New-York tribune. [volume], March 19, 1922, Image 51

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M A G A Z I N E
TRIBUNE INSTITUTE
BOOK SECTION
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PART V. TWKL. - ,(;rs
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SUNDAY, MARCH 19, 1922
M A G A Z I N E
TRIBUNE INSTITUTE
BOOK SECTION
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TWELVE PAGES PART V.
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Amber, od r&
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*fthfc'0 it Ja time 1 ?'?ore done.
? U worth doing, for tie? casf- has bw>n*8 i.i
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*f ??:' .- -, hundreds of
?ottaanda of p- rst question t^
?^eM*ylB8 tW" pieaaant task is?
^^0 ^^^- the witnesseeT'
Air.e>ng thoae jnentioned by Dr. Pri?i?e ^er*
H?fc*>^. t2_a aiter vhoea _?oi. was at? pio?t?
|
By FREDERICK B. EDWARDS Drawins by FREDERIC DORR STEEL?
te; ur. Carritte, ?an Amherst physician, and
Arthur Davi?on, clerk of the County ?Court
G r Amherst, Most of the other? who had a
first-hand knowledge of the case were classi?
fied by Dr. Prince merely as "spectators."
Much of the information that was accepted
by other leas conscientious inve3tigators is
vd ?iiide by Dr. Prince. An example of
tai* is the testimony of Mrs. Teed, of which
Dr. Princa wrote:
"A letter was at last obtained from Mrs.
"eed on June 21, 1908. She affirmed that
Tr'hat her friend (the actor, Hubbeil) had pub
": shed waa 'all true.' But this decs not quite
c import with what she told Mr. (Hereward)
on?that she thought he had drama?
tized and embellished it in places, which leaves
i-s pretty much at sea again.
Smk?ng the Testimony
Of Mrs. Teed
"Mrs. Teed adds another story, but, a?aa'i
row reasonable interrogation points crop up
at every clause. Mr. and Mrs. Teed one night
:ould see from their bed into Esther's room
ight (how much moonlight, and how
her room, di i it light'.'); they saw a
chair slide up from the wall to her bed
(would not a string looped around the chair
? have p?cducsd the samo effect, and ?o&s
che direction the chair took suggest the
string?)} ? pillow went ou from under her
?, into the chair (would that effect hav?s
.. the power of the human hand
?.ce in the semi-darkness?) ; a ghost
. at down in the chair and rubbed, pinched
mod Esther under the bedclothes
bin this is what Esther said) ; all the furni
t except the bedstead was thrown out into
the entry while Esther lay quietly in bod
?? much and .'row ?arg* was the furniture'.'
How much of Esther's form could they sae?
In it certai : that it was Esther at all whom
? ? ? ? n fcho bed, for rolls of clothing and
arranged cushions have been known
a poor light?); then another
. rocked the bed (is it not probable tiiat
~.v was in bed now, at any rate?) ; at length
...... . ,.;s brought to sleep in the same room
with the other.?, whereupon the'manifestations'
cause of the better opportunities
? - pt that once the lid of a
ink j '? ne parting slam' (was the trunk
? ? ? .??ear Esther's mattress? Was th?
ten I before the parting slam long enough
low the Teeds to fall into that state, con?
dal to the night, wherein eyes watch not?)
von the story of the lively dishpan told
by Mrs, Teed to Mr. Carrington is not con
Incing as she told it, eren though 'Esther
? i not near the pan' (is not 'three feet'
i jlerably near?), and she wa3 walking away
from it when the pan hopped up and fell on
the rloor. The writer finds by experiment that
a string looped in the ring of a dishpai on
f -.?-her side and passing over the shoulder
to the hand of a perron walking away pro
duces the same effect that a ghostly hand
would, provided that the light is dim and the
ooker doca not occupy a favorable posi?
tion.1*
So it goes. this crit'i-nl studv o* ' "?"*>? n*?-?*
Amherst Mystery," and, taken all together, it
is enough to cause any 1-. v, r o. .. .
: of-.'s .?hiver-producing tales to thank heaven
that Walter F. Prince was not editor of th?"
magazine that ?rst printed th? delightful yarns
I enius.
Properly to appreciate the tremendous im?
portance of ths ?Caledonia Mills affair to th?
paopie of Nova Scotia, ?and especially to th?
jTJR. WALTER FRANKLIN PRINCE, seers-tar? of th& American Society for Psychical
Research, last Wednesday made a report on the ghastly manifestations at tit?
MacDonald honte. Dr, Peine? thinks the fires itere dua to Mary Eilen, the a?opte?i
daughter of the, MacUonetds. hut holds that she; is rw?i mentally capable, being "ex?
ceedingly young for her years''* in develop meat of mind. The) fires? he seyst teere
mostly tmhhln reach of a person five fees S all, which la tina gtrfs height. He found
j evidence ihas same teers started trlth matches. Also, he finds that there it no evidence
I that they broke ov.l "schere the girl coul.? not have been a jets minutes emlier."" H?
sesera he found bottles oi1 htftammabla ?truids on beams in the kitchen. Be offered ?ha
'
exploitation that Mary Ellen probably did these tldngs, including tying knots ?? she
tails of the MacDonald caille, uhila aha teas in "an altered state of conselcnsnesi,"
Consequently', he doeu not regar? hsr <sj ** morally culpable*" As for those investigators
in the house who tnid they were slapped, D r. Prtne* said lia liad found by experiment
that one of them ?as a medium of psychical manifestations and tvas susceptible So "vol
canto outbursts stf automatle uniting." Us discr?dits the statement ihat wireless astss j
j may hate soused elm manifestations,
people of that particular part of Kara Scotia,
it is necessary that the reader should under
stand the undei lying causes of this remarkable
exhibition of community panic, for that is
what it is. Because of their hereditary racial
characteristics their habits of thought, their
mode of life and the circumstances under which
they live the people of the isolated districts of
this particular part of Canada are unusually
sensitive to supernatural suggestion. Cale
donia Mills is not so far from Broadway by
uiile measurement. By any other standard it
is in a neither world.
Caledonia Mills is a trilling collection of half
a dozen scattered farmhouses in Guysboro
County, N. S., on the border line between Guys?
boro and Antigonish. The settlement is no re?
mote from -what the average New Yorker un?
derstands by the word civilization that it is
difficult for said average Neu- Yorker, to
understand what life in Caledonia Mills means.
No railroad runs anywhere near Caisdonia
Mills. There are no automobiles, no traffic
cops, no streetcar-, no movies, no electric light,
gas, telephone., bandit.-:, bucketshops or boot?
leggers at Caledonia Mills. There are prob?
ably elderly people in '.he- community who have
never seen a train or a streetcar or a tele?
phone. If you want to get to Caledonia Milla
?rom Antigonish Town or any other nearby
?enter you either walk or drive behind a horse.
Candles and oil lanterns supply illumination
and oil is hard to get
The people of this part of Canada are prin?
cipally of Highland Scottish descent and every
other family is a MacDonald, and the Mac
Gillivrays aro not far behind. It is inevi?
table that there should be MacDonaids and
MecGillivrays in this affair. Yon couldn't
keep them out. In politics, art,- religion, sci
ence, trade, sport or social life it is impossi?
ble to move moro than a Step or so in this
part of Canada without bumping ?gainst a
MacDonald.
They are a simple-minded, kon?ssi people,
intensely religious, superstitious by ancestry
and natural inclination, stubborn in their con
victlons, self-sufficient and self-centered. With
their ancient Highland tradici?n for religious
fervor, depth of conviction and stubborn ad?
herence to their own point of view they are.
subjected through their mode of living to ths
additional influences of an almost monastic
seclusion and hard, unrelieved toil for their
daily bread. The only industry is farming and
when the coming of winter shuts in the land
they are driven indoors to sit ai'ound a red
hot box stove in which hard wood logs
crackle, there to commune among themselves
on religion, politics?and ghosts.
The MacDonald property at Caledonia
Mills, scene of this latest outbreak cf super
naturalism, is typical- There is a frame
house of two stories, containing a living room,
"parlor" and a small bedroom on the ground
floor, with a lean-to kitchen built on the north
sido of the houfjo. Upstairs are three Spartan
bedrooms. Fifty yards from the house is the
barn, larger in structure than ths house itsolf,
The MacDonald farm, where the haunting took?-or didn't take?place. Bet?
'.,-,. to* than no company at all, one might toy of a visiting ?pooh
which provide_i winter shelter for the season's
hay crop, the one horse and the half-dozen
cows. House and barn are of frame structure,
?single planked and loosely shingled. Tho
farm is on the backbone of an upland ridge
of ground which dominates Antigonish County
on cue side and Gnysboro County on the other.
?n both directions the place is open to tho
?riving blasts which sweep across the country
from the nearby North Atlantic shore.
Around tho house are a few acres of cleared
land; behind, stretching to the horizon, end?
less foresta of pine and spruce, with occ.*
aional spindling birches, A bleak, desolat?.",
comfortless outpost at the best of times. In
winter, with the nearest neighbor two miles
away, a bitter materialization of the spirit of
loneliness,
MacDonalda in __ Sioie
Of Frantic Fear
In this stark setting up to a few weeks arc,
lived Alexander MacDonald, sixty-five years
old, or thereabouts, his wife?, and their
adopted daughter, Mary Ellen, whose age is
fifteen. They have not lived there since
January 12 last, when seemingly frantic with
fear, they moved their small belongings to an
empty house two miles away, driven from
their old home hy a -crie:, of uncanny happen
inga.
Mystery on the MacDonald farm, although
reaching its explosion peint only a few weeks
ago, is not new. Almost a year ago there
were reported occurrences which liad the val?
ley folks completely puzzled. These mani?
festations affected only the MacDonald cattle
in the MacDonald barn. The fanner, tying
up his stock for the night, would return to the
barn a few minute! later and find his cows
kicking up their heels in the pasture; yet no
member of his household would admit having
untied them. On several occasions knots in
the talks of the cows caused him the deepest
consternation and his cows a great deal of
personal discomfort. Then the fine weather
came and the cattle were no longer disturbed.
Tho summer and autumn were peaceful and
the family settled down to its cheerless win?
ter routine of limited activity and unlimited
time, but no further disturbing mischance.
were reported until last January.
The first manifestation occurred, the Mac
Donalds say, on January 6. In the kitchen
Mrs. MacDonald discovered a blazing lump of
what appeared to be cotton wool. She had
been absent from the room only for a moment
or two and was positive that the wool had not
been in the kitchen previously to her discovery.
Aleo, she was confident that she had not seen
cotton of that kind in the house for many
months previously and that there was no cotton
of that kind in the house at that time. The
other members of the family asreed with her.
None of them had any knowledge of any such
material in the house.
Tho fires continued. They broke out in tits
middle of the night, in the early evening and
in the early morn in er. There were a dozen or
more such manifestations in the kitchen, in
the dining room and in the upstairs rooms.
Sometimes flames burst from the floors and
sometimes from tho walls. In no case, so far
as the three persons say who lived in the house
and who are the only witnesses of these earlier
manifestations, was there any previous evi?
dence of the existence of the burning sub?
stance anywhere around the house.
There were strange noises heard{ noises
which are variously described as "hollow
thumps," and "?scrapings.*' Ti best
during tha whole period of the.
fires, but were not apparently d with
them. The noises were intermittent, but oc?
curred chiefly at night.
So far the manifestations had been coi
to the MacDonald family. The stor
and Duncan MacDonald, a relative: and a I
bor, and Dan and Deo McGillivray, other ..
bors, visited tho house and id the burr,
scars left on the \.ai:.-?, floors and f .
the mysterious fires.
Leaving the house ct dusk one evening, th?--?
MacGillivray brothers say they saw an arm
thrust out of an upstairs window
white cloth. The arm itself wan a chalky
white, and after waving the cloth .u
few minutes it was withdrawn. Returning at
once to the house, they told of what they be?
lieved they had seen. The MacDonaids say
that no member of the family had gone up?
stairs during the interval between the depart?
ure of the MacGillivrays and their return.
On the night of January 11 the hre3 started
so frequently that Mrs. MacDonald and Mary
Ellen fled the house to call assistance. They
were afraid that if they slept the house would
burn over their heads. Dur;.-.;-: their absence
two new fires broke out, which MacDonald
smothered, one of them in the ?kitchen and one
on the stairs. The next day the entire Mac?
Donald family left tho old homestead and took
up residence in an unoccupied house a mile and
a half away. The MacDonald home became
one of those frightful things?a haunted
house.
No Ghost Was Ever
Better Advertised
Meanwhilo r.ews of these things had been
sent abroad. Harold B, Whidden, correspon?
dent of "Tho Halifax Herald" at Antigonish
Town, supplied hi3 newspap?ir with a short ac?
count of the happenings. The paper was in?
terested, and asked Whidden for complete de?
tails, which were supplied. The entire popula?
tion of .Nova Scotia began to take
in the Caledonia Mills ghost. Hundreds of
suggestions were offered to the newspa]
explanation of the mystery. These rangc?i
from frank statements of belief that the fires
were tho work of ?some incubus to elaoorato
explanations by amateur sdentists who of?
fered spontaneous combustion, electricity, gun
cotton and potassium chloride as possible me?
diums through which a practical joker might
be working.
The h'ant grew to be a serious matter h-,
Nova Scotia. People everywhere were
the facts and elaborating them te (it some pe?
culiar personal theory. One elderly woman in
Halifax convinced herself that the Ca
Mills ghost portended tho approach of the end
of the world, declined to go to bed for fear
she wouldn't hear Gabriel's trumpet and be?
came Beriousiy ill through lack of sleep.
School children in lonely localities were ufraid
to go out after nightfall, and all the old stories
of witchcraft, banshees, little people, were?
wolves, and personal devils were revived and
exchanged and expounded until ?the entire com?
munity suffered from nervous shock and the
banging of a door after dark was sufficient to
send an entire family into hysterics. News?
papers outside Nova Scotia began to bombard
"The Herald" office for news of the latest de?
velopments; preachers preached sermons ca
it, ?ind lawyers and laymen wrote letters to the
editors.
Challenged by some of these Tetter writers,
"The Herald" planned an investigation on its
own account. Whidden, a young man of good
family, educated, and with a good war record
as a member of the Canadian Expeditionary
.?"orces, volunteered to sleep in the haunted
house. The newspaper persuaded Peter Owen
Carroll, known all over Nova Scotia as
''Peachy" Carroll, to accompany the reporter.
Carroll is a police detective, not the mr>at
brilliant Sherlock Holmes in the' world, per?
haps, but honest and experienced in dealir.;r
with email town criminals end proud of hi -
record of never having fallen down on such
cases as were presented for his investigation?.
He is a former Chief cf Police of Picteu, N. S.
Carroll and Whidden went to Caledonia
Mills on Tuesday, February 7, and stayed ?in
the MacDonald house until Thursday, Febru?
ary 9, sleeping there two nights. For part of
this time they were alone in the house, at other
times MacDonald stayed with them. They
slept on the floor in the kitchen in their clothes.
Mrs. MacDonald cooked them food, which Mac?
Donald brought to them through the snow.
Whidden's Oivrt Story
Of a Trying Night
In the words of Whidden's story to "The
Halifax Herald*": "We employed most of tho
hours of the day trying to keep warm.
was impossible. We kept a roaring tire in the
sheet iron stove in the dining room. The
doors leading into the kitchen, parlor and
small bed room were all closed and fastened,
but the dining room could not be heated
enough for comfort. A blizzard raged a'i
day."
On Wednesday evening, after the storm had
died down, the investigators were visited by
Dan and Leo McGillivray and Duncan Mac?
Donald. They played cards until about 10 :'!?,
when the two McGillivrays and Duncan Mac?
Donald returned home. Carroll, Whidden
and Alexander MacDonald remained in the
house all night. Then Whidden writes:
"Shortly after our guests took their de?
parture, Mr. MacDonald lay down on the rugs.
About 11:50 I lay down siso, leaving Detec?
tive Carroll sitting by the firs smoking. I
asked him to call me if he saw or heard any?
thing strange. It was impossible for me to
sleep, it was so cold. At 12 o'clock, th? d*?
(Cosatimtmd o? p&g* to&mUn)