Charleston, 1869: rattling chains and women in white.

What the paper reported

For two years a small brick house in Charleston was rented again and again, and nobody stayed: tenants heard chains rattling and feet shuffling and saw locked doors fly open without a sound. The longest anyone lasted was two weeks; the shortest, ten hours.

Exhibit A · Transcription

A Haunted House.

Rattling of Chains—Terrified Renters—A Plucky Young Man Alone—The Women in White—A Race at Night—Glimpses of Garters—The Mystery Cleared Up

There is in the —— part of this city a small brick house which for two years past has borne the dreadful name “Haunted.” We have no knowledge of its being at all historic, or of a murder or two, or any other crime having been committed in it to warrant ghostly manifestations. Yet there it stands, accredited with all the mystery which ever attaches to a house supposed to contain incorporeal inhabitants. Women and children avoid it in the daytime, and the men who live in that section have learned that, at night, the “nearest way ’round is the shortest way home.”

As a publication of the locality of the house might be of injury to its owners, we refrain. During the past two years it has been frequently advertised in the “To Rent” column, and as frequently was rented, but the rentors did not remain in possession long. The longest period it was held was two weeks, and the shortest ten hours. The occupants heard rattling of chains, the shuffling of feet, and saw doors which had just been locked fly open and shut to without the least noise. The conventional groans were missing in this haunted house, but the clanking of chains, shuffling of feet, and the door manifestations were sufficient to so frighten the occupants as to make them leave without giving even a day’s notice. Each and every occupant had the same story to tell.

Transcribed from the page image, spelling and punctuation as printed; line-end hyphens joined. Checked word by word against the Library of Congress’s OCR text (see the verification record). The paper leaves the neighborhood blank (“the —— part of this city”) on purpose.

Newspaper

The Charleston Daily News

Published in

Charleston, South Carolina

Headline

A Haunted House.

Date

September 16, 1869

Page

3

Permalink

www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026994/1869-09-16/ed-1/?sp=3

Source

Library of Congress, Chronicling America. Public domain (published 1869).