and the owner moved in; but the very first night his troubles began, for some unseen hand threw the furniture about and broke it, while the man himself was injured.  Being unwilling to lose the value of his money, he tried to make the best of things.  But night after night the disturbances continued, and life in the house was impossible; the owner chose the better part of valour and left.  No tenant has been found since, and the house stands empty, a silent testimony to the power of the poltergeist.

Poltergeistic phenomena from their very nature lend themselves to spurious reproduction and imitation, as witness the famous case of Cock Lane and many other similar stories.  At least one well-known case occurred in Ireland, and is interesting as showing that where fraud is at work, close investigation will discover it.  It is related that an old Royal Irish Constabulary pensioner, who obtained a post as emergency man during the land troubles, and who in 1892 was in charge of an evicted farm in the Passage East district, was being continually disturbed by furniture and crockery being thrown about in a mysterious manner.  Reports were brought to the police, and they investigated the matter; but nothing was heard or seen beyond knocking on an inside wall of a bedroom in which one of the sons was sleeping; this knocking ceased when the police were in the bedroom, and no search was made in the boy’s bed to see if he had a stick.  The police therefore could find no explanation, the noises continued night after night, and eventually the family left and went to live in Waterford.  A great furore was raised when it was learnt that the hauntings had followed them, and again investigation was made, but it seems to have been more careful this time:  an eye was kept on the movements of the young son, and at least two independent witnesses saw him throwing things about—­fireirons and jam-pots—­when he thought his father was not looking.  It seems to have been a plot between the mother and son owing to the former’s dislike to her husband’s occupation, which entailed great unpopularity and considerable personal risk.  Fearing for her own and her family’s safety, the wife conceived of this plan to force her husband to give up his post.  Her efforts were successful, as the man soon resigned his position and went to live elsewhere.[7]

[Footnote 7:  Proceedings, S.P.R.]

CHAPTER V

HAUNTED PLACES

That houses are haunted and apparitions frequently seen therein are pretty well established facts.  The preceding chapters have dealt with this aspect of the subject, and, in view of the weight of evidence to prove the truth of the stories told in them, it would be hard for anyone to doubt that there is such a thing as a haunted house, whatever explanation maybe given of “haunting.”  We now turn to another division of the subject—­the outdoor ghost who haunts the roadways, country lanes, and