OUT OF THE COMMON.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 932, 10 January 1890, Page 7

OUT OF THE COMMON.

STARTLING. That Mr Sims Reeves should be a Spiritualist will surprise no one who is acquainted with the fact that numbers of distinguished vocalists, actors, and artists are firm believers in spiritualism ; that the impressionable artistic temperament is favourable to spiritual or magnetic influx ; and that not a few gifted persons of this kind are conscious of, and grateful for, the help and strength they receive from friends and controls in the unseen world. Mr Sims Reeves has recently published his ‘Life and Recollections, written by Himself,’ the ninth edition of which now lies before us. The third chapter is headed ‘ An Aefcral Double, ’ and relates how he became acquainted jyi£ji a young man named lington Manning, a §l,erk j n a merchant’s office, and ,the possessor pf ac £ne a voice that he recommended him to cultivate it fpr the stage, and predicted for him a brilliant future. But Manning had a strong presentiment that he should die youug, and mentioned that bis father, grandfather, and indeed all the elder sons in the family had died at the same hour, on the same day of thq month, nearly at 7 p.m. ou the Ist of March. Mr Reeves procured for him ah engagement at' Drury *]Dane, where he was to appear as Belcore in' L’Elislre d’Amore. The two men parted at the stage door of tfie theatre, after the final reheagsal of ths opera, and thus the narrative proceeds : ‘Two hours later I drove across Westminster bridge on my way to Drury Lane. My carriage was bowling at a good pace down Parliament-street, when the friend who was with me, touching my arm, said ‘ There goes Wellington Manning !’ I looked in the same direction indicated, and there bef re us, closely wrapped up and walking quickly, I Baw that young friend. As I was lowering the wiudow to ask Manning if he would

accept a lift to the theatre, the Abbey clock struck seven. I just looked at my watch to time it, and opened the carriage door. But nowhere could we see Manning. This was the more strange, as at that particular place, there was no entrance or narrow way into which he disappeared. Turning to the coachman, I said, ‘Did you see Mr Manning?’ ‘Yes, sir,v but be went all of a second, directly I saw him, and I don’t know where he got to.’ The pitiless wind caused me to close the door abruptly, forgetting all but the intense cold, which would not be forgotten. ‘Some little thing or another is always wanted on a firht night, and having made two or three calls to repair these omissions, we arrived at the* stage entrance of old Drury. ‘ Send for the understudy, Lacraft, at once,’ the manager was saying as I entered and passed through the narrow hall. He met me and said, • * Poor Manning has just died suddenly.’ ‘What! I cried, horroretricken, • Manning dead? ‘Yes, he died at home half an hour ago.’ ‘Exactly at seven o’clock, sir f ’stiid the messenger who had brought the sad news. ‘I heard the clonk in St John’s W’ood Barracks strike, just as he expired.’ :; !; ‘ And I suddenly' recollected that this was the first day of March !’ If Mr Sims Reeves Had boon the only one to see the apparition, it might have been set down as au ocular illusion, or as a mental hallucination. /by those who deny the possibility of such appearances ; but such a theory is completely knocked on the head by the fact that the wraith was observed not only by ths two occupants of'the carriage, but by the coachman oh the box ; all three of them credible witnesses, it may be fairly presumed, r