Excerpts from "THE ARKHAM ADVERTISER"

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Items of interest from the pages of The Arkham Advertiser (one of Arkham's two commercial newspapers), week of October 15th.

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DESPITE NUMEROUS legal setbacks, Mr. and Mrs. Francis Winters, currently residing in Boston, continue prosecuting their wrongful death suit against Miskatonic University. Their daughter, Addison Mae Winters, was killed in an incident last December a few months after entering the school as a new freshman.

According to the University's attorney, Mr. Wayne Saltonstall, the suit is entirely groundless. "We have numerous witnesses who will all attest to the fact the unfortunate Miss Winters was abducted from the Garden Cafe, and was not involved in any University function at the time of her death," says Mr. Saltonstall.

Preliminary arguments before Judge Samuel Prescott are set for the beginning of December.

***

A FORMAL RECEPTION was given at the President's House on Monday night for the Miskatonic University's new visiting faculty member, Dr. Albrecht Fletcher, from the archaeology department of the University of Southern California at Los Angeles. The affair was well attended by University faculty, and despite California's reputation for a deplorable lack of courtesy, Dr. Fletcher, who received his degree from Magdalene College, Cambridge, showed himself to be a splendid example of cultural refinement, entertaining the guests with many interesting stories about his time in England, and explaining his recent work.

Dr. Fletcher is pioneering research into historical belief systems, what he sometimes terms "religious archaeology". His current department of Medieval Metaphysics promises to offer fascinating contributions to antiquarian scholarship. The University has pledged its support for Dr. Fletcher, who remarked during his short after-dinner speech, "I've been made very welcome at Miskatonic University, and I'm exceedingly grateful to have received the school's full backing in every way. I have a very nice office in Atwood Hall — B66, if you ever want to visit — and I'm flattered to have been granted full faculty privileges, the use of a teaching assistant, and unrestricted access to all University research facilities, including the library."

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CASELIUS'S JEWELRY
Lazlo Caselius, prop.
Fine jewelry for every occasion.
Precious metals. Exotic stones.
Custom orders welcomed.

388 West Church Street
Arkham, Massachusetts

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Items of interest from the pages of The Arkham Advertiser, week of October 22nd.

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VARIOUS REPORTS from concerned citizens have alerted the city's law enforcement authorities to an increased amount of activity on and around the island near the Garrison Street bridge. Lights have been seen among the trees, and a number of watercraft have been espied making the crossing from the south bank piers to the island and back.

Once the site of a deplorable case of animal abuse perpetrated by several members of the University's student body, the island was more recently the scene of a student's disappearance during a field trip and lecture by a senior faculty member. Fortunately, the student was later discovered to be safe and sound in his dorm room.

"This business on the island is more than likely because we're so close to Hallowe'en," said Lieutenant Bessemer of the Arkham Police Department. "The MU Students don't have enough to do, and they get into mischief. But those rowdy frat boys have to understand that animal abuse is a crime no matter how much money their parents have."

***

A NUMBER OF PET CATS have been killed in the vicinity of the farms to the west of Arkham, doubtless by a fox or a feral dog. This vicious animal has never been seen, but Miss Violet Winfield reports that she has heard it. "It passed me by the other night as I was going out to check the henhouse," she said. "It must have had some kind of rattles tied to it, because it clacked something fierce as it ran. I can't figure for the life of me how those cats got caught what with it making that kind of rukus and all."

Farmer William "Billy Bob" Pierce tells this paper that while his cat is fine, some of his livestock has gone missing. "Those darned kids are after my sheep again! They better look sharp, because I'm half of a mind to pay those city slickers another visit!"

***

WORLD VIEW CLIPPING SERVICE
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Hyram and Cynthia Barnaby
601 Gedney Street

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Items of interest from the pages of The Arkham Advertiser, week of October 29th.

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THE UNEXPECTED EARTHQUAKE and strange rain that rattled Arkham's windows and nerves prompted a flood of concerned telephone calls to the police department. However, no damage was reported save a few fallen slates and a number of doors put askew. Dr. William Dyer of the geology department at Miskatonic University hastened to allay any fears on the part of the town's residents.

"It's quite normal for this part of the country to experience an occasional mild temblor," he said. "In past ages, great ice sheets covered New England, depressing the earth with their great weight, and even now the ground continues to rebound. The reddish rain was caused by nothing more sinister than a freak waterspout that doubtless deposited a population of colorful Atlantic phytoplankton on our fair town. There's nothing, absolutely nothing to be alarmed about."

Various reports that shouting and subterranean voices accompanied the earthquake have not been substantiated.

***

ACTING ON AN ANONYMOUS tip, police found the body of a slaughtered lamb lying on a crude stone table on the island near the Garrison Street bridge. Lieutenant Bessemer of the police department states, "It's nothing more than a Halloween prank. And not a very funny one, either. We'll get to the bottom of this, and there'll be some arrests, you can bet on it."

The lamb's remains have been left in place pending further investigation.

When asked, Bert Arley, proprietor of Arley's Boats 'n' Bait, and a knowledgeable frequenter of the Miskatonic's chilly waters, claimed that none of his boats have ever touched at the island. "I don't rent boats to people who want to go out to the island," he said. "No sirree! I make them promise before I rent them a boat. That's right. Up front."

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KENNETH HEATH
Private Investigator
"Discrete and thorough."
136 E. Curwen Street

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Items of interest from the pages of The Arkham Advertiser, week of November 5th.

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THE INVESTIGATION CONTINUES into the matter of the dead lamb found on the island near the Garrison Street bridge. Several reports of lights on the island in recent weeks are being investigated by the Arkham Police, and numerous shoreside residents have come forward to give reports and evidence.

An incident earlier this year wherein two lambs were found dead and drained of blood on the University campus lends a sense of urgency to this case. Says Lieutenant Bessemer, "They could be unrelated incidents, but even if they are, we'd take it just as seriously. If killing sheep has turned into a student tradition at the school, it's time we put an end to this nonsense."

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A NEW FACE HAS JOINED the Arkham Police. Officer Tom Gallagher spent five years on the Boston force before moving his family to Arkham in order to escape the congestion and violence of big city life. The father of two young sons, he maintains that a small town environment is more conducive to the healthy growth of children, and says that Arkham's close-knit neighborhoods foster a more personal relationship between its law enforcement officers and the communities they patrol.

Owing to the recent robberies and mysterious happenings at Orne Library, Officer Gallagher can be found bravely standing guard on the steps of the great building throughout the dark hours. We at the Advertiser wish him the best of luck in his Arkham career and hope that our fair city proves to be of benefit to the welfare of his wife and children.

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OWING TO NUMEROUS ATTACKS by an unknown wild animal, dog owners are advised to keep their pets indoors at night. "We don't know what this thing is," says Herbert Wilkes of the Arkham Department of Animal Control, "but it sure made a mess of Toby Pierson's "Ol' Blue" the other night."

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Items of interest from the pages of The Arkham Advertiser, week of November 12th.

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An Advertiser Exclusive!

CONCERNING CERTAIN PHENOMENA SEEN IN THE SKIES OVER ARKHAM

by William Dyer, Ph.D.

Some concern has arisen of late in our fine community regarding certain unexpected obscurations of the evening sky, occurring most frequently during cloudless nights when the air is still and very clear. These transient shadows have upon occasion eclipsed entire regions of stars and, once or twice, the moon itself, even at the height of fullness.

Though on the surface unsettling, this phenomenon offers no cause for alarm, as its origin lies in a particular form of atmospheric cloud termed "noctilucent" by our meteorologists. Such clouds exist at extremely high altitudes, upwards of 30 miles from the surface of our globe, and are of uncertain origin, though they may in fact find their genesis in airborne dust ejected by the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in 1885. Indeed, it was only after this geological cataclysm that the first sightings of noctilucent clouds were reported.

Admittedly, for such clouds to exist at lower latitudes such as Arkham's is somewhat unusual, and as noctilucent clouds have been up until now a summer phenomenon, our current sightings would be the first recorded evidence of their existence during the winter months.

And it is quite true that noctilucent clouds are known for being luminous. Indeed, their very name derives from the Latin for "night-shining". But as the nature of these clouds is still at best ill-understood, the distinct darkness and opacity of our Arkham variety might well be accounted for by their existence during the cold season or because our lower latitudes prevent the light of the sun (normally the source of their illumination) from reaching them.

In any case, as a man of science, I must offer my studied observation and professional opinion that these vagrant shadows are indeed nothing more than such clouds, and are not (as has been maintained by some rabble-rousers with an unseemly desire for dramatics and a callous disregard for truth and civic responsibility) connected in any way with the atmospheric disturbances witnessed by certain members of the Miskatonic Antarctic Expedition during their explorations on the desolate plateaux of that frigid continent in January 1931. The fact that one of the professors from that expedition, now temporarily residing at the Larkin Institute, has experienced periods of disturbed sleep and oneiric distress is no more and no less than a coincidence, and should be treated as such, not only by my esteemed colleagues at the Institute, but also by my fellow professors at this university, regardless of the validity or invalidity of their unscientific, metaphysical, and obviously fabricated disciplines.

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Items of interest from the pages of The Arkham Advertiser, week of December 3rd.

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THE LARGE NUMBER OF BROKEN manhole covers around town prompted the Arkham Department of Public Works to release a statement Wednesday last. It appears that the manhole covers are being systematically vandalized, and that the most likely suspects are University students. These students, the statement continues, should be aware that not only are manhole covers expensive to replace, but the resultant open sewer access can cause traffic accidents and serious personal injury, particularly at night. If apprehended, participants in such damaging crimes will face serious legal consequences.

In many instances, the covers show signs of abuse impossible to inflict without the use of heavy machinery and perhaps welding torches, leading the authorities to surmise that members of the University's engineering department, perhaps even faculty, are involved. One damaged cover was in fact flung through a shop window some forty feet away, breaking the window and causing extensive damage to merchandise.

Full text of the Department's statement on page 13...

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PROFESSOR WILLIAM DYER (Department of Geology, Miskatonic University) is happy to assure his colleagues and students that he is successfully recuperating from injuries received at the hands of an unknown assailant Sunday evening. During his walk home, Professor Dyer was attacked on the sidewalk north of Atwood Hall, and received numerous blows from a blunt object, perhaps a cane or a walking stick, before summoning up his college boxing experience and driving the thug away with a series of stout one-twos.

"I caught him on the jaw at the very end," commented Professor Dyer. "He staggered back and then ran away. Actually, he limped away. I caught a glimpse of some bandages on the fellow, too: obviously he makes a habit of losing his fights!"

Doctors at Saint Mary's Hospital pronounced Professor Dyer's injuries superficial, except for one deep cut on his cheek, which required stitches. Said the professor, "I don't mind, actually. If anyone asks about it after it heals up, I'll say it's from my days in the academic fencing clubs in Heidelberg."

The Advertiser staff offers their best wishes for a speedy recovery to the valiant Professor Dyer.

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Items of interest from the pages of The Arkham Advertiser, late December/January.

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ALARMING ATTACKS AT ATWOOD!

A SPATE OF INCREASINGLY violent attacks has been occurring of late in and around the normally sedate, scholarly environs of Miskatonic University's Atwood Hall.

What began last November as innocuous rappings and inexplicable rustling sounds throughout the rooms and hallways of the old science building has escalated into destructive hooliganism and physical assaults.

In early December, the main entrance of the building was heavily damaged, the heavy doors having been ripped partway off their hinges. At the time, this was thought to be vandalism perpetrated by members of the street gangs from the slum districts.

Within weeks, however, despite the vigilance of members of the Student Patrol and of the city's police department, classrooms and lecture halls began to show similar signs of deliberate damage, and on several occasions, pipes in the basement were cut, releasing at one time floods of water and at another a toxic cloud of coal gas. In the latter case, a disastrous explosion was fortunately prevented by a quick-thinking teaching assistant who not only alerted both campus maintenance and the city's engineering department, but herself helped with the evacuation of students and faculty, personally rescuing an assistant professor of languages who had been overcome by the poisonous fumes.

The violence has, regrettably, moved of late from property to personal. Dr. Albrecht Fletcher, visiting faculty from UCLA, may well have been the first casualty, having been assaulted as he was leaving his basement office shortly after the initial damage to the main doors. The professor was roughed up by an unknown party, receiving injuries that, as Dr. Cecil Waldron, campus physician put it, "Made him look as though he'd gotten a couple of good one-two's by a professional boxer."

Nor has the violence ended there. In the last week, at least one student (who asked that his name be withheld) has been hospitalized with numerous deep cuts and the loss of a considerable quantity of blood. When asked, he recounted that he was in the basement hallway when he sensed an oppressive presence nearby. Moments later, he felt as though he had been encircled by, as he put it, "rubbery ropes and fishhooks", and thereafter, mercifully perhaps, he lost consciousness, regaining his senses only after being discovered by fellow students.

Though his account seems incredible, physicians at Saint Mary's Hospital pronounce his wounds to be quite in keeping with his description. The assailant's identity and weapon, however, remain entirely unknown.

Arkham Police Department's Lieutenant Bessemer assures the public that an intensive investigation has been launched into the source of these disturbances.

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VANDALISM of Arkham manhole covers continues, with corresponding endangerment of Arkham citizenry. According to reports, a university student came dangerously close to being injured by falling into an open manhole the night of December 26th. Pranksters had left the cover open, and snow and darkness masked the dangerous aperture. Quick intervention on the part of friends and nearby students prevented the situation from turning nasty, and there was no injury save perhaps to the student's pride.

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MR. BERT ARLEY is only the latest Arkham resident to report the appearance of what some have described as "a dog wearing armor". Mr. Arley himself insists that it was "some kind of beetle, a big beetle, big as a dog, with...like...ribs on its back. It was hiding in one of my boats the other night, and it come up like Jenny going to the barn with a lantern. Scared the daylights out of me and then ran off somewhere."

Mr. Arley admits that a beetle of such size is a highly unlikely inhabitant of rental boats, but he nevertheless stands by his tale.

Arkham Police desire any other citizen who sees this beast to kindly write or telephone a report. Should an officer not be available, descriptions of the incident should be tendered to the Student Patrol.

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Items of interest from the pages of The Arkham Advertiser, January/February.

ATWOOD HALL CLOSED!

MISFORTUNE CONTINUES to dog Miskatonic University's venerable Atwood Hall. A lengthening series of plumbing and electrical breakdowns, coupled with increasingly violent attacks on students, faculty, and staff within and without the building, has forced the school's administration to lock the newly repaired doors and look elsewhere on the campus for classroom and office space.

Reports of overcrowded lecture halls and substandard office accommodations were dismissed by Dr. Harvey Wainscott, president of the university. "Miskatonic has a long tradition of supporting its students and faculty through thick and thin," he said in the course of a recent interview, "and to that tradition we will steadfastly adhere, regardless of what adverse circumstances might confront us."

Dr. Wainscott's optimism was echoed by Dr. Albrecht Fletcher of the Department of Medieval Metaphysics. "The university is making me very comfortable," he informed the Advertiser. "I have nothing to complain about. When my room in Atwood became unsafe, I was graciously moved to a cozy office in Edwards Hall, which serendipitously turned out to be next door to that of a very old acquaintance, Dr. Nathaniel Peaslee."

When asked whether his numerous bandages, cuts, and scrapes testified to any personal encounters with the unidentified vandals and thugs who have so plagued the university of late, Dr. Fletcher was quick to explain that he had suffered the mishap of falling down the stairs in his home. "Aside from that tumble," he said, "I have been extremely fortunate. Though the door to my office in Atwood Hall was forced and broken on several occasions, I myself was not present to suffer any consequences."

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POLICE BAFFLED BY MYSTERY KILLINGS!

THE INCREASING VIOLENCE that has bedeviled the Arkham municipal area in recent months reached a grisly peak on the 25th of February, when the body of an unidentified man, apparently a vagrant, was discovered in the alley adjacent to the Hotel Miskatonic. The recent cold weather and snow apparently kept decay from setting in, and the body was not noticed until some time after death. Lieutenant Bessemer of the Arkham Police Department terms the death suspicious. "The body suffered some mutilation," he said. "It looks like Mafia work, but we can't say for sure."

Asked whether the killing was connected with the very unfortunate death of Officer Tom Gallagher, Lt. Bessemer angrily declined to comment.

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OBITUARY

GALLAGHER, THOMAS RANDOLPH, of Arkham, formerly of Boston, Mass., died Monday, February 25 of wounds suffered in the line of duty. He is survived by his wife, Nerissa, and two sons, George and Jack. Mr. Gallagher was an officer with the Arkham Police Department. The family will receive friends 7-8:30 p.m. Thursday, February 28, at Whitechapel Mortuary, 581 W Church St. Private funeral services will take place in Boston on Saturday.