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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
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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
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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.'