The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1901-02-08

Newark. N u. Feb. S.-While a
crowd surrouHded tho house OF
George Reardon, at Butter. n. j., last
night the ghost" or whatever uncanny
visltant IL Is that has been giving night
~ rappngs on Roardons front door. for
the twelfth or thirteenth time. made the
house shake with It's pounding.
committee OF the best known mon
in jhe village that has been seeking TO
lay hands on the ghost" has planned TO
trap II or conclusively prove that il IS
unearthly. Meanwhile the Reardons are
living I'm terror
George Reardon Is an employe OF the
American Hard Rubber company. He
declared last night that he was not su-
pers'itious. but he could not explain
the phenomena. He told this story:
More than two weeks ago. when my
family, consisting of my wife and five
children, went up stairs TO bed we heard
a rapping al the front door That was
shortly after O'Clock Jim the Oldest
boy. was out, and We thought il was
he
But the whole house seemed to shake
with the knocking. and / at once ran
down 10 scold him and TO let him in
When / opened the door / saw nothing
! shouted. Then looked all around
thinking IL must be some boys OF the
neighhorhood who were playing tricks
- Jim came home soon after and said
he had not knocked. Every one In the
house heard the knocking Next night
we were all in and up stairs when the
rapping came. The whole house seemed
To shake. IL even awakened the children
lNh aata 30 ifkr oil fhaA
nothing can disturb them.
"All the neighbors heard the knock
ing. Again | ran down and could see
nothing. ] looked for long time. and
made sure that there were no boys in
the vicinity. Had there been 1 would
have heard them.
'I thought It was q clever trick and
said nothing. declaring that they would
not get me out Of bed again. The next
night the same noises were repeated.
My wife would not lei me rest. Jim and
Mart went down with me and we were
soon at the door.
They ran around the house 70 see II
any one could be found Mart thought
he saw something move in the grave
yard. about so yards behind my house.
When We came back Mart told the grave
yard part OF It, That was the first time
that ghosts were mentioned.
From that night we have slept scarce
ly a wink | am all broken up over IT,
For over a week we made up our minds
not TO tell the neighbors. bat Mrs.
Decker, who lives a lot away, heard the
shaking OF the house and SO did Jesse
Ward, who is over one hundred feet
away
+" The ghost as we always call H.
now comes just as soon as the family
goes up TO bed. ] am greatly worked
up over it. When we did tell the peo-
pie the news spread like wildhre."
Mrs Reardon told substantially the
same story. so did the boys. The only
one who seemed to possess any pretence
of mind when the ghost question was
referred to was Annie the 16-year-old
daughter.
Both Mrs Decker and Jesse Ward cor
roborated The story. They declare they
feel the shaking When the thing be-
came public the whole village was
aroused. and for two nights all who
could not get i'm the house stood before
the door awaiting the apparition. II
was then decided to appoint a commit
tee 10 Investigate the matter
WATCHED FOR TWO NIGHTS.
on that committee were the mostsre-
putablc and reliable citizens. all of
whom. wih two exceptions, declared
they did not believe i'm ghosts. For two
nights they watched. but all In vain, un-
M they went up stairs and put the lights
out on the ground floor.
Then the rappug came as loudly and
distinctly as ever Most OF the commit
teon,en who were inside heard it. as du
nearly al who were outside.
ON that committee We're such wcli
known men as samuel Trambour John
Atkhs Matthew IIenniou. Thomas Day.
bob llaNcuck and many others
Every member OF the committee says