The Mystery at No. 89th — Street, New York

“Kleptomania”— The Tendency To Superstition—An Old Knickerbocker Family—A Very “Proper” Old Gentleman, A Mr. Garretson— He Calls On Me At My Office, And Finds A Curious-Looking Room— His Story Of Wonders—“Everything” Stolen—Talk About Disembodied Spirits—The Mystery Deepens—Probable Conjecture Baffled— Visit To Mr. Garretson’s House— Mrs. Garretson, A Beautiful And Cultivated Old Lady—We Search The House—An Attic Full Of Old Souvenirs—We Linger Among Them—Mr. Garretson’s Daughter Is Convinced That Disembodied Spirits Are Their Tormentors— She Puts An Unanswerable Question—A Dangerous Dog And The Spirits—Tedious And Unavailing Watching For Several Days And Nights—The “Spirits” Again At Work—Re-Called—The Mystery Grows More Wonderful— The “Spirit” Discovered And The Mystery Unravelled—The Family Sent Away—The Attic Re-Visited With Mr. G. And Its Treasures Revealed—A Re-Discovery Of The “Spirit”—The Family Review Their Long-Lost Treasures Found —Reflections On The Causes Of The Mystery—A Problem For The Doctors.

by George McWatters

"Kleptomania," the delicate term of modern coinage from the old Greek, which is used to signify a passion for thieving under peculiar circumstances, and is mostly used when the thief is a person of some importance and of moneyed means, so that the lust for gain is not supposed to be his prompter to the “offence against the statute in such cases made and provided,” indicates a moral “dereliction” which not only attacks the wakeful subject, but sometimes infuses itself into the dreams of sleepers. Many women in a state of pregnancy are said to be liable to this disease, so to term it, who, in any other state, would be horrified at the bare mention… Read More