"THE SIXTH SENSE."

Evening Star, Issue 11153, 31 January 1900, Page 6

"THE SIXTH SENSE."

Mr Fitzgerald Molloy recounts in the 'Humanitarian' some remarkable instances of the development of this " sixth sense " in Miss Maude Lancaster.

A few, months ago, he tells us, she was summoned by telegram to a country house from which valuable jewellery hud just been stolen. On arriving she was told by the owner, Mrs Blank, that though she had fifteen servants, she felt assured of their honesty, tor all of them had lived with her for years. Miss Lancaster saw them, and instantly felt assured that one of the maids was the thief, but Mi's Blank imagined this was a mistaken impression, as the girl in question had been seven years in her employment, and her honesty had never been doubted. The next thing was to see the cabinet from which the jewels had been taken. Here the wave current was found and followed through various passages and rooms, downstairs, and into the basement, until a wine cellar was reached, the door of which was locked. Mrs Blank thonghfc the jewels could not possibly be there, us her hnsbiind always kept the key. • However, the door was opened, and Miss Lancaster, still following the trail in this great underground space, came to a dead halt before a blank wall. Still undaunted, she felt it up and down, until a brick moved under the pressure of her hand. This was quickly displaced, when in a hollow at the back the jewels were found wrapped in a cloth. The servant Miss Lancaster had singled out was taxed with stealing them, but denied it indignantly, until she was told that if she did not confess the matter would be handed over to the detectives, with the result that she would probably be convicted. Frightened at the threat, she then made a clear breast of it, and explained the means by which she had stolen the jewels, and, with the aid of a man-servant, who promised to marry toer, got into the cellar. Her mistress refused to prosecute her. Miss Lancaster thinks that one of her most noted discoveries of lost property is that which was connected with a dream. One night she dreamt that she was sent for, and travelled down to the country to find some valuable plate had been stolen from a manor house. She went all over the place in her dream, and eventually succeeded in her search. It was not until some fifteen months later, when her dream was seemingly forgotten, that she was summoned professionally to a certain village, where she had not been before. She was met at the station by the squire of the manor, whose silver had been stolen, whose face seemed familiar to her; so did the road along which they drove, and the village through which they until at sighfe of the house it all came back to her that she had seen the place in her dream. Much to the astonishment of the squire, she told him that if he would take her to the farm yard she would show him where his property Mas hidden, for in her dream she had seen it thrust under a sloping' haystack. On examination the silver was found on the spot she pointed out. In several instances she has seen men who seemed to be surrounded by a blood-red haze, and has felt convinced that such men were murderers. Her convictions have on more than on occasion been verified. Once in ■a place of public resort in New York a detective pointed out to her a man he suspected of murder. As Mi ss Lancaster failed to see the blood-red haze surrounding him she thought he must be innocent. Whilst they wero speaking of the subject the suspected man was joined by a friend in whose atmosphere she saw the lurid color p re . viously it was not thought that he had any connection with the crime, but from that moment he was watched, evidences of his guilt were discovered, and he was condemned for murder.

On another occasion, when walking down Broadway with a detective, she saw the same, red haze surrounding a man comins towards them. Seeing her shudder, her u.ii;p:i,iion asked if she were cold, o n which she tc!d him what she had noticed. Then she heard that the man, who was a stranger to her bad been fried for murder, hut tad been acquitted for want of evidence.