Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

Everyone loves a good death omen account (unless you’re the unfortunate one to see it, of course,) and this is something of a doozy.  The “Moncton Transcript,” August 20, 1896:

WILKESBARRE, Aug. 20.--Robert Montgomery, of Wanamie, near here, died today under very peculiar circumstances, and evidently from fright or a belief that he had been warned of his approaching death by a wraith, and that he had a premonition that he could not live.

For years Montgomery has been employed as pump runner in No. 18 colliery of the Lehigh and Wilkesbarre Coal Company at Wanamie. He was a brave soldier in the late war, and was not easily frightened. Two weeks ago he said that while he was attending to his work he heard a peculiar noise in the mine. He paid no attention to it at the time.

A few moments later a peculiar feeling came over him as though there was an awful draught circulating through the mine and he became chilly. He looked up from his work, as he had just started to oil the machinery, at the repetition of the strange noise. He claimed he felt as though there was some one else about besides himself. He could not see any one, and strained his eyes far into the dark recess. Then he beheld a white object about the size of a man.

It moved about as though floating in the air and kept a certain distance from him. He spoke to the strange apparition several times, but not a sound came from it, and it soon disappeared from view, keeping its face toward him all the time. Montgomery at once made a search, but failed to find anyone lurking or hiding about, and he was in a quandary to the matter. He was very much affected, and told his friends he regarded the wraith as an omen of death. He at once gave up his position and, a couple of days later, took to his bed although he had no specific sickness which the doctors could discover.

He continued to talk of the wraith and said it was of no avail to take medicine or care for himself, that he was doomed, and might as well reconcile himself to death. Some of his friends tried to dispel his thoughts about death, by saying it was a man sent in by the company to see if he performed his duty. But the deceased would never believe anything else but that it was the omen of death, and grew gradually weaker until the death he had looked for came early this morning.