The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-01-15
WEIRD HARLEM WHAT'S IT
SoUAHKED AND SKINNED ARoUNr
DARK ~ NIGHTS.

when the Tenants In a Body Hunted It,
1t Vanished, but ono Woman Saw It
Gone Now, She Hopcs-CoId scientins
Person Says H. Might Have been n Rat
The Thing has gone away from the homes OF
the Stahls. tho Seipers. the Crosskills and the
McDowells. At least they hope the Thing has
gone. 1t was a pestifcrous. niGht-wakins.
~sGuawking. singing. chatterinR. skipping, I'm.
pertinent. irresponsible Thing. and the ten
ants Of the TOP fats Of ~ West 18th street
hope 1t will never com back. They don't
know what Il was. They don't care so long az
it stays away.
1t came the night after Christmas. The peo-
pie in the Stahl Seiper fat, top floor. west side.
heard it first. II chartered and woke Mrs.
Stahl. She said "Shool' to it. It chartered
out Of the darkness all the louder. Mrs. Stahl
did not feel warranted in getting out Of bed
without more definite information about the
creator Of the disturbance. IL chartered away
into the front room after a while and she lighted
tho gas. and the family and other families
hunted for it with fire shovels. stovelid filters.
hrooms and other domestic weapons. They
found nothing at all. They searched high and
low without any result at all. Some OF the folks
said that the Thing was not a material thing at
all. but 4 mere Christmas dinner nightmare.
The next night the Crosskills, on the other
'AAN ~ WV hhaAAs hAahA ANe1NA ~ " shAhA W NAAtA
skepticism. At . in the morning chattering
and scampering began in their own fiat. They
rose in force and lighted the gas. They saw
the creature. 1t was. as they described II, the
color Of q mouse. but much larger than a
mouse and smaller than a rat. 1t had eyes that
]glittered halefully. 1t travelled about the floor
with frightful velocity. %uttering a shrill buzzing
sound that was almost musical. They chased
it until it vanished into thin air. Then they
told their nplEhhDrS about II.
A day or two later they heard that Mrs. Nc
and with her husband and children occupies
the east ilat on the floor below, had spent much
place in the Mcdowell fat was at the head OF
some harm to them. Mrs. Mcdowell says. she
would have enjoyed the Things song: 1t
capture or injury.
rd Its last qWFpeaE s,aSf h in the he house ss}r was last last
Help !" she screamed. The Thing is in the
The clans gathered at the door Of Mrs. stahl's
bedroom, She, called on the Seiners, to come in
too y much sGHS Of i her ere W n life fs'p to go sS' in sHs w Shoa she
asked. would care for her orphan boy when she
WAS y gone No no Much as she esteemed
ought to 20 in. II would be In their own rooms
soon enough. she said. without his going
Mrs. Stahl tells the rest Of the story:
And | sat up in bed and yelled for help. and
with that l lit the light and reached out and
opened the hall door, so that It could get out;
scratching around the far corner Of the parior.
Then | got back into bed and leaned out and
to protect myself should the Thing pass my way
again. It's n wonder the Police and 1.-THE Fire De-
partment didn't come for the noise we made.
other. So in the end her husband he came in
and went out in the other room to look fol, the
First / knew it came: and it was so terri
| Rugged my shoe close to myself and yelled
for help. and forgot all about throwing it. and
again. Il got under n screen in the back of the
room and we all OF US went in and got around
yelling and wasn't there, it must have gone
out the door. Ever since then. every night. I've
i f615f the P fes6d 5Rto IN TSe s TRinE gP Ras n tns qI ieft f the
floor 70 climb, hut it might, and I'm taking no
Mrs. Stahl said she had no time to see what
it looked like. except that it was about as long
as her f9rettGGsr Nrs sta al hands an are 9TTits
or something besides legs. although it never
the floor. Her brother-in-law told her that
Clocks. She really thought it was an. insect ,
which. taking its size and rapldttyo OF
The Ianitor of the Hat aroused the unlimited
derision and contempt Of everybody who had
seen the beast by SAYING that 1t was a Fielder
The ghost reporter Of The SUN who was
in consultation found nothing to explain
the queer vlSitatious. He went 70 DR.. ]. A.
Steele OF the Museum Of Natural History. who
knows all about animals. IT. seemed possible
that the Thing was an animal known to science.
is no beast that crawls or runs or walks
Or hops or rolls that DR., Steele doesn't know all
about. He took a cold. scientific view of the
data which were laid before him. II wis either
a mouse or a bat. he says. His reasons may he
stated in unscientiflc anguage by a transpost-
ton OF the words OF a popular song:
It amt got nothing else to be.
He justified this conclusion by saying that
certain varieties Of bats run with great speed.
and mice sometimes sing DR.. Steele DOESN'T
in Things. The tenants Of 277 West
18th street think that he is disqualified from
Judging the matter. They would like to know
what sort of animal Is gifted with the power 10
into thin air.