“Ghost” makes bed bounce.
Girl bewitched, thinks father.
St. Charles, Virginia.
All the farmers for miles around gathered in the wooden shack where Frank Sybert’s nine-year-old daughter is having trouble with a ghost or a witch. Father thinks it is a witch, but Bertha, the daughter, says it’s a ghost, although a mighty strong one. All the farmers sang hymns, said prayers, and even tried a few hill-billy numbers. Raymond Minor, a neighbour and a mountain troubadour, took his guitar along and tried to exorcise the spirits with music, sacred and not so sacred.
But when little Bertha said “Shakes” – in ghost language – her bed shook. It bounced about in spite of the fact that two 16-stone mountaineers sat on it. Bertha said, “I told you so.” Bertha lives in the shack with her father, and her grandmother, Mrs Rebecca Sybert, aged 71. Grandmother says Bertha is sore all over as a result of the bouncing bed.
It began on November 16 and went on for 35 nights without a break. For one night the ghost took a rest, but he has started again now. There are three beds in the shack, two with springs and one without. Bertha has tried them all, and they all bounce. Neighbours suggested that she sleep on the floor, but when she tried that the pillow began to jump.
The bouncing starts soon after she gets into bed, and resumes at dawn, but Bertha can bring on the bouncing at any time by uttering some unintelligible sounds which her father says mean “come on, shake big” in ghost language.
The failure of the mountain music has left Mr Sybert hopeless. “We don’t know what to do now,” he said, “We’ve tried everything.” – B.U.P.
Shields Daily Gazette, 11th January 1939.