Show Sat f fA A HEADLINE HUNTER flu b ll dy The Thing That Could Not Be BeBy BeBy BeBy By FLOYD GIBBONS THEY say that U if you work around insane asylums long longA A enough youre you're liable to become insane yourself yourself just 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 can tell you a lot more about it than I can Gladys was once a nurse in one of the larg larg- largest largest largest est insane asylums in London And there came a day when Gladys' Gladys eyes began seeing the impossible impossible-a a day when the doc doc- doctors doctors doctors tors had her seized and confined and held under observation And when Gladys told them they were making a mistake her tone lacked conviction because 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 charge No 8 was a middle-aged middle woman a homicidal case who slept as did all the other patients in a 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 clay and Gladys called the doctor lie He said she was sinking rapidly gave her emergency remedies and left saying he be would return shortly He paid another visit at 1 a. a m. m and pronounced the patient dead Body Was Vas 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 th lt 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 Rose Chargeable to the Parish of Lon Lon- London London London don E. E C. C That finished the business and Margaret asked Gladys to watch her ward while she tidied up She went yent out to the washroom I 1 1 She Saw the Dead Woman in Her lIer Shroud and Gladys leaving the door open in defiance of the rules so that Mar Mar- Margaret Margaret Margaret garet could get back in sat down at her desk In a few Cew moments she heard a low shuffle behind her She looked up and up-and and stifled a scream For there over her shoulder she saw No TIlE 8 TIIE 8 THE DEAD WOMAN WOMAN WOMAN-IN IN HER IIER SHROUD just justas as shed she'd been laid out the out the death tag still hanging from her bosom where Gladys had pinned it Gladys Thought She Was Vas Going Mad MadI I III tried to speak says Gladys but I couldn't utter a sound Was I suffering from hallucinations Was Nas 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 th there sat sat re-sat sat there until I was roused by a piercing shriek and anda a heavy crash Then I leaped to my feet and rushed down the hall hallIn hallIn 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 herand and raised her head Her face was covered with blood that streamed from a deep gash made when she had struck against the bucket in falling alling The blood covered my uniform adding to my terror I grabbed my emergency whistle and blew it loud lond and long Its shrill note seemed to come distantly to my ears cars The affair was taking on the quality of a bad dream Was I dreaming it Was all this just the mad invention of a disordered mind Was 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 hes out in the corridor The doctor she was pointing at gave her a curious look look look-a a look that took in Margaret lying on the floor and the blood on Gladys' Gladys clothes The he same question was in his mind as was in Gladys' Gladys own Was yas she insane It didn't take the doctor long to decide He mo mo- mo- mo motioned boned to the nurses and two of them grabbed Gladys' Gladys arms LOCK HER UP he said and lIand keep her under observation The nurses hustled Gladys off ofT to a cell like the one from which she had taken the body of Hester Rose And then then then-in in the midst of o the confusion in in walked the night watchman He I was supporting a hobbling woman on his arm arm and and the woman was No 8 Watchman Solved the Grisly Mystery She gave ga e me a bit of a a. a shock Gladys heard him say She must mu t have rigged herself up like this and sneaked out I found her taking a walk down the corridor That made a big difference Instead of being an m object of suspicion Gladys became an object of sympathy And it made a lot more dif dif dif- difference ference f rence to Gladys to know that tha other people could see that queer shuf shuf- shuffling fling figure of No 8 too too that that it wasn't an hallucination I needed all the sympathy I got Glad says Gladys s for I was very young then and the shock of that deathly apparition and the sight of Margaret Marg ret covered cover d with blood lood had so unnerved me that I had to take a vacation and didn't t entirely get over the affair for several weeks But there were other pe who fared worse than Gladys Mar Mar- Margaret T garet was ill for or a a. a long time and was disfigured for life And Hes Hester Rose really did die three weeks and two days after her brief mas mas- masquerade into the realm of eternity But f fortunately for me me said Gla I Gladys time s wasn't on duty at the th e Service |