Arizona republican., 1922-03-29
ey Frederio j. hlaskin

7
kind of hysteria which causes young
persons to torment their families
with fire raising, sleight of hand
performances and surreptitious rap
ping and knocking, thus contriving to
make it appear that a house is
haunted?
In the recent Antigonish case. in
vestigated by DR. Walter +. Prince
OF the New York Psychical Research
society, the ghost turned out to be
sub-normal girl. foster daughter OF
the terrified McDonaIds. given, ac-
cording TO DIR. Prince, to peculiar
dream states 1t seems possible.
therefore, that other historic ghosts
may be accounted for by similarly
afflicted individuals.
The idea is not new. Long before
Antigonish leaped into the limehght
as the home of spiteful spooks a Brit
ish man of letters advanced the sug-
gestion that neurologist was the
proper person to be set on the trail
Of an irritating ghost
In tracing the history of haunted
houses" says this gentleman. Il have
been struck with the fact that in
many instances the ghostly activities
invariably center around a certain
member of the family. usually a
young woman. In these instances
the ghosts atrocities are always the
same. There is mysterious knocking
at sudden intervals; household arti-
cles are moved or flung about, and
fires break forth in unexpected
places l am convinced, however,
that these wild disturbances are not
always deliberately planned There
is certain spontaneity about them
which leads me to conclude that they
are often involuntary, like the peculi-
arities OF chorea; in short. that they
are the symptoms of a nervous dis
ease. At any rate. it is noticeable
that they always cease when a GER
tain member Of the family is absent
from the house."
Another Nova Scotia Ghost
A celebrated instance OF this kind
is the Great Amherst Mystery. in
which the ghostly manifestations
which spread terror throughout Nova
Scotia some forty-odd years ago, all
centered around young woman
gonish spook, the Amherst ghost or
ghosts attracted widespread atten-
tion; made a convincing impression
upon the credulous and finally a lot
OF money for an actor. Walter Hub
bell, who had the sagacity TO put
them into popular book form.
The Teed family. which was VIC
timized In this case, consisted of Mr..
and Mrs Teed. their children, Willie,
aged years and George, aged IL
months. as we'll as the wife's two
sisters Jennie and Esther Cox. They
lived in a lonely farmhouse in Am
herst under practically the same CIR
cumstances as the McDonalds in
their farmhouse at Antigonish.
The first alleged supernatural dis
turbances occurred In the room Of the
two girls. Jennie and Esther who
slept together They were just going
to sleep one night when Esther sud-
denly leaped out Of bed, screaming
that there was a mouse under the
mattress. Upon investigating, no
mouse was found. but an innocent
pasteboard box under the bed jumped
into the air and fell over on its side.
After this, the ghost or ghosts
started in on their campaign Of petty
frightfulness. When Esther was in
bed. the bed clothes would fly off her
and settle into a far corner OF the
room. When they were replaced, the
pillow under her head flew out and
landed In the center OF the floor. II
also was replaced upon which it
again flew out, hitting Mr.. Teed in
the face. Whereupon. it Is reported,
Mr.. Teed unscientifically left the
room. declaring that 'he had had
enough Of It."
The next night. the sound OF
scratching on the wall was heard for
the first time. "Al looked in the
direction from whence the sound
came" say tho reports. when. TO the
fanily's great astonishment there
could be plainly read these words:
Esther Cox, you are mine to kill.'
Everybody present could see the
writing. but a moment before moth
ing was to be seen but the kalso-
mined wall"
Now articles began to be mysteri-
ously moved about the house, some
times violently and sometimes sur
reptitiously, according to the mood
of the ghost. "AlI saw a lighted
match fall from the ceiling TO the
bed" continue the reports "haying
come out OF the air. which would
certainly have set the bed clothing
on fire had not Jennie put 1t out in
stantly. During the next few min
utes eight or nine lighted matches
fell on the bed and about the room
out of the air. but were all ex-
tinguished before anything could be
set on fire.
Spooke Start 6laxes
"The fire raising continued for sew
eral days. The family would smell
smoke and on running up into the
bedroom they would find bundle OF
clothes placed in the center of the
floor blazing Or they would de-