Lady in Grey Ghost

Published on November 2016 | Categories: Documents | Downloads: 34 | Comments: 0 | Views: 205
of 5
Download PDF   Embed   Report

Melbourne Argus 1951 (July 13)

Comments

Content

The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848-1954), Friday 13 July 1951, page 2
IP^IfcW;.
f«-J

">1

£

..*»«*"

;#»¿

DO

YOU

BELIEVE

IN

GHOSTS?

THE LADY IN GREY
Mr. George Arden into the swung offices of the Melbourne "Gazette"

THIS true
are ¿rue
-

is

the first of a' series of Australian ghost stories by

GORDON

WILLIAMS.
taken from

The

facts

records of the

happenings reported.
The stories are treated in fictional form, but nothing departs from the record except, here and there, a name which may be introduced to give the narration continuity.... All have their place in the literature of the supernormal in Australia..
.
a

"But

they

passing that

say that people cemetery after dark have

do

^^^3>^^B
seen

^^^l"
..
,

Grey Woman

pointing down
be

towards the earth

feeling thot oil was well with the world.

AT

the Imperial they had been pleased to
well
editorial,

comment

latest

declare that it the glister from the effort of his rival, who fulminated so viciously, but so, so ineffectively, in the "Patriot."

hi« and to had stolen
upon

a master of words, good to feel that the fate of the Colony might well be decided by what he thought next, expressed next. He marched through the outer office, the confounding night the gloom, and lighting, poor nodded generously toward old still Cripps, who was on seated his high stool during his inter

It was good to be an editor, of this good to be a monarch strange of black kingdom ink and white paper, good to be a master of words, good to

minable accounts, and passed into the leading to his passageway room-t-his sacred room. He whistled lightly a few bars of "The Girl I Left Behind Me," then remembered his dignity and coughed, in self-admonition. Then he laid his hand upon the doorknob of his office, turned

the knob
"Excuse

...

me,

please, Mr.
now.
a

Don't go In there Just bin in there again, sir,

Arden; She's

reading

National Library of Australia

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23055547

?

sir, a reading of your letters and splashing the ink about something cruel, tir."

work
sense

.

.

.

and to me.

no

more
. . .

non-

about send Carter who's been

"Jupiter Brown, what are you about, If this time? raving filling you've been yourself with, that villainous stuff they sell you at the tavern again, I'll have your Job out of you-even If you are the oldest compositor this newspaper. on Come, man.
What's this nonsense?" "She's bin in there again, sir. That woman. 'Orrible looking old thing 'Ooked on her, nose sir; tong robes. Rare banshee, that's what she looks like, though I must heard of say I have never her wailing. No, sir, she don't
.
. .

butt find out tampering with my correspondence, and spilling ink I'll ," desk. on my "That sir," won't, you muttered Jupiter, as he moved away. "That won't. Mark you my words, she isn't of this world, sir,
I'll
.
.

banshees

being

a

banshee,

or

v worse." I'll "Banshee bandit, find or cut," shouted Arden. But Arden did discover never who his visitor was-a nocturnal prowler dressed In grey, 'flowing robes, ugly (according to the stories of the two people who

maybe

saw-or

reported that they
...

saw

-

all But she's a banshee And she reads your letters, sir, and pulls 'em about your table and-" "Jupiter, if you have been In there sneaking a glance at my correspondence, I shall have you It is time charged. Banshee! little either sacked we you-but do your soul good that would had you shut away, or forbade you the taverns, by the power of the law."
. . .
.

wail right

.

.

.

..

her most frequently), and at times menacing. "I believe she is somebody they have plundered out of the graveyard," said Brown one night to~ a friend, who "had seen some pretty 'orrible things 'imself in 'is time, believe you me." "I see her pretty often. And she looks very ugly, although it may be because her face allooks twisted up as if she's ways in pain, and crying, like.
.

.
"T SEE

.
her the other night, when I am wandering around the office when I should ha' bin home, She goes right past me, and she couldn't

LAUGH but me
have
than

if

like, sir, you and Tom Jenks

X

seen her now more once, and she get« to fumbling around your desk as large life. 'Orrible as old thing. I did think, sir, she was some stray wench who might have blundered in, like, but there was that time I tried to stop 'er, and my 'and went through her. She's a banshee, Mr. Arden, and make no mistake." Arden walked into his office, improved the light, and glanced at his table. It was disordered. left it so. And he never There letters lying open were (his correspondence was always
. . .

have dark.

been able to see in the She struck) a light, she did, not with a matchbox like I've got here in my hand, but by dipping the top of a lucifer in a bottle bottle full of acid,
. . .

maybe.
"Then she goes into Mr. Arden'? room, and I'm game enough to follow her. Rummaging among letters, she was, his finding herself paper, picking up a pen and

writing
"But

...

.

hear of any writing left behind her. At least, no finds anything. one the

I don't

neatly away-well, neatly as be, anyway) in his drawer. may There a was strange smell about the place-not the pungency of ink, not the musty heaviof damp wood, ¡not a com« ness pound cf the invading smells of streets, the like but something it, what was again? .'Got whiff of brimstone,
_,

filed

tumbled about letters. "Maybe, I think, she has a on crush Mr. Arden, and wants to see who's writing to him. But
then, I say

Only

ghosts don't with humans.
order

to myself, 'Jupiter, have love affair It ain't in the

of tyature.' when young gets Tommy to set her, when I am not there,

"80

said Jupiter. "Exactly," said Arden. "That's it. nonsense Brimst-hey, what is this? Brimstone? Out of here, Brown, ano back to your work no and more non. .

sir,"

.

I say, 'Ah, that will be a lesson to them who think I have been time in the spending too much Imperial.' don't drink Tommy

Imperial.' don't drink Tommy he doesn't get ghosts out -aad of a glass. No more do I. "Mark words, I tell you my whose she is one body has been snatched out of the cemetery, and she is trying to write to the about it." papers "Never heard of a ghost wanting to write a letter to an editor." said his crony, "But Michael. It's she should funny you say been might have a stole from

self,"

have always thought mysaid a quiet man standing by, "that those resurrectionist stories were begun by an old la? who out here for Just such came a crime. "Still, there's been a whisper that one or two bodies have dis-

"I

appeared-practitioners wanted to do post-mortem studies without apprising the relatives or
risking proper the hurt feelings." of their

very

cemetery.

They

.

old Mrs. say Carrltch was stolen away. the old "In times, a lot of
fellers was

.
'

stolen out cemeteries. "Look

of

in my bones that Mr. Arden's lady Is of them," said Brown. one "Could be. But believe you me and Tommy-and maybe others
J.
who have round that gone office looking scared, Gazette but who would never say why-that is, banshee, or whatever is she there. I know." . . * And that is a reconstrucfirst

"¥'VE

got

it

at what

Marker, the mechanic, found. He 'ad to go and repair the vault of
old Mr. and Mrs. Á. The wet had got to the foundations. And when

he opened Mrs. A.'s
and.the

it

up-why,

coffin lid all coffin was empty.

there was askew,
. . ,

tion of one of Melbourne's recorded hauntings. Was there a Grey Woman?
Was Brown he inspired merely by took at the Im-

"Tlf'ARKER

'most dropped. UTA He didn't know what to do. So he just shoved the

the spirits perial?

lid back without letting on to Smlthle who was laboring for for days after he him. And is worried about this body-snatching, and he dcesn't know whether If to tell the police because anything valuable has been pinched from thccoffin he thinks maybe he will be blamed. He asks me it, about and I say to him, 'Let sleeping dogs lie, Marker, what Is
...

done
done.'

is

done

and

can't

be

un-

a "Course, I was 'un young then, and don't take much notice of spectres and haunts and things But they do say that people passing that cemetery after dark
. . .

Burke and that other fellow used to sell dead 'uns to the student doctors and apothecaries. didn't have "We a University for students to want bodies at then, and from what I hear the doctors didn't bother much about

have seen a Grey Woman pointing down toward the earth near ." the vault. "That was a good time ago, though," 'sighed Brown. "I never did take much stock in cemetery stealing, in spite of Mr. Arden's banshee lady. Who would want the bodies? Not like the old days in the Old Country when
. .

unreliable wit.was an Tommy ness? Certainly, there seems, in whatwas recorded ever of the "visitation," no in the haunt purpose ings. quite a good There was deal of evidence, persuasive the ugh-and rewhy (as It was lated) did Mr. Arden race furihis office one ously from night, face blanched, eyes staring? He have been in a fury may quite proper .. to editors. He may but conjecture have would be improper. Ardcm's Orey Lady was spoken cf much, but opinion was very sharply divided. visits Unfortunately, Brown's to the Imperial seem to have obscured the issue, and there was little or no recorded investigation.
. .
.

.

.

-

.

.

.

But
ago

it

that

passing
Collins

Gazette

many years a and woman by the Union Bank, in Street, near which the office once stood, saw a
a

ia

not

so

man

luminous iht«' wmie, jointly elad in flowing draperiei-cn old, old woman, with a lined /ace and /tooted noie; she wavered and) a vanished t as they looked A trick of the mist?., Of light??
...

s

Perhaps.

(
...

studying anatomy. "I have always

thought

my-

But Jupiter Brown agree.

would never'

agree.
.-.-----^^_

.

CAN
h;i
t

.Ol'

rvplun
Il.\,

UlI'M'
\

p|X'iim¿v'
"

nu

:i

hi'<ir\
A

l.i'rri.llx. |is\i hu
"

wrllkiinM
v.u.!
1

ri'srai'eliM
.ile ni .MC III r.i ;i>,

lill -r<-

mam

;li,";
i

I

nrirs li-

AiiMiali.i
111«'

I

III«

.lill.«mi,! uill
i.,

Uni
I

\us|
ni
I I

li.ins

tli\

hem
(Ml
.1

. II
«

l.i vi\

\

¡jllliM
lill'

-i

nil

ll.l\C.
lie
I

?

I

i.nlil

;;

i<t

(ii

h,

m

Sponsor Documents

Or use your account on DocShare.tips

Hide

Forgot your password?

Or register your new account on DocShare.tips

Hide

Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive a link to create a new password.

Back to log-in

Close