Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-04-29
More Ghost Stories Exposed.


More Ghost Stories Exposed.
NEW York SUM-
."rhe ghost population of the United
States is passed over by the census
makers as a negligible quantity; YET
you would be surprised to see what u
large sum those coy, retiring inhabi-
tants cost the country annually, salu
the real estate man.
"How? Why in lost rentals. There
is many a house you can't keep
tenant in After week. perhaps only
IL night, in one of those queered hous-
es the tenants is sure to show up WIN
some excuse for moving-the cellar is
damp or the chimney doesn't draw
or the oven won't bake. It's very
seldom that the fellow will tell you
frankly that he doesn't intend to run
a boarding house for spocks.
"Whenever | hear of n ghost get
ting into a house In my charge, | I'M
mediately go on the hunt for 1t. Not
that l have any interest in psychic
phenomena. It's a simple matter OF
dollars and cents with me. l want
to dispossess the spiritual squatter ana
get in tenant that is willing to pay
rent
In all my years in the business, l
have not yet come across one ghost
story that has not had some founda-
ton. The usual ghost is a very UNI
obtrusive fellow, who only asks the
privilege of pattering up and down the
and shutting some door, or grooming
and shutting some door, or grooming
to himself up in the attic or down in
the cellar. Except to the very young or
the very nervous he usually keeps
himself invisible
II must confess that even to an ex-
perienced ghost hunter like myself, the
task often puts Il strain on the nerves.
There is a peculiar musty atmosphere
about vacant house that sends chill
to the marrow, the same sort of a chill
that is supposed to emanate from the
near presence of spook. Then comes
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
ghost-I will have discovered the
board or beam in the house that needs
to be frightened up.
You see in every house there is al
ways lot of shrinking and expanding
going on Some board or beam is US
ually more responsive to these chang
es than the rest of the building and
so it gives out peculiar creaking
noise of some one stealthily walking
back and forth.
"The string beams that carry the
stairs are peculiarly sensitive to this
shrinkage and expansion and that is
why the stairway is the favorite pro-
menade of ghosts. An odd twist in
a chimney hue will furnish a spook
with good respectable groans.
Why do we hear these sounds only
around midnight? Simply because our
vitality is then near it's lowest ebb,
and because every man is instinctively
suspicious of the dark.
My hunt, tho is not always sue
cessful. I remember two cases that
came very near being in this class.
"The first was a bed room door that
invariably swung open the moment
the occupant of the room got into bed.
try house and was provided only with
latch. 1t didn't make any difference
whether it was day or night, the in
slant a person got into bed the door
would swing open and stay open UNI
less a chair or. some other obstacle was
put in front of it.
ut took a lot of studying before
discovered that the head of the bed
rested on one end of floor board
that was not nailed down, and that
the door jamb rested on the other end
The moment a person climbed into
bed, his weight made the board teeter,
the door janb on the other end of the
board was raised. and the latch was
released.
"The second case was also in
country house. There was window
opening on stair landing that was
glazed with small diamond shaped
panes set in lead Like all glass sim
ilarly set, these panes We're just trife
loose.
Regularly at 1918 every night they
would begin to rattle as tho some
one We're tapping on them. In about
a minute they would stop as suddenly
and mysteriously as they had begun.