The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1897-06-10
A HAUNTED HOUSE.
A Strange Door and Strange Story That
Always Chung to It.

A Strange Door and q Strange Story That
Always Chung to It.
The pension examiner, who had
been on duty in a southern state,
was in Washington for aweek or
two, as is the custom among that
class of public servants, and he was
telling of what he had seen and
heard in his bailiwick.
ooh, yes," he said in response to
a query, there were 'ha'nts' there,
for where are they not where the
darby prevails? But the real ghost
of the whole section was in an old
house known as Harley Hall. The
house was nearly 100 years old, and
as far back as the people could re-
member it had the reputation of be-
ing haunted. This reputation had
primarily grown out of the fact
that in one of the great rooms of the
house was a door, leading some
where, which never had been opened
as far as known and which resisted
every effort to open it, The room
was wainscoted in oak nearly to the
ceiling, and this door was only
about feet high and feet wide
and seemed appropriate as the en-
trance to a secret chamber. 1t had
heavy iron hinges and heavy iron
latch and staple, eaten deeply by the
rust when I saw it.
In response to a suggestion from
the owner of the place, who was
showing me over it and telling me
the story of its ghost, made an
effort to get the door open, both by
pulling at it and by putting my
shoulder against it and pushing with
all my strength. I even went so far
as to rig a kind of clumsy jack
against it to force it open, but it re-
fused to bulge an inch. I could tell
that it was well made door by the
sound it gave forth when pounded
on, but there was no reason appar-
ent why it should not open to re-
veal what was on the other side of it.
1.-THE story was not very weird
one, consisting mostly of the rumor
that on certain nights this door
opened and former master of the
house came forth to wander about.
He had never done any harm or any
good to any one, and on the whole
the ghost story was rather tame.
But the door was there, and there
was a mystery about it which was
still unsolved through all the years.
Last year the owner of the house,
at my suggestion, opened the old
Hall for summer boarders, and I led
the van and took the room with the
mysterious door in it. Many's the
night I've sat and watched that
door, and often of moonlight nights
I've sat in the open window, wait
ing to see if the sweetness of the
southern summer night would not
tempt the old master to wander, but
he never came forth tO.meet me.
lone night, though, came the
revelation of the mystery. A cur
tain in one of the windows of a wing
Of the house was blown into can
die fame, and five minutes later
fire was raging. Half an hour later
the fire was out, but the wing adj
joining my room had lost it's upper
half, exposing the wall of the main
building In the repairs that follow
ed this wall was partly removed,
and it was shown that the mystic
rious door was not door, but merely
a joke on posterity, played by the
original proprietor, who had had
heavy piece of oak put in the wains-
coting and had carved it with his
own hands to resemble door. The
hinges and latch he had put in to
carry the trick to the very end. That
door," concluded the narrator, "by
actual measurement was IA inches
thick and solder than a stone wall,
so that it was no wonder nobody
could ever open it. Washington
Star.