ROCK AND PILLAR APPARITIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2429, 3 October 1900, Page 63

ROCK AND PILLAR APPARITIONS.

By Dbxtmawiiaxdie,

Old Joseph isn't very big, but he holds sufficient entertaining anecdotal matter pertaining to life on the diggings to fill more than one bulky volume.

Reared amongst the open-eyed inhabitants of Seven Dials, he is, as might be expected, quick-witted, alert, and wideawake. A typical Cockney, he has retained his native characteristics throughout half a century's tips and downs on the goldfields of Australia and New Zealand, and being the posses&or of an excellent memory and a fluent and muscular tongue, his little hut is frequently the stage on ■which he re-enacts to sager ears the exciting events of the good old "early days." His stirring tales of ru&hes and golden holes and duffers and nuggets obliterate time ir? the hearing, and for the period of their narration' turn the teller's grizzly locks to their pristine raven hue. The tough and practical little gold-hun-ter is the last man I should have suspected ot-T3&hig a visionary. There is nothing of the moper about Joseph ; cheerful to the extent of defying the pangs of chronic sciatica to lengthen his Scotch terrier-like cotmtenance, he has a pleasant word for everyone, and his cheerful avowal the other evening of his firm belief in the reality of at least two feminine inhabitants of the spiritual world took me, for one, completely by surprise. A few of us had happened to meet in Joseph's "drawing room," as he calls the principal and only apartment in his hut, and somehow "or other the conversation ha.l turned ghost wards. In -a very short time Joseph had "got the flute," as he himself would say. "I was a-workin' on the night shift one time over in the Blue Sp"ur there," said he, "an' just as I come out o' the tunnel for something or other, I see something white a-shinin' on the 'iliside. It was just shortly after the Marquis died — 'c fell off hi.! 'orse an' got killed — an' a good many o' the chaps 'ad seen 'im after, a-knockin' about the gully at night, s-o w'en I &cc this thing adodgin' about I tell you it give me a bit of a start. But w'encver I see anything liks that, I always walk up to it, so I takes the candle an' goes right np — an' wot d'ye thing it was? W'y, me o' these 'ere long tussicks, a-wavin' in the wind ."

"Why," said Tom, as he put another "buffalo" under the billy, "that was almost as bad as Jack Callan. Old Jack used to 133 always seeing things ; and the fellows used to rub wet matchheads over their faces and groan at him in the dark, ynd old Jack would fly for his life, yelling out. And some of them used to wrap themselves in white sheets," Tom went on, "and ■waylay Jack on the road at night, and chase him for miles."

"Those fellows wanted kicking," observed Jim ; ''but I shouldn't have thought that Jack was a fellow of that sort."

"Oh, that was nothing for Jack, 1 ' said Tom. "Why, I've seen him "'

"I sea a woman one night," interrupted old Joseph, in a solemn voice.

As we all regarded him with expectant' interest, he repeated : "Yes, I see a woman, up on top o' the mountain, just as plain as I see you now." ~. "Why, when was that, Joseph?" inquired Yovky; "I never 'card o' that before."

"Oh," replied Joseph, as he shuddered slightly, "I never told nobody.''

The promise of a real ghost story having whetted the appetite of the company considerably, the old man yielded to the slight pressure to which he Aias subjected, and- amidst a silence so inten&e that the old cat could be heard wheezing painfully in a corner, Joseph proceeded to narrate his hitherto untold tale, punctuating his words with rather gingerly sips at a steaming hot pannikin of tea.

"It was only four or uve year* ago, about the time that Bristol Bill wis married. I 'ad made up my in .nil to go fossickin' a bit up on the mountain at the old Oxford diggin's, an' as- the tent an' blankets n' things was too 'eavy to carry rtp in one trip, I 'ad to take 'alf on 'em at -a time ;*• .an' by the. time i'o. trot "em . all as far as Gamble's race, it was •well on in the afternoon. " 'Ovrever, I managed to git 'em as far as were I meant to camp a bit before dark ; but before I got ther' it come on to rain very "eavy, an' as I was pooty wet anyway,' I thought I'd wait a bit to see if the rain 'ud go off before pitchin', so I just shoved the things under a rock, an began fossickin' about in the old workin's. I got a 'alf-pennyweight speck out of a crack in the first dish I tried — it's all crevice gold up there, you know — an' it sort o' strung me on washin' an' washin', until, before I knoo were I was, it was gittin' dark, an" me Avet through. The rain was still t-pourin' down, an' as I didn't 'aye a change o' clothes with me, I thought I'd better make a bee-line for We, ar-' come back w'en it cleared up.

"Well, off I set; but before I'd got very far a 'eavy. drizzly fog came on, an' after I'd scrambled acrost a gully or two that shouldn't a' bin" there at all — for the water was runnin' lo my left 'and instead a' my right, as ib should 'aye done — I could' see "that the bee-line business wasn't properly. "Well, I did have a night on it, I tell you. I didn't know were I was 1 ; but I kep' tnink'm' I'd come to some place that I knoo, an' >. kap' on an' on', tumbliu' over .tpow grasses an' into swampy places till I felt as if I'd like to lie down in the mud. But T knoo it 'ucl bt a cape ■with me if I lay down, so I kep' gom' a'ead, fallin' down an gittin' up again ; an' at last it began to git sort o' grey daylight, an' all at once I see a woman ah ngside o' me !

" ' 'Ullo,' I say?, 'wot are you a-doiu' 'ere?'

"Bui s-he never &poke. just kep' on walkin' alorjgisid2. Sfea I stopped she'd stop,

an" w'en I walked on she'd do the same. J pufc out my 'and tv. o or three times to try and touch 'er, but she was always just out o' my reach, an' every time I'd ask 'er 'oo she was or wot die wanted, she would look at me in a way that made me feel a bit queer." "What like was she. Joseph?" inquired Jim. ''Gould you see her face?"

"I couldn't tell very well wot she was like. She 'ad a shawl over 'er 'cad like Lhis 'ere,' replied Joseph, as> he mimicked the action o± a woman tucking a shawl under her chin.

"And how did you get on after that, Joseph? Did she stop long with you?"

"No, not very long. As soon as it Avas daylight the fog lifted, an' she di&appeared lib 1 a puff o' smoke ju&u as I was lookin' at 'er!"

Daring the discussion which followed the narration of Josephs uncanny experience, a remark was passed to the effect that the mountain wds a strange place for a woman to -be waltzing about at such a time, whereupon Joseph took up the running again. "Oh, I dunno about that," he said. '"W'y, there was Sam Coster, now. Sam was a-comin' down from 'Ambleton's one night, an' w'en 'c got to the gate— there tifeed to be a gate acrost the road at the foot o' the '11 in them days. — blowed if there wasn't a tall woman dressed in black a-standin' on the other Mdc ! 'Evenin', missus,' says Sam. Musi old 'ard a moment an' I'll open the gate for yer,' an' 'c untied the rope an 'eld the gate open. 'Pooty cold to-mght, ain't it, mum?' says Sam, as 'c stood well back to let 'er tin ough.

"But phe never moved, an' never spoke — just looked straight at. Sam. Now, i hough Sam could easily walk away with a bag o' flour tinder each arm, 'c is that tender'earted that 'c could 'ardly shoo away a rabbit if 'c caught 'im a-scofim' 'is kebbidges, an' w'en the woman kep' 'angin' back the same as if she wss frightened on 'im, 'c felt sort o' "urt, so 'c said: 'I know I'm not a beauty, mum ; but, Lor' bless yer ! I wouldn't do yev no' 'arm.' But she never stirred — -just kep' on starin' ""at 'im. VWell, mum,' said Sam, as ho made through the gate, 'I 'ope you'll accep' my apologies for 'avin' detained yer ■so long, an' I trust, mum, as yei' perlonged scrutiny of my featers on this occasion, mum, 'it lead yer to reco'nise me without difficulty w'en nex' we meet, mam.' Then, takin' off 'is 'at, 'c bowed an' said: 'Accep' my best wishes, mum. Good evenin'.' an' a. 1 * 'c looked to see if 'c knoo 'er as 'c passed, she vanished just like that," and Joseph blew out the match with which he had intended to light his pipe.

"Yes," he said, as he noticed out naturally incredulous looks, "she just melted away into the air, an' the strange part of it is that w'en Sam eot "ome 'c found 'h old black cat 'ad died doorin' the day : an' next mornin', w'en 'c went to work at 'is ch' ; m, 'c found that the gold 'ad run out — 'c couldn't raise a colour now' ere in the face of 'is drive, an' 'c 'ad bin on stunnin* gold for six months afore that. After that Pam 'ucl never go along the road w'en 'c was on a bit o' gold — 'c always stuck to the gullies in case o' mectin' the ~?TCian in black!''

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