The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1898-10-28

Paris Letter: Had it not been for
the all-absorbing interest Of the war
with Spain you would probably have
heard a great deal more, during the
past year, of the peculiar supernatural
wave that still continues to sweep over
France. In every part Of the country
the people are stirred up over tales Of
haunted houses. Little girls see Wis
ions and make others see them. Lit
tie boys fall into frances and stand up
and prophesy. Church bells ring at
midnight. The consecrated waters are
, stolen from churches for the wicked
celebration of the messe noir. Armies
are seen marching in the clouds. Ca
thedrals are seen shining in the sky.
Spectres follow young women into ON
nibuses. The peculiar thing is that
without exception, young folk are
found to the front in all these wonders.
Every haunted house, upon investiga-
ton, is found to contain strange type
OF boy or girl. Such children have
been found to be the authors of church
dissertations. They have been found
lettering in village streets at night
when church bells ring.
A typical case is that of the haunt
ed house at Yseures and the little girl
who is supposed to cause the trouble,
though she never has been caught in
any act. Thousands Of people have
visited this house. In the town itself
every one knows that the devil has
taken possession of it. The mayor of
Yseures and Doctor Boutet, the prin-
cipal physician, express themselves as
surprised and perplexed. Night after
night noises are heard in the house,
sometimes like the sound of steps,
sometimes heavy blows, and some-
times signs. When the little girl is
taken to some other house to sleep the
noises cease. They are heard only on
nights when she is there. She is Renee
sabourault, dull, quiet, pleasant look
ing child of about 10 years whom the
tenant Of the haunted house took from
an orphan asylum when an infant. She
declares that she knows nothing of the
cause of the noises. Doctors and men
Of science have sat up with her night
after highland still the blows and
footsteps would be heard. There have
been people in the cellar, people in
every room, people on the stairways,
people sitting up all night outside,
around the house. The house has been
examined from top to bottom for a
secret passageway or chamber. The
proprietor, his wife and son, have been
put under observation as minute as
that Of little Renee. All has been
without effect. AS surely as the girl
sleeps in the haunted house of Yseures,
so surely are those disturbances in it
at night.
Renee Sabourault denies all knowl-
edge of the cause of these mysterious
sounds. Il don't know" is her only
explanation for all the phenomena
caused through her.
She turns out to be medium of con-
siderable power - without knowing
what medium" is. She can over
throw a chair or table that she does
not touch-without knowing how she
does it. Under the hypnotic influence
Of the occultist savant, DR.. Corneille,
she produces automatic writing'-
and she does not know what she has
written. What she writes is weirdly
contradictory. The invisible thing"
or elemental" that hangs around her
claims, most of the time, to be an
Auvergnat named Lausanne, buried in
the cemetery of the "Tombe-Blanche"
at Lyons. But it is a common sort OF
spirit, facetious, tricky and unreliable.
Sometimes 1t does not know its own
name. and causes Renee to write silly
things. The overturning of heavy
chairs and tables happens when the
child is in the room with them, but
not. as she insists, at her desire or
knowledge. The noises are heard when