Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-11-11
REMOVING a GHOST.
The Story Of . Man Who Moved Into 4
"a House Said to be Haunted.

1.-THE strangest experience ever had
in anything like q haunted house,
said a man who delights In telling
weird tales, twas over here on the
coast a few years ago, when I was
making an experiment in the business
of raising terrapins. There was a
house which remained vacant a great
er part of the time on account Of the
many ghost stories told about It. 1t
was a fine place. and / concluded to
rent it and take my chances on the
ghost proposition. ! moved in from
another place on the coast not very
far from the haunted house. Among
the things I carried along with me
was an old trunk which had not been
put to any important use for some
time. It was looked upon as SO much
rubbish. 1t had been in an old out
house for some months. The house
we moved into was large, roomy
place, with an upstairs Of considerable
size. We decided to use the upstairs
part of the place for a sort of storage
room for the old plumber we had
brought with US. Among other things
we put the old trunk, to which have
referred. in this part of the house. 1t
was put in back room. one we rarely
ertered, because we had but little use
for the things We had placed in 1t.
1--WE had not been in the place long
before we began to hear strange
sounds in the back room where we had
placed the old trunk. At first We did
not pay much attention to the sounds.
In fact, we allowed the thing to run on
for several months before making any
sort of investigation of the rather
queer noises we heard. In the mean
time, the thing had become a source of
much annoyance to me and members
of my little household. Every night
we could hear the same old scratch,
scratch, scratch, in the back room. l
was alone one night when l heard the
same familiar sound. I concluded
that I would investigate it. l did not
want the members of my family to
know that I attached any importance
whatever to the report that the house
was haunted, so / took advantage of
the fact that i was completely alone
when I started out on the gruesome
mission. The sound was coming from
the back room. There was no mis-
take about this fact. In a few mo-
ments found myself in the room
from which the sounds came. I was
surprised to know that my entering
the room had made no impression on
the ghost, and to tell the truth, was
just a little inclined to resent the bold
ness and effrOntery of the mysterious
thing which had annoyed my folks and
myself for SO long a time. ! was de-
termined to rout the ghost, boot and
spurs. I began to cruise around in the
room. l had a candle in one hand.
Directly l found that the, noise was
coming from the old trunk We had
moved into the house with us. There
was nothing to do but open the trunk.
opened the trunk. There was the
ghost. l laughed outright. There was
an old rusty terrapin we had put in
the trunk probably six months before
when we were living at the other
place. He had been doing all the
scratching.
Il never said anything to my people
about the gruesome excursion I made
in the dead of night, but they often
commented on the absence OF the
sound which had annoyed them SO
much before that. They never knew
1 had removed the ghost."-New Or
leans Times Democrat.