Chad Lewis, Hidden
Headlines of Texas (Eau Claire, WI: Unexplained Research Publishing
Company, 2007), 31.
The Galveston (Texas) Daily News, 21 April 1893, p. 6.
HAUNTED SCHOOLHOUSE
Hawk Eye’s Experience with an
Aeolian Spook Fiddle
VAN ALSTYNE, Grayson Co., Tex., April 19. – A young
writing master from Denison commenced a writing class at Hawk Eye schoolhouse,
near here. A crowd of boys of the neighborhood conceived the idea of having
some fun at the expense of the young professor. They procured a spool of thread
and unwinding what they needed attached one end to a nail under the eaves of
the roof, then getting sufficient distance from the house to avoid detection
began rubbing the string vigorously with a piece of rosin. It had the desired
effect. A general stampede ensued among the scholars, during which they tumbled
over each other promiscuously in trying to make their exit from the haunted
building. The young professor drew his pistol and fired three shots through the
roof and ran from the house yelling and firing his pistol at every step. As the
result of having a little fun the boys were arrested for malicious mischief,
while the professor is charged with carrying a pistol. They will have their
trials here Saturday.
Chad Arment, The
Historical Bigfoot (Landisville, PA: Coachwhip Publications, 2006), 34.
Kansas City (Missouri) Star, December 30, 1936.
Spook Identified
The far-famed mysterious animal that had caused bad
cases of jitters among farmers in the vicinity of Erie has at last been
identified as a young farmer near there, who rigged up an empty barrel and a
rosined string. Modern youth, with their picture shows, dances and nickel games
wouldn’t recognize the contraption if they saw one, but years ago, “smart alec”
boys would rig up a tin can and a rosined string which would produce weird
howls when the string stretched taut was rubbed. And the quietness of summer
nights in the little country towns of long ago was frequently disturbed in this
manner. And so the famous Erie mystery is solved! What a disappointment to the
dozens of farmer youth who have scoured the countryside in vain in the last few
weeks with their trail hounds and shotguns! – Ben S. Hudson in Fredonia Herald.