They decided, however, that the sound was due to some peculiar echo, and having no faith in the spooks supposed to hold revel there, boldly took possession of one of the lower rooms and kindling a roaring fire were soon asleep.

It appears they awoke simultaneously, each complaining of bad dreams, and one gentleman said that he had been harassed by a terrible nightmare, in which murder and treachery played a part, when each of his companions declared they had suffered from the same horrors. As they sat discussing this footsteps were heard slowly pacing the room overhead, each step being accompanied by a heavy groan. Rushing in a body into the hall the men found that the staircase communicating with the upper part of the house had fallen down, and a careful search failed to show any other means of reaching the second story. Puzzled to know how the walker had gotten into the room above they shouted to him various inquiries, but the footsteps and groans ceased abruptly at the sound of their voices.

Returning to the fire they were horrified to see falling from the ceiling a slowly trickling stream of what seemed freshly shed blood, and which had formed quite a pool on the hearth. It was now proposed by some of the party that they leave the house and return to the beach, but the less superstitious declared their attention of remaining in hopes of solving the mystery. The blood continued to fall until it began to run in streams about the room, when a heavy groaning was again heard, but this time appearing to be in the hall outside, though an inspection of that showed it to be perfectly empty.

The groaning, however, was to be as distinctly heard as ever, and presently there was also a sound of a woman's pitiful sobbing, when the door leading into the hall was violently thrown open and there seemed to be rushing about the room, a being uttering piercing cries and pursued by another, with heavy blows and horrible cursings, though this was only to be guessed at from the sounds heard, as nothing at all was to be seen.

It was seen, however, as soon as the party could sufficiently control their involuntary terror, that the floor was covered in tracks in blood. These tracks were of two sizes, one appearing to be that of a woman stood in high-heeled, elegant shoes, and the other those of a man, barefooted, and having enormous feet. Even as the men gazed at these tracks they were gone, together with the pool of blood on the hearth, and for something over an hour nothing further was seen or heard, and hopes were entertained that the house would be left in peace for the remainder of the night.

But the lull was succeeded suddenly by a most frightful din in the room overhead, in which it seemed as if a whole crockery store was being demolished. Shrieks of laughter, rising into fearful howls at intervals, burst forth over the racket being created, and the sound of clapping hands and dancing feet could be distinguished above the crash and clatter.

This continued some minutes, when it ceased as abruptly as it had begun, and again there was silence for a quarter of an hour. At the end of that time some one could be heard dragging a heavy burden across the floor of the room above, thence into the upper hall, and then it seemed down a staircase with a sickening bump on each step, though as the only stairway had been seen in rotten fragments lying where it had fallen to the floor below, this was known to be an auricular delusion, though it seemed as if the burden was dragged to the outer door and flung out into the night. The steps then seemed to descend the stairs, pausing in a horrible mockery at the landing to dance a double shuffle with bare feet, the slapping of which resounded with painful distinctness through the silent house.

The men by this time huddled together in one corner of the room, confessedly so terrified by what they heard that they did not venture to stir for fear of beholding some fearful sight. Colonel Davis in speaking of this said: "It may sound as if we were all superstitious cowards, but I'll defy any man in the State to undergo what we had without having his wits nearly scared out of him." The party are unanimous in declaring that to have been able to see the cause of the various noises would have been less frightful than to feel that something horrible and unspeakable was moving about them wrapped in invisibility. They were aroused from their panic by the sound of a mighty wind sweeping about the house, chilling them to the very bone and shaking the rotten timbers of the old mansion until it was feared that the walls were about to crash in upon them. A rush was made for the door, but before they could find and open it, a flash as of lightning filled the house with an unearthly light, which accompanied by a clap of thunder, sent the panting, terrified men running out of the house in fear of their lives. Mr. K. Carr states that in the flash of light he saw distinctly a hideous, evil face staring down at them over the lading of the fallen stairway.

This is confirmed by Mr. Reed, who says he saw it, too. The party had been prepared to find a violent storm raging, but on reaching the open air were surprised to discover the night to be fair and perfectly clear, with the wind blowing, and no cloud from whence could have proceeded the lightning flash and the thunder clap they had heard. Turning to look back at the house they saw what they supposed to be on fire, flames appearing to be bursting from the roof and window, but the morning light revealed the old mansion as sombre and silent as ever. Visited next day, nothing was found to indicate that there had been aught of a terrifying or unusual character the night before.

Since then crowds have nightly visited the scene, but no one has had the courage to spend a night in the place, for the phenomenon of the house appearing to be in flames has been seen by hundreds on several nights about midnight. The Madison mansion was built in the early days of the century and was the residence of a wealthy Englishman by that name. He lived alone except for a daughter of about seventeen or eighteen, whom he gave out to be half-witted and whom he never permitted to be seen by the few visitors he received. Without warning Madison left for England and wrote from that country directing the sale of his house, but though it was a comfortable and elegant residence, no one cared to live in it more than a few weeks.

It was sold and resold, until its ghostly reputations, which grew with the years, has caused it to stay an unpredictable investment on its last purchaser's hands. This gentleman, who has owned it since 1864, declares he means to put an end to the excitement created recently about it by tearing it down at an early day.

Syracuse Sunday Herald, Syracuse, New York - Sunday, August 15, 1891   

So from the world of spirits there descends
A bridge of light, connecting it with this,
O'er whose unsteady floor, that sways and bends,
Wander our thoughts above the dark abyss.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Haunted Houses