St. Landry democrat., 1892-06-18
HUNTING FOR APPARITIONS.
The GhOStly and chastity Work OF
the Boston Society of Psychical
Research.

Inc NHoStiy ANA VHdStiy Voih "
the Boston Society of Psychical
Research.
1t may not be generally known tia
an important part Of the work OF the
Society of Psychical Research, which
| had its annual meeting recently, Is
the tracing Of the origin Of the mar
Vicious tales that are published from
time to time by some of the neWspa
peTs, says the Boston Transcript
! There ale correspondents in the Wes
and south who, when times are dull
| invent startling stories, giving names
and other details which give an air o.
| probability to what they send. Now
! the society mentioned above, of which
Richard Hodgson Of this city is secre
tary, follows up all reports Of super
natural happenings, and the results
Of some Of the Investigations are eX
ceedingly interesting There are
correspondents Of the society in al
parts Of the country, and when any
thing strange is published, a clipping
is promptly sent to the headquarters
! in Boston, from which there soon
| issue letters OF inquiry.
| Sometimes the society is notified
of a real case Of double consciousness
| and an investigation follows. The
details are published in this part OF
the country, for instance, and pretty
soon western paper comes out with
a startling story exactly similar ex-
| cept as to place, time, and names.
Mr.. HOdgson says that about a yeal
| or so ago he made an investigation
;,4 10 = In,,IIl
4 young woman for three months be-
lieved she was another girl who died
| thirteen years ago. She performed
her part to perfection, and all the
witnesses were very sure she acted
Just as the dead girl had. The story
about her was printed in the papers,
causing much discussion. When in
tereSt in the case had somewhat died
out, Chicago newspaper came out
with two u three columns about a
woman who believed she was another
person who had died years previous
Names were given, and even addresses
Of persons mentioned were printed.
The story was SO much like that Of the
girl about whose strange actions there
had been an investigation, that
Secretary HodgsOn stamped the
Chicago story at once as a lie. He
wrote to the persons mentioned in
the Chicago story, and every one Of
his letters was returned to him
marked Ono such person there
A few months ago d Maine news
paper published story about d
haunted house. Mr.. Hodgson wrote
to the editor Of the paper for the name
# tt,n Tho l.,ttAt ~ rayolr ~
an inquiry, informed Mr.. Hodgson
that he had simply written up the
story from d number OF fumOrS, and
that it was not worth following up.
1t was undoubtedly not true that the
house had been the scene of such
ghostly actions as he had described,
said the writer, who was medical
man. OF course there was no use
looking for further details.
\ Boston newspaper printed a story,
a few weeks ago, about haunted
room in Il Brooklyn IN. L.. police
station. The story had been pre-
viously published in New York. 1t
was stated that ghost was in the
habit of visiting a certain spot in the
sleeping-rOom Of the policemen, max
ing such d rumpus and troubling the
man who slept in that particular spot
50 much that finally the officers re-
fused to sleep in that place. The
captain of that station was written to
for information about the case, and
he replied that the story was made
out OF whole cloth
4 wild Yarn was that from Cham
bellaiD, 5. D., printed in a western
newspaper. McCloud's cattle ranch
near Chamberlain was the scene of a
series of remarkable vsitations by a
ghost Through the house went the
ghost, rafting windows, slamming
doors, stamping hard in the entry,
running upstairs like one possessed,
throwing chairs around, and i'll gen
eri4I making life miserable for the in
mates. Occasionally during the still
night the sleeping ranches would be
awakened by a most unearthly yell,
which would make their hair stand
on end. Up they jumped and ran.
sacked the house, for they believed
SOMEBODY was playing a joke on
them. But the perpetrator could
never be found.
One night the ghost appeared.
With chattering teeth and trembling
knees the ranchmen stood before the
figure Of Il woman clothed in the
Of the grave. A rifle was
brought, the boIdest man took it.
and fired straight TT the heart
Of the woman. After the smoke had
cleared away there she still stood,
gazing at them with her large, sorrow
full eyes. For Il minute she remained,
and then gradually disappeared and
was never seen again. The edi-
tor Of the newspaper in which the
story was first printed was asked to
tell the name Of the writer. He did
ESQ and the writer was asked about the
lacts of the case He replied that
rhe story originated with some of the
and that nobody had
beard the yells, seen the ghost, or
been bothered at all.