Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-07-26
WAS 1T HER GHOST?
How a Crafty Husbands Scheme to
Secure His Wife's Fortune Failed.
Will I'm q Family Biblc-The Curious
story Told BY n Legal Correspondent
of The star-His Mysterious Visitor
and the Message L. Brought

- ~
80 census of haIlucinations." He says tLa
this was begun several years ago by the Society
for Psychical Research, land of which the in.
ternahonal congress Of experimental psychol-
ogy at Paris last summer assumed the future
responsibility, naming committee in each
country to carry on the work" THE object Of
the inquiry Is C) to get lass of facts which
will serve as basis for scientific study OF
these phenomena, and (2) to ascertain the
number of persons who have had such expert
snces. Until the average frequency of hRllu-
clnatIons IN the community Is known" he says,
lit can never be decided whether the so-called
'venidlcaP hallucinations (visions or other
warnings Of the death. &C.. of people at a dis
tance), which are so frequently reported, are
accidental condolences something more. "
he adds that some eight thousand people in
England, France and the United States have
already returned answers to the question, which
runs as follows:
Have your ever when completely awake
had vivid impression OF seeing or being
touched by living being or inanimate object
or of hearing voice, which impression, SO far
as you could discover. not due to any eI-
ternal physical cause?'
To this question for one can answer ''yes A."
and as these strange and unaccountable things
are now to secure scientific study and analysis
will briefly relate my own most remarkable
experience.
TIE PAPERS IN STRANGE CASE.
i am a lawyer. as was also my father who
for many years before his death enjoyed the
distinction of being the leader of tho bar of
our state. When / was admitted there was
therefore, place and practice all made and
ready for me. But with the ardor and ambition
OF youth declined the support of the paternal
arms and determined to strike out for myself
So II was that left nv native place and settled
down to practice in a larger and buster city in
my native state. Shortly afterward my brother
returned from Europe, where he had been pur-
suing his studies as physician and determined
OF the same city as the field Of his own pro-
fessonal lsbors. We lived together as young
bachelors in chambers
We had been thus settled for year or more
with fair prospects of success for both of u.s.
when received from my father letter inclos-
Ing heavy packet OF papers. He wrote: Il
send you the papers in a case in which We have
been retained. 1t is important case. a
strange case, one that will command great
attention, and desire you to have the entire
and exclusive management of it, as it will seem
to bring you at once to the front. 1t is full of
difficulties. and you will be opposed by several
OF the abiest lawyers in the slate Make the
best fight You can" An examination of the
case disclosed the following facts:
MISS BETSY AND HER NIECE.
There had lived In the same city in which I
then resided lady who had died two wears be-
fore, leaving large fortune and strange. I'm
natural will. She was widely and most favor
ably known in the best circles of society as a
woman Of unusual thought and culture though
Of a singularly sensitive and shrinking nature
She was a devoUt Christian, devoted to the
work Of her church. and no day of her life
passed without some act Of noble but unosten-
tatlous charity. She thus loved and re-
spected by all. but idoliZed by the poor From
her door, at which every form of human
misery presented itself. none ever passed I'M
renewed Until her forty-seventh year she
renamed single. having no other persons in her
house than her niece and the necessary retinue
OF servants. This niece was the child of her only
sister, who died In giving her birth, and
who had from that sad moment been taken by
her good aunt and was afterward treated as
her daughter. The name of the lady I'D to her
marriage and the one by which she was still
best known was Miss Elizabeth Thornton; that
OF her niece was Florence Farren- Miss
Betty. for so she was universally called. loved
her niece with all that passion of tenderness
and completeness of devotion which mark
those lonely lives bereft OF all human ties but
one, and which press into a single channel
ali the forces of a heart hungry for human
sympathy and kinship. So sheltered, treated
ana loved. Florence grew In every childish
grace, in all youthful accomplishments and at
the time whon1 first saw her was standing on the
threshold OF superb womanhood. and with
her hair of chestnut. her dark brown, lustrous
ia'homiess eyes, her oval face of perfect line
and peerless color, her GrecIan nose with thin
flexible nostrlls. telling of blue blood her per
feet mouth, her straight, slight yet completely
rounded form. she was almost Incompatible in
the beauty Of her person.
MARRIED AT THE AGE OF A.
So lovely were the lines of Miss Betty's"
life, so serene, so happy, that no one ever
dreamed that she would marry. But marriage
Is a subject on which no wCman's mind is over
dehnitely made Jap, and Miss Betty" at forty
seven. found no exception to the rule. man
mad not long before come 20 reside in this city
who said he came from Virginia and that his
name was Hlilyard. He, after some time. round
the church TO which Miss Betty belonged.
interested himself in her Sunday school and
her various charitable schemes and before
long. and TO the surprise of the whole COM
munlty, they were one day married.
Soon after this he built splendid mansion.
but even then il was whispered that IL was
Miss Betty's money that paid for it. No matter.
all things seemed for the time to go swim
TnlHSly with them. He brought to his new
home his two grown daughters and their en-
tertalnments were on the grsndest scale. But
Betty" was
NOT HAPPY IN HER MARRIED LIFE,
and little later her health began to fail.
People said that HIllyard was not only a
scheming but a brutal fellow and that in his
anger he terribly abused his sensitive shrink
ing and now sickly wife. At last Miss Betty"
appeared no more in her accustomed walks
Hti pew was now never occupied. day by day
she grew thinner, distressing nervous cough
seized her. She took TO her bed and in less
THAN three years from her bridal she was borne
away 20 the grave. She died and made no
sign. Her silence was never broken.
An UNNATURAL WILL
few days after her death her husband
offered her will for probate-a will which
shocked the moral sense Of the whole COM
munlty. For by il she bequeathed her entire
estate Of over half a million to her husband
and his two daughters. cutting off her dearly
loved niece. the daughter OF her adoption.
whom she had brought up to the lavish use of
wealth and all the needs which il engepders
with a bare pIttance of $1,000
People said that there must be something
wrong about the will ana the way in which II
had been obtained. But an examination showed
that the VIII had been drawn BY a LAWYER of
good standing and witnessed by two gentle
men OF known integrity in the community
Even Miss Florence Earren when / called her
attention TO u, said that she had never heard A
complaint from her aunt or had never seen or
heard any act or word of violence on the mart
OF HIllyard toward his wife. But she did moi
reside IN the house with them after the first
three months OF their marriage having
been sent 10 q distant boarding school so
there was no earthly chance to show
undue influence" in tie procurement OF tine
will, although everybody in the community be-
lieved that there had been. Everything about
the Will was regular and nowhere was there
room Tor doubt The one singular thing in adj
ditiOn TO the shocking unnaturalness OF its
ua hat