A GHOST.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2224, 9 October 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

A GHOST.

We (Uitenhage Times) remember before we entered our teens entering a millwright's shop in the old country, and there beholding nailed on the j.imb, a piece of human hide, tanned. This we were assured was part of the cuticle of Corder, the murderer of Maria Martin in the Red Barn. We were then told how the murder, months after its committal, had been discovered through revelations made to the mother of the murdered Maria in a dream. We have never heard the truth of this tale questioned. About five years ago another Maria, whose surname was Nelson, was murdered in the Moasel Bay District ; and the murderer has not yet been brought to justice. Last week, acoording to a correspondent of the Mossel Bay Advertiser, a Mr Walter Rainsburg, an American, and a mining engineer and spirit medium of high repute, having incidentally henrd froia Mr John Uys, on whose farm he was prospecting for gold, of the murder above referred to, at once and without being told any of the particulars, undertook to unearth the murderer. The party repaired accordingly to the scene of the crime, and having visited the grave and the spot where the body was found, went into the hoiiMe where deceased had la«»t slept. Raiqsburg, having borrowed a black shawl, and provided Le Grange, who was to act as his amanuensis, with paper and pencil, directed all the persona present to divest themselves of their pocket-knives, &c. He then had all the shutters closed, and went by himself into the bedroom where the girl had last slept, the other people— some half-a-dozen in number, including Mr Uys and Le Grange—remaining in the " voorhuis," with the communicating door left slightly ajar. Rainsburg very soon had his ghost well in hand without the usual accompaniments of a table, slate, aud bit of chalk. Indeed, it would seem that these time-honoured impedimenta of the professional Medium are but very small potatoes to a black shawl and a trusty amanuensis. There could have been no possible collusion, for Rainsburg does not understand Dutch, tho other persona precious little English, and the Ghost (I have it on Mr Le Grange's unimpeachable authority) spoke "telegraph." Tho ghost's communication as taken down by the trusty scribe was to the effect that she was the ghost of Maria Nelson. That in the flesh sho had been murdered by her paramour, Gert Rautenbach. That he had committed the deed with an axe, which axe would be found in a certain bush indicated by her. She further gave a very correct table of distances, '&&, and the particulars of the conversation between herself aud the murderer prior to the committal of the crime. The people in the " voorhuis. " I

heard, of course, Rainsburg'a questions and also certain knocking 1 ! and cooingaas of a gentle dove with a "shocking bad " aore throat. The -scailcc being over, our Professor started off in search of the axe. He walked past a certain bush near where the body was found, then back again until opposite it, and then indicating with his hand said the axe would be found in that direction. La (Jr.inge then walked up to the bush, looked into it, and produced the axe. The magistrate refused to take the dopositions. The correspondent continues to state that Rainsburg is not an engineer but an ignorant impostor, that the bush was cut down since the murder and no a)ce found there. That Rainsburg has been seen near the bush. Nevertheless the Ooms and Tantes believe the story. It is a wonder the magistrate let the man get off.