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The Herald, 1907-07-26, Page 31=21±: : WEIRDEST AND most gruesome ghost story true or otherwise, which I ever listened to I heard Mme. Sarah Grand tell to a dinner company assem- bled in the drawing room of the late Major James B. Pond, in Jersey City, during Mule. Grand's visit to thie noun - try in the winter. of 1902. It was a most, conventional dinner party, and in. its initial stages there ed - ,died the usual flotsam and jetsam of •eonventioiral.dinner 'party conversation, All the precious old inanities were ex- changed; all the patent "bromidoms." Literature; art, polities, theology, the crimes of high finance, with conventional dinner party wit and wisdom; we skat- ed over their dangerous surfaces with almost as much grace and celerity as the dishes came and went. Those who had been invited to meet^ the author of "The Heavenly Twins" and had accepted with any preconceived notion That they were going to be regal - ad by finding her the reincarnation of any of her unconventional heroines might have been doomed to disappointment had Major Pond tot suddenly broken into a theological discussion the lady •was sus- taining with a well known divine, by pro- pounding the ever interesting query, "Do you believe in ghosts." Now, to that categorical question no wise man or woman ever gives a cate- gorieal answer. Only the foolish and ig- norant answer in terms of yes or no. And Mme. Sarah Grand is a wise woman. Moreover, Mme. Grand. is .an artist, and in virtue of that title she proceeded to answer Major Pond'saquestion in an un- mistakable way by relating to our erst- while conventional dinner party a series of semeirkabie ghost stories, each and ev- ery one of which she personally believed to be authentic. One exceedingly thrill- ing: one she declared to have been a per- sonal.experience of herself and her step- children,' and the others were all frog soiirces.she - sincerely believed to be un- questioxhable and unimpeachable. Of the latter the story of "The Driver of the Hearse" was perhaps the most impres- erver—impressive not only because of the peculiar nature of the story itself and the extraordinarily artistic woy in which it the additional face of the gen- uineness of its phenomena. Some fifteen years previous, so the tale ran, a woman friend of Mme. Grand 'began •to cause her 'family and friends considerable grave apprehension because of what seemed to be a case of approach- ing insanity. This woman, whom for ob- tens reasons we shall here speak of as Mrs. A., was the wife of a well known cotntry gentleman. and landed proprietor of Kent. She was a woman of brilliant social gifts, and vein! popular in society, both in the couiitry and in London, where her house in Mayfair was ,and indeed still is, not for its -hospitality. to al. With .all sorts of pleasant anti- cipations Mrs. A. leaned out of the win- dow and watched the approach of the vehicle, as it appeared and disappeared behind the closely clipped hedges and clumps of trees that bordered the road- side. At the moment Mrs, A. was struck by the fact that the carriage moved very slowly, and as it drew nearer she became much impressed by theoddity of its shape ,and the unique manner in which the horses were caparisoned. Nev- er outside of a royal pageant, thought Mrs. A., had there ever been seen such a queer vehicle as this great black equi- page, four plumes at each corner, and drawn by two massive horses, upon the heads of which were also black plumes. In a few moments the vehicle must pass close to her own house, for, as she already been stated, the road to London here made a sharp dip so that it -came close to the hedge, which was but a few rods from her window. Eagerly Mrs. A. watched that part of the moon flood- ed. road where the carriage would emerge from the chump . of alder trees and pass along the open space before her own brightly lighted carriage entrance. As she watched and waited Mrs. A. be- came impressed with the strange fact that thus far she bad not heard. a sound of the horses' hoofs nor of the carriage wheels, all of which puzzled her more and more the nearer the vehicle came. the phantom hearse with the tiedriver. By nightfall the matter had eons.* be regarded as a joke by Mrs. A's, fa sly and friends; "and by bedtime Mra; who ordinarily nada keen sense humor, 'gave way to a very femin expression of ill humor and disgust the manner in which her story had co to be regarded. Being ,a very practical woman and given to' superstitious fears, she disn sed her Maid after the usual services 1 been performed. Then, patting out light, she said her sprayers and, wi out any more ado, went bo bed and asleep. She awoke, as was her invaria habit, about two o'clock. The moonlit was streaming into her room and, membering her strange experience of night previous, she arose and went to same window from which she had s the hearse. The scene was as peace and quiet as it had been the night bef Her eyes wandered over the hills downs and rested for a moment upon point ;of the road where she had first c covered the funeral equipage. To great amazernent there it was ag moving slowly clown the broad, smo highway. She Ieaned out of the win lik one.spellbound. Slowly and Bile it sew' nearer and nearer. Then fo" few. ',moments It was lost to view in think shadows of the alders flanking road's approach to her own gates, now:;• at last it 'heeled into the o under, her window, the great black he with ;its black plumes waving from e corner, the big black horses, their h capped with sable plumes and, stran than ;;all else, the 'grotesque drive his brass buttoned uniform and cap. 11In3' A. Held her breath. The dr pulled;the reins gently, the horses s ped; oil the very spot they had stet the night before, and, raising his to Mr. 'A's, window, the negro grip ge ghastly grin. Then the horses in once more and drew their Witte freight .into the shadow of the alders. notwaitto Mrs. Thie ',time A.did .t pearance of a hearse at this hour of the see -the vehicle out of sight, as she had night, and at her own gate; for, sure done oil, the previous night, but ran in enough, the driver drew up his black great agitation to the room of her daugh- pair and paused under the glare of the ter, whim. she awakened. However, by lamplight that shed itself from either the time the latter got to the window, gate post. He paused, but just for a the hearse had disappeared around the moment—just long enough, apparently, bend in the road and was no longer to be seen.; Story of the Hearse. The apprehensions referred to were fust caused by a weird story which Mrs. A. one morning told her family regard- ing a hearse with a negro driver which she had seen passing along the highroad the night before. She had prepared for bed rather early that evening, and after dismissing her maidturned out the light herself and was about to lie down when the . beauty, of the moonlight impelled her to go once more to the window and look out upon the peaceful landscape. It was a scene with which. Mrs. A. had been familiar all her life long— the wide reaches of gentle English country, now golden with the ripened harvests, the winding roads, the dark patches of the leafy wooded parks, the roofs of distant country houses and villas and the great broad highroad which on its way to Lon- don led directly past the box hedge only the village, where they had gone to call as she pointed up the road a few rods from her window. on an old friend, formerly a fellow ser- looked and here sure enough it was, for lookedEverything looked to -night just aso n- vent and they had walked home leisure- else herself saw it with her own eyes lied ight on which Mrs. A. other moon- 1 upon the main road. Further inquiry in broad daylight—the hearse. dight nights which Mrs. could.otlhin proved that at the very time the hearse Quietin the patient's fears, the nurse lbar ,from her childhood up. Nothing ,was passing under Mra. A's. window the stood an watched its approach. In strange or unusual aver happened in this coachman and the housemaid were every detail, as she afterward declared quiet Kentish country, she mused to her - approaching the entraee gate, because the affidavit, it was identical with self. Seed time and harvest and seed they both declared that they had seen that seen on previous occasions by Mrs. time again. The houses and the trees Isfrs. A. in the clear moonlight looking' L, ;"xhere were the same great bleak • and the lawns and the hedges, the only . out of the window, and that they •had}, iorses;;and as the equipage drew closer difference from year to ear, and from wondered what she could she also saw that the driver was a negro. y 1 uses o d .be looking at decade to decade, was that the 1 o so intently. No amount of persuasion or. 'Nearer and nearer it drew, and at last were a little older and grayer sand home- su cation; could ;shake thein ator that pulled; up in the open space in front of . lier, the trees . and the lawns and the they$ had' mot neither vehicle nor pedes- the hoarse opposite where Mrs, A. and the hedges a little older, and, if that were •trian on their return Walk and still nurse •:wore stationed. Then the negro, possible, a little greener. And the pea, more mystified than ever, Mrs. A. gave whom the nurse described as about 25 ple—why, nothing happened to the pec- up further inquiry for the night .and scare; old, looked up at them, his face ple except that from time to time went to bed, full of expectation of what distorted 'itself into a horrible grin, and some of them were born and from time morning might reveal, then; 'to 'Mrs: A's,` amazement, for this to` time others of them died and were was a new turn, he lifted his whip and •. Intl away in the quiet churchyard of Imagine her surprise, however,; to die struck' the horses such a sharp blow that the parish. cover the. next morning that the hearse Turtling over these placid reflections and its driver were as much of • a they dashed madly through., the alder in her mind as she feasted her eyes up- conundrum as ever. Diligent inquiry abadfaeand. aaround at thethe urend oseen tate on 'the moonwashed picture, Mrs. A.'s• could throw absolutely not a ray of light Thearse and could henceforth had bear the reverie became suddenly changed into a on the mystery. Nobody of any -note , lively curiosity as she; espied a vehicle had died in the whole countryside for.?ices hi her behalf had a great tonic et - moving along the high road a point more than a year, and indeed the only feet upon Mrs. A. both •mentally' and Cleat a quarter of a mile distant. It death within a radius of ten miles fora physlgal1y. Seas now about 10 o'clock, and immedi- whole fortnight had been that of the• But the strangest thing of alt was yet ately Mrs. A.'s conclusion was that . it village baker's wife, and she had boon t 1 ie 1 4 o'clock un the was the carriage of a belated guest, buried a; week. A telephone message sent. 'whom she had been daily expecting from to friends in a half dozen country houses . London for the last week or more, and along the road on which the hearse had Who for some. reason or other had been passed only added to the mystery. Ab, obliged to . postpone the visit from day 9olutely nobody save Mrs, A. had . seen Negro Driver. • • At last a shadow fell upon the open roadway under the window, and slowly and solemnly the two great plume cap- arisoned black horses stepped into the breach, while behind then rolled a splen- did hearse, upon the box seat of which sat a man in a cap. Mrs. A. was, to say the. least, somewhat startled by the ap- to single out the window where.11•Irs. A. was, and to look up et her with a ghast- ly and diabolical grin upon his repul- sive negro face. Then, the driver's face still upturned, his features still distort- ed in the same fiendish grimace, the black horses drew the hearse once more into the shadow of the alder trees and on down the road leading to the village. Dumbfounded with astonishment, Mrs. A. watched the hearse and its driver until a bend in the road lost them to view. Nor was her astonishment unwarranted, as her family agreed when a few min- utes later she had gone down stairs to inform them of what she had just seen. The nest morning an even more dili- gent inquiry was made over the same territory canvassed the day before, but, strange to say, not a person could be found who had seen or heard of the hearse with the negro driver. On the con- trary, there was every evidence that no 'such hearsie could possibly have passed along the ;road, either at the hour Mrs. A. declared she had seen it or, for that matter, any other time. Two carriages, the occupants of which were returning from a. }te party at a neighboring coun- try hoo" e, and travelled along the same road iiia an opposite direction, and could .A. hearse of any kind at that hour of the not fel to have seen such a vehicle had night, was, in that part of the country, they, Met it. an unheard of thing. Where could it have •lYre . A. was by this time in a state come from? And why the strangely re-rntg on hysteria„ spa sou^ident was pulsive negro driver on such. a .splerldid..e 'the reality of what s1 bad. seen. and stately vehicle? And, why, of all ; Thezfamily physician was called in and things, should the driver of a hearse, he i -scribed rest and quiet, confidenti- even if he was a negro, wear a cap with ally.informing the family that his pat - brass buttons and "a brass buttoned 'rent ,suds in the initial stages of nervous coat? And, stranger than anything else, prostrafxion as a result of the unusually why should he, the driver of a. hearse, . arduous`, social duties that had devolved in any circumstances, look up to the ! upon her the preceding season. The story window of a quiet countiy gentlewoman `o£' the hearse the physician disposed of and grin and grin and grin at her? I as a species of hallucination symptomatic Inquiry among ,the members of the' of overwrought nervous condition. household and servants threw no light Seen by the Nurse, Too. upon the mystery. Such of them as were awake at the time had seen nothing of , For two weeks Mrs. A. was constantly what Mrs. A. described, but as Mrs. A's i attended by a nurse, while the physi- maid declared that the coachman and one clan continued to see her every Bother of the housemaids had just that moment i day. During his time nothing further come in from a visit to friends in the was heard of the phantom hearse, until village, and must have met the hearse one hot afternoon about four o'clock the on the road, they were aceordingly sent nurse heard her patient utter a. little for. But, when questioned, both declared scream from the balcony where she re - that they mot no vehicle of any descrip- ,lined in an invalid's chair. Stepping out, tion on the road. They had walked from she found Mrs. A. cowering in terror • . The nurse r. t f s 1n or to rk n- mt re- ey oss 0 ry- be- red the ave see through t is iron gri • +e the elevator operator grin back at her as the car shot upward. Mrs. A. screamed with toner, for it svgs the face of the driver of the hearse, and none other, that she had seen. Sae screamed, and the next moment there were other screams from above, and then with a terrible crash the elevator fell. Everybody in it was killed, everybody in- cluding Mrs. A's. daughter, her nurse and the driver of the hearse hamself.— New York Herald. .9 CHILD LOST IN DESERT, Wanderings of a Baby Over the Cact it Plains of Southern Arizona. Friday evening the seventeen -menthe olid son of John Brown was lost on the desert northeast of town, writes a Mesa: I correspondent of the Arizona Bepuibli- j can, A large number of men started out 1 at once to seareh for the wandering 1 baby and the search was kept up all. ! Bright. The early !part of the night weal stark, and lanterns -and bicycle lave , were used, but no trace of the little one i wee foununtil about 1 o'clock Saar- citay morning, when the moon was shin_ i ing. i A tiny track was found nearly two ! miles from the ehild's home. This was i soon lost, but the tired searchers contin- ued the task of looking for a verys 1 child in a big desert covered 'with ceestaL About daylight a new relay of searchers put in an appearance and. took up the hunt. It was feared by that time that the little one had perished from thirst I and exhaustion, and only the lifeless body, it was fought, would be found. ' It was just a short time before fi I when Charles and Paul Lesusur again i found the trail of the baby, which they followed, and at fifteen minutes past fl they found the lost ebild, standing in a group of cactus, itself so covered. by thea cactus thorns that it weealmost indis- tinguishable from its surroundings. The h child was literally covered with eaotuh;: on its face, its arms aiul body, and even in its mouth the cruel thorns were tor- turing the little one. It was incapable , of crying or making a sound of sn land, and. the men who found it might have passed within tt very few feet and missed it but for the tracks which had ' been made to the sand. It seems that Mr. and Mrs. Brgsn came to town Friday, leaving 'the Iniby with the other children. It wandered away and the children could. not fled i about 4 rri The parents sets ed ti.#. iparen � o'clock and themselves spent conker- able time in smirching for the child he- • fore the alarm was given. According , to the older cltilaren they missed the ; little one about 11 o'clock, so it m'tist have wandered on the desert during the - fierce heat of the afternoon, and dein went on in the dark until 'unable to travel any longer. DIAMOND MINING. How It is Carried on at the World's Greatest Mines. The story of the Kimberley diamond arsines began two generations ago, when two bands of Boer immigrants fled out of Cape Colony to' escape British -rule. cine of them, aays a writer in The World Toiday, settled on a patch of gold forty milts in extent which has since become the iambus Rand and yields a hundred million dollars every yew in sue precious metal On'ethe- other hand„ Burgher Jacobs off- Vim to endure the fag of eves, the Waite SUER AILMENTS Can Best be Banished by i». Wil- liams' Pink Pills for Pile People. In summer your blood gets thin and" 'watery. You feel simply wretched -eel tired, worn out, dull, your nerves are ir- ritable, your whole system is out ,pp' gear. There is just one medicine etan banish this summer feeling. 3ifhlt dere i medicine that will give you strength a ;r hk 0.t r'4440400 That hacking cough continues Because your system is exhausted and (;your powers of resistance weakened. Take Sc otift4 Emulsion It huilds up and strengthens your entire systems;. It contains Cod Liver Oil and IlYpophosphites so p$petrels that it is° y'.. to take and easy tear' digest. 000.0044 ALL, DIR t Soc. AND $1.00 IOW •df, to happen, for although what they had seen ;ad a e p see at afternoon—aa hour when the road was', much erequented. by. carria$es and pedes trians not a single person could be 'found who htid seen the hearse, and, what wa still'ntore inexplicable, a half dozen peas: sons .whom Mrs. A. and her , attendafit had seen passing along the road when they met the heaaise, declared eznphatie- all1 they, did not met such a vehicle, and that it could not have met them. ` In the light of this additional testi- mony cit the phut of this nurse, and 'ut- terly baffled by the turn affairs had taken, the physibianz recommended that Mrs. A. take a trip to the'continent in the hope that a, change of scene wetiad Work a beneficial effect. Aeoordingly, a few weeks later Mrs. A. and her daugli- ter, aeeosilpanied by the' nurse (tie mime *he htid°been e. wtthess to the pliaaitom heareekttot out ter a stip to Seriteerlan,d and the Malian lakes, 1 selves and stuff valuable stones into .these saddi n a hundred acres of diamonds, and test days --Dr. Williams' Pink it . Palette his �1 7 ,, M day cc,ntaina an abeoiuto .pltey, li�uve• helped thousands. er a moils 1 •: gems. His ° h ren uses to slay is the sand with your neighbors have already told pb bright 'pebbles for marbles Neighbor 'Schalk they Have helped them. They're fife" might the litho one, and the remarlt that it blood that everyone nee s for sig might be valuable, and the folfowlag year that. 96Sn. Vans' elkirk saw ono of the stones, took it medicine that makes that pure rich, red It was en show at the Universal Bxposition health—they never fail to do bf, Paris as a magnificent diaunond of twee- L. A. Corriere, the popular stewardess ty-eve carats, of the Jacques , Van Cartier Club Montrehl, Two years later old iau tieikirlf himself tre says, eFor two years I was a picked out of the mud plaster of nes�3hbor Du 't'ort's but the famous Star of ,Africa, eonstant sufferer from general debility. which sold for $50,000, That was the be- ginning e- The least work fatigued me and seine- es gins ng of the diamond mines which to- t mes I could not work at all. l` could, day employ 11,000 liatxirs and4,000 Euro- ��,not raise my hand above my hemi with The pits run in tubes or funnels many out feeling pains in all my muscles• I acres in extent, evidently forced up ages was verb weak and sometimes becarxl ago by voleanfc action. At fiat a yellowso dizzythat I would fall unless I coin ground was found, and men left the blue below this severely alone. But the era of lean against something for sup sort.' open workings soon came to an end, al- While in this condition I was r. try o tDWilliams actq'i mode huge fortunes in a sew months. (u4 To -day you will ,.led aepths of 3,000 feet se, acid by the time I had taken ton. !though thousands of independent diggers tPink ]. Pills, - in the diamond mines, and the bottom of boxes I was in perfect health and am diamonds like a .geological pudding, are sup- without t e g the blue funnel has not yet been reached. now able to look after all my duties Both blue and yellow earths, scudded with ji least fatigue. When I lie - weed to be volcanic mud. gen taking the Pills I• was a great siui , .Bolas for blasting are drMMod ,and after ferer—to-day I feel as if I Hever wee 111 the blasts aro touched off the crushed blue —thanks to Dr. Williams' Tank Palls." ground is conveyed to lace mine shaft, 1,600 Dr. Williams' fink Pills strike right foot from the tunnels. Here •the ora is dumped into buckets an wheels and drawn at the root of anaemia, debility, rhea, out of the mines by powerful engines. hoe matiam, indigestion, the secret ills of will sec thousands of men, mostly negroes, tivomen and growing girls, etc., when earning $1.20 a day, perched upon the •blue ground reek in the tunnels, patiently drilling they make new blood—they do just that with ;hammer and chisel. one thing, but they do it well—good, Orsat stretches of ground known as the blood always brings good health, Flold. fleors aro marked off like tennis courts to b all medicine dealers or by mail at receive the precious ore; for air, rain and y sun will do the work of disintegration as cents a box or six boxes for $2.50, from es costly machinery could do It. One The Dr. Williams' Medicine Co., ?iruek- aafne alone has five miles of dumping floors. vine, Ont. Upon their smooth surface is spread the blue clay to the depth of a foot, and after sev- — —�• mai months it crumbles and releases the in destructible crystals within, such es die- Returning to Business at 84 - Monde, garnets, olivines and other stones of A dealer in furniture named Vetteleaser value usually found aesoctated with the most precious of all gems. Abbate, a ± Italian, who has lived 31a 'the disintegration process is helped by harrowing with steam ploughs; said all Bagshot for very many years, recently I such ,ground as remains obdurate goes into.. from business and; taking with the crushing machine. The washing gear e n nu an as a a,• and gravel pass down its ;plane the dism:Wads are arrestee( by a tallowy coating. This On arriving there, 'ill.. Abba -o, tat is then scraped off and melted in a cal- all leis relatives had diad during bis• long ' dawn, in whose bottom the diamonds are absence, decided to return to lyngiandr . ±0 40 like lrreoions groundrs in a gigantic When near the French frontier lie was cQ D is mare 1 f 1 ge its d th dirt him his life's savings wont to+Italy Up - °e •ou • on by brian set upon , who xobbed h1ik4 j They are taken from here to the, general p offices of the monopoly and sorted accord- of all he had, with the exception of ai Mg to value and size, ozones worth 8260;- . and left him for dead, on the road, After i ;000 have been washed in a single day, undergoing. much suffering suet maiiyi . But even the waste earth is not yet dorso to with. 'chiss i speelaity treated lest tallow Hardshisp , llirs•. Abbate managed and machinery aline should ,have ovelooked reach Iiagsshet once again, and is now, , anything of value. That the precaution is et the ane of eighty-four year*, began- d worth while 1s seen tram the fact thoh iia -e• to make a living for himself a his monde worth $1,400;000 were recovered teem `� these tailings last year. old "-- mimes, A Landon syndicate contracts to ` take -4 . 9 the entire output of the ,mines; and all cut- a ting is done in the Continent •of lurolie, chief- I ly in ,Amsterdam and :Anteterte, The °tones very enormouety in quality said /etch in the rough from 41,00 to $200 a carat. There le very little leakage, °moldering the stupendous seal° on whieb the diamond mining is date. Ono year, however, a negro setter was found to have Swailowod 43,100 of stones, but a colleague -broke this record by awalboweig 348 carate of diamonds, 'worth 35,aa0, ,The lcaffirs are constantly devising new modes of smuggling, They wilt load their pleo cco�acid Vigo euueloy puff smokear- to divert suspicion. Leaves of books have boon do out that no ata weuld think diameedswere, oandoaled 'between therm Other smugglers have gone so ear se to Millet eat -keel ,uta non t1Yam- '1'he following winter they spent in. wouuaa+ Seasiore Ex a. 10 Atlantic City and Return Lehigh Valley R. R. From Suspension Bridge, Friday, Jiily 200)» Tickets good 15 days, Allow dope over at Philadelphia. For tieteeta further partictilars call on or /it 11. Office, 64 Xiang street east, ` orotlt;b, Ont.