N&W in 1909--Bluefield Inn

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
August 10, 1909

OLD BLUEFIELD INN REAL HAUNTED HOUSE
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Ghost Walks at Norfolk and Western Division Headquarters When It Is Not Pay Day

    Bluefield has a real haunted house, and it is none other than the one-time Bluefield Inn, the present division headquarters of the Norfolk and Western.  Those who work the watches when graveyards are supposed to yawn and graves give up their dead, whisper the story, but W. H. Martin, who manipulates the key in the dispatcher's office during the little hours, has actually seen the "haint."
    A night or so ago, Mr. Martin was pounding the brass at a lively clip, when three distinct knocks were heard at the door.  He attended and there stood a being in the form of a man of terrible visage bearing a striking resemblance to the pictures of the devil.  Mr. Martin is not certain whether he had horns and cloven hoofs or not but he rather thinks he had.  In his ears were rings set with blazing diamonds, and his countenance was most forbidding, but being a brave man Mr. Martin invited the strange creature in.  It stood stiff, and when Mr. Martin advanced it faded into the air without making a solitary sound.  The alarm was spread and diligent search was made throughout the several rooms of the building, but no trace of the ghostly visitor was found.
    The strange appearance revives the tradition that there was an ancient Indian burying ground in the vicinity of where the building stands, and the supposition is that what Mr. Martin saw was some departed chief returning from the happy hunting ground to be near the ashes of his people.
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[And to think that this was published on neither April 1st nor Halloween.]

Gordon Hamilton
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