TWO STRANGE STORIES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3806, 9 May 1891, Page 2

TWO STRANGE STORIES.

Disasters Prophecied, Two very strange stories have been just transmitted from America, aud with an amount of detail that does not usually attend these narratives (says the London "Daily Telegraph.") We have already recorded the terrible ruining disaster at Spring-hill, Pennsylvania—a colliery explosion in which more than a hundred men

kst their lives. The superintendent has now sent in his report, and he gives an account of something that prceeded the accident. There lives in the neighbourhood an old woman known as "Mother Coo, the Picton

: Prophetess" and she, it appears, foretold the disaster three weeks ' before. As she and her alleged ', powers are well known in the neighi borhood, her gloomy forebodings i threatened to interfere with the working of the pit. The men held back, and the excitement m the locality was considerable. To set the matter right the committee of the mine resolved tc instigate a special and thorough inspection. The workings were examined very carefully, and everything was found in perfect order. Thus reassured, the mass of the miners descended the pit, but a few still hesitated, overawed by the ominous mutterings of the old woman. They were saved by their superstition, credulity, or faith—we may call it what we like—while the believers in the official report were

doomed to a dreadful death. The fame of the old lady has, of course, increased in the country, and may soon extend throughout the slate. Another curious and kindred story is reported from New York. Mrs Kenon Bruce started a fortnight ago from England for America, to join her husband in Nebraska. On board ship, shortly after it left Queensland, she fell jll, and became delirious. She declared that she saw her husband lying dead in the middle of a field, and her agony was excessive. On arriving at New York she received a telegram stating that Mr Bruce, thrown from a horse, had broken his neck, and this occurred at the very hour when she, thousauds of miles away on board ship, said she saw him lying dead in a field—as, in fact, he was at the time. To double the fatality, Mr Bruce's friend and companion, who was engaged to be married to his ( daughter, died a few days afterwards ( of heart disease. Thus the wife lost hsr husband, and the daughter her { affianced lover within a few days.