St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-01-07
WEIRD AND UNCANNY
Strange Story Affecting the
Separation OF a Pair OF
Devoted Lovers.
Made a Bride ON Her Seeming
Death Bed a Young Lady
Reappears
Years Afterward to the Con-
Sternati0n Of Hsr Sup
posed Husband.
The Shock Proves Too Much
J for Him, and He Finss
Relief in Death.

nSllSl al OSdtu.
An English officer tells the following
strange and most uncanny story, which
ought to be given as far as possible in
his own words. says the Chicago Her.
aid: "A gr'at friend of mine, fellow
named d., one of ours was engaged
TO the daughter of an cid clergyman i'll
Worcestershire. They were awfully in
love with each other and were to be
married in ten days. He had asked me
TO be his best man, and all the arrange
ments were completed for the wedding,
when he received a telegraphic mes
sage from the father of his bride, to say
that she had been taken suddenly ill
and to come at once il h. w0dId see her
alive. or course he started for their
place immediately, and was so COM
pietely cut up about it that
went with him, feeling that he
ought not to be alone IN such
condition of mind. We found the sad
news only too true, the poor girl was
dying. and as they both greatly desired
that he might have the right to be with
her until the end, the old rector per-
formed the ceremony. and they were
made man and wife. it was the most
affecting thing lever saw. Her mother
drew off
Her Own Wedding Hing,
which the poor fellow placed on the
hnger of his broken lily Of bride, who
lay there SO white and wan, the only
calm member Of the agitated group.
Three days aftcrward all was over.
Unable to bear his old life, b sent
lii his papers and left the service. For
several years completely lost trace of
him. and then. from an English surgeon
who had preferred his services to the
German authorities during the Franco
Prussian war. | heard tale SO weird
that it might we'll seem impossible.
FINDING the mon0tony OF his life UNI
endurable. D.. it seems. entered the
French army, and without much diff
Guilty, through his previous connections,
obtained a commission in one of the
regiments which had been ordered to
the front. After the battle of Sedan,
among the many who had been carried
to the hospital MORALLY wounded was
D. WAS it vision9 he thought.
that As he lay dying he saw bending
over him his old love, his dead wife, in
the gar5 of sister OF the Red Cross.
he saw the startled white face and he
deep blue eyes he knew SO well filled
with an awakening wonder. There was
sharp cry and the sister sWooned away.
The surgeon i'll attendance hurried UP,
and giving her in charge of some of
the other nurses returned to the excited
man, who insisted that he had seen the
fRce of his dead wife. The shock was
too much for his enfeeDled condition,
Ills wound broke out atresh, and in
few hours he was dead.
Deiirious with Brain Fever.
"On leaving his patient, who no
longer required bis services, the doctor
found the RedCroSS nurse deliriouS with
brain fever Over and over ar ain she
Lived what seemed to be the last weeks
of a previous. existence She was a
happy promised bride-She was girlishly
excited over her rousseau and pretty
preSentS-She talked proudly of her
handsome and devoted Iover-and fin
ally on a solemn death-bed wedding.
That was all--over and over she seemed
to live again former period of her life
but of the time since the doctor had
known her there came never word. \
year or two before he had been connect
Ell with one of the London hos
pitfalls, and had been greatly in
tereSted IN the woman, who
had been brought there and placed
in the ward for the insane. The only
point upon which her mind seemed af-
fected was that she had no recollection of
the past, and seemed entirely obivious
of her own Identity. Her name had
been given as Mrs. Clark, and the PEG,
pie who left her had never appeared
again. Showing herself most capable
and intelligent with the one execution
stated, she was kept as all assistant in
the wards, and gradually became one of
the most experienced of the hospitaI
nurses. When the doctor decided to 90
to the seat of war it occurred to him to
take her with him, not only on
account or her acknowledged cOmpe-
tency, but with the idea that change
and excitement might possibly touch
some chord that would awaken her
memory. But she died without recov-
erlng consciousness, and the mystery
was unsolved. Among D--'s effects.
however, the doctor found a letter di-
rectng that his few papers, etc., should
be. sent to me in case of his death, and
photograph in frame, which was SO
maryelouSly like the dead woman that
he at once wrote AMI gave me all the
particulars, not only of DIS death.
but of Mrs. Clark's' life while under
his observation. He forwarded at the
same time a plain gold ring, which was
on her finger when she
Came to the Hospital,
and which had simply date of thirty
years back engraved inside the rim.
Feeling that the strange coincidence
for it could be nothing more-was hard
ly enough to warrant me in disturbing
the family by awakening painful memo
ries, concluded at first to say nothing
about it. but the affair troubled me, and
at length | grew fairly haunted with
than / liked to think possible. | finally
found myself Ell route for the Leicester
shire village without any clear idea of
what l really intended to do. There |
found changes; the old rector and his
wife had both died; their only remain
ing child, son, had gone over to Can
ada, where his wife's people lived. L
knew no one, all the faces were strange
TO me. l felt that eerie sense of
living in the past, of having
nothing to do with the present
that comes over one sometimes. While
waiting for the afternoon train, which
was to take me back, l wandered into
the churchyard and sought out the
graves of the old couple and of NV
friends bride. Mary was written on
the headstone. beloved wife and daugh-
ter-died May Is, IS But did she
die then or long after? That is what
haunts me to this day."
I''Do you mean that she was buried in
aitrance?" said the listener. THAT is
what believe" he answered. 81 think
that her rescuers were afraid of the
law, and, finding signs of life, hurried
her to hospital, where her entire lapse
Of memory tempted them to keep the
m Qttpr f0rpuar Snnrnt THINKING IL o1ror