Los Angeles herald., 1891-08-24
THE JAIL is HAUNTED.
EXPERIENCES OF THE NIGHT
WATCH AT THE CITY PRISON.
The Receiving Hospital Visited by the
Spirits of the Unfortunates Who Have
Died There-The Jailer's narrowing
Tale.

The usually peaceful life of the night
jailer and night clerk of the city prison
has been strangely disturbed of late.
Both gentlemen are good solid citizens,
weigh in the neighborhood of 200 pounds
each, and presumably have clear con-
sciences. They would be the last men
to be suspected OF having any fear Of the
supernatural, and this fact makes the
recent demonstrations which have taken
place in the gloomy corridors of the jail
at the dread hour of midnight appear all
the more strange and unaccountable.
Several days ago the officers who are
doing night duty at the prison this
month in the capacity of clerk and
iailer applied to the chief for permission
to change off temporarily with the day
men. They were asked their reason,
and at first refused to give it, but when
the chief said that he could not grant
their request unless they told him what
was the matter, the jailer related the
following strange story:
81 was sitting in the receiving hos
pital the other night" said he, land
the usual run of drunks and dodgers
being rather light, turned down the
gas and prepared to take little nap.
81 don't know how long | slept, but
when awoke there was crowd OF peo-
pie in the room, all of whom were bend
ing over man on the operating table.
To say l was astonished would hardly
express my feelings. first thought
that some poor fellow, shot down in
some row or stabbed in street fight,
or maybe tramp run over on the rail-
road had been brought in while 1 was
asleep. This was my idea for a mo-
ment only, however, for soon began
to recognize faces about the table, and
there is the strange part OF the story.
"I do not want you to think Pm lying"
said the jailer, "but so help me, If L
did not see, leaning over the body on the
table, the face of man who died OF de-
lirium tremens on that very table less
than a year ago. When 1 began to look
around I saw others, no less than ten in
all, who had died in the room within
the past year. They all looked just as
they did when brought in, with their
wounds still fresh and bleeding, or with
their faces set and white as when they
passed away from dose of poison.
Immediately after awoke, the table
was showed to the side of the room with
a loud noise, and the ghostly crowd con-
gregated in one corner of the hospital.
l arose, hardly daring to trust my feet,
and escaped. 1 told the desk sergeant
of what had seen and he went back to
laugh at me, but the same horrible crew
were still there. A moment later, how
ever, the spirit group disappeared before
our eyes, after the table had been rolled
back to the middle of the room.
"But that isn't ALL" said the jailer
''The other night was going down the
corridor of the prison and whenI passed
the female cell saw a girl standing at
the bars with bottle, like morphine
vial, in her hand. knew that we had
no women in the Jail that night and a
moment later 1 went back to investi-
gate. opened the cell door and just
as did 80 the girl raised the vial to her
| lips, gave rasping, ghastly, hair
raising moan and disappeared. 1t was
the exact image of an East Side girl
who took morphine and died in that
cell little over year ago"
The chief listened to the story patti
emily. He told the men to stay on a
few nights longer and to report any
similar occurrences in the future. There
is talk OF putting squad in the Jail
corridors to watch out for the spirits.N,