Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1905-08-19
Costs United States a Large Sum
j Annually.
FIGURE ~ list. RENTALS
Many Houses That Cannot Be Kept
Tenanted on Account of the spooks
: Some of the Excuses for Moving.


negligible quantity, yet you would be
surpHsS.l T0AsGe what n large sum
thosefcoy, retiring inhabitants cost the
country annually" said the real estate
man.
How? Why, in lost rentals. There
Is many n house you can't keep a
tenant in After Il week. perhaps on
~ night, in one of those quccrcd
houses the tenant is sure to show up
With some excuse for moving-ilc
cellaH is rdamD 81; the Chimney doesn't
draw or tho oven won't bake. IT'S very
seldom that the fellow will tell yo .
frankly that he doesn't intend TO run
a boarding house for spooks
AZ Whenever hear of ghost get.
ting into house in my charge / i'm
mediatcly go on the hunt for It, Not
That have any interest in pshychic
phencmena: 1t is Il simple matter Of
dollars anu cents with me. want to
disposscs.; the spiritual sqiattcr and
get in a'-tcnant that is willing to pay
rent.
In all my years in the business !
have not yet come across one ghost
story that has not had some founda-
= lion. Tho usual ghost is very unub.
1rusivc fellow who only asks the Driy-
liege OF pattering up and down the
stairs, stalking through the halls. open
ing and shutting some door, or groan-
ing to himself up In the attic or down
III the cellar. Except to the very
young or the very nervous he usually
keeps himself Invisible
II must confess that even to an en-
tperienced ghost hunter like myself
*the task often puts q strain OH the
nerves. There is II peculiar musty at.
mospherc about vacant house that
sends chill to the marrow. the same
sort oil chill that is supposed to cina-
! sort from the near presence Of a
rspock. Then come the queer sounds.
usually heard only in the dead of
night.
MY plan Of action is to drop on my
hands and knees and with an ear
: close to the flOOr creep forward The
chances are that before the night is
) over | will have laid that particular
L ghost will have discovered the
board or beam i'll the house that needs !
+ to he frightened up.
Y You see, Ill every house there is III !
ways lot of shrinking and expanding
going on. Some board or beam is us,l-
ally more responsive to the changes
than the rest OF the building, and so
lit gives out peculiar crcaking noise
3as' or some bhe stcalthily walking
z back and forth.
Tho string beams that carry the
stairs are peculiarly sensitive TO this
SnrinkaSc and expansion, and that Is
why the stairway is the favorito pro-
menade OF ghosts An odd twist in
chimney fluc will furnish spuuk with
good respectable groans.
why TO we hear these sounds only
around midnight? Simply because our
vitality is then near its lowest eb; we
haven't cool supply of that two
o'clock-inthcmornin courage, and be-
cause every man is instinctivcly sus-
picious OF the dark
My hunt. though. is not always sue
cessful. remember two cases that
came very near being In this class.
The first was a bedroom door that
invariably swung open the moment the
occupant Of the room got into bed 1t
WAS door in an old-fashioncd country
house, and was provided only with a
latch. 1t didn't make any difference
whether 1t was day or night, the in
slant a person got into bed the door
would swing open, and stay open un.
less chair or some other obstacle was
put In front OF it,
st took a lot of studying before |
discovered that the head Of the bed
rested on one end of q floor hoard that
was not nailed down, and that tho door
lamb rested on the other end. The
moRent.9s person climbed into bed his
weight made the hoard tcctcr, the door
1amb on the other end of the board
was raised, and the latch was released.
The second case was also in a
country house. There was IL window
opening on IL stair landing that was
glazed with small diamond-shapcd
panes set In lead. Like all glass SIM
ilarly set, these pancs were just tri-
fle loose
! Regularly 1913 every night they
would begin to rattle as though some
one were rappng on them. In about
minute they would stop as suddenly
and mystcriCusly rs they had begun.
1t took me Il long time to solve this
puzzle. | did it accidentally inGuiring
about the last outgoing night mail
was told that the mail bag was picked
np by an express that passed tho sta
,tion at 12:13--thc very instant when
the window pancs began to rattle.
That gave me my clcw
investigation showed that the fonn-
dation OF the haunted house rested up.
on fr,ltalgcsuf rock that extended over
annie westward, and passed under the
station md the railway track When
tho train rrlnblcd over It this lodge
simply? carried the vibrations to tho
house, but they had meanwhile grown
So gentle that only the, little window
2 panes responded.
b But apartment houses arc driving
Z the ghosts out of business. With
y pianos, babies and monographs above,
l>nID IA