Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

In January 1907, a salt merchant named Samuel Hughes left his home in Blackwood, Wales, for an ordinary business trip. Soon afterwards, his dead body was found beneath a bridge.  The investigation into his death was largely unremarkable--it was ruled that in the darkness, Hughes had accidentally fallen off the bridge--but the inquest was marked by an eerie incident related by Hughes’ wife.  Her testimony was recorded in the “South Wales Gazette” for January 25:

A curious story is related by the widow, Mrs. Hughes, who states that she sat up all Saturday night waiting for her husband to come home. At 3 a.m.  she heard a familiar voice cry out, “Bess, Bess,” whereupon she rushed to the front door, expecting to find her husband there. On opening the door, she declares that she saw a figure robed in black and wearing a tall hat, such as her husband often wore. The apparition--for such she now deems it to be--vanished immediately the door was open. Interviewed at Blackwood on Monday afternoon by a Press representative, Mrs. Hughes emphatically confirmed the statement that she had seen an apparition, which she believed to be that of her husband.

"My husband,” she said, "went to Newport on Saturday, and said that he would return by the 5 o'clock train. I met that train, but he did not come. I sat up during the night, sitting in a chair by the fire in the living room. At 3 o'clock in the morning I heard his voice calling “Bess, Bess," and I also distinctly heard his footsteps. I went to the door, and there saw a figure robed in black clothes, with a silk hat on.  The next minute it had vanished. I took the candle and went round the house, but could not find anything. It was pitch dark, and there was not a sound to be heard. I was very much startled, but went back and resumed my seat by the fire for time, and then went and lay down on the bed until daybreak.  I was the more alarmed because on the previous Thursday I had had a remarkable dream, in which I saw my husband engaged in a scuffle with men whose appearance I distinctly remember, and could, if needed, describe.

“After the scuffle ended my husband fell to the ground. This dream has made a great impression on me, so much so that when my husband left on Saturday morning I implored him to be careful, and he assured me he would follow my advice."

If you have any confidence in the concept of precognitive dreams, it may well be that--despite the inquest’s verdict--Mr. Hughes’ death was no accident.