A Stettin Ghost Story.
Uncanny Proceedings.
Berlin, 19th August.
A stranger passing through Stettin last night would have thought that a Socialist demonstration or something equally dreadful was taking place. The streets (says the “Daily Telegraph’s” correspondent) were closed to traffic by police, and large crowds assembled in the neighbourhood manifested their displeasure at this step hour after hour by hooting and catcalls. But all the bother was merely due to the anxiety of the public to devote itself to a little practical psychical research. For at the centre of the cleared area shood a haunted house, and that was what the people were trying to get at.
It appears that a ghost had been at work for a long time past, though it only became an object of general interest a couple of days ago, after it had been taken notice of in the newspapers. The centre of its activity is the tenement of a labourer, named Buchsler, in the Karkutschstrasse, where it is reported to have brought many strange things to pass. Credible witnesses saw cups and saucers, pots and pans, jugs and bottles lift themselves up without any visible assistance, and sail through the window into the courtyard. Brooms hovered in the air, as if inviting to a trip to the Brocken. Cupboards flung open their doors and precipitated their contents on to the floor. These spectral activities seemed, as is so often the case, to centre around a young girl, the eleven-year-old daughter of the tenant, a sickly and undergrown little thing, who is, however, credited by the neighbours with wonderful “magnetic” gifts.
The story, however, which got about was that the uncanny proceedings were the work of a hobgoblin, who came to the house in search of Frau Buschler’s housekeeping money, and showed its anger in wanton destruction when it found that the key of her cash box was hanging round her neck, and not to be got at.
It appears to be a fact that the ghostly demonstration were occasionally accompanied by the disappearing of sums of money, but for that there is spiritual explanation of a different kind. No tale was too wild to be believed in Stettin. It was widely credited that the little girl was physically assailed by the goblin, which covered her arms with scratches and left marks on her flesh like the prints of a cat’s paw. It has since been discovered that the wounds were self-inflicted, and were due to a childish habit of meddling with irritating eruptions of the skin.
Another report was to the effect that the police dog had refused, in spite of all inducements, to enter the haunted precinct. The truth is that the animal was ordered to lie down in the courtyard, and did so.
When the police took the matter in hand they were somewhat at a loss to the course to follow. One officer called upon Frau Buchsler to produce the ghost, or at any rate cause it to give some signs of its existence. The reply was that this was impossible, as she had done something to annoy the disturbing spirit. What the head and front of her offending had been she declined to say, on the ground that the revelation of such mysteries would bring untold disaster upon her head. The police officer went back to the station, probably to look up the unfamiliar case in the Criminal Code. When he returned he found that two sisters of a religious Order had been praying in the house for a couple of hours, and that a general impression prevailed that the fiend had been successfully exorcised.
The police, however, were not satisfied to let the matter rest there, and their further inquiries convinced them that the mysterious doings were due more to sleight of hand than to spiritual agencies. They also learned that Buchsler had been spending a good deal of money at the public-house of late, which, perhaps, might account for the disappearance from his wife’s cash-box. So the family have been informed that should the mischievous sprite recommence its tricks they will be taken into custody under the “gross nuisance” clause, which can be made to cover everything to which the authorities object, but is not specified in the law.
Belfast News-letter, 22nd August 1910.
“Goblin” causes riots.
From our own correspondent.
Berlin, Friday.
A ghost story has caused a riot in Stettin. The rumour spread abroad that the house of a workman named Heise, who has a wife and four children, was haunted by an evil spirit – a little goblin with sharp claws, habited in red, who made the furniture dance and the plates spring out of the window, and did other fearsome deeds. Thousands of people flocked to the street where Heise lives, and a large force of police had to be drafted there. Eventually the crowd became so great that the police were compelled to drive it out of the street, and a series of riots occurred.
Birmingham Daily Gazette, 20th August 1910.
At the time, Stettin was in Germany.