The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1908-02-07
TALE OF A sPooK
WOMAN SAW GHOSTuY VISITOR
SHOOT HIMSELF.
coirit Tragedy Enacted In Indian
Bungalow Proved Afterward to
Have Occurred Exactly as
She Had Witnessed It.

This is the tale of a ghost who shot
imself. The woman who relates l.
lad accompanied her husband u
I'irzapur, India, says the Kansas Cit!
lar. He had been sent there to under
axe the duties of an agent who hac
,one home on sick leave. The only
accommodation they could find when
hey arrived was an inspection bun
galow.
They retired about ten o'clock, but
Mrs. S. remained awake for some
time reading a novel by the light of a
lamp. She was just thinking of turn
ing it out when suddenly a man hold
ing a revolver appeared in the room,
she says:
Before l could move or speak he
said: Don't stop me; l am going to
shoot myself AS he put the revolver
to his head l shut my eyes and was
nearly deafened by the report that fol
lowed. My husband jumped up, wide
awake at once, with a cry of Who
fired" and I opened my eyes expecting
TO e a CHASTITY heap on the floor.
ITO my amazement the room was
empty and there was no sign Of the
tragedy that had just taken place in
front of me. My husband said he had
been awakened out of a sound sleep
by the noise Of the shot and when ]
told him what l had seen we searched
the house together. Neither the
punkah coolie, who was sleeping in
the veranda, nor the servants, whose
houses were close by in the compound.
had heard anything. Even the dogs
chained in the veranda had not been
disturbed. 1t all happened SO sudden
ly that I had no feeling of fright or
terror. The man seemed to come from
the direction Of my husbands office,
where there was a door connecting
with the bedroom, in front of which
we had placed a heavy wardrobe. He
was a shortish. unpleasant-looking
man and he held the revolver in his
left hand. Neither my husband nor
l were at all nervous people and when
we could find nothing to explain what
had occurred we decided that it must
have been Imagination and that our
being in strong sympathy with each
other had caused us to share the same
hallucination."
Now for the sequel. Shortly after.
ward Mrs. s. accompanied her hus-
band IN a tour of the district. Among
the hills they met a Nine. de Beverly,
who had been a widow for several
years. In the course of a converse
ton with her Mrs. s. discovered that
at one time she had lived in the bun
galow at Tirzapur where the spectral
suicide had manifested itself.
ION hearing that she knew our
bungalow and had actually lived in it,"
Mrs. S. adds, Il was impelled to relate
our strange experience there, which
Hitherto my husband and / had kept
to ourselves. She listened without
comment, but. when l ended my nara
tive by saying that we had come to
the conclusion it must have been
either indigestion or imagination she
turned very pale and said, You have
related something that really hap
pened: my husband shot himself there
before my eyes exactly as you have
described
Il was terribly distressed at having,
all unwittingly, reminded her. Of such
a painful episode. but she reassured
me by saying: 1t is many years ago
and l a talk about it now, though
was i'll for months afterward from the
shock
"She then told me that her husband
had gone into the bedroom through the
door which we kept closed and had
used the very words l quoted and the
whole affair .coincided exactly with
what l had seen. down to the small.
| est detail. Nine. de Beverly spoke
very calmly about her husband and
said that he had been i'll and mentally
unsouSd for some time. l heard long
| afterward that he was a confirmed
drunkard and had ill-treated her in
every way"