Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-08-11
A CARDBOARD WOMAN
THE MALlGN INFLUENCE OF A MUM
 MY CASE FROM EGYPT.

A&FG AmcA experiences That AW@
 peared to Be Unhappy LeEacies to | Those Interested I'm It's Custody. Tn a corner of the first Egyptian 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 a woman nodded from some ancient form of cardboard. She Is merely a shell, the cover of mummy case. Her hands are crossed above her breast, and her dark eyes stare forward into vacancy.
 According to the catalogues she is No. 22642, problematical royal per sonage and priestess of the College of Amen Ra. She lived In the mighty city of Thebes some 1,6oO years before Christ.
 And about this same coffin cover there hangs as terrible story as ever an Edgar Allan Poe or a Balzac or Kipling produced from 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 coinci- dence or a manifestation of supernat- ural power who can say? He says:
 For three months have been gath ering the tangled threads of evidence. I 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 I have been requested to suppress the names.
 About the middle of the sixties Of the last century party of five friends took ship in 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 it's avenues of sphinxes and rams, its vast hall of columns and it's temple to Amen Ra, which is unequaled on earth in the sublimity of it's ruined magnificence
 "One night an Arab sent by Musta- pha Aga came to one of their number, MT. D., as we may call him, saying that he had just found a mummy case of unusual beauty. What became of the mummy the man did not explain The next morning MT. D. bought the case Both he and his companions were impressed by it's remarkable beauty and by the curious face of the woman portrayed, a face that was filled with a cold malignancy of ex- pression unpleasant to witness.
 tThey had agreed that, being all interested in Egyptology, they should apportion their finds by lot, and so, though MT. D. had been the cause of its discovery, he lost the mummy cover, which passed to a friend, whom we will call MT. W.
 Tt was on their return journey that the series of misfortunes commenced. MT. D's 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; n third was shot, while MT. W., the own CT of the mummy case, discovered on his arrival in Cairo that he had lost a large part of his fortune. He died soon afterward The priestess of Amen Ra had signified her displeasure in q verX convincing manner.
 From the date it was shipped on board the steamer MT. D. lost sight of the mummy case for several years. He did not at the time in any way associate the misfortunes that had oc- o,,rwod 4< fha nor%xy xapt+h i%S d{aoova,.v 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 coincidence, that had brought so sin ister a fate on all who had dealings with the priestess of Amen Ra.
 Ion the arrival of the case in Eng land 1t was given by its owner, MT. 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 4Ainful troubles which need not be specified.
 ''The lady while in possession of the case received one day a visit from Mime. 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 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 8 well known photographer in Baker street. Within Q week the chief of the firm came down to this lady's house in 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 1t was not