True stories of old Houston and Houstonians: historical and personal sketches / by S. O. Young. Page: 201
244 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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HOUSTON AND HOUSTONIANS 201
nant spirits washed their hands of the whole affair and quit in
disgust. The ladies were horrified. The table was carried out
on the prairie again, but the insult was too deadly. They
placed their hands on the table, sang soothing songs and began
to plead with the spirits, but it was no use, the table refused to
move. At last they took their-hands off the table and tried to
put them on Charley, but he was too quick for them and made
his escape. Charley's wife and all the ladies blamed him for
the disaster and said that if he had not gotten drunk they would
have found all that money; that the spirits were testing their
faith and would have led them to the proper place the third
time if he had not spilled over and spoiled everything. Charley
defended himself as well as he could and finally made peace
with them, but they could never get him to go on another treasure
hunt under the guidance of the spirits.
TROUBLESOME GHOSTS.
H .[ OUSTON has had its full quota of haunted houses. There
have been a number of them in different parts of the
town and, no doubt, if one took the trouble to look for
them, others could be found today just as real and just as scary
as were the old ones. The old ones, of which I speak, were
conducted by quite a variety of "hants." There were serious
minded ghosts, lively ghosts, noisy ghosts and others who said
or did nothing, but who merely made their presence felt in the
most awe-inspiring way. I have had personal experience with
all the varieties, for I was ever curious about such matters and
never let an opportunity pass to make an investigation, and I
can say from my own experience that the worst ghost of all
is the one you can neither see nor hear, but which you can
"feel" is in a room or some part of the house with you, and
which you fear is going to lay hands on you at any moment.
Occasionally one meets an amusing, though mischievous,
ghost or set of ghosts and it is of that sort I am going to speak
now. I am not afraid of the story not being believed, for not
only is it absolutely true, but there must be hundreds of citizens
yet living who will remember all about it when they read this.
It was too remarkable an occurrence to have escaped their minds
completely. The only point on which I am doubtful is the
exact year it occurred, but I am rather certain it was in 1869.
That, however, is a minor matter.
One evening during the summer of, let us say 1869, a saloonkeeper
who lived out on McKinney Avenue, two or three blocks
beyond Austin Street, took his seat with his wife at the supper
table. They had scarcely commenced the meal when half a
brick, coming from nowhere, apparently, landed on the table,
smashing a dish, and rolled off on the floor. The man rushed
out of the house, thinking some one had thrown the brick
through the window or door, but he saw no one. He returned
to the supper room and as he entered it another half brick
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Young, Samuel Oliver. True stories of old Houston and Houstonians: historical and personal sketches / by S. O. Young., book, 1913; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth24646/m1/201/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.