The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1903-10-03
A HAIRBRUsH Q
RaDpings Thnt START
led a student Easily Ac-
counted For


"AprOpOs of spirit knocking and that
sort of thing" said the student who
had just returned from college, accord
ing to the Chicago Inter Ocean, Il had
an experience not long ago which has
tended to make me skeptical when l
hear the time-Worn tales about people
retiring at night, only to be awak-
ened by knocks on the head of the bed,
made by a spiritual visitant and invari-
ably followed by news of the death Of
ONE relative or friend.
1T was my fortune to have a friend
who often hung around my room even
ings, and was wont to tell edifying tales
Of mysterious apparitions of the chain
clanking order. Allthese stories he pro-
fessed to draw from his own experience,
and, being told with an air Of sincerity,
1t Is not strange that they left some im-
press on my imagination.
"On the night in question my friend.
had told mi a particularly narrowing
tale Of the death Of his grandfather.
The warning, he said, had been trans
mitted by the door latch being lifted
the traditional three times.
well, when he went away I felt pref
ty nervous. 1 undressed, turned out the
gas and went to bed. l fell into a rest
less dOze, from which / was reused by
what took to be a thump on the win
dow. My first thought was that my
roommate had come home filled with
alcoholic stimulants and minus his
latchkey. At such times it was his play
full custom to call me down stairs BY
throwing pebbles at the window.
Il jumped out Of bed and looked down
upon the lawn. No one was in sight.
I waited some time, but saw or heard
nothing, Concluding that some passer-
by hadthrown something at the window,
1 crawled back into bed.
Just as / stretched myself out a sharp
tap sounded from the footboard of the
bed. Then my friends ghost required to.
me with startling force. It seemed pref
ty eerie up there all alone, although the
room was we'll lighted by the moon, and
l knew that the door was locked. Ibe-
gan to get frightened.
Il leaned out and looked under the
bed. AS did so the knock was repeated
mot once, but twice. was certainly
scared. 1 felt my scalp creep, and. as
the poet says, every separate hair to
stand on end. However, / had nerve
enough to look about the room and see
If a Tapping curtain or anything else
could have produced the noise. found
nothing of the kind, ,and as a result /
would just then have given a consider
able portion of my worldly goods to
have been transported somewhere else.
No doubt was left in my mind that the
noise was a spiritual manifestation of
evil import.
Il lit the gas and sat down in a chair
and shivered. Nothing was going to
tempt me back into bed that night.
u must have sat up for an hour be-
fore l plucked up courage to cross the
roota and sit down on the bed. Coin
Cideat with my sitting down came the
dreaded tap. I glanced apprehensively
at the foot of the bed and discovered.
not a shadowy form making menacing
gestures, but an ordinary 25-cent hair
brush lying between the ~tucked-in COW
erlet and the footboard, Every time that
the counterpart was twitched the hair
brush raped against the bed and made
the noise that had reused my supersti-
tious fears.
Il had laid my ghost, and my Joy and
relief thereat was almost inexpressible.
I believe that my little experience will
forever preclude the possibility Of my
ever again giving credence to stories OF.
the weird and the supernatural, related.
by not o-verVeracious acquaintances."