Alexandria Gazette

GUARDED BY OWLS.—A small item in yesterday's Gazette stated that one of two white owls which had been living in the Pioneer Mills some time had been captured. The capture was the occasion of some little excitement and merriment, it seems. For a long time the mills have been regarded as haunted by the colored stevedores who work around the wharf, some positively refusing to ply their vocation in or around the building. All sorts of tales have been told of unnatural noises heard therein, a few averring that "something white" had also been seen in one of the upper rooms. Yesterday a gang of colored workmen determined to brave the consequences and convey some bags of grain to the supposed haunted apartment, so each shouldered a bag, and started in single file up stairs, but upon arriving at the landing at the head of the steps their ears were greeted by a peculiar hooting sound, which caused the eye balls of the gang to distend and their hair to assume a perpendicular position. A stampede followed, and darkies and grain bags tumbled pell-mell down the steps together. After being laughed at by some friends for their alleged cowardice, the party subsequently summoned up courage to ascend the stairs again, and the more venturesome grew bold enough to turn an eye into the "haunted" apartment, when they discovered the cause of all the trouble—two white owls sitting in lonely grandeur, indignant at having their "ancient, solitary reign" molested. One of the birds was captured, but the other made its escape from a window and was seen no more.