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I
How Mrs. Mary S. Townsend
Built Her Mansion Especially
to Escape a Hoodoo, Only to Be
Driven Out by (t Spooks!”
THERE aren't any ghosts, and
yet this is a ghost story. It
wouldn't be one except for
the fact that lots and lots of people
think there are such things as
ghosts And in this connection you
are advised to read an article which
will appear in this magazine next
week. It is written by a very great,
scientist. Indeed, and explains illiim-
Inatlvely the Insurmountable diffi
culties which any ghost would have
to encounter to provide Itself with
clothes or bones. Every ghost ever
known has either had clothes of
some sort, or a skeleton. The ghost
in this story had very good clothes,
hence the pertinence of this para
graph.
Mrs. Mary Scott Townsend Is one
of the very foremost of American
society leaders. She was formerly
Mary Scott, of Erie, Pa., a niece of
"Tom" Scott, of Pennsylvania Rail
road fame. Her family was very
wealthy—worth ever so many mil
lions.
Mrs Townsend’s beautiful man
sion on Massachusetts avenue,
Washington, long spoken of as the
"Townsend Palace," has a deserted
and melancholy effect—(We are ap
proaching the story). The front
doors and windows are boarded up,
the two magnificent antique statues
which flank the outer steps, and
which are worth thousands of dol
lars, are boxed in, and the great gar
dens surrounding the house, with
their huge elms and masses of rho
dodendrons show signs of desertion.
The palace is abandoned, and it is
doubtful whether Mrs Townsend
will ever again occupy it. Whim?
Well, that’s what some say. What
do the others say? Well, they say
that the most extraordinarily tena
cious and popular spook that ever
was known had a lot to do with it
—a spook that stuck to its own roof
and moved with It when everything
else In the house that it formerly
occupied was taken to the scrap
heap!
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“When Mrs. Mary Scott Townsend retained the old mansard roof to escape a hoodoo, she didn’t
know that th«* ghost went with it!”
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The butler, the housekeeper, the parlor maids, the chef—all the servants in turn saw the spook
and threw up their jobs.”
But how did It get a chance to
move with Its roof to the Townsend
palace? That is the very remarka
ble story now to be unfolded.
When she was a very little girl,
Mary Scott once Interviewed a witch.
Among the other pleasant things,
she learned from this oracle was
that If she should ever undertake
"to sleep under a new roof,” she
would within the following year die.
This cheerful admonition took such
a hold upon the girl that for many
months she hardly slept at all. and
In all the years which followed, she
r .refully refrained from sleeping un
der a "new roof.”
Some years later, when she mar
ried and became Mrs. Townsend, she
tired of Erie and sighed to live In
Washington. Her husband was per
fectly willing, for there Is no place
in the world where millions count
for so much as they do at the na
tional capital.
Mr. Townsend had plans drawn np
for a veritable palace and the site
selected was that occupied by the
old fashioned residence of old judge
Hillyer.
Negotiations for the purchase of
the place were rapidly concluded
and workmen set about demolishing
the Hillyer dwelling, when Mrs.
Townsend directed her husband to
stop the work.
"I'm so sorry, Dick," she said, “but
we shall have to give It all up. I
forgot about the witch!”
Then followed an explanation of
the Incident before referred to, and
though Mr. Townsend did his best
to convince his young wife that the
witch's warning might safely be dis
regarded. he had little success, and
finally decided to humor his wife's
misgivings.
Nothing was done on the work of
destruction for several days and the
To -nsends looked around Washing
ton for a place to purchase, if his
wife wouldn’t sleep under a new
roof, the only thing to do was to
buy an old place. But was It? Why
wouldn't thev I ulld their palace as
they had Intended and simply P>’t
in an old roof Instead of a new one?
That very idea occurred to Mrs.
Townsend one afternoon while house
hunting, and she at once suggested
it to her husband.
“The very thing." assented Mr.
Townsend, “weTl just retain the old
mansard roof of the Hillyer house
and set it <m our new place."
And that is what was done. The
old mansard roof rests to-day exact
ly where It originally was, covering
the middle part of the Townsend
palace—though of all the rest of
the earlier structure not a stone or
beam or plank remains. In this way,
superstitious Mrs Townsend was
enabled to sleep under an old
roof, and thus to outwit the hoodoo
with which she was threatened, and
so phased was she with herself over
the ruse she had worked, that It
may be said that she slept well.
That is for a while.
Hist! Listen! Little did Mrs.
Townsend know when she bought
the Hilyc-r place that, a tragedy had
been enacted under that very roof
which she had been at such pains
to preserve. Nor did she know that,
according to the most advanced
spiritualists, the roof is the most
important, part of a dwelling place,
and that a spook cares for nothing
else so long as it has a roof over its
head.
Yes, twenty-flve years ago, a ter
rible thing happem-d in this same
Hillyer residence.
The Judge's daughter, Bessie,
whose path of true love did not run
smooth, took rat poison and died.
For years afterwards, it is said,
the ghost of the unfortunate Bessie
Hillyer haunted the place, but when
the place was sold to the Townsends
not a w 1 was mentioned regard
ing it.
"They are going to tear the build
ing down, anyway.” the owners prob
ably figured, “and with the buildintMT
gone, the spook will have to look*
for another home.” If the Town
sends heard of visitations of the
•'Hi’m sorry, ma’am,” said the third butler, “but „„ self-respecting butler cm. .tend THAT! H’in
«. J. o.tuuuc, A not a b,t Ilke a respectable h’English ghost!” «*• mt»
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‘One aay, it u even said, Mrs. 1 ownsenci her sen encountered tne four queer ghosts, and
then she tied from her mansion.”
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spectre they undoubtedly argued to
the same eiiect. When they finally
decided to retain the old mansard
roof, it never occurred to them that
n ver «' ro °f might abide poor
Bessie Hillyer’s uneasy spirit!
Some months ago. one of the par
lor-maids started upstairs in answer
to a summons from Mrs. Townsenil.
Half-way up the flight of stairs she
saw a young girl in a gray dress.
Being In a hurry, she would prob
ably have taken no notice, but her
attention was attracted by the fact
that the young woman (a stranger
to her) was attired in the fashion
of a quarter of a century ago. (You
see, she had clothes.) She observed,
too, that the oddly costumed girl,
bore a sad and mournful expression.
Respectfully stepping aside to let
the girl pass, the astonished servant
nearly fell the length of the stairs
when the girl magically vanished
from view. She simply “wasn’t
there any longer,” as the awed maid
described the incident.
“Well, all I say, Matnle,” was the
only satisfaction the frightened maid
got from the housekeeper, “is that
you'd better keep your mouth shut
about it, for if the Mrs. should hear
of It, she’d fire you and everyone
else who was foolish enough to be
bothered by such silly hallucina
tions.”
Mrs. Peter G. Gerry, formerly Ma
thilde Townsend, Daughter of
Mrs. Mary Scott Townsend—
Who Hat Had Such a Time
Between a “Hoodoo” and a
“Spook”
—AND BELOW—
The Townsend Mansion—the Roof
of Which Was Retained From
the Structure Which Formerly
Occupied the Site Because Mrs.
Townsend Was Afraid to Sleep
“Under a New Roof.”
A day or two later, however, tht
third butler had an experience which
Induced him to hand in his reslgna-
“Hl was just cornin’ up the second
night of stairs, mum,” he explained
to Mrs. Townsend, “when hl seen
no less than four of these bloomin’
spooks, mum. amarchln’ along the
landin’. One of them, mum, carried
a little drum, another a wash-board,
the third, a telephone, and the fourth
a bloomin’ jug! It was ’orribly hun
canny, mum, and somethin’ Hi’m not
at all used to, you know, mum, and
Hi 11 simply ’ave to give notice, mum.
that's all.”
Wh 0 the four ghosts might be, no
one Is able even to suggest, although
Washington has long been celebrated
as a city of haunted houses. In her
day, poor Bessie Hillyer was very
popular. Perhaps her ghost is equal
ly fortunate, and the presence of the
four spooks observed by the third
butler may be accounted for In that
way.
This was the first Mrs. Townsend
heard of the visitation of the ghosts
and she paid little attention to the
matter. But one by one they came
to her, the chef, the pantry-man, the
parlor-maids, the coachmen and the
other members of the household
retinue and recounted their hair
raising experiences, and it began to
get on her nerves. She dismissed
the complaining servants but she
couldn’t quite as easily dismiss from
her mind the stories they brought
to her.
And then a few months ago, Mrs,
Townsend beheld the spectre with
her own eyes.
It was in the daytime. She was
going upstairs after lunch when she
saw the same quartet that the butler
bad described standing on the land
ing above, and they carried the ar
ticles the butler had specified.
She raised ber lorgnette to gaze
In dignified surprise at the Intruders,
but, while she was .looking directly
at them, the figures faded away and
disappeared. Then she realized that
she had seen the ghosts!
Inquiries were at once made and
the unfortunate history of Bessie
Hillyer came to light The connec
tion between that tragedy, the old
mansard roof and the spooks was
obvious—tc those whe believe in
such tuings.
Anyway Mrs. Townsend has left
Wash agto-'. Her most intimate
friends, iron one of 'whom, this
story wa- obtained, believe that
the combination of gh st and hoo
doo has been too much f or her, but
othsr ntimate friends say that she
merely went away because she got
lonely.