Diario La Nación
- The Mystery of Haunted Houses
- The Pearl
- THE CHARM OF A WALTZ
La Nación’s September 28, 1926 page brings together a French mystery, domestic comedy and cinema promotion. A mother and four children reportedly endure nightly knocking while gendarmes investigate their supposedly haunted home. In G. Daubignac’s story, a solicitous employer takes over Catalina’s chores and offers her his bedroom after a burglary frightens her. A UFA advertisement proclaims worldwide success and lists evening screenings of The Charm of a Waltz at three Santiago theaters.
This edition covers only the three supplied excerpts from the September 28, 1926 page. The haunted-house passage ends mid-sentence; both translations retain an unfinished ending. The Pearl begins with the isolated word-ending “vido,” which cannot be translated independently; its intelligible text and supplied byline are included. Tile boundaries divide columns, headings and advertisements, and small print and edge fragments do not permit complete article reconstruction. The excerpts do not establish the haunted-house article’s eventual explanation, a broader Chilean press position on spiritualism, the fictional household’s location, or the theaters’ ownership and film-sharing arrangements.
Translation
The Mystery of Haunted Houses
From time to time, at more or less regular intervals, people talk of a haunted house. Recently there has been talk of one apparently situated in a French village, Ronquerolles, near Clermont-de-l’Oise. A woman whose petition for divorce is pending lives there with four of her children. Every night all five tremble at the sound of knocks on the roof or along the walls. The French authorities have taken this matter, which will make most readers laugh, seriously enough to send a detachment of gendarmes, led by their corporal, to the goblins’ house to establish the truth of the affair. The gendarmes have not seen, at the hour when
The Pearl
By G. DAUBIGNAC
“I will grind the coffee. As it happens, the doctor has advised me to get some exercise. So the idea could not be better.” One day she came into my laboratory in tears. “Sir, there has been a burglary on the sixth floor! I don’t want to sleep in the room upstairs anymore. I would be terribly frightened.” The look of terror on Catalina’s face moved me. “Calm yourself,” I told that impressionable creature. “From today you will sleep in my bedroom, and I will sleep on the sixth floor.” I could safely say that I spared her every occasion for exertion. I even relieved her of the task of cleaning my boots. One day, while I was busy with this chore, Catalina said to me with the innocence of her twenty years: “How your boots shine, sir! What a knack you have for cleaning them! One can see oneself in them as in a mirror!”
THE CHARM OF A WALTZ
PEOPLE OF SANTIAGO!! TODAY, THE FILM THAT HAS TRIUMPHED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
THE CHARM OF A WALTZ
An extraordinary UFA production, 1925 / 1926
Theaters:
CARRERAS 6:05 P.M.
SETIEMBRE 6:20 P.M.
BRASIL 6:30 P.M.
Context
Official investigation gives a ghost story its tension
The report builds its tension around the contrast between anticipated laughter and official investigation: readers may dismiss the haunting, yet a corporal and gendarmes are sent to check it. A February 28, 2024 account in L’Observateur de Beauvais, reporting a presentation at the departmental archives, dates the Ronquerolles affair to 1925. It reproduces a contemporary report from Le Progrès de l’Oise urging readers to avoid exaggeration and await an investigation that would restore the facts to their proper proportions. This earlier French response helps explain the mixture of sensational appeal and inquiry in the Chilean passage. The mysterious knocks attract attention, while the dispatch of gendarmes makes direct observation and official authority part of the story.
The joke depends on an unequal household relationship
Catalina’s employer presents grinding coffee and cleaning boots as duties he kindly takes off her hands; her praise of his boot-cleaning skill makes the reversal comic. Calling her impressionable also places him in the role of protector. Chilean readers encountered the story in a society where domestic service extended across social classes. The National Library’s history describes it as a widespread occupation in censuses from 1854 to 1930 and notes that middle- and lower-income households employed servants who combined many household functions. This history provides a context for the story’s division of work: the employer’s performance of ordinary chores becomes an exceptional favor, while Catalina addresses him deferentially even as their usual roles are reversed.
One film advertised across three theaters
The advertisement presents Carreras, Setiembre and Brasil beneath one film title, offering audiences starts at 6:05, 6:20 and 6:30 p.m. Its appeal combines a direct address to Santiago residents, the UFA name, the 1925 / 1926 label and a claim of worldwide success. The shared advertisement links these local viewing choices to the film’s advertised international prestige. The National Library’s cinema history supplies a historical explanation for the heading “Theaters”: when cinema arrived in Chile in the late nineteenth century, theatrical and revue entrepreneurs included films in the intervals of variety shows. The distinction between cinema and theater venues remained difficult to draw into the 1950s. The advertisement’s terminology thus reflects cinema’s development within an existing world of theatrical entertainment.
Original
El misterio de las casas encantadas
De tiempo en tiempo, a intervalos más o menos regulares, se habla de una casa encantada. Recientemente se ha hablado de una que se halla al parecer en una aldea francesa, Ronquerolles, cerca de Clermont-de-l'Oise. Habita en ella una mujer, que tiene en trámite una petición de divorcio, con cuatro hijos suyos. Todas las noches se estremecen los cinco al eco de unos golpes que suenan sobre el techo o a lo largo de los muros. Las autoridades francesas han tomado este hecho, que a la mayoría de los lectores hará reír, en consideración, ya que han enviado a la casa de los duendes un piquete de gendarmería con su cabo al frente para que compruebe la verdad del caso. Los gendarmes no han visto a la hora en que
La perla
vido -. Yo moleré el café. Precisamente, el médico me ha recomendado que haga algún ejercicio. La idea, pues, no puede ser más excelente. Un día entró llorando en mi laboratorio. - ¡ Señorito han robado en el sexto piso! Yo no quiero acostarme más en el cuarto de arriba. Me daría mucho miedo. La expresión de terror que ofrecía el rostro de Catalina me conmovió. - Tranquilícese - le dije a aquella criatura tan impresionable -; Desde hoy dormirá usted en mi alcoba y yo me acostaré en el sexto piso. Podía asegurar que la evitaba toda ocasión de fatiga. Yo mismo la relevé del cuidado de limpiarme las botas. Un día que estaba entregado a esta faena, Catalina me dijo con la ingenuidad de sus veinte años: - ¡ Cómo brillan las botas del señor! ¡ Qué maña se da para limpiarlas! ¡ Se puede una mirar en ellas como en un espejo!
EL ENCANTO DE UN VALS
¡ SANTIAGUINOS!! HOY LA PELICULA QUE HA TRIUNFADO EN EL MUNDO ENTERO EL ENCANTO DE UN VALS Extraordinaria UFA 1925 / 1926 Teatros: CARRERAS 6. 05 P. M. SETIEMBRE 6. 20 P. M. BRASIL 6, 30 P. M.
Source: Source: Internet Archive