An Extraordinary Story.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 934, 24 January 1890, Page 4

An Extraordinary Story.

A well-known photographer will vouch for the-following facta. He was called in oho day to take a photograph of a young girl of about twenty, who had died a few days before. The corpse was laid upon a bed, with the hands claaped over ;the brea3t. Death had come very gently to her, and, except for the stillness, she lay there as if in sleep. Some flowers had been strewn over the body, and on the floor by the side of the bed, and standing out in black relief against it was the coffin. The photographer silently adjusted'his lens and took the'photographs Ddring the ten minutes ' needed for the exposure the photographer 1 paced up and down inHm long corridor outaide the room' whfere the dead girl lay. When he returned, he saw that on the lid of'the coffin was a flower, which'was’not'so’before. How did that ’flower’ ; comfe there T No ohe had entered the room,' the wep closed, and thqrq'was not a breath of air r stirring. Why was the flower now lying on the 1 coffin, y/hen a few minutes before it waa on the bed between' the hands of the corpse ? The photographer listened, but he could hear no 1 sound except tlie beating o| his c.vvjn heart, jj In a few momenta, liqvge'veif, be dctqrigfiqad I to dismiss tjie cjuesfy.Qß fyouii ins m l ** * * - »UU j

busied himself with packing up bis instrument. Then he paused—possibly the falling flo« er had left a trace on the negative; or, as tho day was gloomy, tho photograph might not ho quite .successful. He would try again; A second photograph was taken, and the artist returned houie. That night; sitting tip late in his studio; lie developed the two negative's. Too position of tho corpse wits not the same in the two negatives. The photogtap or strain-id his oyes, half disbelieving the evidence of his own senses, hut there were the to o negativi 3 before him telling him in their sileiiu, unmistakable truthfulness, that between the taking of th'« two photographs the arms of the dead girl had distinctly moved. The mystery of the flower on the coffin was solved, but it was succeeded by a mystery more terri le still —t ablet.