Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1877-02-09
Excitement over u Ghost.
uoke Cou,,tu (Va.) Meas.

Roanoke County (Va.) Meas.
There lives about five or six miles from
Enfield, in this county, a maiden lazy, MISS
Penina Wallace, there being no gentleman
on the premises. For about a month past
she has been visited with strange noises,
chairs and tables have been moving ABOUT
in the house and other like occurrences.
These freaks, contrary to the supposed
habits of visitors from the spirit world,
never occur At night, the day being selecl-
ed as the most appropriate season In tnlS
instance.
The first time anything of the kind hap
pened, there was no one present except
Miss Wallace and her niece. Their atteh-
ton was attracted by a knocking on the
outside of the house. On going to ascer.
Lain the cause, nothing could be seen and
they returned, when the knocking was re-
lewed, this time in another. quarter.
| Again they sought the cause Of the dlstur1
| ballce, this time fastening the door with a
string as they passed out. The door NJ
| rnediately flew open, breaking the string.
| This was repeated, and the string again
broken. They afterwards fastened it With
| IL piece of wire, When it remained so. Al
Ter being absent fer a short time from the
| house, they returned, finding the door as
they had left it, as above stated, and on
examination ascertalned that the table had
| been removed and the bed clothing pulled
| off Of the bed. Chairs and tables could lie
seen moving about the rooms without any
| visible agency.
On one occasion, Miss Wallace went to
her trunk to get her ball of knitting cot
ton. when, before the lid of the trunk was
raised the ball Of cotton flew up. struck
| her in the face and descended lmme~
diately.
At another time, just before preparing
for dinner, the door of the closet in which
she keeps her cooking utensils, opened, and
the utensils came rolling out and stopped
in the middle of the floor. She placed the
kettle on the fire and put water in it, and
in a few minutes the water disappeared
from the kettle. s.sg
A gentleman of the county, visiting the
house for the purpose of satisfying himself,
and from whom our informant heard a
portion Of this statement, removed a
bucket of water from the table and placed
it on the stair-steps. While he was watch
ing to see if the table would move, a bench
in tile room passed rapidly across the floor
to the opposite side, and while lie was
watching the bench, the bucket OF water
which he had placed on the steps, tilted
over, andsthe water fell III a bulk on the
floor, messing the steps, the bucket re-
naming on the steps.
WH4C dlOUuOl pNttJ WoS sASAoAh6 ~ ~
house a few Sundays since, a rock was
thrown by some unknown hand and struck
the facing of the door, breaking it.
Other very strange things have occurred
which our informant did not remember,
such as the above, happening every day,
and much excitement prevails over the
freaks of the invisible agent. How can it
be accounted for? The house is situated
in a field, so that if any person were play
ing practical jokes Of the kind, it is thought
they could be detected in the open day,
and Miss Wallace says nc one could be
concealed in the house and she not be
aware of it. She says she is willing to
swear to the statement, and that she is
perfectly ignorant of the cause of it all.
The gentleman referred to, who gave our
informant a history Of what he saw, states
positively that there is no humbug about
it.
No personal violence has been offered
Miss Wallace, and she says she intends re-
naming untilit is impossible to live there.