A Shanghai Spook.
Mysterious fires baffle the police.
The following is from the N.C.D. News of the 29th ult.: – An interesting variety has been given to the usual dull monotony of police work in the Settlement by the report of mysterious fires that occur at a Chinese residence situated in an alleyway off Mohawk Road. The house is numbered 1131 and is part of a terrace that was rebuilt lately on the site of one that was rebuilt lately on the site of one that was destroyed by fire two years ago. Neither gas nor electricity is connected with these houses and the present occupant lived there in peace until a month ago when there began a series of fires which he estimates at a total of 100 and the police at half that number.
The house is insured for a reasonable sum, but the owner has given publicity to the outbreaks and appears perfectly sincere in his belief that an evil spirit is responsible for the fires. In every case, so far, the flames have been put out before any damage was done. The owner called in the police on Monday and while Det.-Sgt. Fitzgibbon was making an examination of the premises a fire started in a perambulator and the cause could not be discovered.
Yesterday afternoon, Det. Insp. Armstrong and Insps. Wilson and Macintosh visited the place and while they were there a fire was seen in an old box containing a few rags and some rubbish in the yard. The Inspectors had been standing near the box for some time and had just gone away for about a minute when they returned to the yard. It might, the Inspectors concede, have been just possible for some one to have lit the fire in their absence. One most remarkable feature of the affair is that the fires never begin at night so it is safe to conclude that the trickster who is causing the alarm does not desire to destroy the premises outright. The police investigations are being continued.
30th Jan. The spook continues to occupy a prominent place in the household arrangements of the family living at No. 1131 Taku Road and the police, so far, are baffled. Two more fires occurred there yesterday morning while the police were on the premises, and there is no doubt that the means of ignition are at least ingenious. The household had reached such a state of nervous alarm yesterday, however, that the proprietor decided in the afternoon for the women folk to leave the house and move into lodgings. No arrests have been made, but it would have been interesting to see the result of the incarceration of individual members of the household each for a short period. Some of the latest outbreaks appear to confirm the theory of some method of causing spontaneous combustion, but a motive is wanting unless the originators were either of two small slave girls, who might be actuated by revenge, and it appears very improbable that chemicals could be procured by such an agency. There is also to be considered an inmate recently arrived from Chinkiang which is the home of innumerable foxes who show an inclination towards arson, according to the legend.
Incantations costing $30 were performed in the house on Tuesday evening by a Taoist priest, who, so far, seems to be the only one the ill wind has favoured.
Straits Echo, 20th February 1908.