A CHILD SEER.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12767, 13 April 1910, Page 4

A CHILD SEER.

THE MISSING WARATAH

"Theosophy in Australia" publishes the following extract from a - letter from Natal:— ... A lady resident in South Africa knows personally— for they lire next door to her now — the parents of a litthe boy of five years old, who seems to have a brain like a little Marconi receiver, for at times he hears, and also sees, things which are happening perhaps thousands of miles away. During these times of seeing things he talks like a grown-up person, using words which, so far as his parents know, ho never heard before. When the young Crown Prince of Portugal was here the child was in Johannesburg, and saw all the flags and decorations, and his father having him at the station showed him the Prince, pointing him out and telling the child that that was for whom the flags were up, etc., etc. On the day of th> assassination the child happened to' be sitting on the floor of his father's room turning over the leaves of a picture book. His father, who was shaving at the time, heard him talking away, but took no heed thinking it was merely about the pictures, till the little fellow said excitedly, "You're not listening, Daddy! You're not listening, and 1 tell you he's dead. They have climbed up at the back and shot him. Oh ! they the shooting, shooting, and now he is dead" "Who is dead?" the father asked, still without much interest. "Why, daddy, you know, the man they had all the flags up for : well, it is him; they've shot him, and now he is dead-that man dn Johannesburg you showed me and said all the flags were ut> for " The child was very, excited, and the mother, who passed the door, asked what he was talking about. MOh " said the father, "just at his talking again." But, sure enough, the next morning paper had all the assassination in. Then the father asked him what he had seen, and sure enough he was accurate m describing it all. For these things all remain vivid in his memory, and generally, Joor little fellow, he is ill for soma days afterwards. 1 Another time he "was very agitated over some railway accident, and the next day there was one in the paper which hid taken place in j M^-I thing it was ; anyway, all ]ust as -he had said at the time. . On the night oh which the Waratah is supposed to have been lor b, thw chUd, with his. parents; were spanding their holiday just down the const. out of Port Elizabeth. On this night (late but I forget the time) the child woke screaming. They got up and ran to him, but he was beß^hnnself Lid half frantic over some, big ■ ship wihch he said was going-down. Ufl. Mummie ! Mummie ! -Can't you jsee it? Can't you hear the whistles, and the bells all ringing, ringing ?" They tried in vain to soothe him, and carried him out on to the verandalrinto the air-which often they do at these times— but he was half frantic. They said: "Where was the ship?" and he pointed out along- the coast. Had he seen the ship before? What wa» it like?" "No," he said; ' it : was a new. ship, very big, and not like any he had seen." He said a big wave washed right over the bridge and carried away the officer; the captain was there, too, and ran to the otneor, but another wave came and he was washed off, too, "right into the set I and the child was half beside himself with horror and excitement, and kept saying suddenly^ clutching at and shaking his mother. "Can't you see it? Can't you hear it?" he kept gasping. "Oh l he's gone; and now ttie captain's gone, too right into the. sea, mother" ; and then he described the captain, which described Captain Ilbury to the "' life. ; Then ke said : "Now : all the people' are running, up and down- trying' to help do things; arid oh! the bells, Mummie ; they ring, ring, ring .'all the time, and there, is such a': noise; 'and now the ship is all ai "Is it on fire?" they asked. "No but just lit up with lights all on," he said. Then, giving a gasp of horror and cry, he said, "Oh! such a big wave, and now it has gone down, down, right. down, and it is all dark!" and he- gesticulated to show how it had gone, one minute all bright light, arid then' over and down, and darkness. They couldnot get him to sleep all that night for excitement, but in the morning he went into a deep Bleep and they kept the house quiet and he slept for hours. .. ' When the Waratah was reported missing, and his parents came through Durban, reporters wanted to interview the child; but, after a little thought, Ms mother would not let him be spoken to about the subject, for she wants him to forget it, and says it : always upsets him to see these things. She does not want them to remain in his mind. •

In all respects he is quite an ordinary child. We feel no doubt that what he saw was what actually did happen to the Waratah, for having been proved correct in the case of the Crown Prince of Portugal and the railway accident, there seems no reason to doubt this.

When a certain friend of ours went home to England Teceritly, there was on board her boat one of Marconi's men. and he 'always wore wee discs in His «ars. He would be conversing with perfect ease with you on deck, but suddendly would say, "Excuse me, I hear a message" — you would have heard nothing — and he would go down to his instrument and send back an answer. And it did not matter where he was on the ship-^-down in the hold, in the engine room, through the walls of the ship or in the middle of the night, the message would reach him ! If a human-machine can be so delicately and wonderfully constructed— well, the Creator of the -brain is; more wonderful than Marconi, is he not? We live in a marvellous age, and are ouly just waking up to the possibilities of everything.