The herald., 1894-06-25
STRANGE NOISES ARE HEARD
Uncanny Stories Told About a
Notorious House.
Haunted By the Former Queen Of
the Demi-Monde.
The superstition of the Inmates Aroused
Almost to the Point of Abandon
ing the Piaoe-Pespls Have
Fled In the Night.

A couple OF years ago q woman who
had reigned for many years in Los An
geles as queen of the demi-monde,
made her final exit from the world.
She died peaceful death and left be-
hind her a considerable property, vice
in this instance seeming to have cut her
loose from the disasters proverbislly said
to follow lives such Nc she had led.
There were not few, the recipients Of
her bounty and kind heart, who followed
her to her grave with feelings OF genuine
regret, and cast mantle OF charity over
her irsilty in the recollection of many q
deed OF charity in which she had in
vested portion of her ilLgotten gains.
Her maison de joie WAS very we'll
known to men about town, where scenes
OF extravagant dissi patton had made it
noted for good many years. The du-
cats Of rich and poor alike had con-
trihuted to swell the neat fortune which
she left behind her and supply the rich
furnishings OF the establishment. Many
are the salacious stories with which
habitues OF the place were wont to re-
gale their friends and acquaintance.
L
most marvellous details of orgies that
would put to blush the old revels
Bacchsnslisn and otherwise, in which
creduous fools and reckless business
men parted with large sums of money.
No doubt as years went by these stories
grew as they passed from mouth to
mouth, but there was more than q sus-
picion that many a deed took place in
the place which permissible words would
fail to describe.
Even before the death of the queen
the stories told had invested the man
sion with weird and uncanny interest.
Its reputation had extended up and
down the Pacific coast until it was as
we'll known in San Francisco as in Los
Angeles.
After the death of the notorious
woman the place was still run upon the
old plan, and 1T was only short time
before her name was scarcely ever men,
toned, and would no doubt have been
forgotten by this time if it were not for
some queer things which have happened
and which have become the talk of the
half-world and men about town as well.
1t was not long alter her death that it
began to be said by some of the women
who lived in the house that strange
noises were heard In the still honrs of
the night. Those who heard them
could not say what the noises were, but
they did not like to talk about them.
The attempts to keep the uncauny
subject quiet resulted, as such attempts
usually do, in giving it more of local
habitation and a home, and it finally
came to be said that the dead woman
Was more troubled after death than be-
fore; that she occasionally returned to
the scene of her triumphs in an intangi-
BILE shape to ease her conscience in the
good style OF various and sundry groans,
calculated to make the flesh of the in
mates Of the house creep.
To these unpleasant sounds it was,
later still, announced that a distinct
vibration of the house was felt several
times, and that this has kept up until
there was a shaking of the house sutfi.
cient to frighten some of the male visit.
ors of the place 40 that they incontin.
entity fed in the early hours of the morn
ing.
The weirdness Of the visitations has
had very disagreeable effect upon the
fortunes of the former residence OF the
ghostIy visitant. There ia q very great
dsnclination on the part OF anyone to
reside there, and the halls that once
echoed to the revelry OF outlsndish glee,
superinduced by generous libations to
Bacchus, have become silent.
1t sounds very foolish to attribute
such superstition to people in this ma.
terialistic age. but that it exists 10 8
fac. that can be very readily proved by
the curious.
Very recently a new sound has been
heard in the rear of the place. which
seems to have put the finishing touch
upon the theory that the lions in the
front yard stand guard over q haunted
house. Three persons have stated that
they have frequently heard, after the
shaking of the house, a sound OF running
water; that the sound gradually in
creased in volume as il under the house
O column of water was forced up and
then suddenly fell with O crash. Since
this noise has been heard it has been
seriously thought of abandoning the
place.
In this connection it has been re-
mem bered that long ago, the houee was
not as large az it lie now. AS the affairs
OF the woman now dead and buried.