Page:The Naturalisation of the Supernatural.pdf/248

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228
Phantasms of the Dead

clothes which he wore were covered with filth from the place where he was found and they were thrown outside the morgue on the ground.

His son came from Ionia and took the corpse home. When he reached there and one of the daughters was told that her father was dead, she fell into a swoon, in which she remained for several hours. When at last she was brought from the swoon, she said, "Where are father's old clothes? He has just appeared to me dressed in a white shirt, black clothes, and felt [misreported for satin] slippers, and told me that after leaving home he sewed a large roll of bills inside his grey shirt with a piece of my red dress and the money is still there." In a short time she fell into another swoon and when out of it demanded that somebody go to Dubuque and get the clothes. She was deathly sick, and is so yet.

The entire family considered it only a hallucination, but the physician advised them to get the clothes, as it might set her mind at rest. The son telephoned Coroner Hoffmann asking if the clothes were still in his possession. He looked and found them in the backyard, although he had supposed they were thrown in the vault as he had intended. He answered that he still had them, and on being told that the son would come to get them, they were wrapped in a bundle.

The young man arrived last Monday afternoon and told Coroner Hofimann what his sister had said. Mr. Hoffmann admitted that the lady had described the identical burial garb in which her father was clad, even to the slippers, although she never saw him after death. and none of the family had seen more than his face through the coffin lid. Curiosity being fully aroused, they took the grey shirt from the bundle and within the bosom found a large roll of bills sewed with a piece of red cloth. The young man said his sister had a red dress exactly like it. The stitches were large and irregular. and looked to be those of a man. The son wrapped up the garments and took them home with him yesterday morning, filled with wonder at the supernatural revelation made to his sister, who is at present lingering between life and death.