The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-04-28
DhI 6 OF GORE.
A Horribls Sort of Ghost That Haunts
House on 1o-h Street.
From the Washington star.

a muse on - II olTecJ.
From the Washington star.
Washington Is tie greatest town for
ghosts in this country. The city is dotted
all over with haunted houses which remain
unrented year after year on account Of the
spooks tbat are suppOs d to inhabit them,
all the way from the great empty Tayloe
mansion a. the corner OF } ventseuth street
and New York avenue 70 the humble and
deserted negro hut in SwampOodle. re-
gerCed by neighborhOod superstition as the
abode Of bogies most horrible and frighteu-
ing.
But perhaps the most thor )uZhlv original
OF all NashlngtOn ghosts is located in a
house on Nineteenth street northwest be
tween f and r. The dwelling has been
for rent and ccIpied nearly all Of the
time for several years past, notwit hstand-
ing its situation Ia the fashionable quarter
! he last tenants were induced TO take 1t by
the extremely low rent, although toe real
estate agent, for security's sake, would only
let them have it on a years lease. How
they got out of the bargain | don't know,
but they moved away at the end of the
fifth week. That was six months ago.
1t seems that eight years ago a man COM
United suicide in this house with razor. The
deed was done in cold blood apparently. he
stood in front of the mirror which overhung
the marble mantelpiece and deliberately cut
his throat from ear to ear. Then, as ap-
Deared from the condition in which things
were subsequently found, he chung with one
hand to the mani elpiece, while his blood
poured out upon the hearth, until he fell
and died.
That was the story. as the tenants here
referred to understood it afterward. Their
notion of the ghost when they took the
house was altogether indefinite, and they
only laughed at it, considering it rather the
light OF joke than otherwise. 1t so
CHANGED that what, as they found out later,
was reputed to be the particular haunted
chamber was occupied by the two daugh-
ters of the family-I5 and Is years OF age
respectively.
From first to last there was no such thing
observed as an apparition. The girls slept
we'll, save for the fact that they were an
noyed on occasions by sound of dripping,
which they at first supposed was caused by
leak of some sort. But their surprise was
awakened by a continuance of this drip
ping during a long spell of dry weather, and
more particularly did they find reason at
length for wonderment in the circumstance
that the dripping began invariably at about
l1:l5 p. m. and lasted for, perhaps, twenty
minutes, but not longer.
The dripping sound seemed to come from
the mantelpiece and they carefully investi-
gated that fixture and us surroundings, but
without result, save for the discovery Of a
slightly hollow area il the stone under
meath, which had apparently been made by
scraping away its substance.
Inquiry developed the fact that the stone
had been scraped away for the purpose of
eliminating the SPOT where pool Of the
suicides blood had formed. Also it was
learned that the hour at which he killed
himself was about l1:l5 p m.
The tenants moved cut.
The residence on the rorth side Of K
street is supposed to be inhabited by the
spoOk of certain Col. Lindsay, who died
bsfore the war, and has since thea been
seen at various times in the act of wander
ing about t2e mansion. Ga the south side
of b street, east of Eighteenth street, is q
house. concerning which stories are told of
very extraordinary nature. One Of the
most surprising of them relates to an old
colored woman, who, the present occupant
states, apr cared to him and his family sew
eral times for tle purpose, which was finally
accomplished, of revealing the whereabouts
of some money. The mystery of the old Tay-
loe house, already referred to, at Seventeenth
street and New York avenue, has never
been unraveled yet The spectral goings or
there are 80 extraordinary that no one will
live in the house, although the United
States government once occupied it for
awhile in the daytime as the war record
Office, and previously to that during the
war. sisters of charity lived there, after
purifying it from top TO bottom with holy
water. The tale is that the former pro-
prietor of the establishment either whipped
one of his negroes to death i1 the garrett or
tortured his human chattel to death In the
cellar. 1t is said that faces are often seen
at the windows of the empty d cling by
passers-by at night. Much superstition is
connected with Secretary Blaine's house
opposite Lafayette square, in which Secre-
tary Seward was so nearly killed by an a.
sassin. and in front OF which Gen. Sickles
killed his wife's lover, Barton Key.