People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 February 1897 — LIKE MOLIYFANCHER [ARTICLE]

LIKE MOLIYFANCHER

STRANGE THINGS TOLD ABOUT AN OREGON GtRL She Wm Seriously HI end Apparently Died—Revived end Declares She Has Been to Heaven—'ls Totally Blind, bat Can Do Some Very Wonderful Things. Ethel Gilliam, a young girl living with her parents some ten miles east of; Palouse, Or., is at present the subject j of close attention on the part of doctors 1 and others as the result of remarkable powers develpped since her equally as remarkable resuscitation from supposed death. Ethel’s parents are poor but highly respected people, who shun anything like notoriety, and to this is due the fact that the matter has been kept so quiet. Both parents are active members of the Methodist Episcopal church and haye inculcated their religious feelings in the young girl. Late last fall Ethel was taken seriously iIL At that time she was an apparently strong, robust, healthy girl, with every faculty alert. After a long illness she died, so it was thought. The body was cold and clammy and soon became rigid. She was mourned as dead, and # arrangements were made to bury hpr *on the third day. The little body was placed in a casket, and all arrangements were made to consign the remains to the earth. A glass case was over the face of the child, and about an hour before the seryices, while the heartbroken mother was taking her last look at the dear face, she saw the eyes open as if from a deep sleep. The cover was only laid on the casket. The mother removed it, and the child at once sat up, and in a pained voice said: “Oh, mamma, I wish you had not reoalled me. But why is everything so black? Why do you not light the lamp?” An examination then showed that the child was totally blind, though every other faculty was perfect. Although blind, she seeihed endowed with a wonderful power, that enabled her to read and see by the sense of touch alone. She told her parents that she had been in heaven and had seen Jesus and the angels and many friends who had gone before. Although blind, this girl can read by passing her fingers over the printed or written page and can describe persons whose pictures were handed to her. The latter power was first discovered by J. B. Cawthom, a photographer, whose mother lives in Walla Walla. He told the marvelous story to a Sunday school in Palouse City, and Mr. Gray and wife hearing it drove out to the home of the girl to see for themselves. Mr. Gray first handed the sick girl his watch, and she told him that it was a gold watch and the time of day by passing her fingers over the glass. To make sure that her power was genuine a paper was held between he# face and a photograph that Mr. Gray handed to her, and she described the picture perfectly as that of an old gentleman with gray whiskers, wearing a dark suit and a cravat. She read from books and papers handed to her by the use of her fingers. Mr. and Mrs. Gray tell many wonderful things in relation totthis child. She has now been ill 100 days and has not been able to digest any food. As references for the truth of the story Mr. Gray gave the names of the Bev. A. Y. Skee, pastor of the South Methodist Episcopal church of Palouse; the Rev. J. G. Kerrick, La Grande, Or.; H. A. Gray, Thomas Cox and J. B. Cawthorn of Palouse.—San Francisco Chronicle..