The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-03-09
HOLD GHOST
MADE TIMID
BY PURSUIT
Canadian Natives Resent
ing Efforts of Scoffers to
Show UP Their Spook.
(By Consolidated Press.)


Halifax, N. s., March 9. - The
ghost-converted folk of Canada's
maritime provinces are beginning 10
resent the spoofing of their spook-
The spirit of levity which has sur
rounded the ghost hunt on the lone
ly farm of Alex Macdonald, on the
border between Antagonist and Guys
boro counties, the widest part of
Nova Scotia, is not relished by the
friends and relations of the Mac
Donalds, who believe implicitly the
stories of the ghostly visit
They declared today that DR..
Franklin Prince, ghost breaker" of
the American institute of scientific
research. is going to meet a ghost
face to face if he persists in going
to the bottom of the Antagonist af-
fair.
But what chance, they ask, has a
ghost of such simple ideas as the
setting Of a house on fire and the
mixing of a lot of farm cattle got
against the invading army of doubt
ers, brought here by the spirit
hunt?
Naturally a ghost would not in
vate a house where lights were
burning brightly all night and
where hard boiled" newspa-
per photographers had their cam
eras set up with flash lights ready
to snap, and where a lot of report
ers were playing pinochle in the
kitchen. The setting was entirely
too material to attract a visitor
from the eerie world
Trap Is Avoided.
There is doubt, too, that any self
respecting ghost would allow itself
to be trapped in DR.. Princes con-
traption of strings and bells. The
country folk hereabouts were
deeply impressed with the ghost
trap" at first, but now they say that
a ghost naturally knows trap bet
ter than anybody else, and there
fore the thought of taking a ghost
alive must be abandoned.
IF a ghost can start fires with
out matches and can unite horses
and cows without hands, he can
ring bells where there are not any
bells" declared a Macdonald kins-
man today.
Any attempt on the part of the
scientific and unscientit1c persons
engaged in the hunt to expose the
Antigonish ghost will leave the
people of these parts entirely un-
convinced. They simply know
there was a ghost on the MacDon-
aid farm and no amount of scien-
tific research or hard headed argu-
ment will drive them from that po-
sition. Already the people are de-
manding that some of the SCORERS
volunteer to spend a night alone IN
the Macdonald house.
Too Much Company.
It is true DR.. Prince has been
s1eeping-if he has slept-alone in
one of the bedrooms of the haunted
house. with only his tinkle bells as
companions. But too many persons
have been in the remainder OF the
house.
There is a theory now, of course,
that some ghosts haunt only GER
tain individuals, and InaI the SuoSt
which scared the Macdonald house
hold out into a blizzard in EnldWIn-
ter might never manifest itself to
visitors from New York and other
large cities. But the MacDonaids,
willing to visit their old homestead
in a crowd, would never consent TO
return there alone for another or
deal of battle with the visitor from
the unknown. Mrs. Macdonald is
still i'll from her nerve-racking ex-
perience.
Among the believers" the the
ories of spiritualism as advanced
by Sir Oliver Lodge and others, are
being studied for serious and con-
vincing proof of the phenomena
How, except by some unearthly
means, could 3S fires be started IN
the Macdonald house in one night,
with half a dozen adults looking on
in sheer amazement? How could
cattle and horses be united and put
into strange stalls five minutes aft
er being securely fastened, with no
one seen to go in or out of the barn?