A Ghost-Haunted Room.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 292, 30 April 1889, Page 4

A Ghost-Haunted Room.

Tbs following extraordinary story in connection with the Mallwell-Preller murder was recently telegraphed to New York from St Louis, where the murder took place The terrible tragedy enacted on April Sth, in room IM of the Southern Hotel, is again revived by strange experiences of the ■ guests who have recently occupied the apartment. It was in room 144 that Maxwell chloroformed Preller to death wad then packed the body in a trunk. The room was not occupied for many months, and the hotel people found it necessary to change the number to 188. The experience of a guest one night recently was told on the following day. The gentleman is a business man of well-oalanced mind. “I knew nothing at all about the room when I took it, he said. “In fact, the Maxwell Preller tragedy had wholly escaped mo. I went to bed at my usual hour, and was awakened with a start by hearing a strange tapping against the head or the bed. There was one tap and then two others in quick succession. I was aroused in an instant, but heard nothing more. The same tapping occurred several other times during the night, but I thought little of it. The next evening I noticed that the drawers of the bureau would always open, however often I closed them. I pushed them in whenever I passed near the bureau, but they would invariably open again, as though forced out by some unseen agency. Still I was not frightened. The most startling occurrence, and that which decided me to quit the room, name on the third night. I ordered the fire to be discontinued, because it was warm enough without one, and retired for the night. I had noticed that the chambermaid had entirely cleared the hearth of debris, and not so much as a scrap of paper was left in it. About 1 o’clock I was awakened by an explosion on the hearth that sounded like a big fire-cracker. I was scared, you can bet. A second explosion, a little louder, followed, and then came a third, which capped the climax. It was terribly violent, and the detonation was fearful, 1 avow, lighted the gas, dressed, and looked at the hearth. It was com- « filled with a slate substance oked like ore of some kind, and one of the large cubes that made up the hearth was torn from the brickwork or tiling. Pieces of slate were thrown across the room. I went downstairs and told the night clerk to come right to the room and see what had happened. He refused with a sickly smile. I returned to the room, passed a sleepless night, and changed my room next day. I then leaned from a friend the history of the room.