Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

“Mysterious face in a window” stories are surprisingly common.  Here is a good example from the “New York Daily Herald,” August 30, 1870:

Since the fall of the Pemberton Mills the city of Lawrence has known no such excitement as that produced on Saturday, the 20th instant, by the unaccountable appearance of a female's features in a light of glass in the window of a house on Broadway.

It appears that a few days previous to the discovery of the phenomenon an elderly lady, after a long and wearing sickness, had died. The day that on which the funeral occurred a lady who was visiting one of the tenants or the same house, in passing saw a figure in the attic window, which she instantly recognized as that of the deceased lady, and with great consternation communicated the fact to the other occupants of the building, and in a short time the entire neighborhood was made acquainted with the strange and exciting discovery.  The window of the room in which the woman had died was immediately under that in the attic, and was the usual sitting place of the deceased. Some supposed that by some means her face had become impressed upon the glass; but the fact that it was not in the room occupied by her, and in a room that was usually unoccupied, displaces all belief in this idea.

During the day and evening the story of a ghost on Broadway was widely circulated throughout the city, and early the next morning, which was the Sabbath, people commenced to gather about the ill-fated and haunted house, much to the annoyance of its inmates and immediate neighbors. None professed to believe a word of the wild story, and were only convinced upon an actual view with their own eyes. A sister of the deceased, hearing of the matter, visited the place, and pronounced the likeness to be that of her relative. The only members of the family are two small children. The excitement momentarily increased, as also did the crowd in the street, and by noon it was so great as to render the passage of the horse cars quite difficult.

The inmates tried various means to remove the image from the glass, but were unsuccessful, and, with a view to sending the crowds away, removed the sash to the rear of the building; but as a means of scattering the people it was only successful in drawing them away from the front of the building to the rear, where the face was seen to a still better advantage, though it seemed to have a somewhat different appearance. It was only when the sash had been removed and secreted in the house that the crowd began to disperse and wander back to their homes, each having an idea as to the cause of the singular vision and all agreeing that "there was something in it, anyway." Early on Monday morning another crowd gathered around the house, and Dr. Wm. D. Lamb, a prominent physician, obtained permission to remove the sash to his office, on Essex street.

Here it was placed in his window opening upon the main business street in the city, and every one could get a fine view from below. The window was examined by Intelligent and scientific men, and while some were of the opinion that it might be the result of the action of lightning, when some person had been sitting near, others thought this theory one of impossibility.  Of course the many superstitious were satisfied that it was the "ghost of the dear woman, and nothing more." There is one thing about it, at least, that seems strange, and that is the fact of no face or figure, to be seen in looking out from the inside. During the day an army of photographers, after several attempts, succeeded in getting a very good likeness of the sash and the face it contained.

No one can account for this strange phenomenon, but men who are practical and possessed of a good share of common sense conclude that it must be one of those curious defects that will sometimes appear in window glass. The strangest thing in its connection is that it was not discovered until after the death of an inmate of the house. Those who believe In the "spiritual"' are making the most of the circumstance, and, doubtless, there seldom occurs such instances upon which they can surely reach the partially superstitious mind. Ghost or not, there has nothing occurred in the city of Lawrence of this nature that has produced such wonderment since the well-remembered stories of various apparitions in connection with the fall of the Pemberton Mills.

[A side note: The Pemberton Mills was a large textile factory that, thanks to substandard construction, suddenly collapsed on January 10, 1860.  Several hundred workers were trapped in the rubble, killing about half of them instantly.  Small wonder the disaster attracted its share of ghost stories.]

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Because everyone likes a good "spectral face in glass" story, let me direct your attention to this item from the "London Morning Post," January 4, 1872 (via Newspapers.com):

San Francisco, emulous of the fame of some of the smaller cities of Ohio, now reports that it has a weird face on a window-pane, the story being related by the Bulletin of the 9th ult. as follows : 

"The precise locality of this wonderful house is No. 2119, Mason-street, between Lombard and Chestnut. The house is a small unpretending two-story, and occupied by a French widow named Joergens, whose husband died September, 1870, while on a visit to France. Madame Joergens states that everything has gone badly with her since her husband's death, as his relatives have been trying to get certain property out of her hands. She says that on Monday some children who had been playing on the street came to her and said there was a man's face in the window of the upper story. She ran up stairs, but could see no face. She then went out on the street, when it was plainly discernible. On the afternoon of Sunday Madame Joergens stated that she examined the window-pane closely, and that just to the right of and seemingly beyond the picture first observed she saw the face and shoulders of another man, having the features of her deceased husband. She says that she was loth to behave in the existence of anything supernatural, and, fearing that her eyes might have been made the fools of her other senses, she called in several friends who knew her husband when in the flesh, and they substantiated her opinion. This figure remained about three hours, and gradually disappeared, but the other remained. Each day it grew more and more distinct. The face is that of a man in the prime of life, with dark wavy hair and whiskers. The view of the face is a full one; the head is resting on the left shoulder. The expression of the features is one of contemplative sorrow. In it a gentleman recognised the features of a French real estate agent, now alive and in this city, and mentioned this fact to Mme. Joergens, who immediately stated that the person referred to was a relative of hers. Every effort has been made to obliterate the features, but without success. Ammonia, vinegar, alcohol, soap-suds, lye, and every variety of erasive matter has been used on the window, but the face is as stubborn as Banquo's ghost, and serenely contemplates all efforts to remove it."

Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything else about this story.