The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1920-01-22
Picture Was Mashed From Ceiling.

The miracle Picture at the
home Of Morg Donelson, six mites
north sof Prillceton, Mo-, continues
county, and public opinion is very
much divided The Kansas City atar
sent a special reporter to the Donel-
son home to make an investigation,
and here is his story as II appeared
in the Star: \, -
Donelson's farm house, SIX Mlies
north of Princeton, there IS "a Nv, WM ~
spot about as large as ,Ae pains o. ;.
your two hands, which looks as II II
had been freshly scrubbed with soap
That spot is all that remains Of the
Miracle Picture" which dashed TINS
community into a. religious frenzy
two weeks ago and brought more
than five thousand persons on a pii-
grimage from all over this county
and far up into Iowa. ).
z. Whatever it was, the picture Is
ar and cattle raiser, still spends
much of his time sitting in his living
room with an open bible across ms
knees, alternately reading scripture
and gazing toward the ceiling. ne
believes firmly that the queer little
smoke and dust above the gas lamp
the night of December 18th, and
which Disappeared three days
later, was a picture OF his dead Wlte
and baby, drawn by a supernatural
hand.
Here are the facts. Donelson, :,
wife died in premature cnlid plrtn
were buried in the same casket
Donelson says she had predicted the
date of her death almost year be-
fore. The night of December 18th,
two and a half months after his
wife's death, Donelson was sitting in
his living room reading his bible.
He says:
"Suddenly I heard a voice Just as
plain as day saying, 'Morg, look up
/ looked and the house seemed to
open up; saw the forms of my dead
wife and little baby coming down out
of the sky. My father was sitting
across the room and he noticed my
ewes bullying and the strange express
sion on my face. He came over where
1 was sitting and he, too, looked up;
l said to him, Pa, what do you see,
and he said to me. .Morg' what a.: 40
you see,' and then l said, Pa, it's
Annie and the baby
"My mother was in the room, and
she saw it too. The children came
down from upstairs and they saw the
picture right off. Theodore, who is
is years old, said he could see right
down through the ceiling from up
stairs. Joe said, cts mamma come
down to take us away with her;
The picture. Donelson says, was
two and a half or three inches long
and not quite as wide It was faint
" traced. There were the outlines
of the upper part of casket and ly-
ing inside were the indistinct figures
of woman and baby. Donelson
says he could clearly recognize his
wife, the way her hair was parted
and the expression on her face. He
saws he could even tell how the I'M
dertaker had arranged her head in
the casket, and how he draped a
cloth over the baby's face. 1t was
all very clear to him:
Donelson didn't sleep any that
night. The next day he went about
his farm work. He told the story of
the picture to two men Who were
time ne took them into the living
room to see it. They stared ceiling
ward with barred heads for while,
and then nodded knowingly to each
other. Yes, it was Morg's wife, all
right
From .hese two farm hands the
story spread. They took the tale
with them when they went to Prince,
ton Saturday night, and by Sunday
morning the miracle" had grown
nightly in proportions and spread
over all the county Some heard
that it was a print as large as life.
and you could see faint radiance
coming from it. Others heard that
it was as big as the side of door.
BY Sunday noon the roads leading to
DOnelson's home began to fill with
motor loads of curious eager pill