Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1878-01-29
(By Rogue
A Kick.up in KerhOnkson.

A kick.up in kerhOnkSOn.
THE HOUSE OF FARMER DUNN INVADED
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. GRID-IRONs.
WINGED BUTCHER KNIVES AND AN
INVERTED oCToGENARIAN.
EIIenville n. V, January IA
little while ago this quiet village was
plunged into a great cOmmotion, which
I cannot begin to describe. bv the re
turn hither from the Dunn House. in
Kerhonkson, of Mr.. Goodenough. cor
respondent of the Middletown Press,
with blackened eye and a prominent
and painful lump on the bridge of his
nose. AS I sat last evening in the bar
room of the Lord House, feeling like
the king that Irving says everybody
feels like when he is put up cOrnfOrta
bly, at his inn. he told me all about it,
and Mr.. Frank Carlin. cousin of Mrs
Dunn. who was present with Mr. Good
enough ut the time of his misfortune,
told me about it also. 1t is strange
tale.
About six weeks ago Rosa and Ina.
two daughters of Mr.. James Dunn,
twelve and fourteen years old respec-
lively, became possessed" and were
constantly, night and day, surrounded
by obstreperous spirits. which speedily
destroyed every article Of furniture the
house contained. They seemed to be
the most versatile spirits of which there
is any record. Through their instru-
mentality gridirons would navigate the
entire atmosphere overhanging q ten
acre lot ;the aged mother Of Mrs Dunn
would be removed from bed in dead
hours of night and stood upon her head
in different corners of the domicile ;
sharp butcher-knives would whistle by
the ears of the same venerable lady in
broad daylight and startling proximity F.;
the girl ROs, was constantly being
plunged in the we'll or tied up while
playing about the yard with braid and
coarse pack thread; and regularly every
night one or more of the seven Dunn
orally the little girlbaby
four months old-were put away in
drawers or under feather beds, whence
to save their lives they had to be extri-
Gated Immediately. The whole family
were so broken of their rest that they
became i'll. and matters speedily came
to th~t pass that there wasn't crockery
plate left to lay griddle-cake on.
Drawn by the reports of this cOndf-
ton ofthings in the Dunn household, Mr..
Goodenough and Mr.. Carlin. with two
"a other gentlemen, drove out Sunday to
Kerhonksdn, eight miles away. As
soon as they were established in the
sitting-room the forces began to work
in the two remarkable girls. and pep
per box, which Mrs. Dunn had put
away on a shelf in the kitchen cupboard
not five minutes before. fioated foreibiy
through the air, After little the gem
tlemen seated themselves with Rosa and
Ina about heavy extensiontable with
drop leaves and brass castors on the legs.
when straightway this inorinate aud
unfeasib1e article of furniture began to
prance up and down and bump the floor
so fOrcibly that the eXperimenters short
~ desisted. not willing to break the ia
BILE in pieces. Then cot bedstead. with
two of the gentlemen lying in it and
two of them exerting their whole
strength to hold It down, turned soneF-
saults. Next the gentlemen grasped the
girls, who by this time had grown quite
frantic, putting their arms about their
waists and holding their hands fast ;
but though the girls were uEable to ex-
tricate themselves wholly their bodies
all the time were agitated by ''indeseSi
bable superhuman inward forces'' which
dragged the gentlemen all about the
room While struggling with the old
est girl, Ina Mr.. Geodenough. think
ing she might strike his chin with her
head, which was bnbhing wildly, threw
back his own head. when he received a
terrific blow on his nose close to his
right eye. The eve was biackened and
hInd nd 80,
q frightful lump. Panied and alarmed
Mr.. Goodenough let go the girl, He
does not know what struck him He
could see nothing at the time. When
the blow was struck daylight had Just
faded, and the room was illuminated
only by the pale, vague beams of the
rising moon. BY this time the whole
house was in an uproar. Furniture was
clashing and breaking in every part.
A bedstead fell apart in the grandm 9TH
er's room. One of the gentlemen sud-
denly found his head apd neck wound
up in dress skirt. which had come out
of distent closet for the purpose One
leaf of the extension table before men,
toned came prancing athwart the
moonbeams. Shadowy candlisticks and
pewter spoons filled the air; chairs ca
yorted like costly cavalry SIT eds striek-
en- OF their riders and driven forlorniy
to wander in a field Of unearthly car
mage and the girl Rosa was soused all
over with bucket of foul water.
That was what Mr.. Goodenough saw
in the house at Kerhonkson, and Mr.
Carlin had seen the same things and
some others. Somebody else had been
sitting in his buggy at Mr.. DunR's gate
when, in single instant his yGur-
wheels were taken off and and the nuts
laid carefully one on each side of the
axle tree. The narration of it all was
enough, of course, to send me forth this
morning before it was fairly light on
the high enterprise of getting my own
eye blackened. The road lay along tie
narrow valley of the Bearkiii, which
runs into the Hudson at Kingston, thir
ty miles away, and was so full of wet
and tenacious clay that was surprised
at overtaking the mule-team of Mr..
Mccormick. genial commercial travel
Ter, who had driven off from the Lord
House before me, and was overjoyed at
the sight of Kerhonksou finally. Mr.
Dunn's house, painted slate color, with
PINK caves and corners, stood in a bare
place on hill. and seemed place Of
delights to me, the more that on my
way thither had read the following
letter written by Mrs. Dunn to Mr.
Carlin, and given me by him the night
before:
kERHoNKsoN, December 81, 1877.
Mr.. Carlin: To-day Ross had a
wash-tub of blueing water thrown over
her from head to foot. She came in
dripping with water. 1 then told 'Ar-
iy'' to go with her. They went to the
water closet. when lid and q piece of
board was hurld from the stoop, one
laid inside, the other outside of the
door. She came in and stone came
against the siding just as she stepped
INDOORS. She sat down and was thrown
OFT the seat on the floor. She then laid
down on bench and was thrown off.
She then had rest. All was quiet |
through the night. To day is New
Year. Mother is home. She washed
the dinner dishes. put the knives in the !
knife-box. and the butcef-hnife went
back across the room. landing
on chair. Rosa nat rocking the baby