The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-04-12
A HAUNTED HOUSE,
Strange Door and Strange Story
Tint AIyYaXS CIunp to It

The pension examiner, who had been on
duty in a Southern state, was in Washington
for week or two, as is the custom among
that class of public servants, and he was tell
ing of what he had seen and heard in his
bailwiek, according to the Washington Star.
"Oh, 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 in an old
house known as Harley hall. The house was
nearly hundred years old, and far back
as the people could remember it had the repu-
tation Of being haunted. This reputation had
primarily grown out of the fact that in one Of
the great rooms of the house was a door, lead
ing somewhere. which had never been opened,
as far as known, and which resisted every eff
fort to open it. The room was wainscoted in
oak nearly to the ceiling, and this door was
only about six feet high and three feet wide,
and seemed appropriate the entrance to a
secret chamber. 1t had heavy iron hinges and
a heavy iron latch and staple, eaten deeply by
the rust, when I saw it.
I'm response to a suggestion from the owner
of the place, who was showing me over it
and telling me the story of its ghost, l made
an offer to get the door open. both by pulling
at 1t and by putting my shoulder against it
and pushing with all my strength. l even
went SO far as to rig a kind of clumsy jack
against it to force it open, but it refused to
bulge an inch. | could tell that it was a
well-made door by the sound it gave when
pounded on, but there was no reason appa-
rent why it should not open to reveal what
on the other side of it.
1.-The story was not very weird one, con-
sisting 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, the whole, the ghost
story was rather tame. But the door was
there and there was a mystery about that
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 l led the van and took the
room with the mysterious door. Many's the
night I've sat and watched that door and,
often of moonlight nights, I've sat in the open
window, waiting 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.
Zone night though, came the revelation of
the mystery. A curtain in one of the win
dows of wing of the house was blown into
a candle flame, and five minutes later a fire
was raging. Half an hour later the fire was
out. but the wing adjoining my room had lost
its upper half. exposing the wall of the main
building. In the repairs that followed this
wall was partly removed, and 1t was shown
that the mysterious door was not door, but
merely a joke on posterity. played by the
original proprietor, who had a very heavy
piece of oak put in the wainscoting and had
carved it with his own hands TO resemble
a 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 fourteen inches thick
and solder than stone wall, that 1t was
no wonder nobody could ever open it,