Show tN t tf f i- i I v. v i. i I DLIN U NT f 1 The Thing That Could jy Not ot BeBy Be BeBy B By FLOYD GIBBONS TI THEY HEY say that if you work around insane asylums long l lenough enough youre you're re liable hable to become you insane yourself yourself just from association with demented people To my mind that would be one of the most ghastly things that could happen to anyone but Gladys Beeson of Englewood N. N J J. J can tell you a lot more about it than I can Gladys was once a nurse in one of the largest insane asylums in hi London And there came caIne a day when Gladys Gladys' eyes began seeing the impossible a a day when the doctors had her seized and confined and held under observation And when Gladys told them they were making a mistake her tone lacked conviction because be be- cause well Gladys well Gladys wasn't any too sure herself that the doctors weren't right It all came about over the strange affair of patient No 8 She was In InWard InWard inWard Ward 20 of which Gladys had ch charge rge No 8 was a middle-aged middle woman a homicidal ca case e who slept as did all the other patients In a 3 separate cell just off the ward She was ill and Gladys was keeping a close watch over her But on October 11 1896 she took a turn for the worse Gladys paid several visits to her room that evening Shortly before midnight her face turned the color of or clay and Gladys called the doctor He said she was sinking rapidly gave her Ler emergency remedies and left saying he he- would return shortly He lIe paid another visit at 1 a a. a m. m and pronounced the patient 1 dead Body Was Limp for Surprising Time Following the usual custom Gladys called In the nurse from the adjoining ward to help prepare the body for the mortuary Margaret Margaret- the other nurse was nurse was a timid frightened girl scared to death at the idea of such close proximity to a corpse It was an hour since No 8 had been pronounced dead and as she put on the shroud Gladys remarked that it was unusual for a body to tobe tobe tobe be so limp that long after death The two nurses went on to finish their work Gladys attached the death card to the front of the shroud shroud shroud-a a tag reading Hester lose Hose Chargeable to the Parish of London London London Lon Lon- don E. E C C. C That finished the business and Margaret asked Gladys to watch her ward while s she e tidied up She went out to the washroom 6 I i ir r She Saw the Dead Woman Li is Her Shroud and Gladys leaving the door open in defiance of ot the rules so that Margaret Margaret Margaret Mar Mar- garet could get back bade in sat down dO at her desk In a few moments she heard a low shuffle behind her She Silo looked up and up-and and stifled a n scream For there over her shoulder she saw No 8 8 THE THE DEAD WOMAN IN WOMAN IN HER SHROUD just justas as shed she'd been laid out the out the death tag still h hanging nging from her bosom where Gladys GL had pinned it Gladys Thought She Was AVas as Going MadI Mad I I 1 tried to speak sa says Ts Gladys but I couldn't utter a sound Was I suffering from rom h hallucinations Was I going insane myself In dumb amazement I watched No 8 walk down the ward and out of the door door door- the door I had left open for Margaret After No 8 was out of sight I still sat there there sat sat there until I was roused by a n piercing shriek and anda a n heavy crash Then I leaped to my feet and rushed down the hallIn hallIn halL halLIn In the wash room I found Margaret Margaret lying lying senseless on the floor with an overturned fire bucket by her head I knelt down beside her herand herand and raised her head Her face was covered with blood that streamed from a deep gash made when she had struck against the b bucket in falling The blood covered my uniform adding to my terror I grabbed my emergency whistle and blew it loud and long Its shrill note seemed to come distantly to my cars ears The Tile whole affair was taking on the thc quality of a bad dream Was I dreamIng dreaming dream dream- ing lag it Was all this just the mad invention of or a disordered mind Was Vas I going crazy Doctors and nurses came rushing on the scene Among them was the doctor who had certified to the death of Hester Rose Gladys pointed at him and screamed No 8 isn't dead She's out In the corridor The doctor she was pointing at gave her a n curious look look look-a a look that took in hi Margaret lying on the floor and the blood on Gladys Gladys' clothes The same question was in his mind as was in Glad Gladys Gladys' s' s own Was she Insane It didn't take the doctor long to decide He motioned motioned motioned mo mo- to the nurses and two of them grabbed Gladys' Gladys arms LOCK HER UP he said and keep her under observation The nurses hustled Gladys off to a n cell ceD like the tIle one from Crom which she had taken the tho body of Hester Rose And then then inn hi hithe the midst of the c confusion In ln In walked the tho night watchman He ne t was supporting a hobbling woman on his Ws arm arm and and the tho woman was as No 81 8 5 5 Watchman Solved the Grisly Mystery l She gave me a n bit of a shock OJ Gladys heard him say She must have rigged herself up like this and and sneaked out I I found her taking a walk down the tho corridor That made a big difference Instead of being an object of suspicion Gladys became an nn object of ot sympathy And It made a lot more difference difference difference dif dif- ference to Gladys to know that other people could see that queer shuffling shuttling shut shut- fling figure of No 8 a too too that that it wasn't an hallucination I r needed all the sympathy I 1 got ot says Gladys for I was very young then and the shock of that deathly apparition and the sight of Mar Margaret aret covered with blood had so unnerved me that I r had to take a n I vacation and didn't entirely get ct over the affair for several weeks But there were other people who fared worse than Gladys Mararet Margaret Margaret Mar Mar- garet aret was ill for a long time and was disfigured for life lUe And Hester Rose really did die three weeks and two days after her brief masquerade mas mas- Into the realm of eternity But fortunately for me said Gladys I wasn't on duty at the time tune a O aW W U Rustic Names Survive London is the city of contrasts It has age and eternal youth ancient ancient an an- pageantry and modernity picturesque pic plc buildings contrasting with the new Another curious aspect Is that the greatest city of the world the spirit of a country village village village vil vil- lage in the majority of its Important place names Hatton Garden and Covent Garden are on the outskirts of the city Curiously named countrified countrified countrified coun coun- lanes Innes are in the heart henrt of the financial district Lovo Love lane Ivy lane Water lane Maiden l lane and endless other rustic rustle fancies Alligators Destroy Calves Alligators in M Mar a r a n j o 0 Island Brazil big tropical Island at the estuary of ot the Amazon river are not feared by men They are less the No 1 enemy of the cattle ranchers who suITer suffer an annual loss Joss of several thousand contos de reis refs annually one conto is about fifty cents through the killing and destruction destruction destruction de de- de- de by the alligators of numberless numberless numberless num num- berless calves Marajo l Island which Is larger than any one of the tha smaller European Europea i Independent states Is the cattle country of the tha extreme northern sect section n of Brazil |