A GHOST AND ITS MESSAGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 909, 29 April 1871, Page 3

A GHOST AND ITS MESSAGE.

A BIRMINGHAM STORY. At a recent " Spiritualist " meeting in London, Mr Varley, C.E., the well-known telegraph engineer, told the following extraordinary story, which we take from a report of the meeting in the Spirituat News: — " I will mention one case which was a very remarkable one, and which has served as a sort of mile post whenever doubt has arisen in my mind upon this question. As there were three people concerned, aud none expecting a communication, it is difficult to conceive a better test. In 1864, while occupied with the first Atlantic cable — I ought to tell you I was working very hard, and did all I could to get the most rest out of the few hours left me — one night I was aroused by Mrs Varley, who said, ' There are such strange noises in this room that I am very nervous. lam really sorry to disturb you.' I asked, ' What was the matter, and what she desired.' She said, ' I wish you would give me a little light.' I lighted the gas, and put the flame up about half an inch, as desired, and then went to sleep. I had not long been asleep before she aroused me again and said, 'These noises terrify me; sol really must ask you to let me have a little more light.' I put the gas full on, and said, * Will that do ? are you nervous now ?' Mie said she was no longer nervous, and I went to sleep again, but was aroused for the third time by rappings at the window and the door, which I heard even while asleep. I sat up in bed and said, ' Let us see what all this means," when for the first time in my life (since I have been of age at least) I had the intense satisfaction of seeing distinctly before me a spirit. I saw him for thirty seconds, and could see the pattern of the paper on the wall through hira. He gradually vanished, and when I turned to Mrs Varley and said, ' Did you see that ?' I saw that her eyes were dilated, and knew from that sight that she was being entranced. She quickly became clairvoyant, when the spirit spoke to me through her, and she told me this: — ' lhave just appeared to my brother in Birmingham, and have been able to make him understand that I have appeared to you; I could not make him understand any more. I wish to send a message to him. Will you send it ?' I assented, and he gave me the message,

which I sent to the brother the next day by post. The spirit not only did that, but he told me that he met with his death when at school in France, and that his death was occasioned by being stabbed by a Frenchman; that his mother and brother went to Paris, and as the father was very i;l at the time, they took counsel together, and fearing the shock would disturb the father to a dangerous degree, did not let him know that the death was not a natural oue. The spirit added, they concealed the blood by placing oiled silk and blotting paper over the wound. The only people who knew it were his mother and eldest brother. The eldest brother came up on a visit the Saturday following, and began talking the matter over with me. When I gave him the above statement of his departed brother, he turned deadly pale, and said it was a thing which nobody knew of except himself and his mother. This is a case which I think that ifc is impossible to explain away by clairvoyance. I never saw that man in his earthly body ; I have frequently communicated with him since. I never saw him before his ' death,' and his career was wholly unknown to me. Mrs Varley had known him slightly when a young child. This is a very clear case ; there were three of us engaged in it, one at a distance of 120 miles, and none of us expecting any communication — things wholly unknown to Mrs Varley and me were correctly revealed, and the identity of the communicator clearly identified by vision in the Qrst place, and the exposition and nature of his death in France, and other details. I cannot conceive how you can explain this, excepting that you admit that this individual did retain his identity after death, and did appear to both of us— to myself at Beckenham, and to the brother at Birmingham, and communicated these facts to me, which were unknown to anyone except the brother in Birmingham."