"Of course we would go to her. You may be sure of that. But why--"
"Ask me no questions," said Doctor Langtry, "but bear my request in mind if the occasion should arise."
Within a very short time the child, visiting an aunt in a near-by town, was taken ill, failed rapidly, and died almost before her parents, who had been hastily telegraphed for, could reach her bedside. Doctor Langtry"s warning immediately recurred to them, and they wrote him, beseeching an explanation.
"The reason I was anxious about your little girl," he then told them, "was because the night I was sitting with Mrs. Ruttan I saw an angel enter the hall, pa.s.s up the stairs, and return, carrying the child in its arms."
But the kind of ghost most frequently seen is that which appears not before but immediately after, or coincidental with, a death. Its purpose is not to give warning of impending tragedy, but to convey the news of a tragedy already consummated. There are thousands of instances of this sort, so well authenticated as to compel credence. Not long ago an interesting case was reported to me by a gentleman living in Burlington, Vermont, the nephew of the lady--a Mrs. Hazard of Newport, Rhode Island--who saw the ghost.
She was ill at the time, and under the care of a trained nurse. One afternoon, her physician having allowed her to sit up for a couple of hours, she was seated in a chair by the side of her bed, when the nurse noticed her open wide her eyes and turn her head as if following the movements of some one. Then she heard her say, in a tone of surprise:
"h.e.l.lo! h.e.l.lo! There he goes! There he goes!"
As far as the nurse could see, n.o.body was in the room with them. But, not wishing to alarm her patient, she merely asked:
"Who is it, Mrs. Hazard?"
"Chet Keech. But he doesn"t see me. And now he"s gone."
Later in the day the nurse mentioned the incident to Mrs. Hazard"s daughter, asking her if she knew anybody by the name of Chet Keech.
"Why, certainly I do," was the reply. "He is my cousin, and lives in Danielson, Connecticut."
That day Chet Keech had died at Danielson, as a letter informed the Hazards next morning.
Consider also this statement[3] by the Reverend C. C. McKechnie, a Scotch clergyman:
[3] First published in the _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_, vol. x, p. 240.
"I was about ten years of age at the time, and had for several years been living with my grandfather, who was an elder in the Kirk of Scotland and in good circ.u.mstances. He was very much attached to me and often expressed his intention of having me educated for a minister in the Kirk. Suddenly, however, he was seized with an illness which in a couple of days proved mortal.
"At the time of his death, and without my having any apprehension of his end, I happened to be at my father"s house, about a mile off. I was leaning in a listless sort of way against the kitchen table, looking upward at the ceiling and thinking of nothing in particular, when my grandfather"s face appeared to grow out of the ceiling, at first dim and indistinct, but becoming more and more complete until it seemed in every respect as full and perfect as I had ever seen it.
"It looked down upon me, as I thought, with a wonderful expression of tenderness and affection. Then it disappeared, not suddenly but gradually, its features fading and becoming dim and indistinct, until I saw nothing but the bare ceiling. I spoke at the time of what I saw to my mother, but she made no account of it, thinking, probably, it was nothing more than a boyish vagary. But in about fifteen or twenty minutes after seeing the vision, a boy came running breathless to my father"s with the news that my grandfather had just died."
Even more remarkable was the experience of an Illinois physician, Doctor J. S. W. Entwistle, a resident of one of the Chicago suburbs. Hurrying one morning to catch a train Doctor Entwistle saw approaching him an acquaintance, once well-to-do, who had ruined himself by drink. Glancing at him as they met, the physician noticed that his clothing was torn and his face bruised, and that there was a cut under one eye. He noticed, too, that the other kept looking steadily at him with a "woe-begone, G.o.d-forsaken expression." Had he not been in such a hurry, he would have stopped and spoken to him, but as it was he pa.s.sed him with a nod.
At the station Doctor Entwistle met his brother-in-law, and said, while the train was drawing in:
"Oh, by the way, I just saw Charlie M., and he was a sight. He must have been on a terrible tear."
"I wonder what he"s doing in town, anyway?" commented the brother-in-law.
"I suppose he was going to see his wife."
"Not a bit of it. She won"t have him around."
Then the subject was dropped, and nothing more was said about it until after they had reached Chicago. Both men, as it happened, had business at the Grand Pacific Hotel and went directly there from the train. They were met by a mutual friend, who had a copy of the Chicago _Tribune_ in his hand.
"h.e.l.lo," he greeted them. "Did you know that Charlie M. is dead? Here is a notice in the paper, stating that his body is at the morgue. He was killed in a saloon fight. The paper hasn"t got the name quite right, but from the description it"s Charlie, sure enough."
"But he can"t be dead," said Doctor Entwistle, aghast, "for it was only a few minutes ago that I met him on the street in Englewood."
Nevertheless, it turned out that Charlie M. _was_ dead, and that his body had been taken to the morgue several hours before Doctor Entwistle thought he saw him in the Chicago suburb. Moreover, on inquiry it was learned that the clothes worn by him when he was killed and the marks on his face "tallied in every particular with the description given by the doctor."
Quite a similar experience occurred to Mr. Harry E. Reeves when he was choirmaster at St. Luke"s Church in San Francisco. On a Friday, about three in the afternoon, Mr. Reeves was in an up-stairs room at his home.
He had been working on some music. Wishing to rest for a few minutes, he threw himself on a lounge, but almost immediately an unaccountable impulse led him to get up again and open the door of his room.
Standing at the head of the stairs he saw Edwin Russell, a member of his choir and a well-known San Francisco real estate broker. Mr.
Russell had promised to call on him the following day to look over the music for Sunday, and Mr. Reeves"s first thought was that he had come a day earlier than intended. He advanced to greet him, when, to his amazement and horror, the figure on the stairs turned as though to descend, and then faded into nothingness.
"My G.o.d!" gasped Reeves, and fell forward.
A door below was hastily opened, and two women and a man ran to his aid.
The women were his sister and niece, the man was a Mr. Sprague. They found Mr. Reeves seated on the stairs, his face white and covered with perspiration, his body trembling.
"Uncle Harry!" cried the niece. "What in the world is the matter?"
Mr. Reeves was in such a panic that he could hardly speak, but he managed to reply:
"I have seen a ghost!"
"Whose ghost?" inquired Mr. Sprague, with a skeptical smile.
"The ghost of Edwin Russell."
Instantly the smile left Mr. Sprague"s face.
"That"s strange," said he, "that"s very strange. For, as these ladies will tell you, I came to consult with you regarding the music for Mr.
Russell"s funeral. He had a stroke of apoplexy this morning, and died a few hours ago."[4]
[4] Detailed reports of this case are published in the _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_, vol. viii, pp. 214-218.
Sometimes ghosts of this type present themselves in such a way as to leave no doubt as to the fact and manner of the death of the person seen. As striking a case in point as has come to my knowledge is afforded by the singular experience of an old friend of mine, Edward Jackson, son of the late General Jackson, of Bideford, England.
Born in India, Jackson was from his boyhood of a roving and adventurous disposition. He went in for all forms of athletics, more particularly boxing, cricket, and polo, and before he left India was one of the best known and most popular men in the younger sporting set.
He was still in his early twenties when he came to the United States, drifting West to go on a ranch in Wyoming. Tiring of this, though not of his fondness for adventure, he found work in a Lake Superior mine, where his quickly demonstrated ability to take care of himself in a rough-and-tumble encounter won him the position of superintendent over a gang of men whom it had hitherto been most difficult to superintend.
As superintendent he was privileged to live by himself in a small, two-room cabin, somewhat neater and more comfortable than the ordinary sleeping-shacks. It was in this cabin that he saw the ghost.
"I had returned from the mine one evening, thoroughly tired out," he said, in telling me the story, "and sat down to rest for a few minutes before an open fire. While I was sitting there, half dozing, I felt a cold current of air, and looked up, thinking that somebody had thrown the door open.
"The door was not open, but standing between me and it was the figure of a young man whom I instantly recognized as a boyhood chum in India. He was dressed in polo costume--we had often played the game together--but for a moment I forgot all about the incongruity between his dress and the rough, outlandish place in which I then saw him. I jumped up, exclaiming:
""By Jove, Jack, I"m glad to see you. When did you get here? And how--"
"I stopped. He had been standing with his profile toward me. Now he turned, facing me, and I saw that he was ghastly white, with a deep cut over one eye. Without a word he walked past me, gazing at me solemnly, and disappeared in the inner room.