A House of Bad Omen.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 178, 8 April 1873, Page 7

A House of Bad Omen.

A " haunted house" is a disagreeablo dwelling, bat worse than even a haunted house is " a house of bad omen." A terrible description of such a house at Elmira, in the State of Iscw York, is given by the Elmira Advertiser:— "lts iirst builder and o.vnor found it too much for his means to carry. He sank under the load, lost his savings, fell into bad habits, became intemperate, and never rose again. A favourite minister took it—one so eloquent that his church \ya.i always crowded, and whose means for doing good was tremendous. His position was too much for lain. He fell into immoral practices, was deprived of liis priestly robes, and the last known of him he was the advanco agent of a circus company. A n"old man with a hue family took it. They were strangers here, but their pleasantness "and cordiality won their way to the best circles, and they were highly esteemed. Reverses came upon the old man ; he lost all he had ; and we dare not say what became of Ins family. A gentleman of learning and eu'ture took it. His wife was a beautiful and estimable lady. Yet how short a time before the wife was an inmate of a lunatic asylum and the husband a bankrupt. A wealthy gentleman, given An charity and good works, living on the memory of a past life of rectitude, took the house. In less than a year ho was in his grave. Hero closes the sad record ; but enough is told to show that the house is by no means what house agents call "a desirable residence;" and the worst part of the au'air is that the evils to which its tenants are liable are of a, class which no attention to drainage or ventilation can rectify.