The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1896-06-06

IL any reader OF these lines has a
haunted house in his possession / wish
he would place it at my disposal for
one night. should like very much to
see real ghost, and yet I am not sure
but have seen one, although there
are two links missing in the chain Of
evidence which render absolute GER
tainty possible 1t is a curious thing
that in this investigating age Of the
world the actual existence Of ghosts is
still a matter Of doubt; and still more
curious is the fact that ghosts, whether
they exist or not, exert an influence on
the property market Of the most ma
terialistic and hardest headed city in
the world. The other week a house
was put up at auction in London and
did not receive a bid merely because
1t was supposed to be haunted; for
fifteen years it had not had a tenant,
and consequently its value in the mar
ket was nothing atsall. H. Il. i 5z
A short time since / was shown a
house near Denmark Ell station in
London which had been unlet for a
great number of years. 1t was most
commonplace looking building, and
the repairers were doing It up i'll the
hope that perhaps it might be let, but
up to date this hope has not been re-
allied. The friend who was with me-
and who pointed out the house, said it
could scarcely be called haunted, for
no ghost was ever seen there, but the
water in the eWers and water bottles
turned to blood during the night, and
when a man went to wash himself in
the morning he was naturally taken
aback by this startling transformati ton.
confess that this incident, happening
every night, might induce the most un-
romantic stock broker in the city to
desert the house when quarter day
came around. "A man must be a good
J deal of a jingo who is content to wash
and bathe in blood s .*
Investigation in this realm of the.
unreal is apt to be someM kat unsatis-
factory. have OF months read
Stead S s'Spoo Ok Z q ma gazine in the hope.
OF coming upon something tangible, if
there is anything tangible in the world
of spirits, but Mr.. Stead's ghosts al
ways strike me as being a trifle too
thin. j4Sa 5 84Se5g f@ ,r4:.< Il q
About a year ago Conan Doyle spent
a night in a haunted house. I believe
he has never written his experience,
and now throw out the hint to some
enterprising magazine editor, for if
Mr.. Doyle can be induced to write
upon this subject, the article will cer-
tainly be interesting. The ghostly
manifestations Were in the haunted
house all right enough, but although
Mr.. Doyle did not succeed in tracing
them to their source, I understand he
is still skeptical as to their spiritual
origin. 55 s.. i..$s II
q Harold Frederic, whose latest book,
\" illumination is a work of genius, if
ever there was one, investigated in his
younger days the methods Of a spirit
photographer. It was at the time
when wet plates were in vogue, and
when +hocus pocus was more difficult
than it would be now; yet, although
believe he also did not succeed in
fuding the fraud he looked for, he
was not convinced that the pictures
seen on the plates were those Of actual
spirits. Thus / say that investigation
in all the case / have heard anything
about has been unsatisfact ctory, and the
story have now to tell Of my own
experience similarly lacks definiteness