Helena weekly herald., 1877-10-18
A FATAL MANSION.
Suicides, Accidents, Sudden Deaths and
Business Misfortunes to Its Inmates--
A Serious Practical Joke--Queer
Picture Of Superstition.


Picture Of Superstition.
[From the New York Mercury]
, On Twenty ninth street, not far from Lex
inglon avenue, stands house which has beer
so long deserted that it has fallen into extreme
decay. The brown-stOne front is scaling away
in layers, the balcony has sagged out of shape
grass grows in the crevices of the doorstep
and between the stones of the area-way, an0
walls. The house has had no occupant for
seven years, and is not likely to find human
tenant soon; but legion of pigeons have
colonized the mansard, and fly in and out OF
the broken windows all day long.
'It's an unlucky house" said an old resi-
dent of the district to Mercury reporter.
II remember its history from the time it was
built, twenty years ago, almost, and no year
has passed since then without the tenants be-
ing overtaken by some misfortune or other
1t cost the lives of three men to build it. One
was crushed by heavy beam, another fell
from the roof, and the builder himself, old
John Carson, was shot in the front of it by q
fellow whom he struck for insulting his daug-
ter. who had just brought him his dinner. 1
saw the entire affair myself, and old Carson
was brought into this very house and died on
lounge in the back parlor. His daughter,
who was the only one of his family left, went
crazy, and is now in lunatic asylum, or she
may be dead, for haven't heard anything
| about her for two years."
| "The house," the speaker went on to say,
''belonged originally to retired sea captain.
Within year after he occupied it he was
found with his throat cut in the bathroom.
Ho hoG <o6 in of Ao1i
tremens. His family continued to occupy
the house until the next year Q861), when
the son was crippled for life by being thrown
from his carriage, and the owners moved to
| the country. The house was sold, furnished,
! to Mr.. Abraham Pardessus, wealthy West
India merchant, who was ruined by the war,
and went into bankruptcy in 1854. Every
year that he was at the house he experienced
some great loss. In 1861 two of his vessels
were lost at sea. In 1862 valuable planta-
ton that he owned in Antigua was burned to
waste, and in & his business losses were
constant and heavy. He used to come in and
out of the house more like a ghost than
man, and on the day after his bankruptcy
the servants found him dead on the same bed
on which poor old Capt. Thomas had been
laid out upon after his suicide. Mr.. Pardes-
sus had died of heart disease.
''The house then passed from hand to hand
until 1870, when it was finally sold to specu-
lator at less than half of what it originally
cost. The story of its misfortunes, after the
household word in the neighborhood, and
people got to saying that there was no luck
about the place at all. 10 make matters
worse, q servant girl, in 1865, claimed to have
heard ghOstly noises in the room in which she
slept. You know how ghost stories spread.
Why, within a week hundreds of curious
ones considered the house haunted, and
curious people came from all parts of the |
city to cape at it. Servants refused to live |
there. And at last, in 1866, the owner him. |
self moved away, and the house was turned |
into boarding house.
''The boarding house bankrupted within q
year. Two months after leaving the house
the owner had been compelled, by business
misfOrtunes. to dispose OF it. The new pro-
prietor, after the failure of the boarding.
house, completely renovated and refurnished
it, and took possession of it himself. He
was constantly in trouble. What with his
wife's temper,l and the stories they heard in
the neighbOrhOod, no servants would remain
for any length of time in his employ. Finally
his son, lad of thirteen, taking advantage
of the popular belief, dressed himself in one
of his sisters night-dresses, rubbed his face
and hands with phosphorus, and appeared at
in the room in which the three SER
want girls slept Their shrieks of terror
aroused the whole neighbOrhOod, and brought
the police to the house. One of the women
was found fairly paralyzed with fright, and
never fully recovered.
''His eldest daughter, pretty girl of thir-
teen, had flask of vitriol poured over her
head while on a visit to some friends in
Fourth street. The perpetrator of the out
rage was the apprentice to fan-maker, and
ne was arrested and sent to State Prison for :
he offence. saw the victim the other day. .
She is pretty young lady now, but one of :
ler ears has been almost entirely burned :
lway and her neck is frightfully SCARED.
''After this last misfortune her father him. 5
elf seems to have begun to believe in the un- .
ucky influence the house exercised over the :
fortunes of it's inmates. and he sold out as
,uickly as possible Since then no one has y
ived there but pigeons and rats. Numerous 2
neffectual efforts have been made oslet it, =
,ut somehow or other they have always fall .
n through, and 1T has stood vacant at r
ines when there was not another empty !
louse within half dozen blocks. They are :,
,oing to pull it down in the spring, and may 4
'erhaps build less fatal mansion on its site. -
The agent of the property fully corrobor- .
ted the strange history giver above. '1t is h
o widely known he said, ''that the mere u
nention of the number to the most eager =
ouse- hunter is enough. oh, that's the un- :,
ncky house in Twenty-ninth street, isn't it !? ~
hey say. We have offered it at preposter-
usly low rent, but without success, and so
oon as we can see our way clear shall re-
uild guess that will break the evil charm"