West Clark Alley is an unassuming little street in York, Pennsylvania, nestled on the block between Beaver and George Streets. Looking at it today, one would never imagine that it was once haunted by one of the most surreal spectres ever to be recorded in the rich annals of Forteana. I am honoured to present to you today the tale of the Clark Alley Imp!
Hitting the Bottle[]
Once again, my mastery of Photoshop prevails.
The utterly unique aberration would first appear in January of 1880, and it was said to assume many different forms - each more bizarre than the next. Sometimes it would appear in the form of a human figure putting on 'the airs of a horse-thief', but on other occasions it would instead elect to make itself known as 'a huge demijohn on two legs' - and 'not infrequently' it would appear like a beer bottle, tapped at both ends, and roll around menacingly. For some reason, the residents of the alley would never pursue the horse-thief, but were known to chase the other two forms up and down the lane - despite it seemingly being completely untouchable. 'Like the will-o-the-wisp', it would never be captured.
A few days before it first appeared, a group of plucky Victorian ghost-hunters caught sight of the apparition, this time seemingly manifesting as a young boy selling newspapers. I would've thought that this might simply have been exactly what it appeared to be, but its later actions apparently proved this incorrect. The intrepid paranormalists presumably advanced towards the creature - whereupon it immediately 'vanished in a puff of smoke', leaving nothing behind but a scrap of paper covered in unintelligible writings. What became of this evidence is unclear, however. (HL: possible phantom stranger?)
The next time the critter showed its ugly face was when it decided to appear to a woman in King Street in the form of a slender feminine figure clad in black. South Court Alley was the next, and seemingly final according to the source, location to be visited by the amorphous anomaly. It was here that it would haunt a stable by emitting the sounds of hay being thrown around. Apparently this haunting was entirely auditory, and so it can safely be assumed that no horses were present and no hay was actually thrown around. Almost as quickly as it had appeared, the Imp of Clark Alley vanished, disappearing into the darkest depths of obscure local folklore forever - never to be seen again.
A Quick Note[]
The source from which I found this story only contains a presumably-incomplete newspaper clipping detailing this story. I imagine that there are precise dates available for the different happenings discussed in this story, as well as more information about each of them. This article will probably be updated in the near future as I discover more, well-needed, information about this perplexing little case.
Source[]
http://masksofmesingw.blogspot.com/2010/09/imp-of-clark-alley.html