The Washington times. [volume], April 02, 1922, SUNDAY MORNING, Page 3, Image 15

About The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
pRAVE Cs
ERSEY PEL
WRAITH
r. PriCe Blames t
the Strange Manifes
But All Over Counti
Shaes of th bepai
Ol Hauts Like Bad
the ghost of the
, onish exposed as a me
Walter Franklin Prince of
Eqsohical Research, other
the country as though in pi
the Nova Scotian spectre.
sattered across the contil
Prince to free them from
been reported stalking abi
ploter went north.
Dr. Prinoe is preparing a final re. I
port for the research society ar
ehves, which will delve deeper into
the Antigonish mystery, of which
several phases are am yet unex
plained. The expert asserted in his
prdnnnary report that Mary Ellen
MacDonald, foster daughter of
Alag MacDonald, set the fires In
his home, Csledonia Mills, Nova
80s4k. This was based on inter
teation of the girl and the other
anembers of the family, and on
the fact that all the fires were
started when the girl was in the
house, although in places on the
Walls and elsewhere which she
could not reach. The presence
of a burned match added to the
evidence of human agency.
sOME MESTERY LEFT.
But Dr. Prince admitted that
he could not explain the changing
of horses and cows in the barn,
the pulling up of deeply sunk iron
binges from the ground, or the
"spirit slapping@" reported by
other investigators.
He conceded that all these might
be of "supernatural" origin, es.
pecially the automatic writings of
a newspaperman on the case
which said that a "communicator"
samsed tho fires.
K O. Prince said the girl wa.
undoubtedly in a subconscious
state or actuated by a discarnate
agency when she set the fires.
So, in the opinion of Antigonish
inhabitants, the mystery remains
considerable of a mystery after all.
even if the psychic explorer's state
mont concerning the girl is true.
THE CRANDALL SPECTRE.
And before Dr. Prince left
Canada another spook raised Its
bead In the Dominion. This wraith
possessed a name and -a per
sonality, according to Franklin
Crandall, of Windsor, who suf
fered much Inconvenience from
its appearances and crimes. Mr.
Crandall asserted that the gnost
Nelly Bly'
Heroine of Many Ups
and Downs of For
tune,PFamous News
paperwoman Often
Had Voiced Longing
That When Death's
Curtain Fell She
,Would Be in the
Journalistic Profes
sion, Where She
Could Do Most Good
for the Greatest
;Number.
Dy JOSEPH MULVANEY.
WLLY BLY, the greatest
newspaper woman that ever
lived, died a she wanted to
de-a working reporter on a New
Tbwt newspaper, after suffering
and enjoying a wider variety of
esprlenee than is included In the
Dyes of a hundred average
Whe was the first woman to
acimv national reputation In the
newspaper trade. She broke the
geserd fer girdling the globe In a
manner that made her an Inter
in=ie-al eelerity. She "covered"
every foran of news events from
slaking> in a diving bell to ascend
lag in a balloon; from East Side
politics to national conventions;
frem society occurrences to coal
field and stockyard strikes.
She was Incarcerated in an In
sans asylum a a lunatic to learn
whether charges that keepers
were assaulting Women Inmates
w roee; she found they were,
published facts and reformed the
entire system. She married a
mIllionaIre, inherited his wealth,
and operated three big industries.
F SPOo
BY D11.
DLER" AND
WOMAN"IN
LIFE AGAIN
Donald's Daughter for
tatons In Nova Scotia.
7 Come Reports That
led Have Returned to
Pennies.
NEW YORK, April 1.
Haunted House of Antig
ntally abnormal girl by Dr.
the American Society for
wraiths are rising all over
-otest against the laying of
Almost a score of towns,
kent are appealing to Dr.
3elestial visitors that have
oad since the psychic ex
was his father-in-law, Leo Leonard,
who died in Jackon, Mich., about
two weeks ago.
Mr. Crandall, a practical and
prosaic truckman, declared that
the spook had lifted him from his
chair and Impelled him across the
room to the feet of his wife last
Tuesday night. Before that, the
specter sifted through the halls
at night, according to the truck.
man, moaning for "Flossle" and
"Pearl" In anguished accents.
"Flossie" is the truckman's wife
and "Pearl" is the name of his
mother-in-law, the widow of the
specter.
Whatever may be the final dis
position of the spectre of the
haunted house of Antigonish,
*here sticks another wraith near
er home awaiting physical or
psychical investigation. For the
spirit of the Vanished Peddler of
Wayside Inn is abroad in New
ton, N. J., stirring the town to
nervous fear.
JERSEY'S SPOOK REVIVES.
A century ago the Wayside Inn
was a popular tavern, but now it
Is the prosaic residence of a pro
saic . farmer, Frank Decker. who
is eager to get rid of the quaint
little two-stery cottage because
unearthly visitors trouble his
sleep.
The house has a pedigreed ghost
that dates back seventy-odd years
to a time when, tradition tells, a
party of fox hunters put up for
the night at the Inns. About bed
time a peddler appeared with his
pack and a budget of stories to
keep the guests awake until near
ly dawn. He was finally shown
to a room, and soon after one of
the servants went up to speak to
him. The peddler was gone and
so was his pack, and never again
did he appear.
Never again did he appear in
sight, but in sound he often has
s Great C
These things are known gener
ally. What is here set down is a
summary of other facts less
known but of equal importance in
the life of this extraordinary
woman as revealing the philoso
phy that animated her activity.
Elizaheth Cochran Seaman was
born In 1366 In Cochran's Mills.
Pa., the daughter of a local judg.
She was an unusually pretty girl.
and the beauty of her girlhood
never wholly left her counte
nance. Among her intimates she
was called "Pink," a pet name of
tribute to her fair complexion.
She was sixteen when by chance
she entered the newspaper field.
As she described it to mue with a
laugh one evening:
D)AUGHTER OF JUDGE.
"A Pittsburg newspaper came
to our house one Sunday with a
long story about the working con
ditions under which men were em
ployed In industry. The writer
seemed to think them unbearable.
I wrote a letter to the editor and
asked why he didn't look inte the
working conditions of women in
our State at that time, and I sug
gested that he would find much
more reason for indignation, loon
after he wrote back and asked
why I didn't do it myself. Mo I
went to the office and told him I
would.
"The editor almost fell out of
his chair when he saw m4. He
expected, he said, to find a big
ra-boned spinster instead of a
little girl in short skirts. But be
fore he left I got an ass gment
and I wrote stories right along.
Where are they? Lost florever,
I hopel Wouldn't you hate to run
across any of your own printed
effusions In the days of your
childhood. The stories attracted
a let of attention, and did Meme
good, I like to believe, but they
must have hbea weetuly wrtmen
PHENC
PRINCE
Mary anoen MacDonald
and her pet cat. Mary
Elen was considered a
psyhic factor in the An
tigonish manifestations,
come back, according to neighbors.
Frank Decker, who bought the
old house three years ago, Is be
ginning to be convinced that he
is back again. For the farmer
maid:
"Along About midnight the
other night my wife and I were
wakened by footsteps on the
porch. The front door was bar.
red and bolted, but we heard It
open with a heavy crash. Then
something began moving down.
stairs.
MYSTRIUOUS RACEET.
"It roamed all over the place,
slamming doors and dragging fur
niture around and making a ter
rible racket. The dog was down.
stair, too, and barked angrily,
then begin to whimper and growl
softly as though he were afraid.
"Then suddenly the back door
opened and slammed shut, and all
was quiet. We ran to the win
dows, but we could see nothing,
and there were no tracks in the
snow. The front and back doors
were locked, I found, after com
ing down, and the furniture, in
stead of being scattered about.
was just as I left it. I don't
know what -te make of it.-but
I'd like to sell the place."
Edgar Hunt, a neighbor of the
Deckers. nodded his head sagely
when he heard this testimony and
recalled that in the seventies, when
he was a lad, he had seen an ap
areer End
I never could write-all I can do
is put down en paper what I see
and how I feel about."
AN ARDENT FEMIIU.
This was the initiation of Elis
abeth Seaman into journalism.
The spirit of femianism that
spurred her to the work re
mained characteristic of the
woman throughout her life. In
her heart, she was eenvinoed that
a woman, as an individual, poe
seesed mere brains, more cour
age, more initiative, and more of
every other virtue than man.
What women required muore than
anything else, she always con
tended, was to be awakened to a
realisation of their proper plae
in the world.
She Sas a feminist when ferm
inism was unfashionable, just as
she was a reporter In an era
when women reporters were un
known and would no more have
been considered fitted for ouch
work than they are considered
fitted to sail before the mast of
a wind-jamming tramp today.
There has been much dispute
over the origin of the pen name
"Nellie Bly" and the manner of
its application. This is the own
er's explanation of it:
WOULDN7 TELL AGE.
Of her .personal assignments
and adventures, Miss Bly talked
seldom. She wanted never to
grow old or to appear old or
even to think herself old. Often
we. laughed at this feminine
weakness, but she always insisted
it was note a weakness hut a
practical mnatter. Sometimes her
desire for "agelessness" caused
amusing developments.
Nelly Bly looked on life as a
newspaper, with each day an
issue from the presses of time,
and each insme dead with the
appearance of the next. It was
diffintult t ea her. into .=.in
IMENA F
IN THE
The "Haunted House."
figure in the group of thre
partition in the form of a bent old
man, who walked as though under
the weight of a pack. He called
George Swayse, the occupant of the
Inn at that Ume, and they went
after the weird visitor. They emp
tied the contents of an old-fashion
ed shot-gun into the figure, lidgar
Hunt said, but the shot just went
through it as though through tog
Id As She
iscene. for whe always parried
don't - you - remember questions
with:
"Oh, what's the sense of reisnat
once?" You can't control the pat
and you know nothing about the
future, but you can do what you
like with the present. Time is
more like money than people be
lieve. What's past is spent, what's
eorming is only promised, but
what's here is coin of the realm
awaiting action."
DISILLUSIONED WIFB,
But she would listen for hours to
the experience of others, checking
them up mentally with her own.
After she married Robert Saann
the septuagenarian owner of the
Iron Clad Manufacturing Company,
which then controlled the patent
on virtually every milk can in the
eountry, she found only disillusion
ment in matrimony.
Still in her twenties she was
bored by formal conventions and
sought recreation in travel. The
big Seaman house on 'West Thirty
seventb stret, just off Fifth ave
nue, was always open to her old
friends and she established a sort
of salon that was unique in metro
politan life.
REGRETTED MARRYING.
Nelly Biy's marriage to Robert
Seaman was unhappy on both sides,
for the couple were mismated In
other ways than age. He was a
conservative, careful, plodding
merchant, devoted to old-fashioned
methods. Such arts as advertising
he could not understand, and to
him a change was more to be
feared than an illness. She knew
intimately and affectionately per
sons whose existence he would not
concede, even when he saw them.
Bookmakers, actredmee, politi
ens, explorersi Robert Seaman
at first thought his home was in
process of conversio into a menag
erie, then he developed a ssu-~n
OLLOWS
ANTIGO?
Dr. Walter I. Prince, chief a
Ibefore th house.
and then the apparition vanished
before their eyes.
Mr. Hunt bore testimony that
John Calvin. a local meptuagenarlan
now In Florida, had an even more
%masing encounter soon after this
Incident. Calvin was walking down
the road of an evening to call on
his sweetheart whon he was ap
proached by a woman In white.
0
Wished
linely natural jealousy af the
friends his wife made. It has been
often said, and almost as often be.
lieved, that Nelly 31y married for
money and sh4 .never wasted time
denying It, except ease when she
said:
"I married for experiene and I
got more experience than I ex
peated. I went into it a good deal
like Ln assignment, but It was a
mistake. That was one time where
my policy of thinking out my own
assignments proved an error.
"A newspaper man should never
marry, and a newspaper woman
should put the thought out of her
head the moment she enters a city
room. For marriage takes moms
tilng away from the newspaper,
It takes time away; It takes
thought awayad a newspaper
demands all the time and thought
that a person possesses. You
should give It everything or noth
ing. Newspaper work is mome
thing like a priesthood, that de
mands celibacy as one of the sai
ficem for the privilege of the en
trance."
Nelly' Bly's Idea of a newspaper
was not a thing of paper and Ink
turned out by huge presses, filed
with accounts of various events
and happenings of the day. To her
It was a mighty machIne with
which to move the world; an In
strument to get things done. rather
than to teli what was done and
how It was done.
SOT HUSBAND'S ETATB.
A newspaper was a fore to start
activity, rather than a record et
things that were started by otheme.
She was a born crusader, sager to
lead any mcvement fer publie bene
fit and quite willing to risk all she
possessed in the sass. With this
spirit Robert leama w er u
of sympathy. yet he bee her and
she .ave him Imfimaas ...meet --U
LAYING
(ISH "HA
|ot hmnter, is the centra
The most estraordtnary phase of
this figure, according to Calvin's
tale, was that the young woman
had no head and her raiment was
so sheer that he could see through
It. He turned and ran, with the
headless wraith In pursuit, and
when he reached home, he col
lpsed over the threshold and did
not leave the house for a week.
In Chosen
open affection throughout their life
together. When he died he left her
all his wealth, bet she knew too
ttle about business as It wasn
practiced by her enemies to long
retain it.
OFFmman CITE JOB.
Soon after Robert naaamage
death there was quiet but vigor
oe mnovament to make. Nelly Bly
a mnember of the mayor's cabinet.
She wanted to be cnmminneur of
street cleaning, and a powerful faa
tion of the Democratio crganisa
tion In the city support'ed her
candidacy. Brooklyn, where the
Iron Clad factories were In opera
tion, was staunch for her, but a
disruption in the city organisation
prevented the appointment.
Suddenly she discovered that
wholesale theft had been committed
in the Iron Clad company ad the
American gteel Barrel Company,
which she developed from the first,
namhed corporation. The organism
tin had been undermired till only
a shell of It remained. Forgery
and other orime had all but wiped
out the financial assets. Mrs.
Saman, then in sole charge with
soaree of aebordintate employee
to face, fought to weather the gale
of adversity and fouight with a fury
unparalleled In the New Terk
courts.
L VED AMU4S.
When she took charge of the
factory she rose at I every morn
ing and worked until olcee to mid
night steadily. She learned every
phase of ananufacture, developed
new patents, perfected the steel
barrel so that her product became
one of the only two permitted by
the Interstate Cosanerve ('mmle
slom to be~ as gasoline contain
ra In rail transpnrtation.
Ihe direoted the faetaries from a
team ftanised with a de*, two
haiars and a fiing ease, The walls
... bare and whitensmaed and
OF GH1
LUNTED
Flora Marion Spore
painting a ''spook" pio
ture under the influence
of the "spooks,"
frm fraway O hma emes
another weird tale of elestil
flames of sheerest blue that have
burst in the air around the bed of
Mrs. Ona Smith, an Invalid in the
town of Alm. The entire county
is aroused over this unexplained
demonstration, which is corrobo.
rated by several reliable witnesses.
Watchers at the invalid's bedside
have seen and felt the flames in
their clothing and the wall paper
and the bed clothing. Two mat
tresses have been burned almast
under the patient, a calendar sus
pended from the wall has been
Ignited, a shawl worn by the In
valid has been burned and fires
have flashed In blue intensity along
the wood work of the building
frequently.
"MARY ELLEN" FIRE.
These flames have been strik
ingly similarito the descriptions of
the fire. in the Antigonish farm
house, and the solution of the'mys
tery may prove to be the same.
The first fire broke forth ten
days ago, when the mattress under
Work As
more than a score of canaries flut
tered around It, agghting on her
head and shoulders with perfect
freedom, while she worked undis
turbe4. She had a -.pmlson for
animals of every variety. She
rode horsebhck, raised fancy
chickets and pheasants, bred cats
and dogs for pleasure and bench.
I've seen her leep a houseful of
guests waiting whil, she spooned
mush down the throat of a sickly
chicken on the lawn of her big
house on Sheepehead Bay.
BOME AND OCEAN.
This house was so situated that
while It was within a few hun
dred feet of the nearest building,
one got the impression of abso
lute solitude. It faced the ocean
and was far back from the road.
There were wide lawns on every
side, a tiny pier with a yacht or
two moored and a private beech.
Nelly Bly, in the days of her
greatest wealth, often sat on the
porch from midnight until dawn,
watching the lights of passing
vessels and chatting with anyone
willing to watch the sunrise with
her. And always she talked of
news and newspapers.
YEABNED FOR WORR.
Once, at such a time, she read
these verse. of 3. W. Foley from
a newspaper clipping:
THE PRODIGALS RETURN.
Back to news and presses, back
to type and printer's ink,
Dack to beats that jolt you and
to things that make you think;
Back to nights of hurry, back
where midnight lunches lurk.
Back to lights and worry and the
blessedness of worki
Back to waste and litter, to
the basket heaping high,
Baok to sweet and bitter, where
the Mese of copy fly,
Baek to nights made gterious by
smething doe today,
Raok to wham I shonld be
DST
HOUSE"
aSher, nom. John Nese Z'gy
the muaaes esagtbebme~
-sous
pissM aI
Two dps later the emistu m
the wan blrst m le am, A bw
hers anv this w" put eut the
corpe Ignited. Mrs. Mary Wee
mr. ant of the bavalid, iew Mrs.
Bmith 0em the bed to a mks.
As the InvalIds dawi tended the
floer It began to blase Videatly.
SPOONS INSMB AREN0M
All the bedding was reseed
from the house and th see
where Mrs. Smith isia rsted ws
deared at furniture. Net aw a
now aattrol was breught 11.
Moores et neighbors 0nd a ned
paper mn were preMt at the
time. The new mattress was a
mams of Games In a maomast. with
blue tongues t fire maangm a"d
darting over the swumea IL ft.
Dr. C. C. Rogers, wh Is attending
Ms. mh o0medes that the osut
tIRe Ot the msystery is beyond }ME.
The len poles, g-tig the
house new, ar Unable to ~ffer
even a suggestion of the origin
of the firs.
Phenomema of aother, th.a
equally strange, variSty. were e
vealed last week through Ilsts
M. Hpore, a Michit=a gist new
studying art In qreoswid MOMina.
Kise Spoe never took swan a drwiP
Ing lemen m her life, 74 do
pants aanvasme Under the dkive
tion, she ay, c great artit
long sinos dead.
A Wornd at Or Arth' sCaMW
Deye, the novollst, disoeIed with
her a few years age the resuts
cc some experiannsts smade an the
oNUS beare. Mse Spore a that
she bought a bead and S
began to get m - fWes her
dead, siter. whe advised her to
discard the bar and ume the
panhet writing symems ter eb.
tatning neesages bea the other
worl.
unMAnIsaM FIOM IRdD.
seen. Flora sas, *h began toe
get message frem her maSme. and
the girl added:
"I thought that my mM had
been studying drawing ~ there.
but she tow me thas 0 had met
several great artists. After I be.
gan to hear frm her and to umake
drawings, she toM me to discard
the planahette and just use my
hands, and ines th I have fe
ceived an her memages and other
messages fromA there mntaly.."
She wrote to Prolssr R7de1
thea had e the mdloy for P -
a-asagtens Reseach, and e110 *
New York to oSnmult b. Tit
profensr died be00e *e am I
talk to him. Flera met Dr. PInn
and Was adviecd to keep an am -
rate recohi of all her conmuni'
tions with the other wesM.
The drawiigs ans paintig -t
the girt ae extraordlnary, to phram
it sefely. still life is a faverite
form of ber art and she paints In
gantproperticns uder the drWe
tion, she says, et Gustave Dese.
Peregilneur and a Cinse artis.
Much of h wek Dira M ae
teriseb'as symbehe and emplabs
the symboinm in phasem whick
she says hate been - "
to her from the spihts of the
artists. Dr. Prine. will go deeper
into Mins spores work and
mmahod seon.
Reporter
She'Broke the Record
for Oirdling the
Globe in a Manner
That Made 1Her an
InternationalCeleb
rity, and She "Cov
ered" Every Forma
of News Event
She Married a Mit
lionsire and Oper
ated Th r ee Big
Industries.
lord, how long i've bean astrayt
Nelly Bly sighed when ie read
It aloud, and repeated:
"'L.ord, hew lang I've been
astray.' "
She had thought to find power
In money, and lived to realie
that there wasn much weakness in
it. For money itself mattered
nothing to her after she had It;
ieee than men mattered in her
life, and they mnattered not at
all, in a personal sense.
The prospect of death never
stirred fear in Nellie Dly; there
was nothing she was afraid oh
but she did say often:
"MWhen may timne somes rd Nb.
to die a newspaperwoman. I dsn't
want over to be retired, fer mine
Is not a retiring dispositien. i'
like to have the end earns lat
after I'd get something s weE
started that it would keep galag
an its own power plus the s.e
meatuma I put into it."
She smiled whea *e amu that
-the miles that Governor AMteM,.
.ef1 I~imela, appaised at $,O0,O00
as a personal and peeetenala'
set-and It was set se that *he
aneal