Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1899-09-21

about the place, the family
consisting of himself and wife,
Barbara and an old cook. The cook
found to be an easily frightened, very
religious woman, from whose mind
nothing could be farther than any sort
of deception liable to upset the usual
order of things. Old Maria is, more
over, the young girls devoted friend.
AS to Hoffman and his wife, they are
thoroughly reliable people, whom |
have known for a lifetime. They re-
lated numerous happenings similar to
that witnessed. The phenomena, they
said, had manifested themselves at
dlmerent occasions during the past
year or so. All this made me extreme
" anxious to investigate; still l felt
that any evidence l might gather
should be corroborated in order to meet
the opposition it was sure of provok-
ing. Consequently, called on several
people in the neighhorhood to assist
me, and the school teacher, Herr Opt
tiZ. a baker named Carl Fischer and
two other men responded. Barbara re-
turned to the kitchen after she had
good cry, as she said, and did not take
my eyes off her. We hadn't been
watching long when a securing rag
Barbara was handling tore itself loose
from her fist with sudden jerk and
fell hard upon the floor. At the same
time the tin pan she was using to wash
20 NJ fro
the dish would have fallen if the teach
er. being nearest to it, had not grabbed
1t. The girl now became frightened
and would not touch the vessel again.
Calling next day, | learned that Bar
bara had passed good night, and that
when she entered the kitchen in the
morning a porcelain match bowl, rest
ing on a shelf near the door, came fly
ing after her, while at the same time
small tin sieve hanging on shelf
fixed to the opposite wall fell down, at
taching to the folds of her dress. My
investigation committee thereupon
went on watch at once, and this is
what we observed during the day: A
key Of beer, holding twenty litres, and
standing upon the flooring in the hall,
began to waver about and shake vio-
lent when Barbara's skirt touched it
as the girl passed by quickly: a fodder
trough, Weighing at least one hun
dred pounds, showed similar tenden-
cies; a tin pan filed with water
jumped suddenly from the stove upon
the floor, flooding it. Barbara was
standing about three feet from the
vessel at the time. while the witnesses
followed her everywhere. There were
none but Barbara, the Hoffmans. and
the witnesses in and about the house,
and the outside was watched as we'll as
the inner rooms. In the afternoon,
when Barbara was cleaning the hall
with an iron seraper, she came near be-
ing killed by peculiar accident
namely, a child's sledge, standing be-
hind the staircase, suddenly raised up
in the air and alighted upon Barbara's
back, hurting her severely. | took the
sledge and put it in another part Of the
hall, where we could Closely observe
1t. It remained for about ten minutes,
then commenced to totter about for
perhaps fifteen second. Then. with a
bound, it jumped up in the air, strik-
ing the handle of Barbara's hoe and
knocking it out of her hand. Barbara
Is simply Leyden Jar in human shape.
such as Bulwer-Lytton has described in
his famous book. To make her case
plain to the layman, il is but necessary
to point out that in electricity unlike
charges attract each other. while SIM
larry charged bodies repel each other.
So 1t comes to pass that a piece OF
bread or rag. which this human
Leyden Jar holds in her hand for some
time, becomes so charged with cleo