San Antonio, 1891: “Jack the Spook” haunts East Commerce Street.

What the paper reported

A spectre the paper dubbed “Jack the Spook” had East Commerce Street and the streets near Water Street in a whirl. He was seen on a bridge under the hackberry trees, then a moment later as three figures, one white and two black. A policeman gave chase, but the spook vanished, “how or where, no one could tell.”

Exhibit A · Transcription

Jack the Spook.

He Terrorizes the Servant and Small Boy Fraternities

Of the Seventh and Eighth Wards—East Commerce and Adjoining Streets in a Whirl of Excitement Over His Advent.

There is great excitement among the small boys, small girls, servant girls and hostlers, living and working on East Commerce street, and direct vicinity south thereof. Good old Cotton Mather killed many a spook in his day, but he evidently didn’t reach them all, for the shady nooks and bends of the streets around, and near the ditch running along Water street, have been turned into a veritable “Sleepy Hollow,” such as Irving has made famous, and has been made the rendezvous of a mystic, unapproachable, and changeable spectre, which frightens into everlasting remembrance, the tender-minded and tender-hearted residents of this part of town.

Later in the same article (not in the image)

Once he is seen standing on the bridge at the corner of North and Water streets, under the huge hackberry trees. Almost the same minute he is seen a little farther up the street, only he has been changed into three, one in pure white, the other two behind him in sheer black.

Later in the same article (not in the image)

…a policeman on the beat gave chase to the self same spook who was standing in the shady doorway of one of the drugstores on East Commerce street. … They espied the spectre on two or three occasions, but as if knowing their intention, he would start on the run … the spook would vanish, how or where, no one could tell.

Transcribed from the page image, spelling as printed (“m ade” in the image is a printing gap, joined as “made”); line-end hyphens joined. “…” marks words we left out. Checked word by word against the Library of Congress’s OCR text.

Newspaper

San Antonio Daily Light

Published in

San Antonio, Texas

Headline

Jack the Spook.

Date

May 12, 1891

Page

1

Permalink

www.loc.gov/resource/sn86090439/1891-05-12/ed-1/?sp=1

Source

Library of Congress, Chronicling America. Public domain (published 1891).