Connecticut western news., 1901-07-25
Some Homemade
 Bly,. Spooks. M. QUAD.
COPYRIGHT, 1901. BY c. B. LEWIS.

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 I was putting electric wires into the house of gentleman named Endriss, living In a fashionable street in Lon- don, when one day he invited me into his library, poured me out glass of wine and then had a story to relate. From his statements 1t appeared that his mother, who was an old lady of 75, had long been a member of a certain charitable organization, and certain members of 1t had secured an undue influence over her. She was being per- suaded to buy and deed the society a certain house and lot valued at about f3,O0O, and the sons arguments and protestations had brought about strain ed relations. The long and short of 1t was, think, that the son did not want the money to go out of the family, and he had set his wits to work to invent some scheme to defeat the old lady's intentions. He had got the scheme and now desired my assistance to carry 1t out. The house stood alone on large plot of ground and had not been ten anted for several years. The mother was a supersttious woman, who was guided by dreams and omenS and had once seen a ghost, and the son proposed to knock her project in the head by producing haunted house. He want ed ghosts and goblins made to order, and he believed 1 was the man to put the job through successfully.
 He was willing to pay good price for good thing. and after two or three meetings we came to satisfactory un- derstanding It was a two story brick house, with a cellar and an attic, and the grounds were surrounded by a stone wall There were three or four old trees, with limbs touching the walls, and the roof was out of repair, and doors and windows were in dilap- dated state. found the cellar divided by four partition walls, and the rooms were gloomy enough to look at. It was an ideal place for spooks. Down In one corner of the yard was toolhouse, with door in the wall opening upon com mon, and after spending a couple of hours about the place I reported to MT. Endriss that could give him the hauntedest haunted house ever known In England. That door opening on the commons and the high wall around the grounds gave me an opportunity to come and go and do my work without much risk of observation.
 Tha toolbnnSa baH tyorrot fn fl
 which was dark and damp. and en- trance 10 1t was effected by trapdoor and ladder, and took this attic for my headquarters. Thither 1 carried
 my electric batteries and other para
 phernalia. and for week l was busy running wires and locating spooks. It
 tested my ingenuity to ran wires along the walls and up and down the trunks of trees and into the house In such a all other eyes. but I carried this mat
 ter out very successfully. had to rip
 up the flooring and get into the parti-
 tions here and there. but my tools left
 no trace behind.
 do not know how MT. Endriss
 worked 1t, but one day 1t was whls- pered about that the old Duff house
 was haunted. A tramp told story of being driven out by strange noises, and
 In 24 hours it was all over the neigh
 borhood. A newspaper had something
 to say about 1t In a day or two. and be- fore the week was out two grocer's clerks had decided to pass the night in the haunted house. l was kept posted and was on hand at a proper hour. The young fellows took up their station in the parlor, having candles.
 cards, drink and good deal of cour- age. but they didn't remain all night. Under the floors of the upper and low CT halls had placed two flat pieces of wood In such way that they would strike together when the electric but ton was pressed. AS those spook de- fers sat smoking and blufting they
 heard the sound of footsteps In the up- per hall. They had to imagine that the footsteps descended the stairs, but they kindly did so. Then they caught them In the lower hall and imagined
 that an invisible being passed the open parlor door, and the way those chaps got out of that house and over the wall | was sight to see. Their story created | intense excitement, and, realizing that
 his property was in peril. the owner | took immediate steps to solve the mys- tery.
 Three nights after the young men | had been driven out the owner and two policemen took up their quarters in the house. A thorough search was first made of the premises. and then the l trio sat down to wait for spooks. In due time the spooks came. There was no wind outside, but shortly before | midnight there was a gusty wall from the floor above, a long drawn wall that seemed to have originated in grave yard. It was only whistle of my in vention, worked by a valve and a spring, but up went the hair of the three doubting Thomases. The wal was followed by spirit rappings or the wall, and as finisher there was a
 soft, sad music iron, ghostly lips. The | police only waited long enough for the | owner to suggest that he was sleepy and wanted to go home and go to bed ' n Is AN- II x~l& 4~~s Atxx