The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-07-28
4 GHOST TRAPPER,

record of making a living has been
followed for the last few years by a
man in eastern Pennsylvania.
Follow ing is the interesting story
of some of his experiences he told a
cores pondent of the Chicago Tribune
the otner day:
Il took up the business quite by &C
cident The owner of a large, lonely
place in the mountains, a few miles
from here, died and there was law
suit about the will, which kept II I'M
occupied. 1t stood for two or three
years, stripped Of its furniture and
without care. After the suit was set
tied the nephew who inherited 1t put
in a caretaker. He only stayed one
night, for at 2 O'Clock in the mornins
he was terrified to hear heavy chain
being dragged along the hall and
stairways. Others followed him, and
one even stayed week. but groan'
ing sound right in his bedroom sent
him flying in only half his clothes
to the nearest cottage he could find
1t was then the advertisement ap-
peared that drew my attention. 1t
read:
The owner of Rutland Grange on
the Ralston road will give a reward
of 5000 to anyone who will reside IN
that house and solve the mystery OF
its being haunted"
Il went to the house and did not
find much trouble in solving the rid
die. The place had once been well
stocked with game, and now the de-
serted grounds were running over with
game of all kinds. 1t had escaped
trespassers evidently, until lately. but
investigation showed that numbers OF
fresh snares and traps had been set.
'Poachers evidently was the meaning
of the mystery. l got two men and
posted them among the bushes!
cat IL o'clock at night l went to the
room where l was to sleep. kept the
guished it, and crept out of the house
At half past II O'Clock l heard foot
steps, and man came along carrying
what looked like "a lons, pole.
"He got on a wall, hoisted the pole
really a long tin tube-so that its
the room where he thought l was
asleep, and then began to groan
through it. But it was loud yell ne
gave when l seized him firmly by the
ankles.
well, sat on my man and blew a
whistle, when up came my assistants,
with another whom they had taken
while he was in the act of visiting
tie traps, calmly smoking pipe. The
pair had just started in to make gooo
thing out OF the place, and had aid
in a perfect store of chains, white
sheets, phosphorus. and other things,
at the top of the house, with which
they had been frightened away the
successive caretakers.
THAT jop brought me not only The
5000, but fresh commission. This
time summer hotel that was left
with a small force during the winter
months was haunted. The servants
were being terribly frightened by mys-
ferrous knockings that were heard now
and then at night. Going to the hotel,
/ went to bed on the ground floor, bul
had to wait two or three nights be-
fore the mysterious sounds were heard.
"One night, after we had been hav-
ing heavy rains all day, the knocking
began right underneath my room.
Waiting until daybreak, with help
/ took up the flooring and found that a
small bay, long forgotten, but once
used for storing boats, ran back under
the house. In this was floating an
empty mineral water crate. There
was lock in the river below the no.
tel. and every night when the lock
gates were shut the river rose The
previous evening there also had been
much wind and rain, SO that the water
got high enough for the crate to bump
against the floor, thus producing the
noises.
This account, like the first, got into
the papers, and soon l had more work.
I won't take all my cases of ghost
laying but will pick out one or two.
There was country place that for a
long time was avoided because it got
the reputation of having a spectre.
Within a week l saw it twice, gliding
about the grounds, but it was too MIN
BILE for me to catch. Then l put on a
white cloak myself and tried haunting
the ghost. This ruse succeeded in
frightening the apparition, as, when
We met face to face one night, it was
the other ghost that fed. Who the
fellow was ! should have never heard
probably, as he was so fleet that |
could not overtake him, only that in
his flight somewhere he fell and hurt
his leg, and when he consulted The
doctor the whole story came out. II,
was neighboring farmer who wanted
to get hold of the adjoining property,
and hoped by giving it the reputation
of being haunted to depreciate the
value enough to buy it at low price.
"On another occasion in the garden
of big farmhouse to rent | rushed
into the ghost who had been seen
there, and he made off. In the dark
ness l lost sight of him and he fell
over something and l shouted: Keen