A Burglar Caught by a Skeleton & Other Singular Tales from the Victorian Press (32 page)

A Headless Ghost

Superstition rarely stands in the way of the extension of postal accommodation or convenience; but a case of the kind which recently occurred in the west of Ireland is mentioned by the Postmaster-General in his report issued yesterday.

Application was made for the erection of a wall letter-box, and authority had been granted for setting it up; but when arrangements came to be made for providing for the collection of letters, no one could be found to undertake the duty, in consequence of a general belief among the poorer people in the neighbourhood that, at that particular spot, ‘a ghost went out nightly on parade.’

The ghost was stated to be a large white turkey without a head.

The Edinburgh Evening News
, September 7, 1876

Remarkable Dereliction of Duty

There are some very wicked people in the commune of Châtre-Langlin, in the canton of Saint-Benoit-du-Sault.

At the end of last July a terrible hailstorm occurred there, which did a vast deal of damage. The inhabitants, having arrived at the conviction that their
curé
, if he were good for anything, might have caused the storm to cease by performing certain religious rites, and being very angry with him for not doing so, went in a body to the church and fell upon him. He fled into the sacristy.

They went to his house, pitched his clothes over the window, beat the domestics who tried to interfere, and declared that they meant to ‘kill the
curé
because he had let them be hailed upon.’ Nothing more irreverent could occur to the African who thrashes his wooden god if it does not bring him rain.

Moreover, the peasants allowed their vengeance to attack persons who could not possibly have anything to do with a hailstorm.

A municipal councillor, we should imagine, would be the last man in the world to trifle with a thunder-cloud, like Benjamin Franklin; but so blind was the wrath of the villagers that they caught and smote severely an official of that description, who had merely endeavoured to rescue the
curé
.

For this offence fourteen persons were last week summoned to appear before a Correctional Tribunal.

The Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle
, September 28, 1872

Weird Tragedy in Paris

One of the weirdest tragedies that has occurred for a long time has just taken place in a house in the Rue de Chezy at Neuilly, Paris.

The house was occupied by a widow named Devezins, with her son Frederick and her niece Mlle. Marthe Contresty, who were engaged to be married, and were deeply in love with each other.

Affianced last November they were to be married in the second week of February, but in the middle of January M. Frederick Devezins fell suddenly ill. He died on January 23 at eleven o’clock at night. His
fiancée
was at his bedside until the end.

Madame Devezins cared for her niece’s reason, and sent her to stay with some friends, but to all attempts to raise her spirits she replied: ‘Before leaving me my
fiancé
promised not to abandon me. A few minutes before dying, while he still had all his reason, he said: “Do not cry, darling. We will be united in spite of all. I will come for you in a month. Wait on me in your bed-room at the same hour at which I die. I will carry you away, and we will be united in eternity.”’

In order not to grieve Madame Devezins the friends did not tell her of her niece’s conviction, to which, moreover, little importance was attached.

On Monday, the 19th, Mlle. Contresty, who seemed to have recovered her self-possession, returned to live with her aunt. On Friday, the 23rd, one month after the death of her
fiancé
, she was more dejected than usual, and hardly left her room all day.

After going to bed about eleven o’clock at night Madame Devezins went to see how her niece was. She stopped in amazement at the bed-room door, which was open. Her niece had not heard her approach, and was sitting in an armchair gazing fixedly at the clock. She was wearing the dress in which she was affianced and also her engagement ring. It was almost eleven o’clock. Suddenly the wind blew open the badly-closed window and extinguished the lamp.

Madame Devezins approached her niece, and touched her lightly on the shoulder. Before she could speak there was a scream, and Mlle. Contresty fell to the floor. When help arrived she was found to be dead, a physician who was called explaining that she had died of terror.

The Morning Post
, March 1, 1900

An Extraordinary Superstition

At the Bootle Police Court on Monday, before Alderman E. Neep and J. Howard, Mary Ann Proudly, of 10, Aber Street, Bootle, was charged with cruelly treating a cat by cutting off its tail.

Inspector Herniman, of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, supported the prosecution. Mrs Fletcher, of 10, Aber Street, said that on New Year’s Day, about five o’clock, the defendant borrowed a hatchet from her. The witness saw her go into her room and deliberately chop the cat’s tail off. Next morning the defendant told her that she had cut the cat’s tail off to prevent the cat from going mad.

Alderman Howard: And is that the way to cure anybody going mad? (Laughter.) Defendant: Yes, sir, it was going mad with its tail. Alderman Neep: Why didn’t you cut the head off instead of the tail, and cure the madness? Defendant: There is a worm in a cat’s tail that goes up into its brain and drives it mad. (Laughter.) Alderman Neep: That is something new to me. (Laughter.) Defendant: It never ran after its tail after that. (Loud laughter.) It was quite quiet after that, and I used to give it bread and milk. I only tried to cure the cat from going mad.

Alderman Neep: The sooner it is known that cutting off a cat’s tail will not cure madness the better. It is simply nonsense to raise a defence like that. It will be a warning to you, and you will have to pay a fine of 40s. and costs, or go to gaol for a month.

The Lancaster Gazette
, January 16, 1889

A Strange Story

An extraordinary story is reported from Prussian Poland. It appears that among the Poles and Hungarians the myth of vampires still finds credence.

A country squire at Roslasin, in Posen, died some months ago, his death being speedily followed by that of his eldest son and the dangerous illness of several of his relatives, all which cases occurred as suddenly as they seemed unaccountable.

The deceased was at once suspected of being a vampire, rising from his grave, and sucking the blood of his surviving friends.

To prevent further mischief his second son determined to chop off the corpse’s head, for which enterprise he obtained the assistance of some equally superstitious peasants at a very high price.

The head was to be laid with the feet, while an assistant collected the blood dropping from the neck in a vessel to give to the relatives to drink. The deed was delayed by the interference of the parish priest, but was in the end effected at night, not, however, without an unasked witness.

The case is now before the Prussian Court of Appeals. The local court had sentenced the desecrators of the churchyard to three months imprisonment, and it seems likely that they will still have to pay that penalty for their superstition.

The Manchester Evening News
, May 23, 1871

Superstition in Hungary

A strange story of superstition is reported from Homolitz, in Hungary. Several bodies of men had recently been found there with their heads cut off.

An investigation was made by the police, and it turned out that these mutilations had in every instance been committed by young men who were betrothed to the widows of the decapitated persons.

The husbands had died a natural death, and their widows believed that in case they married a second time their husbands would reappear and destroy their wedded happiness. Hence they had persuaded their new bridegrooms to decapitate their deceased partners.

The Huddersfield Daily Chronicle
, April 20, 1892