The San Francisco call., 1909-06-09
MYSTERIOUS GHOST
EvADES CAPTURE
Raps Long and Loudly Each
Evening in Office of Clerk
of Circuit Court
Uncanny Sounds Puzzle Off
Gals, Who Blame Old Time
Pirates for Noise

,hap.
With one accord the working force
of the office of the clerk of the circuit
court cease their labors, their poised
pens trembling over the unwritten SEN
tence, their anxious eyes searching
each others for an explanation of the
ghostly messages.
'RaP-Rap, Rap!-Rap!"
The sounds come from a corner OF
the room, near the ceiling, mysterious
hammer strokes from the unknowable,
cutting the silence with thrilling eff
feet Day after day, a few minutes
before the stroke Of p. m, the
sounds are heard. Yesterday, as the
| hour approached. a spirit of uneasiness
spread through the force of clerks
They were expecting the raps- They
had become part of the daily routine
of their work
"Rap!o
And work ceased.
There it is again" said Walter B.
Mailing, deputy clerk
Dash it all, sir, what do you mean
by calling it it'?" stormed Colonel
Southard Hoffman, the clerk of the
court. Probably it-they-are nothing
more than-more than"
f1ippant among the deputy clerks
Mailing looked over his books.
Haven't we searched high and low for
rats?" he asked Haven't we tested
the window shades? Haven't we exam
ined the walls?" He queried the Office
with his eyes, but found no answer.
"Rapw
MYSTERIOUS RAPPING
The sound swung to another corner
of the room. Mailing made a stroke
with his pen. "One,' said he to him
self counting the knocks. Colonel
Hoffman closed his books with a bang
and fumed out of the office. He had
slept with the dead around him on too
many battlefields to treat with gravity
the knocking of a beiated soul
m the ghost of a troupe" sang
Schaertzer as he changed his Office for
his street coat Good night, Mailing
Oh, you spook.'
The door closed after him and Mailing,
alone in the Office. followed the sounds
as they fluttered around the silent Of
fee. making note of such data as he
could gather, until finally he also tired
and started to depart. AS he held the
door of the office to pass out the rap
ping came with increased vigor, a YER
liable telegraphic code of knocks, as If
bidding him to stay and hear the mes
sage
The scene has been a daily one in that
office for months. The clerk and his
two deputies have hunted high and low
for the cause. They have taken theory
after theory, run them down and found
them without foundations. 1t is
mystery. Mailing is apt to believe the
sounds are calls from the spirit world
Colonel Hoffman violently scouts the
notion. Schaertzer is f1ippant After
of inn
the rapping is that of a spirit is the
only one that has not been shattered
and proof for 1t is plentiful.
The office, which is in the Federal
building at Seventh and Mission
streets, is directly above what was
once branch of Islais creek. An old
legend tells OF Franciscan padre who
was drowned at the spot and who was
carried out to sea in mystic ship.
Another legend, used by Bret Harte
des1gnates the place as where a pirate
band buried its plunder. Some who
nave heard the rapping are of the opin-
ion that the sounds are messages from
some dead and long forgotten band of
the bold piratical Grew calling to the
quick to reap rich harvest of Spanish
doubioons. Others mark the raps as
portent Of impending disaster, CHASING
them with the heavy footballs which dis
turbed the serenity of Dickens Chesney
Void as it called to the misguided
Lady Dedlock to enter the world to
which "Jo'' had previously moved on"
MANY THEORIES ADVANCED
Then again there is belief that the
ghost is that of a litigant, some unfor-
tunate American Jarndyce, who. though
departed, continues pleading his case
likely theory is that some lawyer in
the other sphere is taking a mean ad-
vantage of his ethereal condition to
ask all the immaterial. irrelevant and
incompetent questions he desires withl
out hfndrance from the judge.
These are the beliefs; these are the
theories All is vague-vague as the
hfmsy construction of ghostland. One
thing is certain, and that is the rap A
few minutes before the hour of
o'clock in the evening it comes, sharp
distinct. thrilling, and with its coming
Colonel Hoffman fumes, Mailing counts
and Schaertzer sneers.
BURGLAR ESCAPES WHEN