Preble County Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1857-1859, 1857-03-12
difficult, and at twelve o'clock, she .ex-

|
pired apparently without a struggle.
[ closed her eyes, Strengthened and
composed her limbs, and was about to
leave the house, when Mrs. Green re-
quested me to send over two young Ia
dies from my boarding house, to watch
with the dead. All this occupid some
ten minutes.
Suddenly Mrs. Miles screamed and
Mr. Hayden started from the bedside,
where he had been sitting. The sup
pose corpse was sitting erect in the bed
and struggling to speak Her eyes
were still closed; and, save her open
mouth and quivering tongue there were
all the looks of death in her face. With
great heave of the chest at last the
single word came forth:
''REMEMBER =
Her jaw fell back in its place, and she
again lay down, as before. [ now eN-
amined her minutely. That she was
dead, there could be no further possible
| shadow of doubt, and so l left the house.
On the following day, DR.. Williams
made a post mortum examination Of
the body 1 was prevented, by bust
ness, from attending, but was Informed
by the Doctor that he found her brain
but slightly affected, Gan unssual fact
in persons dying of tyPhus fever0 but
that her lungs were torn and rent cx-
tensively, as if by sudden, single and
powerful effort, and partially sufused
with coagulated blood. These were all
the noticeable features of the case. She
was buried on the afternoon Of the same
day.
I About two weeks after the death of
| his wife, I was called to visit Mr.. Hay
den. l met Dr. Williams on my way;
told him my GRAND, and expressed some
surprise at the preference Of the family
for myself, as l knew him to be Il safe
and experienced practitioner. He repli-
ed that nothing could induce him to en-
ter that house again. He chad seen
things that-weil [ would find out when
[ got there L was considerably a
mused at tho Doctors manner and
warmth; and bcguiled my way by fancy
ing what had alarmed him-a physician
from his duty.
On my arrival; [ found no person
present with the patient except Mrs.
Green. who informed me that the spir-
its had been playing such pranks that
not soul, DR. W. included could be in
duccd to remain. The children had
been gone some timc-ThSy ws.z-a at he.
house.
Found the patient very low, and
with no prospect of surviving the attack.
He was, however, quite free from pain,
though very weak. While was i'll the
house, [ noticed many manifestations of
that power called spiritualism. Tables
and chairs were moved and removed;
bilets of wood thrown upon the fire,
and doors opened and shut, without any
apparent agency. l heard struggles
and unaccounta5le noises, too; and felt
all unusual sensation, caused no doubt
by the mysteries which surrounded and
Knocked me. Noticing my manner, the
patient observed:
1T is nothing. You must get used
to it Doctor
Il should not be content unless I
could explain them, as well as become
Indifferent to thcm," l replied.
This opened the way to long con-
yersation during which probed my pa
tents mind to the bottom, but without
detecting shadow Of belief. Speaking
of his wife, he said:
s.You heard Ellen promise to warn
me Of my time to die?
Il did-but did you believe her?''
No. If it is possible, she will keep
her.word in spite Of heaven and hell
But it is simply impossible. She prom
ised to come in the body and speak to
me. [ shall accept no other warming
from her save the literal meaning other
words
And what thcn?'
"IIow much of her body is there left,
even now, Doctor? and she has not come
yet She promised to come from the
grave Can she do it? No, not all
humbug-a delusion-poor Ellen !
Thank God, Doctor, the devil which so
haunted her life, and stood between her
soul and mine, cannot reach her now.
but if she should come you may be
deceived
sI cannot Others may see her, too,
and hear her. I shall believe no spec
tire, if there are such things. Her body
as it is or will be, let that speak if it
can -
From that day up to the hour of his
death, [ was with him almost constant
ly and was daily introduced to some
new and startling phenomenon. The
neighbors had learned to shun the house,
and even the vicinity, as they would the
plague, and strange stories passed from
gossip to gossip, acquiring more of the
marvellous at every repetition. Never
thclcss my practice increased.
On the morning of November 30th, I
called little earlier than usual. Du-
ring the visit, the manifestations Of su-
pernatural presence were more frequent,
wild and violent, than ever before, l
was informed that they had been ex-
cecdingly violent during the preceding
night, their character, too, had greatly
changed Besides the moving of all
movable articles the tinkling of glass
es and the rattling of tin ware, there
were frequent and startling sounds, as
of whispered conversation, singing and
subdued Iaughter-all perfect limitations
of the human voice, but too low for me
to detect the words used if words there
were. Still, however, none of the unu-