Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1868-01-02
A Startliug Ghost Story-Extrnordinary
Supernatural Manipulation In San Fran.
cisco.

A Startliug Ghost Story-Extrnordinary
Supernatural Manipulation In san Fran
cisco.
It does not often happen that anything
like d genuine ghost story lish.ena tn"
dull pages of San Francisco newspa-
pers. It is true that the ingenuity and
enterprise of the Pacific coast reporters
is equal to tho task of manufacturing
from whole cloth tales Of thrilling in
terest; but as their readers ore apt to
demand particulars afterwards, they do
not, as q rule, give reins to their imag-
nations in cases Of this kind. 1t is,
therefore. with q mental flourish of
trumpets that we announce, this morn
ing, the startling fact that within the
last month IN occurrence has taken
place in San Francisco, which, for IN
earthly and frightful significance, may
fairly challenge the United States, not
to speak of Europe, and other provincial
places. We are unfortunately COM
pelled to suppress the names of the par
| ties who figure in this tale Of horror,
| but we are at liberty 70 state that it &C.
CURED in the southern portion Of the
city. The main facts are rs follows:
Something like three weeks ago, q wo-
| man, who, during the latter years Of
| her existence, had been a devoted adhe-
rent to tho cause of s%piritualism, died
| in a house whore she had been board
ing. The landlady Of tho house, hav-
ing no one with her but o niece, 70.
quested that damsel to bear her COM
pany in watching by the corpse at night.
The dead woman lay in the room she
had occupied during her lifetime, which
was on the second floor, and the watch
ors, having seen that the chamber was
empty, securely fastened the door, and
prepared to keep their yigilin the apart
ment Immediately beneath. Besides
themselves, there was no living crea-
ture in the house. They had sat for
some hours quietly, beguiling the time
by conversation, and the night had
worn away considerably beyond twelve,
when the were startled by q most extra
ordinary noise, proceeding, without
doubt, from tho where the corpse
lay. If a dozen men had been stagger-
ing drunkenly over the floor Of that I'M
tenanted chamber-if a fierce quarrel
had been going on, in which q large
party of men were engaged, yelling,
yociferating, stamping and falling-it
could not have produced a moro fright
full noise aud confusion than now star
tied the quiet watchers below. The
sounds of stamping round and round,
Of muttered excavations, Of blows and
dragging of heavy bodies across tho
floor, Of struggling and wrestling and
fighting, heard in the chamber which
the two women well knew were unoccu-
pied, a by the ghastly form that 10y
stiff and still upon tho bed, were appal-
ling. It is no wonder that they were
terrified almost to death. It is no
wonder that they should have sat there
with pallid faces, gazing mutely at each
other in frightful expectancy, and gath
ering fresh horror from the fear-marked
features they mutually. looked upon.
How long those very frighful noises con-
tinued the watchers cannot tell. They
only know that 1t seemed hours to them;
that the banging and the tbreshing and
the dull thud of blows and the whisper
ings, were protracted until they them
selves scarce knew whether they were
dead or alive. They only know that
when the young woman, driven by the
excess of her terror to probe into the
horrible mystery, went to the door and
opened it, the noise suddenly ceased,
and q more terrible period Of waiting
ensued, rendered more frightful by tho
knowledge that some unseen presence
was watching them. They only know
that when at length morning dawned
upon them, and they mustered courage
to creep up the stair and open the door
of the room where the corpse lay, they
found everything as quiet as when they
left tho apartment the previous night,