Read Online Uncle John’s Facts to Annoy Your Teacher Bathroom Reader for Kids Only! by Bathroom Readers’ Institute - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Bathroom Readers’ Institute
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a vivid imagination, for you never know when you might need it.”
—J. K. Rowling
“Dealing with backstabbers, there was one thing I learned. They’re only powerful when you’ve got your back turned.”
—Eminem
“I’m only young once. Who cares if I’m a goofball?
—Ashton Kutcher
“My grandmother once told me, ‘Don’t let failure go to your heart and don’t let success go to your head.’”
—Will Smith
THE HOUSE THAT SARAH BUILT
Sarah Winchester was incredibly wealthy…and incredibly wacky. She spent more than 30 years building a house that (she hoped) would keep her safe from evil spirits.
L OADED!
Sarah Pardee married William Winchester in 1862. She was the daughter of a wealthy Connecticut family, and he was the son of Oliver Winchester, owner of the Winchester rifle company. In 1860, the company had developed the first rifle that could fire a series of bullets without reloading. (Before that, you had to clean and reload the gun after each bullet was fired.) Sales of that rifle—and many more that followed—earned the Winchester family millions of dollars.
MILLION-HEIRESS
Life was hard for Sarah. Her infant daughter died in 1866, and she never had another child. Then, in 1880, her father-in-law died, and her husband caught tuberculosis. He passed away the following year.
All of that was terrible, but it made Sarah extremely rich. She inherited $20 million and about half of the Winchester company, which brought her an additional $1,000 every day.
Actual warning on a box of sleeping pills: “May cause drowsiness.”
CURSED!
Soon after the death of her husband, Sarah started visiting psychics for comfort. One of them told her that the Winchesters had been cursed by the spirits of all the people who had been killed by their guns. According to that psychic, these spirits demanded revenge and were after Sarah. What’s more, her dead husband wanted her to move out of New England to escape the family curse. But there was a catch—once she started building a new home, she must never stop…not even for one hour. If she did, the evil spirits would claim her just as they had her baby, her father-in-law, and her husband.
Terrified, Sarah sold her home in Connecticut and moved to California. She found property in San Jose, not far from San Francisco. In 1884, she began building a house—construction went on nonstop for 36 years.
IF SHE BUILDS IT…
Sarah started with a farmhouse that sat on more than 160 acres, and she hired a team of carpenters to work on it around the clock. Every night at midnight, she held a séance to summon “good” spirits who, she said, provided the next day’s building plans.
There were no master plans—the carpenters just kept expanding the house. Rooms were built around rooms and doors opened to walls.
By 1906, the house stood seven stories high. Then on April 18, a strong earthquake struck, and the top three floors collapsed, trapping Sarah in a bedroom. She was eventually freed, but believed that the incident was the spirits’ way of telling her they were unhappy with her home improvements. To appease them, she boarded up 30 rooms in the front of the house.
Tears are made of almost all the same ingredients as urine.
But because the original psychic had said construction couldn’t stop, Sarah kept building. This time, though, she had a plan…sort of. She installed secret rooms, trapdoors, upside-down stair posts, and chimneys that didn’t work—all in an attempt to confuse the evil spirits that were after her.
HOW MYSTERIOUS
The hammering, sawing, and construction commotion came to a sudden stop on September 5, 1922, when 83-year-old Sarah Winchester died in her sleep. When told of her death, the workmen quit what they were doing immediately. Some even left half-pounded nails in the walls.
Today, the home, called the Winchester Mystery House, is open for tours. There are 160 rooms, 950 doors, 367 steps, 47 fireplaces, 17 chimneys, 3 elevators,
—J. K. Rowling
“Dealing with backstabbers, there was one thing I learned. They’re only powerful when you’ve got your back turned.”
—Eminem
“I’m only young once. Who cares if I’m a goofball?
—Ashton Kutcher
“My grandmother once told me, ‘Don’t let failure go to your heart and don’t let success go to your head.’”
—Will Smith
THE HOUSE THAT SARAH BUILT
Sarah Winchester was incredibly wealthy…and incredibly wacky. She spent more than 30 years building a house that (she hoped) would keep her safe from evil spirits.
L OADED!
Sarah Pardee married William Winchester in 1862. She was the daughter of a wealthy Connecticut family, and he was the son of Oliver Winchester, owner of the Winchester rifle company. In 1860, the company had developed the first rifle that could fire a series of bullets without reloading. (Before that, you had to clean and reload the gun after each bullet was fired.) Sales of that rifle—and many more that followed—earned the Winchester family millions of dollars.
MILLION-HEIRESS
Life was hard for Sarah. Her infant daughter died in 1866, and she never had another child. Then, in 1880, her father-in-law died, and her husband caught tuberculosis. He passed away the following year.
All of that was terrible, but it made Sarah extremely rich. She inherited $20 million and about half of the Winchester company, which brought her an additional $1,000 every day.
Actual warning on a box of sleeping pills: “May cause drowsiness.”
CURSED!
Soon after the death of her husband, Sarah started visiting psychics for comfort. One of them told her that the Winchesters had been cursed by the spirits of all the people who had been killed by their guns. According to that psychic, these spirits demanded revenge and were after Sarah. What’s more, her dead husband wanted her to move out of New England to escape the family curse. But there was a catch—once she started building a new home, she must never stop…not even for one hour. If she did, the evil spirits would claim her just as they had her baby, her father-in-law, and her husband.
Terrified, Sarah sold her home in Connecticut and moved to California. She found property in San Jose, not far from San Francisco. In 1884, she began building a house—construction went on nonstop for 36 years.
IF SHE BUILDS IT…
Sarah started with a farmhouse that sat on more than 160 acres, and she hired a team of carpenters to work on it around the clock. Every night at midnight, she held a séance to summon “good” spirits who, she said, provided the next day’s building plans.
There were no master plans—the carpenters just kept expanding the house. Rooms were built around rooms and doors opened to walls.
By 1906, the house stood seven stories high. Then on April 18, a strong earthquake struck, and the top three floors collapsed, trapping Sarah in a bedroom. She was eventually freed, but believed that the incident was the spirits’ way of telling her they were unhappy with her home improvements. To appease them, she boarded up 30 rooms in the front of the house.
Tears are made of almost all the same ingredients as urine.
But because the original psychic had said construction couldn’t stop, Sarah kept building. This time, though, she had a plan…sort of. She installed secret rooms, trapdoors, upside-down stair posts, and chimneys that didn’t work—all in an attempt to confuse the evil spirits that were after her.
HOW MYSTERIOUS
The hammering, sawing, and construction commotion came to a sudden stop on September 5, 1922, when 83-year-old Sarah Winchester died in her sleep. When told of her death, the workmen quit what they were doing immediately. Some even left half-pounded nails in the walls.
Today, the home, called the Winchester Mystery House, is open for tours. There are 160 rooms, 950 doors, 367 steps, 47 fireplaces, 17 chimneys, 3 elevators,
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