THE SHROPSHIRE MYSTERY EXPLAINED.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1128, 19 January 1884, Page 1

THE SHROPSHIRE MYSTERY EXPLAINED.

A story was published recently about some extraordinary occurrences which were said to have taken place near

Shrewsbury, in the house of a farmer named Hampson, where a girl named Emma Davis was employed as a domestic servant. Crockery was broken, the fireirons thrown about, and things generally disarranged. The farmer and his wife, it is now stated, ‘ feeling anything but comfortable at the girl’s presence,’ discharged her, and on Thursday week the girl went to assist Mrs Jones, a neighbor, to wash, but she had not long been engaged in this occupation when the bucket jumped about the house, throwing water and clothes in all directions. The family Bible and other books placed on a side of the table did the same, and on attempting to pick them op a boot flew over the girl’s head, striking the mantelpiece. Mrs Jones getting alarmed, sent her home. On arriving there * her presence induced a lump of coal to leap from the fire across the room to a table ; and the, flower pots in the window also behaved in an extraordinary manner.’ This continued during the night. ‘Six panes of glass were broken in the room, and outside the greatest disorcer prevailed, and on the side of the house were strewn broken bricks, crockery, glass, stones, etc., which could not ba accounted for in any way, One woman was struck with a stone 150 yards off; another, who was in the house, received a wound on the arm from a knife passing her ; and an ulster belonging to the girl had every button torn from it in the room. A number of the Shropshire constabulary then visited the premises to investigate the extraordinary circumstances, out were unable to solve the mystery. The girl was made to do some household work, but nothing unusual was observable. Dr Corke, of Baschurch, was called in on Saturday, and made a close examination of the girl, but was unable to obtain much

information from her. He stated that she was in a very excitable and nervous state, but was not a designing girl. The matter naturally caused some excitement throughout the neighborhood. But, like other pretenders, Emma Davis has been found out. Special correspondents of the Telegraph and Daily News inquired into the ‘ Mystery,’ and discovered that the extraordinary movements of furniture and other peculiar manifestations were produced by the girl Emma Davis, by tricks to which she now confesses. The correspondent of the latter journal says ; —We saw Emma Davis, a plain looking child not thirteen years of age, and very childish in appearance. She pretended for a while to cry when requested to go through some of her tricks for our benefit, but there were no tears though there was abundant evidence that the girl was a finished performer in her attempts to appear overwhelmed with sorrow and convulsion, By and by she told us that her confession to the doctor was not the truth ; that she had herself played the tricks which have caused the whole country side to gape open mouthed ever since the first of November; that, in short, mysterious spirits had nothing to do with the business, and that nothing more remarkable had happened than could be credited to her own slight ot hand. The little girl was somewhat hysterical at first, but by and by she showed us how she made a bucket jump and a chair retreat at the double. It was all effected by a slight jerk of the band, and when once we knew that there was nothing supernatural to be expected, it seemed very commonplace. The girl perhaps deserves some pity. Her statement is that she was put up to the game by fellow servants, and there can be no doubt that the credulity of the people hereabouts made them easy victims, if not assistants, of the delusion.