The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-08-12
PSYCHOLOGY AND RAT TRAPS.
Intimate Relationship shown by a
Society for Research,

From the New Orleans Times-Democrat.
"A rat trap is indispensable in the in
vestigation of occult phenomena" said a
New Orleans architect who has penchant
for the curious, land 1t was rat trap"
he continued, smllingly, that disturbed
the Louisiana Branch of the London So
ciety of Psychological Research. The
story is rich. and has never been told in
print. About twelve years ago, when the
London society was making considerable
stir. and had enlisted among its members
such men as Lord Salisbury, Arthur Bal
four and Sir William Thompson, a few
enthusiasts here in New Orleans con-
cluded to organize a local branch. I was
one of the crowd, and can bear witness
that we were in perfect good faith. We
were actuated by a sincere desire to as
certain the truth about so-called spirit
phenomena, and We determined to set
about 1t in a calm, systematic and scien-
tific manner. incidentally, we wrote to
the secretary at London, and received a
lot of documents and a cordial invitation
TO send on fun reports of our proceedings.
They were Investigating haunted houses
in England at the time, and we concluded
10 follow their example. After a good
deal of trouble We located three all in
the old quarter, and guaranteed to be full
OF spooks don't want to get the own
aDOut my ears, SO perhaps had best
not mention the exact locations, but the
first place we tackled was an old house
near ST Louis street, in which the neigh
bors swore they had seen lights and heard
mysterious footsteps
1t mad been vacant for some time" con-
tinued the narrator ''but we got the KEYS.
and six of us went there one evening 10
watch for ghosts. We stationed ourseIvo s
in dsmantled back room, and ii was
hardly dark before strange things began
10 happen. We heard all manner of I'M
accountable enthusiastically footsteps on
the stairs the rustic of dresses, the creak-
ing of doors sudden loud crashes in dis
tant apartments, and a pattering as of
children running. Rats were suggested
but it seemed absolutely impossible for
rats to make such sounds. Nevertheless
we set big cage trap next night caught
nine monsters before day, and after that
the house was as silent as a tomb The
spirits and rats ceased to walk simultane-
ousiy. Ii was very discoura ging The
next house we tried was said to be haun,ed
by the ghost Of a one-legged gunsmith
VINO, according to tradition, had been muir
dered there by a negro. We heard him
stumping around from room to room as
plainly as | hear my own voice and were
sure we had the real thing until somebody
insisted on the rat-trap test. We caught
eleven, and that was the end Of the one
legged gunsmth.
IL was good while afterward that we
discovered the noise was made by bits
of dslodged plaster tumbling down be
tween the walls. our third and last ex-
perience was In the basement of a very old
mansion near Jackson square. We were
tod that we would hear groans and the
sound of something walking to and fro
and the information proved correct. The
manifestation was so realistic that we
hated to set the trap. We did so, how
ever and it took us three whole nights
TO clear the premises of rats and spectres
How The noises were produced / never
learned; 1 only know they ceased when
the last rodent sauntered into tine cage
That was the deathblow of the Louisiana
Branch of the s. of P. r. We quietly dis
banded and never made any report, al
though one of our members Insisted that
we send on the tails of our victims The
average citizen has no conception of the
versatility OF an able-bodied rat. Give him
an Old house as an instrument aud he will
furnish you with any brand of imita ton
you want from the clanking of chains to
the gurgle of a slit weasand."