coalbaggie haunting (1894)

7/28/2019 Coalbaggie Haunting (1894)

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Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal (NSW : 1851 - 1904), Friday 1 June 1894, page 3

National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article62960361

The Ooalbaggie Mystery.? ?

Mr. Jacob Stein Intbrvibwbd.

The account recently published in the

Dubbo Dispatch regarding the peculiarmanifestations at the residence of Mr.Peter Stein, at Coalbaggie, 27 miles from

Dubho, excited very much cariosity andno little

argument. The continuation of

the manifestations, to the great annoyance of the family, induced Mr. JacobStein, the eldest son, and the holder of

2560 acres, to visit Dubbo on Saturdaylast, with a view to obtain such assistance

as would enable a solution of the mystery.Mr. Stein called at the Dispatch office, and

in the presence of several well-knowngentleman, told a most extraordinary tale,

bearing out in every particular what badbeen previously published—showing, in

tact, tnat what was said was only a partof what had occurred almost continuously

during the four years the Stein family havebeen on the Coalbaggie. But in his own

words we will let him tell his tale.

What age are you, Mr. Stein, and howlong have you been on the Coalbaggie ?

—

Iam going on for

29 years, and with myfather and the rest of us I came here aboutfour

years ago. My father took up one

selection on South Balladoran, and I took

up the other. They are about tbee miles

apart.

When did these annoyances commence ?

— From the firstday we went there.

There was,Imay

tellyou, an old hut on

the ground when we tookit

up, and we

heard noises there first. Then when thenew was built it

commenced in ear

nest. It chucked candlesticks, furniture,

and everything else about. It hammeredthe tin dishes, and you could see the dentsin the dishes afterwards. It started to

talk to us then, but since Father Bolgerand Father Moylan were out it has not

talked so much. It was quiet for some

time afterwards.

Has it told you what it is,or anything

of it history ?— Yes, it has often said thatits mother and sister were burned to deathin the hut. The mother was ironing, and

her dress caught fire.

Hesaid an aunt

and uncle lived across the creek, and the

mother when she was dying gave £60 and

a gold watch to the aunt, asking her to

them for her and take care

him. The uncle, a man named ?— — hit

him upon the head with the handle of a

stock whip, and left him for dead on the

road.

Have you ever seen anything, Mr.Stein ?

— Well, one night, mother and I

were sitting in the room, by the fire,am

clods were pelted at us asif

by some person in the We

son in the fireplace. We looked and saw

a strange figure. It had the body of a

child, about five years old, and a most

peculiar face, with a whitish beard onit.

I went to catchit

and it disappeared. Onanother occasion I saw something like a

hand coming over a box, and when I tried

to graspit there was nothing.

When you .

heard it talking, did the

things move about ?— Yes, while it talked

outside, asit

were, the furniture and otherthings would be knocked about inside. In

fact, in four different places the racketwould be going on. It used to catch the

bedsteads and shake them violently, and

while this was taking place a few yards

away, the crockery would be smashed at

the same time. On one occasion, it took

up a crucifix which was in the house,DroKe ir 10 pieces, ana

nung me cus in our

faces. At another time, some blessed

candles brought from Dubbo, were brokeninto bits before us and cast at us. The

candlesand crucifix were quite

uninjureda minute or two before, and without our

seeing what was doing it, they were pulled

to pieces and cast at us.

Was any person outside the family in

the house at any time when these occur

rences were going onI

— Yes, why only the

other dayit

attempted to set fire to the

house in four different places, and it also

set fire to mysister's clothes, and did

other things, and this can be testified to

by Mr. M'Leod, who is now in Dubbo,and a Mr. Dwyer, who with his son was

at our place at the time, making arrangements for the purchase from us of 1000

sneep.When did

it

appearlast ?— On Friday

and Satnrday last, itwas very bad, and it

took us all we could do to preventit burn

ing down the place. We can smell like

fire before we see it, and the house will be

on fire in four places at once, and the bedclothes and articles of female apparel also

burning.

It has been suggested Mr. Stein that

one of your family is a ventriloquist, andthat accounts for some of the manifesta

tions ? Whenever I hear this— and I have

heard it several times— I get real 'narked.'

1 wish those who offer this solution had

the thing tied round their neck. Then they

would know if it was a ventriloquist. It is,

I assure you, a regular torment to us, andit is driving my father and mother real

mad. My opinion that it is a live spirit,

possessed of the devil.

Have you seen anything at any other

time than you have told us? — Well, on

one occasion, it came in the shape of a

bear, got up on the wall of the kitchen,

and when we went to chase it

disappeared in a white smoke. On another

occasion, a mouse, about a foot



occasion, a big mouse, about a foot long,

came on the roof, and itmysteriously

moved about. Againit took the shape of

a kangaroo, and another day a wallaby

was near the house and itwould not shift

formy

sisters.They tried to put the dogs

onit, but the dogs came back, with their

tails between their legs.My brother and

myself put two kangaroo dogs onit, and

it ran into the creek and disappeared as if

into the ground. The dogs came out on

the other side, looking terribly frightened,

but there was no wallaby. That night it

talked to us and said it could appearin

any shape— that itwas the wallaby which

we were chasing. It said it could appear

as a lizard or a snake, or any shapeit

liked.

It told us that itwas no use bring out the

priests. It said it would haunt us and tor

ment us not only while we were on the

Coalbaggie, but would follow us about

wherever we went,

You sayit has talked to you very fre

quently?Well'

yes,but not so much

during the last few months. It talks in two

voices, and sometimes speaks sensibly

enough, while at others it seems quite

mad, and uses language which could noi

be beaten by the lowest Sydney larrikin. ]

It bids us the time of day, and when I

have remonstrated withit

for its actions,it

saysit is only having a bit of fun. I

once said to it that there was not much

fun in breaking crockery and generally

knocking things about, and it told me it

couldn't help it, for when its mother

caught fire itwas taking some crockery

out, and the shock was so great that it

dropped it.Since then its favorite

amusement has been smashing up the

crockery. It has done, from first to last,

£100_

worth of damage, and you may be

sure if itwas one of ourselves we would

not waste money like that. Not longsince, it

went into the kitchen, and in the

presence of three or four took down the

frying-pan, placed iton the fire, and put

six eggs in it. The frying-pan could be

seen moving and the eggs put in it, but

the agency which movedit

was invisible.

It is no wonder that we are scared, when

these things take place. Why, even the

dogs know when it is about. You can

hear it talking to them, and they look in

mortal dread, their hair standing up andtheir eyes bulging out of their beads. It

talks in two voices, and sometimes so

loudly that itought to be heard a mile

away.

Does itever sing, and are the songs up

to day?

— Yes, it sings, and itseems to

enow all sorts of Two in

enow all sorts of songs. Two in particular it

seems to be very fond of— 'TheBanks of the Clyde

'

The Ship that NeverReturned.' It sings the last one pretty

fair, but it is quite horrible to hear it

fringing ' The Banks of the Clyde '—it'squite sickening. It does not trouble me

at selection

them at my father's place. It sometimes

comes and takes my tools when I am at

work and plants them. I find them after

wards, however. We are quite full about it.

The family will come into Dubbo, andthen it can bash away.

Da you suspect any neighbors of beingconcerned ?— No, we are on the best

terms witheveryone, and the nearest

neighbor is living nearly three miles away.I have really no conception of what the

thing is,beyond that I honestly believe it

isa live spirit, possessed by the devil, and

having the power of making itself invisible.

Why, the night when we were

praying, and it liftedup the table towards

the ceiling, there were present my father

and mother and four of mysisters. Not

j

one of them touched the table, but itwent

up just the same.

Regarding these peculiar phenomena—and it

may be said that Mr. Stein is aI

level-headed man, with more than the

average intelligence, and he told the abovebefore gentlemen holding the highestpositions in the town— the following, which

appearsin Saturday's Melbourne Argus, may

be deemed apposite :—'Mr. D. McAlpine

read an interestingpaper before the mem

bers of the Victorian Society for Physical

Research on Friday evening, the Rev. Dr.C. Strong being in the chair, upon the

subject of ' Materialisation,' in which he

described what he saw at several seances

held at his own house and in other persons'

houses by two professional lady mediums,one of Sydney and the other of Prahran.Mr. M'Alpine stated that after

every possible precaution against fraud had beentaken, more than a dozen figures appearedone after another in front of the curtain

which screened the'

medium'

from her

audience. The figures appeared to be

those of men, women, and children, one

particularly frequent visitor being a small

black girl. All the figures were clothed in

white glistening garments, and many of

them spoke to the audience and answered

M'Alpine himself shook hands with one of

the figures which described itself a

'Geordie Thompson,' of Aberdeen, and

spoke strongly marked Aberdeen accent.

This figure a portion of a'bannock

'

which had been brought for itby a lady

visitor. The little black girl, who ans

wered to the name of ' Cisaie,' also ate a

chocolate which was given to her, and



which was given to her, and

after conversing on one occasion for more

than five minutes slowly dissolved beforethe eyes of the audience until nothing was

left but a black smiling face, and then

that too disappeared.

The Remarkable Journey of a Cat.—

Dr. W. O'Neill, of Lincoln, describes, in a

letter to the Lancet, the following incident

in the history of a cat:— 'The animalwas born and reared in one of two semi

detached houses on a hill overlooking the

well-known racecourse, the Carholme, of

Lincoln. This house was occupied by a

military medical gentleman and his familyfor six or seven years, and the cat was so

great a favorite that last December, whenthe gentleman removed to Forest Hill,

London, the cat was taken to the new

home by one of the family. It was put in

a comfortable basket and conveyed to its

destination by train. For about a month

the cat seemed to have been contented and

happy, but itwas noticed that it ate largely

and slept much. Towards the end of the

month, however, the cat disappeared, and

after a fruitless search for it,

pussy was

given up as irretrievably lost. This event

took place in the beginning of severe

frost and snowstorm, and before the storm

was over the cat turned up at its at old

house in Lincoln, where, one morning,the gentleman who occupies the other half

of the detached villa was aroused by the

loud mewings and noise made by the cat

to gain admittance to its old, but now

home. The who

pussy well, gaveit

a kind reception, and

with him itnow passes a couple of hours

daily and spends the rest of the time roam

ing at will over its old haunts. It iscompu

ted that the animal performed the journeyin about eight days, travelling at the rate

of over 17 miles per day; and althoughthe eat was travel stained and ratherthin in flesh, still it

was in fairly good con

dition when it reached London. Whenone takes into consideration the distancebetween Forest Hill and Lincoln, nearly

140 miles, the intense severity of the

weather, and the thousand and one

obstacles which thepoor creature musthave encountered on its

way across

London and down to Lincoln, the journeyis a marvel for so small and weak an

animal to have accomplished ; but the

most wonderful thing of all is what mightbe palled the geographical knowledgeossessed by the cat, which enabled it to

stsar a straight course to Lincoln, although

ithad been taken to Forest Hill blind

folded. The journey displays the great

love the cat had for its old home, and

verifies the old opinion the cats are more

attached to places than to people.'

coalbaggie haunting (1894)

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