WAS IT AN APPARITION?

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8443, 17 August 1889, Page 5

WAS IT AN APPARITION?

There are occurenoos from time to time that puzzle men sorely, and so uncommon are they that the report of them is listened to with suspicion, and the relator is in drend of having his veracity impeached. Ofjustsuch an occurrence I was made cognisant, and Bow, when I assign to myself the task of telling it, J am seized with' thei fear that £'may in ; some way add color to, it, misstate it, or err by lending to it the form of the impression it made on my

mind. Dr. 'FarqrHta arson* told me of the occurrence. Now I observe in recalling bis words, that he wag most careful to state the facts as they were made manifest to him, while I also detect the various conditions of my own niind as it o'langed, during its relation, from incredulity to amazement. I will endeavor to state witb exactness what he told me, free from all speculative though 's arising in my own mind. Dr. Farequeharson is a distinguished surgeon in this city, a man of liberal attainment, a scientist, and a gentleman with strong roligious convictions. It jutt happened one day last week that I was passing the evening in the doctor's etu.iy. Tbe conversation wandered from I scarce remember what starting point to Drummond's book, " Natural Laws in the Spiritual World ; " from the spiritual nature of man fo materialised spirits was but a stop ; and only another to Buddha, tbe doctrines of Pythagoras, and tbe visions ot Sweden bortf. in this way, as I recall j it, came about a discussion as to the spirit of m m, its existence, immortality, and coincidentally, the Idea of reincarnation. "I have," said he, "the evidenca of my Benses that wa aro spirits clothed in flesh. I have the evidence, as I all men hnve, that this clothing of flesh is matter chemically composed capable of existing for a brief period ; but of what the spirit is, what its term of duration is, I have no knowledge — beliefs I may have, but no knowledge. I cannot toll — uo, neither oan any of my profession— when it enters the body of the unborn babo or leaves that of the dying man. AH is mystery. From whence we come aud whither we go are mysteriori ; we are as tho winds are, ' ghosts of the inane.' That we have existed iv past civilizations and- will be reincarnated in future years I believe to bo wholly probablo. No— l guess your question— this does not conflict with the Christian faith. Wo know tbo laws of the flesh aud speculalo upon tho saws of the spirit. Is it not possible that the spirit makes its journeys by easy stages as the traveller does or as the body does from creeping babyhood to tottering old ago ? " \ " Exouse me," said I, interrupting 1 him, " did I not understand you to sjicnk of the ' evidence ' of your 'senses ? ' " I know what you mean when you say thnt you have the 'evidence' of your ' -eases ' thnt flesh is matter, but not when you say that you have the ' evidence' of jour ' senses ' that we are spirits." Pr, Farquoharson's eye met mine ; he looked at uio slowly, fixedly, and intently. He seemed to read me, and I felt usbamed. What I* was thinking was something to the effect that he had in this statement expressed himself inaccurately. Looking upon me, he smiled. Smnerchat nettled, I continued : "To have the 'evidence' of your ' senaes ' as to spirits you must have ablo to see, hear, touch, taste, or smell them ; for mj part, if a spirit is apparent to one sense I oan believe it is apparent to the five." "Ah, ttat is your opinion, is It?" Dr. Farqu.harson drily remarked. " Yes '" " Well, it is not mine. I have no evidence to that effeot. I know a spirit bas been £< en and hoard. I have heard of but one Spirit who was touched by man. Sj>nits, if thoy have senses at nil, m^y possess the five, and employ them in their own condition. Touch, taste, and smell, are very material senses, but sight and hearing are nobler and graudt-r." "But, Doctor, you say you 'know' and you ' h<-ard.' In court, you know, the judge says to the witness who merely heard of this and that : ' Sir, that is n.<t evidence.' I presume you say you know because you saw. Have you, Dr. Parqueharson, ever seen a spirit 1" My friend looted at mo for fully a minute, and replied earnestly. "As I live and breathe, I saw a spirit; not once but many times." " Indeed f" said I, inoredulously, although I could not but help having great faith in him. " Indeed, ' he echoed. " Pray tell me," said I, " when was it P" My eagernesß caused him to smile. "It seems incredible, does it not? Well, so it did to me ; but now It is nothing— nothing at all." " But tell me." " I am not in the habit of telling thia ; in fact, I seldom have spoken of it, because it is likely to be misunderstood, and tho friend I tell it to is apt to say, ' Farqneharson ia a good fellow, but he draws the long bow.' " " I won't, I promise you." w » * * " Well, then I will tell you," said Dr. Farqueharson, seating himself in his easy chair. "Somo years ago-JI was quite a young man thon — I was practising medicine arid surgery. With Drs. S and T , I had been called li. consultaliou upon a young woman who died after a very painful struggle It was my belief a very delicate operation with tho knife might havn Bavod her. I say might have. My colleagues thought differently ; the operation was not performed. The young la>«y died. Tbe oase interested me ; I consulted the authorities, and finding no evidence that the operation I would have performed bud a precedent, I beoame more determined thin ever to study tho possibilities of making it successfully. Io order to do this I went to tho dissecting-room of tbe colloge bb often ai b female subject oould be secured for me. Of course, you know the students share the bodies ; some take onn portion whilo others take auother. Mine was nhat y<u would call the trunk. Qno movniiii? I was told that a young; girl, well. formed, and not wasted by a long aickuoss, would soon be laid on my table. By that I knew sho was not dead. JKvory day I dr-ve down to the college, bat my subject was not ready. Sho Hugered on day after day. I began to consider the dying girl a nuisance." "From waiting with impatience to hear of her death I began to take an interest in her condition. Still, I did I not go into the ward where Bhe lay, | although the house-surgeon invited me. I often suspected the young doctors in attendance laughed when I asked how she wbb getting on, as they knew her corpse was coming to me. This sounds ghoulish ; it was mere professional , impatience. She had been taken out of I a car io the (Jrand Central Dep&t, insensible. Just after leaving the Mott I Haven station she settled down in her I dlriir to read, so a passonger bad said, and was apparently in the best of health when the train entered the tunnel, "As the passengers left the car they noticed sho had fallen infa a ; be'avy sleep. The train hands failing to arouse her, an ambulance was called, and she was taken to Bellevue Hospital. She appeared to bo suffering from syncope. No papers or clues on her person suggested her name. The newspapers reported tho story of tbe mysterious woman, but no friend oame forward. Practically, she died to the world in the tiain, for she never after spoke a word. A clot of blood on the brain had dogged the delicate maohine of life and she died. " They laid her body on the table in the dissecting-room. The attendant had spread a sheet over it, because, said he, ' She looked life-like.' I waa there unusually early that morning, before the students gathered to cut and haok, and view the sacred -temple"6f the spirit Without thp slightest feeling of reference. Thiols 1.0,1; natural; it Is an affectation of young would-be surgeons. It had been fully three weeks since I ht_d had

a subject suitable for my study of tbe operation, and all my time, when not given uo to attending patients, wns employed in thinking about the operalioi', which I contended, against many eminent Miigeons. could ba safely performed; therefore you oan understand the pleasure I felt aa I stood beforo the covered corpse. Even before I drew the sheet off I realised from tbo outline of the body that I had an exoellent subjct to dissect in order to glean the additional knowledge I required in anatomy, for bodies,' you differ. "Mv sleeves were rolled up, and a rubber apron covered me from my ohm to my feet. My scalpels and instruments lay on the table. I lifted the sheet, and was just draping it back, when a sigh, a distinot, unmistakable, audible sigh fell on my ear. For tho first lime sinoc I had become a man was I affeoted by being alone with the dead. A feeling, a strange feeling orept over me, and I gave a sharp, nervous twitoh, as though I had reoeived a slight shock ; my hand stopped, and I looked about me. Then a quick thought aroused me, and I shook off the feeling, at the samo time giving the sheet a strong pull. The body of as perfect a fashioned woman as I have ever seen in either flesh or marble lay before me, with every line exposed. Mechanically almost, I raised the eyelid; perhaps that sigh caused the aotion. No; I must have been mistaken— mietaken in what? Surely I did not expect lo catch an indication of life in these dull, lustreless, fish-like eyes ; the ii^ht of life had gone out in thoso lamps. The jaws wera rigid and fast in death, and the ohill was fi^od in all the members. Still she was so beautiful that I felt the knife cuttiog into the flesh was a desecration : true the flesh had lost its tint and was now sodden and waxen, but the lines were ideal lines of beauty. My hand was brushing back lhe wavy gold ringlets 6n hor forehead, the long hair having been cut off from the bead by some despoiler — a nurse, perhaps— when I started back, for I distinctly heard a sigh. " I was alone, no students were concealed in the room, no living thing was in it besides myself, and through tlu> window-panes of translucont glnss stole tho clear light of the morning sun. I bent ovor tho corpse ; no, that sigh never came from the body; why, its veins had beon drained of blood I I raised my head and I heard a sigh at my side. Was I dreaming? No; I was awake, wide awake ; there iv the sun alio stood ; but ths oyes wero not closed, they wero filled with light— with a biue celestial light — with an expression tho like of which I had nover Been in human eyes. Did my sense of sight deceive mo? She stood, I say, before mo ; the mouth of the face that I had noted so set and rigid was melting into a sunny smile ; oh, how sunny tbe golden hair which I had observed had been despoiled fell in luxuriant wealth over her warm, glowing shoulders ; and her bosom, sunk iv the repose of death's fast sleep, now rose and fell as though Bhe breathed. My eyes I know glowed, my heart seemed to choke my throat ; I felt an illusion had come upon me. 'Am I going mad ? ' I asked myself. "With faco turned to her, with my eyes fixed on ber eyes, with brain wrought and nerve at tension I watched her. Sho Bmiled on me and sighed, her lips moved and yet no sound came to me and yet I felt sh? spoke. Sho stood within an arm's length of me and I beside the table. My attention, was so fixed that I dared not turn to look upon the table, and yet I wondered if tho dead had not risen. Did I see her who was dead back to life, or was the Impression of the dead one on my mind and not before me 1 Slowly my right hand went out towards the table, and I felt as though it would touch nothing. This was brief as a fitful gleam of lightning, for my hand rested on the cold marble lines of her breast and I knew she who was dead lay still waiting decomposition. Mechanically, without thought, with my left hand I sought furthor ovideuce of sense by making touoh corroborate sight, She moved not from her place, and I became sensible that while certain marks I had noticed on the corpse were distinguishable on her, she was not nude as tho corpse was, or, perhaps, I had not the sensation that she was cither clothed or naked. I had a feeling that did not see ber with my own eyes, but with my spirit's eyes ; and as I felt conscious that I would lay my left hand on her bosom as I did my right on the corpse, she faded, or rather her breaßta beoame vaporous and indistinct. Could it have been that as I passed from spirit perception to material touch my own sight faded P " When the consciousness came to me that I touchod tho corpse and saw before'me tho shadow of it, more lifelike than the body itself, I felt that I saw an occurence noted in the records of men and seldom believed. Strangely, though my mind was wrought up to its highest pitch of cdiiceutration, I had not the uncanny feeling I experienced before I saw hf.r. I looked upon her as she stood smiling upon me. I even believe I smiled too. Her lips moved, and I felt conscious they wero making sounds that I heard not. I grew intent upon listening. Finally 1 heard incoherent sounds and then, as distant music, wafted first by favouring breezes, comes to us Bnd grows more distinct as we approach it until the melody bursts upon us when we como into its environ, mont, the words camo clearly. And these aro those I first heard ; • Peace unto you ; be not troub.led by what you see or hear ; you are singularly favoured of mon. It has been granted mo that 1 app?ar to you ' " " You can well imagine my surprise at this. * Why do you appear to mo P' said I. " ' It is not necessary for you to know for what cause I am permitted to return. It is, know you, that an end may be accomplished through you. I am too young in my condition to impart much to you in yours. Thero is ono to whom I am permitted to give a message, but his spiritual condition makes it impossible for me to give it directly to him : but you are, through provioua Incarnation, and progressions, of a higher order, and it has been allowed that I meet your spirit. I tried to reach your spirit so hard during this morning,' she aaid plaintively, ' but your material nature predominated, and I could not get at your spirit until your material senses wore attracted by the beauty of that clay tenement. Sweet and white : thoughts arising from the contemplation : of physical beauty are nourishment for the Bplrit. These thoughts arose in you and aroused your spirit and il came out to meet me. I tell you this that until I say farewell you may keep your oonditions favorable for my visits 1" •"Very well, I answered; 'what am I to do ?' " " ' You ore to keep that day untouched by knife for a season, to use every power to preserve it for awhile, and you are to send to Robert Thorndale, North Conway, N.H., a message which will fetch him speedily to town. Say in • it : — " Madge urges you to come." When he has arrived, bring him to this room and let him see that olay, and alone. Then bury it.' "" " ' And give up the tjnatoßjy V- " 'Attet ne has seen the clay you may carve it as you, will.' "Then the vision vanished. I sent a telegram to North Conway, took measures to preserve the body, and waited the coming of Robert Thorndale." *•* . # " And he never oame, dootor ?'' said I.

"On the oontrary, he did. I was seated in my study when Albert brought me in a card on which was written in a strong, bold hand, ' Robert Thorndale, of North Conway.' He camo in. I told him that a girl named Madge, last name unknown, had been taken to Bellevne Hospital from a train, insensible ; that she had remained unconscious ever since. " ' Well, how is she gotting along?' he asked, sighing heavily. "I was about to toil him that Madge was dead, whon sudddnly she appeared alongside of him, with her finger pressed on her lips. I nolioedlie gave a nervous j start. 'As well as can be expected,' [ I said. She smiled at this, and it seemed to me she passed her hand over hia forohoad, " ' Tell him that Madge had a terrible weight on her mind,' she said to me. "I did so. He startod and suddenly became very refleotive and sat still wrapped in a brown study. Finally he got up and said he would go to" the hospital. " ' Well, oome with me,' sß.d I. "' I am not ready just yet,' he replied. 'I want to go to a jeweller's first.' " Then come back here for me aud we will go together,' I said. " The stout young countryman went out. 'Do not tell him,' said the spirit, 'that Madge is dead. Bring him faoe to face with her. Say to bim, " Here is a broken bowl, but its secret is not spilled ; for faith preserved him in her." ' And we, the young man of the mountains and I, went to the disseotlng-room together. "I Bhall never forget," continued Dr Farqueharson, "to my dying day that awful hour. I have seen fathers, sons, husbands, mothers, daughters, wives die, and witnessed the sorrows of those who loved thor n; but I have never seen anything equal to the agony of that man. We entered the dissecting-room. As I turned the knob of the door I know he wondered how s trance the place was for a hospital ward. I felt guilty. Here I was taking a man to a corpse without telling him of it. What was he to tho dead? Ihesitated. It was only for a minute, as I saw her standing there pointing to tho table with outstretched hand. She had assumed an imperious air. 'I feel strange,' said Thorndale ; ' I have been troubled with dreams of late.' I looked at him : he was as white as a sheet. The spectre moved along, glancing over her glowing shoulder, while tho sunbeams actually danced en her luxuriant hair. She moved on, beckoning. We stood beside it. There was a noxious smell through* out the ohamber. Thorndale, pale as death, looked strange. He appeared as a pan walking in heavy Bleep. The spirit took my hand and placed it on the edge of the sheet, moving it swiftly back from the head. The sheet followed the hand,for I did not touch it. At that moment the face of the spirit covered, the face of the corpse like a mask, and It seemed to me that life had entered the vacant tenement. With a startled cry Robert Thorndale loaned over and looked into the face. I thought the eyelids moved— perhaps it was the spirit's eyes. "What is thiß?" he moaned. "Here is a broken bowl, but its secret is not spilled ; for faith preserved him in her," I answered, as instructed. There was a smilo on the face of the corpse, but as quick as light passes the spirit movei from off the body, and the dulness of death fastened itself upon it. ,He mosned. The spirit stood upon him, with its hand on his head, and with the other pointed to the door. I left the room. In half an hour I returned ; he was seated beside the body — it was now the fourth day after death — holding tbe left hand, on which a narrow hoop of gold caught the light. " Taking my hand, he said : " Thank you, doctor, for having brought me to her, if it was only in time to see her die and receive forgiveness for tho wrong I did her.' I was amazed, but it oame before me, holding the cautioning finger tight upon compressed lips." * W "ff * * "That, doctor, is certainly ourious. Did you make the dissection ? " "No. Thorndale claimed the body and took it away." " Do you suppose he saw the spirit 1 He must have confused it with the body?" " I really can't answer ; I don't know, I don't know."— New York World.