GHOST IN AN OFFICE

Southland Times, Issue 21100, 4 June 1930, Page 3

GHOST IN AN OFFICE

DEAD GIRL KEEPS PROMISE. TYPISTE’S EMPTY CHAIR. A phantom typiste haunts a Birmingham, office. A correspondent of the Sunday Chronicle writes: — In vain have I begged one of the directors to let me divulge the name of the firm which has so novel an employee, but he would tell me the facts only on condition that I withheld his identity. “Publicity would make me the laughing stock of commerce,” he said. “No one would believe us.” Here is the story: In one room there are about a dozen typistes—neatly dressed and gay young things who make tea for the departmental managers at four o’clock every afternoon. All the girls are great friends. The first thing that strikes one on entering the room is an empty chair at the end of the table. In front of that empty chair is a typewriter. Every morning it is solemnly uncovered, but it is never used. Six months ago the occupant of this seat, a beautiful blonde, who was the life and soul of the staff, became ill and died. During her last days at the office when she instinctively felt that she had not long to live she half-jokingly remarked that she loved working with the girls so much that if anything ever happened to her, her spirit would return to them.

One day, a month after the funeral, one of the typists who was trying to use the dead girl’s machine, suddenly stopped work and began to cry. She is a very sensitive and highly-strung girl, and she told the other • typistes that the keys she pressed were held against her as if by an invisible force.

Since then other weird manifestations have taken place. Though no one now dares to use the machine the keys have sometimes been seen to move.