Life of Johnson.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20479, 4 December 1934, Page 6

Life of Johnson.

OS WELL. “ Was there not a story of his ghost having appeared?" Johnson. “ Sir, it was believed. A waiter at the Hummums, in which house Ford died, had been absent for some time, and returned, not knowing that Ford was dead. Going down to the cellar, according to the story, he met him: going down again he met him a second time. When he came up, he asked some of the people of the house what Ford could be doing there. They told him Ford was dead. The waiter took a fever, in which he lay for some time. When he recovered, he said he had a message to deliver to some women from Ford; but he was not to tell what, or to whom. I£e walked out; he was followed; but somewhere about St Paul’s they lost him. He came back, and said he had delivered the message, and the women exclaimed, ‘ Then we are all undone!’ Dr Pellet, who was not a credulous man, inquired into the truth of this,story, and he said, the evidence was irresistible. My wife went to the Hummums; (it is a place where people get themselves cupped.) I believe she went with intention to hear about this story of Ford. At first they were unwilling to tell her; but. after they had talked to her, she came away satisfied that it was true. To be sure the man had a fever; and this vision may have been the beginning of it. But if the message to the women, and their behaviour upon it, were true as related, there was something supernatural. That rests upon his word: and there it remains."