A WRAITH.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1
SIR,—Obviously I refrain from giving correct names, but I have personally certified every detail, and vouch for the correctness of the following incident.
A friend of mine went away for his Easter holiday, taking with him his wife, nurse, and child, leaving in his house the cook and the housemaid. On Saturday, April 28th, at noon, the housemaid came running over to our house, asking if one of us would come over to the cook, who was in a fit. I myself went over at once, and found the cook in hysterics, caused by a telegram she had just received from her brother, who lived near Durham, telling her that their mother was dead. When the cook recovered from her hysterical condition, we sent her off to her own village in
Durham County. The cook had no idea that her mother was in the least unwell, and, as the sequel allowed, the mother had not been ill. After I had, in the absence of my neighbour, seen the cook off by train, I returned to his house, and then the housemaid, whose parents live in our village, told me that she had gone home about eight o'clock on the previous evening, and that when she returned about eleven o'clock the same (Friday) evening she found the wok in a violent state of excitement, declaring that she had seen her mother, that some one was trying to smother her mother with sheets of brown paper, and that she was sure something.dreadful had happened to her. The cook then had a fit of hysterics. However, the housemaid got her quietened down, but it appears that all through that night the cook was very upset, and kept the house- maid, who slept in the same room, in a state of some alarm.
The sequel came out at the coroner's inquest. The deceased, who, was wwidow, was left by her son on Friday night, April 27th, about eight o'clock. When he returned about eleven o'clock he found his mother dead. A clay pipe was found close to the deceased, who was an Irishwoman and in the habit of smoking. Her left leg was burnt through at the knee. There was no fire in the grate. The jury returned a verdict that deceased died from injuries received through accidentally setting herself on fire. The cook substantiates the statement of the housemaid, and the officials at Durham have furnished me kindly with all par- ticulars.germane to the matter. Such second-sight phenomena are not unknown; but it is well to preserve such a veritable case as this.
—I am, Sir, &C., THEODORE P. BROCIILEHURBT.
Giggleswick Vicarage, Yorkshire.
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