Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-11-13
A STRANGE EXPERIENCE.


Physician Tells of His Only Encounter
With a Ghost Which He Believes to Have
Been Real.
In my forty years experience as ply
sician,' said DR.. R., Il have seen many
strange things and met with a few startl-
ing adventures, but have seen only one
ghost. do not believe in the supernat-
ural, but this incident was so strange
uneS plainable- | call it a ghostly
visitation for want of better explanation
| might have been dreaming, but | do not
believe | was. | was practicing medicine
in New Orlerns during one of the yellow
fever epidemics in that city some years
ago. | mad large number of fever
patients, and for weeks was going day
and night. eating and sleeping where
could. | had sent my family north, the
servants were all sick or gone, and clos
my office, so | could sleep there whenever
opportunity offered
Among my patients was poor family,
consisting of father, mother and one child
beautiful girl 10 years of age. The IA
ther took the fever first and died. and then
the girl took sick. In al my professional
experience | have never seen mother so
devoted to her child as this woman was to
her little girl. Day and night she sat by
the bedside, refusing to eat or sleep.
The strain on her physical and nervous
| system was great and as the child began
to improve and seemed out of danger the
mother took the fever. | called to see her
twice, and saw from the first there was
! little chance to save her life. left a
nurse with the mother and child, the lat
| ter being. as | thought, out of danger
While on my rounds the second day after
Mrs. B. was taken Ill [ beard she was
dead-died the night before, and had
been buried that morning. | did not go
to the house that day. had an unusual
number of calls, and it was midnight
when [ finally reached my office. | was
completed y worn out, and without waiting
to undress, threw myself across the bed for
a much needed sleep. Before lying down,
however, had locked my door OF the in
side ard muffied the bell.
II had been asleep only a moment, 1t
| seemed, though in reality it was nearly
two hours, when | was awakened by a
light touch on my shoulder. Then heard
a woman's voice say, Get up, Doctor,
quick, Marie Is worse; go at once, please,
Doctor, or she will die
"Marie was the name of Mrs B. s little
girl. There was light burning in the
room, and turning my head | saw Mrs.
B. moving toward the door. Ihad recog-
nized her voice and for the moment had
entirely forgotten having heard of her
death. | got up and turned to table to
get my medicine case, when | looked
around Mr. B. was gone [ thought she
had hurried back home withc ut waiting
for me-they lived only one block from my
office--and started at once. When |
reached the door it was locked.
Then it all came back to me. I remenl-
bered that Mrs. B. was dead and buried.
| had locked my door before | lay down,
there was no other means of entrance or
exit from the room, the windows were all
fastened. My first thought was that |
had been dreaming and turned to 60 back
to bed. Bat that could not be. I had seen
the woman, heard and recognized her
voice after | was wide awake. | will
admit | felt little strangely, but deter
mined to go and see the girl and make
sure | had not been dreaming. I hurried
over to the house and found that little
Marie was indeed worse; in fact she was
dying, and in few minutes breathed her
last. Mrs B. was not there, and when |
asked the nurse about her was told she
died the night before and had been buried
during the day. The nurse said that half
an hour before my arrival little Marie in
her delirium had been talking to her
mother, and her last words were: Mann
ma, please send for DR.. R. She could not
send, so came herself. 1t was the strang-
est experience of my life. -Glo5e-Dem-