Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

“Ghostly faces in mirror” stories are relatively common, but this is one of the eeriest of the lot.  “The South Bend Tribune,” February 11, 1904:

Relatives in this city have received information from Bangor, regarding a mysterious picture mirror which is causing considerable interest in that place. A dispatch regarding the matter says: 

“Boydoinham's [Note: “Bowdoinham”] mysterious picture mirror is exciting more wonder than at first, for new faces have appeared in it and the house of Robert Warren, where the mirror hangs, is visited by hundreds of curious persons daily.

"A few weeks ago Mr. Warren's wife died, and since then faces have appeared in the mirror, generally, at dusk, and remained in full view for some hours.  First came the face of an old man, then that of a young girl, followed by indistinct traceries as of woodland scenes.

“None of these were recognized by Mr. Warren or by any of his neighbors. But now the face of the dead Mrs. Warren has come into the mirror, distinct arid unmistakable, as has also that of Mrs. Warren's mother.

"At first, the stories were not believed, but responsible persons have visited Boydoinham for the express purpose of viewing the phenomena. and they declare that the faces and figures do really appear in the mirror, being most distinct at night after the lamps have been lighted, and that there has been no misstatement or exaggeration whatever in the matter. 

“It is the strangest thing I ever saw or heard of, says a Lewiston man who went to see the pictures.  “Many of the neighbors are afraid to go near the Warren house, declaring that it is haunted; but Mr, Warren, a quiet and pious old man, sits by the hour looking at the pictures in the old looking-glass, and is not at all disturbed over them. He believes that his dead wife is trying to convey a message to him, or that, perhaps, she has simply come back to keep him company." 

Edward Warren, a son, in a letter to Mrs. Thomas Eller, of 603 East Jefferson street, written from Boston, Mass., says:

"In the room in which mother died is a looking glass of quite large size and the glass is full of faces small and big. They call it mother’s shadow painting, but I did not think much about it myself.  You can see in the glass as well as you can in any glass, but at the top of the glass are letters that can be seen, but we cannot tell them all. They are coming out clearer all the time, so if letters come out on the glass, and I think they will, I shall think that mother still lives and it is her work.”

Mrs. Warren resided in South Bend 18 years ago.  She was born in this city and was about 52 years of age. She was Miss Adelia Leach and during her residence here had many friends.

There were numerous newspaper stories about the mysterious mirror throughout early 1904, but I have been unable to learn when--or if--the strange phenomena ended.