A Strange Story.
Sort of a meteoric display around the bed of a sick man.
A Syracuse dispatch to the New York World says:- Richard Stevens, a well-to-do farmer, who resides with his wife and seven children at Jordan, about a mile and a half west of this place, is very ill of pneumonia. A few nights ago two of the daughters retired, leaving their shoes in the sitting-room. They were aroused by a noise as though something had been thrown into the bed-room, and on investigation their shoes were found to have been thrown from the sitting-room by the side of the bed.
The next night a stone weighing about half a pound fell with a crash by the side of her father’s bed, at which they were so alarmed that they sat up the remainder of the night. This did not prevent the falling of other stones, apparently from the ceiling of the room in which the family sat, although there was no hole in the ceiling or windows, and the doors were all closed.
Seven stones fell that night and the succeeding day, varying in size from a pound to a quarter of a pound.
The family were so alarmed that they finally called in a neighbour, and he stayed for a number of hours. No stone fell while he was there, but as he passed out of the door a large one struck the floor at his heels with a crash. During the next night and day seven more stones fell.
Another neighbour, who was in the house, happened to say, “I wish one of those stones would fall now,” when immediately one fell between his legs were he was sitting. He got up and left th eroom, and, soon returning, looked up at the ceiling, saying, “I wish another stone would fall,” and a large one just grazed his head and struck at his feet.
A number of Jordan people have visited the house in the attempt to solve the mystery, but so far they have not been successful.
The members of the family all seem frightened and are on the alert to ascertain the cause of the strange phenomena. Sometimes two or three will be together in the kitchen, when suddenly a stone falls; or in the sitting-room, when they are all sitting with the doors closed, a stone falls. Some of the stones are warm when they fall, one or two were moist and all were like the ordinary cobble-stone common in the fields. Some members of the family seem to believe this is a warning of Mr. Stevens’ approaching death. – Free Press.
Derry Journal, 21st January 1884