DES MOINES, Ia., Oct. 4–The town of Van Meier, containing 1000 persons, is terribly wrought up by what is described as a horrible monster. Every man, woman and child in the town is in a state of terror, and fully half of them fail to close their eyes in slumber except in broad daylight. Friday ... [More »]
Local News
Unearthly Sounds Explained
A family living just east of town has passed through a novel experience within the past week. Sounds of an unearthly nature were to be heard about the house at all hours of the day and night, and visions of ghosts, spooks, hobgoblins, and all sorts of spirits, flitted through their minds. They finally concluded that the sounds came from the cellar, and last Sunday the head of the family summoned up courage and went down to investigate, prepared to annihilate the spirit whatever shape it might assume, and he soon discovered that the source of the trouble was a half-grown and half-starved pig, which had fallen into the cellar through an open window. His pigship was soon routed out of there and quietness restored. –Ackley Tribune
Ghost Smells Like the Grave
The Daily Chronicle invites the Psychical Research Society to investigate the highly unpleasant manifestations of a unique ghost which haunts an old-time country cottage within twenty miles of London.
Several persons while sleeping in a certain bed room of the house have felt a cold, flabby, ghostlike hand placed on their mouths. But the most extraordinary feature of the spook is that the ghostly presence is always accompanied by the indescribable, suffocating smell of the charnel house.
Sometimes the ghost can be heard descending the stairs at noonday. He makes a noise like that of a huge, corpulent man whose slippers flap on each stair. The ghost goes into a room and seats himself at the luncheon table, driving everybody away by his malodorous presence.
There is a local story of an imbecile man of huge proportions who died in the garret of the cottage many years ago. The body being so large, there was unusual delay in getting it out of the house, and decomposition was far advanced before the burial.
Monster’s Abominable Practices, 1788
A MONSTER, hideous and disgusting in form has lately arrived from France. Its manners are brutal although its species is human. In this horrid being is exhibited a junction of both sexes, but its apparel is female. A girl of some beauty and address lives with it for purposes the most vile, and it has been visited by the first men in the country. Decency will not allow a more minute description, either of the MONSTER or its abominable practices.
Recent Items
The “Mowing Devil,” England, 1678
Being a True Relation of a Farmer, who Bargaining with a Poor Mower, about the Cutting down of Three Half Acres of Oats; upon the Mower’s asking too much, the Farmer swore, That the Devil should Mow it, rather than He: And so it fell out, that that very Night, the Crop of Oats shew’d ... [More »]
Spontaneous Combustion: Man Allegedly Consumed by Internal Fire
The following extraordinary occurence is related by the Gazette des Tribunaux: “A few days ago in the tavern near the Barriere de l’Etoile, a journeyman painter, named Xavier C——-, well known for his intemperate habits while drinking with some comrades, laid a wager that he could eat a lighted candle. His bet was taken, and ... [More »]