to discover the source from whence the showers of missiles came proved unavailing.
Cornubian and Redruth Times, 23rd November 1888.
A ghostly bombardment.
A letter from San Antonia, Texas, dated 24th ult, says –
The people of Brownsville are greatly excited over the bombardment of a residence near that town by invisible hands. Last Friday night the light-keeper’s house at Point Isabel, occupied by Mrs Schreiber, widow of the late keeper, was struck by a shower of shingle nails. The occupants paid little attention to it until the next night, when about dark the shower of nails began again, this time more vigorously than before, varied by an occasional oyster shell and clod of dirt.
People gathered, but could not tell where the missiles came from. Last night the bombardment was continued, brickbats being added to the shells and nails, and every now and then an old scrap of iron or copper casting. Mrs Krouetz, Judge Lightburn, and several others were struck, and bricks rolled through the house or entered at a window.
A crowd collected, and a deputy sheriff from Brownsville, who was sent down to investigate, made a careful search, but could discover no source whence the shower of missiles came. The superstitious mariners at the Point insist that ghosts are the offenders, and say that it is because this light, which is of great use to commerce, was put out by order of the Lighthouse Board through some difficulty in acquiring title to the land.
As it is not in operation they firmly believe a legend that during the war it was put out by a light keeper in league with wreckers, and a schooner was enticed ashore; and they stoutly maintain that the ghosts of the drowned sailors are kicking up the present trouble as a mark of their disapproval of the absence of this needed beacon.
About ten years ago the house of County Clerk Glaenecke, in Brownsville, was similarly bombarded.
Weekly Freeman’s Journal, 24th November 1888.