Told by the Night Porter

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 543, 21 December 1928, Page 7 (Supplement)

Told by the Night Porter

(By

W. ERRIDGE

It happened about 40 years ago in Dunedin, where I was employed as night porter in the leading hotel. A promising young postal clerk, who had been sorting letters, hurrying from the mail-room, tripped over some coco-nut matting and, in falling, twisted his body so that he struck a wall. His neck was broken. They carried his body into the hotel and placed it in an empty room. The landlord gave instructions that the night porter should not be informed that there was a corpse in the hotel. Hearing a number of rats running about in the empty room I went in, to throw a boot and disturb the intruders. I saw the corpse and a rat running round the bed on which it lay. Recovering from my first fright I advanced into the room. One arm of the dead man was raised above his head. They will never get him into a coffln : I thought. -I will place the arm down by his side, with a weight against it. I had not sooner dope this than the arm flew back into its former position, stiffly above the head. As I was bending over I received the full force of the moving hand. My nose bled violently and subsequently I found that it had been broken! The dead man was the first and only one to hit me without retaliation on my part.