Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-08-13
ACARDBOARD WOMAN
THE MALlGN INFLUENCE OF A NUM-
MY CASE FROM EGYPT.

=
room at the British museum, behind
the crouching body of the prehistoric
chief who lived before there were
pharaohs in Egypt or pyramids on the
| Nile, stands 4 woman nodded from
some ancient form OF cardboard. She is
merely shell, the cover of n mummy
case Her hands are crossed above
| her breast, and her dark eyes stare
! forward into vacancy.
According to the catalogues she is
No. 22542, a predetermined royal per-
sonage and priestess of the College
of Amen Ra. She lived in the mighty
city of Thebes some 1,600 years before
| Christ.
And about this same coffin cover
there hangs as terrible a story as ever
an Edgar Allan Poe or q BalZac or
Kipling produced from q gloomy imag-
ination.
If you question the attendants in the
first Egyptian room they will shake
their heads and say nothing. But
! there is a famous professor in the
museum who knows that the facts are
! true though whether they be a coinci-
dence or n manifestation of supernat-
ural power who can say? He says:
For three months l have been gath
ering the tangled threads of evidence.
have now in my possession proofs of
| the identity of all those who suffered
from the anger of the priestess of
Amen Ra. But for the sake of friends
and relatives l have been requested to
| suppress the names.
About the middle of the sixties of
the last century party of five friends
| took ship in a dahabeah for trip up
the Nile. They travelled to Luxor on
their way to the second cataract. and
stayed there to explore the ruins of
the great and wonderful city of Thebes,
with its avenues of sphinXes and rams,
it's vast hall of columns and its temple
TO Amen Ra, which is unequaled on
earth in the Sublimity of its ruined
magnifcence.
lone night an Arab sent by Musta
| pha Aga came to one of their number,
Mr.. D., as we may call him, saying
that he had just found mummy case
of unusual beauty. What became Of
the mummy the man did not explain
The next morning Mr.. D. bought the
| case. Both he and his companions
We're impressed by its remarkable
beauty and by the curious face of the
woman portrayed, n face that was
| filled with u cold malignancy of ex-
preston unpleasant to witness.
They had agreed that, being all
interested in Egyptology, they should
| apportion their finds by lot, and so.
though Mr.. ID. had been the cause of
its discovery, he lost the mummy cover,
" 70 Nrh
will call Mr.. w.
1T was on their return journey that
the series of misfortunes commenced.
Mr.. DIS servant was handing him a
gun, when without visible cause it ex-
plOded, the charge lodging in his arm.
which had to be amputated; a second
died in poverty within the year;
third was shot, while Mr.. W., the own
er of the mummy case, discovered on
his arrival in Cairo that he had lost
large part of his fortune. He died soon
afteTward. The priestess of Amen Ra
had signified her displeasure in a very
convincing manner.
From the date 1t was shipped on
board the steamer Mr.. ID. lost sight of
the mummy case for several years.
He did not at the time in any way
associate the misfortunes that had oc
CURED to the party with its discovery,
but when he next heard of it and had
full information of the disasters which
had been subsequently associated with
its possession he began to suspect that
1t was not merely chance, not merely
a coincidence, that had brought so sim
lister fate on all who had dealings
with the priestess of Amen Ra.
"On the arrival of the case in Eng
land it was given by its owner, Mr. w,
to a married sister living near London
From the day the case entered the
house misfortune followed misfortune
The family suffered large losses. and
the end came with painful troubles
which need not be specified.
1.-The lady while in possession of the |
case received one day Il visit from |
Nine Blavatsky. The great theoso- |
phist became very disturbed on enter |
ing the room, and after few minutes |
conversation told her hostess that there |
was something in her house possessed |
of a most malignant influence She |
asked to be allowed to search the house |
and on discovering the coffin lid ap- |
pealed to her hostess TO send away an |
object which she described as of the |
utmost danger. Her hostess, however. |
refused, laughing at what she imagined |
TO be an example of foolish supersti-
ton.
''Some time afterward the lady sent /
the case to we'll known photographer
in Baker street. Within 4 week the
chief Of the firm came down to this
lady's house in a state of great excite
ment. He had. he said, photographed
the face with the greatest care. and he
could guarantee that no one had
touched either the negative or the pho
tograph in any way. yet it was not
the cardboard features that looked out
of the photograph, but a living Egyp-
tian woman staring straight before her
with an expression OF singular maievO-
lence. Shortly after the photographer
died suddenly and mysteriously.
at was about this time that Mr. d. /.