Omaha daily bee., 1889-01-27
POOR PRELLER's WRATH.
Strange Experience or an Occupant of
the Fatal Room.

The tragedy enacted on April D, lSSS,
in room ia Of the Southern hotel, says
n st. Louis dispatch, is revived 10y the
strange experiences of the guests who
have recently occupied the apartment.
II was in room III that Maxwell chlOro.
formed Prellcr &c death, robbed the re-
mains and then packed them in Il trunk.
The room was not occupied for many
months a~fterward, and such a horror
was developed in the travelling public's
mind that the hotel found il impossible
to utilize the room, and in order to
remove the CHASTITY dread Of "lii" tho
number was changed to "l33.' The
nerves of several drummcrs were first
tested, and only two exhibited signs Of
n collapse the next morning. The en-
poricncc of one guest Friday night was
told to-day. The gentleman is II prom
incnt commercial traveller. of wCll-bal-
anccd mind. sound intellect aud good,
broad common sense. This is his re-
marSablc story, given in his own lam
guagC:
II knew nothing at all about the
room when | took tin fact, the Man
wcll-prcllcr incident had wholly
escaped me. went to bed ut my usual
hour. and was awakened with II start by
hearing Il strange tapping against the
head OF the bed. Tap, tap-tap' was the
order in which it came, one discon
nected tap and then twoin quick success
sion. was aroused in an instant, hut
heard nothing more, and concluded the
tapping was caused by the cracking Of
glue. The same tapping occurred SOW
eral other times during the night. but |
dismissed it on the comfortable theory
| have just mentioned. The next even
ing | noticed that the drawers Of the
bureau would always open however
often | closed them. pushed them in
whenever | passed near the bureau, but
they would invariably open agatn as
though forced out by some unseen
agency. Still | was not alarmed. The
most startling occurrence and the one
which finally decided me to leave the
room came on the third night. | had
noticed that the chambermaid had en-
tircly cleared the hearth of debris, and
not so much as Il scrap OF paper was left
in it. | was thrown from Il deep Slum-
Der into absolute wakcfulness about |
o'clock by an explosion on the hearth
that sounded like II big fire cracker. |
was scared, you can bet. a second eX-
plosion, Il little louder, followed, and
then came third. which capped the
climax. 1t was terribly violent, and
the defamation was fearful. | arose,
dressed, lighted the gas, and looked at
tll' lIbti ~ ~ ""o NoiipASNNiN Nv
with Il slaty substance that looked like
ore of some kind, and one of the large
cubes that made up the mass was torn
from the brickwUrN or thing. Pieces of
slate were thrown across the room. |
went down stairs and told the night
clerk to come right up to the room and
see what had happened. He refused
with Il sickly smile. | returned to the
room, passed a sleepless night, and
changed my room the next day. | then
learned from Il friend the history of the
room and one or two things that nithcr-
to had been ineXplicable to me then
became painfully clear. | noticed that
the bell-boys would get out of the room
as quickly as they could, not waiting
for the occasional tip which | held to
them, nor could | get an answer when |
rang the bell after 10 o'clock at night.
| found out that ut that hou the lights
in the hall were turned out and the bell
boys would not go through the corridor
after that time at any price. | give
these facts for what they are worth,
without comment or explanation. | am
not a spiritualist nor Il believer in their
doctrines. | was absolutely sober, too,
as | seldom take a drink"
The manager of the hotel, Mr.. Lewis,
had nothing to say when the story was
told him, nor could he suggest any cx-
plnnation