The article below was published in the daily newspaper Daily Courier, of Waterloo, Iowa, USA, on February 16, 1895.
INVESTIGATING A PHENOMENON. -- For some time there has been a strange phenomenon observed near Geneva, and the following dispatch tells how a farmer tried to shoot the "fire ghost:"
"On Tuesday night L. H. Spangler, a substantial farmer in that neighborhood, resolved to solve the mystery connected with the illuminated apparition. He loaded his shot gun and drove to the place over which the strange light is wont to hover.
Arriving on the top of a small hill about half a mile from his residence Mr. Spangler saw a huge mass of fire in the atmosphere about twenty rods distant. The immense orb was slowly receding and Spangler whipped up his team until he was within three rods of the strange object.
He then leveled his gun, took good aim and fired both barrels almost simultaneously. There was a loud report and the air was filled with millions of luminous glittering fragments which lighted up the country for miles around.
As the farmer sat watching the work which his hands had wrought, the fragments began to slowly come together and in a short time had again formed into one large body, which shot straight up into the air and disappeared behind a large black cloud. A long vivid streak of light was left across the sky which gradually faded away.
After seeing the last strange phenomenon Mr. Spangler returned to his home, and the 'fire ghost mystery' still remains unsolved."
