The Red Cloud chief., 1897-04-02
VACANT "nAuNrEp" HOUSES.
A Rumor Has OFTEN Ruined Valuable
property.

Property.
Probably the majority Of people have
been ~momentarily struck from time to
time by the sight Of dweliing-houses OF
a sad. deserted appearance, curiousiy
suggestive OF rats and romance, when
occur at intervals In the streets OF
London and most other big human
hives. says Household Words. There
they stand, year after year: no n oc-
cupies them, no one seems to make IN
quiries about them, or to regard them
as habitable; generally they cru,nble
through sheer damp and disuse, os are
eventually RACED by the legalized
"house-breaker." OF course. many
houses answering to this description
! stand empty for years pending decisions
In the court of chancery or because the
sanitary authorities have seen mt 10
condemn them: but 1t Is a fact that
hundreds Of such houses remain vacant
simply because of some queer local.
aversion or superstition, which mas
gradually surrounded them with a fatal
atmosphere of ill-luck. Call a house
haunted" and with many people the
ghost is taken for granted. Occasion
ally the reasons why certain dwelling
houses should have been marked out
and Stunned in this way are humorous
to a degree not to say ridiculous. The
writer knows Of one substantial pie,
standing in a northwest suburb, which
has been practically doomed to perpet-
ual emptiness solely through a local re-
port that a dastardly crime had beer
done In one of the rooms. Not an atom
Of base for this rumor was to be had,
but in a short space of time the belief
obtained such credence that 1t was no
uncommon thing for one or more NOR
bid sightseers to be found staring up
at the blank windows and specializing
as to the nature Of the deed. Finally
the street urchins took every oppor'
tunity to riddle II with stones, while
every possible tenant was solemnly
warned against occupying the premises
The despairing owner reduced the REM
from time to time, but n bad construc'
ton was placed upon this action, ant
the building Is now an uninhabitablt
shell. Another house, In the very mex
street, had stood tenantless for a lont
time for a somewhat similar reason
1t appeared that the last occupants hat
mys~teriously disappeared, owing none!
I in all directions. This was no unprece
dented occurrence in itself, but 1t s,
happened that a local ~busybody dis
covered in n of the upper rooms
red stain, which was duplicated In tn
passage below, and Immediately Their
were whisperiugs as to foul play. Al
investigation disproved this theory
but the rumor had gone forth, and tina
house was doomed. The fact that tn
p stains in question were found to b
a nothing more than blotches of re
paint made no difference. They wer
red. Instantly the local mind settle
70 that they must be life-blood. Eve
d those people who pride themselve
& upon being above the influence Of sue
y idle gossip very naturally do not relis
s occupying a house that Is pointed 0
and talked about" while they can oil
a tain one with no such notoriety al
n tached. AS a landlord bitterly re
marked to the writer recently: "Lt
n a house be singled out for local susp
u cion and whispers. II is almost certai
o to be doomed to future emptiness. N
a one cares to put the matter to the test.