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"The spooks excitement on Empire street
caused by the mysterious rappings has subsided to some extent as the noises
ceased this noon, but the cause of the rappings has not been discovered.
The house is an old-fashioned
two-story wooden structure and [was] probably built 50 years years or more
[ago]. It is within 10 feet of the sidewalk on Empire street, and is
occupied by four families.
The tenement in which the mysterious
noises were first heard is occupied by Wilcomb Smith and his wife and
several children reside with him. The family has lived there three years and
they first heard the thumping Wednesday morning.
One of the daughters says that
previous to this they have seen and heard ghosts, etc., and one evening
three months ago they heard a sound like someone trying to get a key in the
lock of the front door, and on her father going there he found a large white
cat sitting in the hall. He opened the door and tried to drive the cat out,
but it was hard to do so, as the cat was not inclined to obey.
The following Sunday morning the
family was aroused by a thump on the door as if something heavy was thrown
against it, and the same white cat caused this rumpus, so the girl says.
They saw the cat running away from the house.
A woman upstairs had several times
heard footsteps approach the bottom of the stairs. The sound would come near
her door then stop, but should could find nobody. One day the footsteps were
heard, and a man in one of the rooms used rather forcible language and the
footsteps ceased.
Nothing more was heard until
Wednesday morning, when Miss Smith was sweeping out the room which adjoins
the hall, when she heard the sound of someone sweeping in the hall, and as
she was the only one in that part of the room she was considerably
frightened.
She saw, by peeping through the
keyhole, a woman ascending the stairs, dressed in pure white. Directly after
this, noises were heard that resembled someone rapping on the stairs. This
noise continued all day Wednesday, and Wednesday night the officers were
notified.
Several of them responded and
listened outside the stairs and underneath the stairs, and the rapping
seemed to be underneath. The officers went underneath the stairs and the
noises changed to another locality. The jar could be distinctly felt from
these rappings. The rappings were also heard underneath the floor.
The rappings stopped soon after the
officers left, and began again this morning at 8 o'clock. They continued
until 12 o'clock [in the morning], when they ceased and nothing has been
heard of them since.
Mr. Smith and his family have been
advised to leave the house and Mrs. Smith is looking for another tenement. |
