Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1893-11-18
a SUPERNATURAL sToaY.
/ The Contents Of . Paper Foana % the Pee.
wan Of an Insane sulefda.

The Contents OF . Paper Fanna 90 the Pea.
son Of sn Insane saieide.
Here IL story OF the supernatural. II
happened more than 100 years ago, %
that you may hope that il Is not true.
Yet in those DAYS the invocation OF news
was not yet known. and the paper which
contains this story was a sober and hon.
est journal One Of the patients in
madhouse--a parish madhouse, / think
that Of aunceston-escaped. That was
no new thing. They all wanted to Is.
cape. As the woman. although very
mad indeed. was quito harmless, they
went about their search In leisurely
fashion. AT last they found her drowned
in a shallow di.ch and carried her back
to the madhouse.
On preparing the unhappy woman for
the grave they found in her corset--then
called her something that rustled.
They cut the thing open and discovered
small parcel rolled up tight in some
waterproof stuff-whatever was then in.
vented. The parcel was document
written on parchment. II was written
very small and misspelled. but this was
how IL ran:
Tho man came along after dark. he
stopped ut our door aud said he was
q stranger. and would my aunt take him
in for the nightl He seemed sailor
and said he was respectable and showed
money. Elizabeth, said aunt. he can
have your room. and you shall sleep with
me- There were two bedrooms in the
cottage, up a ladder, both garrets. Dur
ing the evening he sent me out for
drink, and he had lot and was drunk,
but no got up the ladder safe and SO to
bed. In the night | heard aunt get ont
of bed. There was n moon shining in
the skylight window.
''She took something and went into
the mans room. Then was frightened
and sat up in bed. and | heard a sound
as of blow and nothing more. Present
ly aunt came back, and in the moonlight
she saw me sitting up In bed. Get mp
she said; go down stairs and get, IL you
can, light. So did and brought the
rushlight up the ladder. Aunt had the
Bible in her hand. Swear, she said.
that you will never tell any one what
has been done. So l swore, trembling.
and wished might go suddenly mad If
told. Then says she, I've killed the
lodger. His pockets were full OF guineas,
and I'm n made woman. But you must
help me-
so she made me help to drag the body
down into the room below and out in the
garden, where we dug hole under the
cabbages and laid it as deep as we could.
Then we covered all up and went back
TO the house and waited till daybreak.
As soon as ii was light we washed up the
place. and nobody ever found out. One
night, when ! was a woman grown, the
dead man came to my bedside and said,
Tell the story and said, Il cannot, be-
cause swore.' He said; If you tell. you
have sworn to go mad. Ii you do not
tell, will haunt you till you do go mad
80. rs ! am bound to go mad either
way, have written the story down and
sewn it up. When l am dead, somebody
will find it and will dig up the poor man
and bury him in churchyard. The
house is situated"
Thus the narrative. And they dug up
the garden in tho place indicated aud
found the dead body in what had been
sailors clothes. Walter Besant in Lon
don Queen.