The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-02-23
WHENCE CANE HE?
a GROSTLY vIsITANr IN A NEW
YORK MANSION.

ouse'sTen6ots-Meny 5eerh Phan-
tom of Grisly BODYBUILDING Vacant
Now. Stunned by the Pssssr-by.
From the Boston Globe.
New YORK, Feb. l5.-On the north side
Of an uptown street. two doors from Fifth
avenue, says the New York Sun, stands a
high-stoop. old-fashioned brownstone house
of four stories and basement.
1t is numbered 9. 1t is little back from
shadow Of house Z. House 9 is not a re-
markable house in any way, but it may be
duplicated almost hundred times IN older
New York.
Creeping vines climb up its front wall
to hide the brick and drape the windows
in summer. just now they are bare and
dead.
The windows look cherries as IL to con-
firm the idea OF vacancy given by two
white and black ito lett signs now fastened
to the balcony. Steep stone steps under
the front stoop lead abruptly TO the base
ment.
One might pass the house every day and
fail TO notice it at all. Now and then a
passerby, familiar with its history, stops
dLQ AOOho Qp ~ kQ0 HlDQOHbs
The servants of the neighborhood talk
about it constantly and repeat with new
details added to each repetition. all the
stories and traditions.
The maids quicken their steps as they go
by it alone after dark.
The stories of appsrtions and queer
noises cannot be traced farther back than
ten or fifteen years. The house was built
thirty-two years ago.
AfsoOrdinov 70 oil ba 81 ha
is manifested by strange noises, as of the
moving OF boxes or trunks in the garret, by
footsteps in the Railways and up and down
the stairways, by mysterious openings and
shuttings of doors, by
SIGNS AND ORGANS
and whisperings, articulate but not distinct
or loud enough TO be understood, and lastly
by definite apparition.
This is the figure of an old man of stopped
shoulders and stealthy gait. He has large,
bright eyes and pallid face.
Witnesses claim that he has come quite
close to them and has looked into their
faces. has shown his teeth in mirthless
grin, has whispered words they could not
understand. and then has walked slowly
away to vanish at the turn of q stairway or
behind door suddenly slammed.
He has been seen by at least half dozen
people. By his appearance or by the mys~
terious and ghostly signs that indicated his
being astir in the house, he has frightened
the tenants and their servants until they
feared to remain longer in the house.
He has been seen in the dusk and In the
half light of low-turned gas jets, or at the
edge of a circle of light cast by a candle,
but never so far as is known in the full light
of day.
But his presence has been marked def
nitely by all the witnesses, and some of
them have been SO near him that the hand
might have touched him had the will not
refused
Walter B. Whiting, who now lives with
his family at No. 321 Lexington avenue, is
known as a practical middle-aged man of
affairs with anything but superstitious
turn of mind.
When he moved into the house In ques-
ton in the autumn OF 1885. he had never
heard the slightest suggestion that it was
haunted, and
BE BELIEVED THAT GHOSTS
were entirely outside the possibilities.
Before Mr.. Whiting made this house his
home. he bad extensive alterations made
in it.
Hardwood parquet floors were laid in
many of the rooms, and workmen and
paperhanger went over the house almost
from top to bottom.
Mr.. Writings family was still at Maria
gaEsett pier when he took the servants into
the house to put it in readiness.
The servants, excepting the cook, whom
Mr.. Whiting had just engaged, had been in
the family for years.
On the first night in the house Mr.. Whit
ing, after the servants had gone upstairs,
went to the dark middle room on the second
floor and went to bed.
He started up in the night to hear foot
steps coming down the stairs from the floor
above. He at once thought of the new
cook.
He got up, put on his dressing.gown, and
went out into the hall to see what she
wanted.
The hall was dark and he could see moth
ing, but he could hear the steps just start
ing down the stairway to the parlor floor.
He followed, and all the way down he
heard the steps few feet in advance. He
followed them along the parlor hallway and
then down the basement stairs.
He had gone but few steps down when
he heard the door at the foot of the stairs
slam in front Of him. Then he heard the
outside basement door open and shut.
HIT hurried forward. opened this door,
and looked out into the street. It was
empty and silent.
Still supposing that the cook had gone out
in front of him, he closed and locked
the outside door, SO that she would not be
able to get in when she returned.
Then he went upstairs. To make sure
that
HIS SUSPICIOUS WERE CORRECT
he rang for one of the other servants aud
asked her to see if the cook was in her room.
In a few minutes the servant returned and
said that the cook was sound asleep in bed,
as we're the other servants
Mr.. Whiting was at loss for an explana-
ton, and finally settled it that there had
been burglar in the house, although he
could not understand what a burglar would
be doing in the attic or walking downstairs
30 deliberately and with such small regard
to the noise Of his footsteps.
Frequently after that night. when MIR.
Whiting would be sitting in his room or
had just gone to bed, with the house dark
and silent, he would hear the soft footsteps
falling with incessant. measured tread upon
the floor of the adjoining front room.
The room had a parquet floor partly COW
cred with rugs and as the steps went up
and down the room they could be distinctly
heard to pass from the hard wood to the
rugs and then back to the hard wood
again.
If Mr.. Whiting went out into the front
room the footsteps would follow him or
move pace or two in advance.
A member of the family says that Mr..
Whiting, after being haunted by the foot
steps several nights in succession, turned in
the darkness and cried out:
"For Gods sake, Is there anything you
want me to do for you You seem to be
in distress. and if there's any way / can
help you why don't you let me know p