The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-01-26
THAT GHOST STORY.
THE HAUNTED HOUSE TROUBLES
INVESTIGATED BY SPIR-
ITUALISTS.
The Eagle Man Gets His Hair Oombed BY
Unseen Hands-A Spirit Named F.
G, Hill Told Something of the
DOings at the Haunted
House
THAT GHOST STORY.

! noises are SJlli learu there Wnlle olntr
manifestations of some apparently super
! natural power are witnessed every night.
| Nobody who hears the story from some
| Of the members of the Burns family can
| fail to be interested III it; and they are not
! the only people who have heard strange
! things in this peculiarly afflict-
/ ed house. All these things are
! worthy of investigation and with
/ that end IN view an EAGLE reporter
! talked with some reliable spiritnaljsts
with reference to the matter with the re
| suit that seance in the haunted house
was planned for last night. after first hay
/ ing secured the permission Of the occu-
pants At So'clock sharp the three spir-
! ltuali>ts, viz: Messrs. Smith and Purcell,
well know carpenters and builders and S
NJ. Tucker, Justice of the peace, and the
EAGLE reporter met at the house Of strange
ghostly yisitations by appointment. THESE
gentlemen went on the theory that some
body in The family must have the elements
OF medium, hence the repeated appear
ance of their uuearthly visitor
BY common consent they selected
young Mr.. Burns as perhaps the one and
they Immediately tested him. They
placed a chair in the middle OF the floor
and he put his hand on it lightly, where
upon Mr.. Smith asked if any of his friends
was around Immediately the chair
tipped greatly to the establishment OF
Mr.. Burns and the other members
Of the family. 1t is stated by spritualists
that occasionally there is person who has
in him or her elements which If developed
would make him or her wonderful
medium, and that those people are very
often haunted by ghosts, not exactly for
the purpose of harming them, but for the
purpose of exciting them, so that they
may inquire into spiritualism and thus
develop their powers. They argue this
very plausibly, and have seemed to
think from the start that someone
of the family living in this
haunted house was an undeveloped
medium whom the spirits desired to force
into an investigation of the subject. They
were, of course, very highly elated over
the tipping of the chair when Mr.. Burns
placed his hand on it.
With this strange act performed before
the eyes of every body in the house, it WAS
no wonder that each and every one of
them desired to personally take part IL
the proceedings. A heavy kitchen table
with ponderous leaves, was placed in
the center of the floor; the leaves
were raised, and the the family with
the three spiutualists named and
Mr.. Kennedy and the reporter sat around
it and placed their hands on it. Mr.. Smith
called up the spirits aud asked them to
make a signal of heir presence by lifting
. h., goI4
by every one present but the table could
not be lifted. The conclusion was that
this particular spirit was not strong
enough to lift it, and it was asked to sig
nifty that fact by rolling it forward or
backward. Immediately the table pushed
on its rollers greatly to the establishment
of the elder Mrs. Burns, who kept her eyes
under it 10 see that no trick was
The spirit was asked to make
another trial at lifti it, but 1t utterly
failed, although ryUody could feel that
an extra eXertion was made. Mr.. Smith
then discharged the spirit and asked for
another spiritual friend to take its place,
but no response came. 1t was suggested
that Judge Tucker call upon some Of his
spiritual friends, and he did 50. He had
hardly uttered the request when the table
raised fully six inches and came down
again with great force, which signiied
that the spirit was there and ready for
business.
Are you the spirit that is causing
this family so much trouble" asked
Judge Tucker and the table raised up and
beat the floor with its legs once and in the
most emphatic manner which signIied
that it was not the guilty spirit.
Are you man or woman" asked the
judge and the spirit replied yes" by the
table raising three times and beating the
floor with its legs.
do you know who is causing this
trouble" asked the judge and the spirit
yes" very satisfactorily.
"Will you tell u.s." asked the judge, and
the spirit very emphaticallv said NO"
whereupon the judge told him that he
needn't get so ''huffy" about it.
"Will you tell US your name?" said the
judge, and the spirit answered Yes
more courteously.
,Jadge Tucker then called over the al
phsbet and when + was reached the table
pounded the floor three times. "C' was
the next letter responded to, and so on
got very excited twice and beat the floor
with the table after the man
ner of a boy playing on a drum.
The cause of all this was the
Judge, who was going over the alphabet
faster than the spirit desired or a. least
not giving him time to make the signal
raps when the letter which he desired to
respond to was reached. There was some
thing lUdiCrous and at the same time
startling ia the dece SSed SIR. Hil.S pro
tests. lie was evidently giving tne judge
more sauce than a live man could do and
escape without hsYiug to pay II good
round fine for contempt Of court. The
spirit answered many other questions the
substance Of which was that the
elder Mrs. Burns and her son tad
the elements OF mediums in them /
that the spirit which WAS keeping them
awake aud nearly scared TO death all
night did not mean 10 hurt them: that he, |
Hin. did not know any of the family but |
knew member OF the family that lived I
there previously very well He also
promised to revisit the home later on and /
his presence % the family IL /
hi, own peculiar way aud IN manner /
that they cannot fail TO understand.
THE DARK CIRCLE
After very Interesting table lifting I
seauce which was prematurely ended by /
the entrance of about twenty boys who We're /
out ghost hunting and who were very noisy. /
a dark circle seanoe was proposed and tile
family aud the spirituaiists, Mr.. Ken
nelly and the reporter entered the room IN /
which the spook pulled the bed clothing
from over young Mr.. Burns aud his wife
a week ago. This room was as dark As
CnucamL ra-al n-6ni-h E and The man who :