Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1922-04-01

Thomas Taggart in the 1915 cleo
tons and beat him again in 1920.
Watson was chairman of the reso
lutions committee of the 1920 re-
publican national convention. He's
flfty-seven.
about the room out of the air, but
all were eXtinguisned before any
thing could be set on fire.
Spooks Start Blazcs.
1.-THE fire-raising continued for
several days. The family would
smell smoke, and on running up
into the bedroom, they would find
a bundle of clothes placed in the
center of the room blazing. Or
they would descend to the cellar,
and find there pile of shavinss
alight and blazing merrily. They
lived in constant danger of having
the house burned over their
heads" 1t is interesting to note in
this connection, however, that the
ghostly incendiaries usually con-
fided in Esther as soon as they
had started a fire, although some
times they coyly withheld its exact
location.
Soon after this" we are told.
things got so bad that Esther Cox
had to leave home, and went to
visit friend. For four weeks
there was peace. Then trouble be-
gan again. This time. knocks and
raps were heard all over the house,
and Esther now began to see the
spooks." There wert two of them,
it seems--Maggie, whose feminine
personality was recognized by her
timid and ingratiatlng raps, and
Bob, who pounded out his commu-
nications with huge fist. or pos
siDly, it was thought, with a stone.
OF some of the additional phenom-
ena which occurred about this
time, Mr.. Hubbell. the actor. who
visited the Teed home for the pur-
pose of investigation. gives the fol-
lowing account:
II had been seated lin the sit
ting room about five minutes
when to my great establishment, my
umbrella was thrown distance of
sixteen feet, passing over my head
in its strange flight and almost at
the same instant a large carving
knife came whizzing through the
air passing over the head Of
Esther who was just then coming
out of the pantry with large dish
in both hands. and fell in front of
her, near me--havlng come from
behind her out of the pantry. |
a., ta hn 1nnr nn1
looked in, but no person was
there"
Spirits Depart With Esther.
Things came to such pass OF
length that the landlord came and
told the Teed family that either
Esther would have to go or they
would have to leave the houfe.
Esther was then dispatched to visit
other friends. From this second
time she left the Teed house she
was never more troubled with
ghosts, but few weeks after TINS
date she was arrested for incen-
diarism in a barn and sentenced TO
four months imprisonment. Fin
ally she married, had family, and
that was the end Of the Amherst
mystery.
AS to the Antigonish case. it was
Dr. Walter Prince who turned the
first brilliant rays of skeptlcism
upon the Amherst spooks. In writ
ing of their spiteful disturbances OF
Esther's bedclothes and furniture
he says:
'Mr. and Mrs Teed one night
could see from their bed into LIS
TIERS room by moonlight thoW
much moonlight, and how much OF
her room did it light?); they saw
chair slide up from the wall TO
her bed (would not a string looped
around the chair leg have pro-
duced the same effect, and does not
the direction the chair took sug-
sest the string?); a pillow went
out from under head into the chair
(Would that effect been beyond
| the power of the human hand to
produce in the semi-darkness?); a
ghost sat down in the chair and
rubbed, pinched and scratched
Esther under the bedclothes (but
this is what Esther said); all the
furniture except the bedstead was
thrown out into the entry While
Esther lay quietly in bed chow
much and how large was the FUR
niture? How much of Esther's
form could they see? Is it GER
tain that it was Esther at all whom
they saw on the bed. for rolls of
clothing and artfully arranged
cushions have been known to de-
ceive in q poor lightO then anoth-
err ghost rocked the bed (is it not
probable that Esther was in bed
now, at any rate?); at length Es-
Their was brought TO sleep in the
same room with the others,
whereupon the manifestations
ceased because of tho better OPP
portunities for observation ex-
cept that once the lid Of a trunk
gave one parting slam (was the
trunk conveniently near Esther's
mattress? Was the interval before
the parting slam long enough to
allow the leeds to fall into that
state, congenial to the night.
wherein eyes watch not?)"
Thus, DIR. Princes critical study
goes on until there is very little
ghostly substance left In Maggie"
and Bob" In the same coldly
scientific way, he calls attention
to the fact that the mysterious
fires caused by the Antagonist
ghost were never more than five
feet from the ground-which is the
height of the McDonald's adopted
daughter. Clearly, the English
man was right. 1t has taken a
neutrality-suspicious. DR.. Prince spe-
clalizes in nervous disorders, such
as dual personalities, etc.---to trail
these ghosts TO their secret
sources.