Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1887 — BACK FROM HEAVEN. [ARTICLE]

BACK FROM HEAVEN.

A Tennessee Oirl is Dead Twsnty-flve Minutes. ' Fayetteville (Tens.) Observer. There is one yonng lady, Min Delia Street, of Giles county, who claims to have ‘ spread her white wings and sailed over the sea” to the celestial city last March. The fact has not nntil the present time been in print, and would.probably never have been published had she remained in that lethargic country. There have been at different times persons who have made similar claims, hat the public instead of listening to them with credulity, looked the claimants rather with commiseration, and regarded the fervid acconnts of what they saw as the imaginings of a diseased mind or perchance the product of a disordered liver. Missßtreet is what is known as a “country girl,” and has not enjoyed the educational facilities of large cities, but she is lively and vivacious, and in poifit of intelligence is the eqnal of those raised under the same circumstances, but it is not reasonable to think that a person of such limited advantages could, unassisted, describe anything in as glowing language as she does. It can not belaid that she is more observant than her associates and displays wisdom begotten of vears of experience, for she is Stand I** with reluctant feet Where the brook and river meet— Wo man hood and girlhood Beet.

Her description of the new Jerusalem, which is vivid, is reduced to writing,and is offered in girlish diffidence and youthful innocence. It is slothed in the most elegant and ehaste language, and describes a country more glorious than any upon which the feet of fancy have ever trod, and bears the imprint of a superior mind. There are coincidences connected with this case that challenge attention and show that there was a power greater than the finite involved. About the first of February of the current year Mies Street informed her parents that on the 27th of March following, at four o’clock in the afternoon, she would be taken violently ill; that she would grow worse until the following day at 9 o’clock p. m., at which time she would die and remain in a state of death for twenty-five minutes, and during that period of suspended animation she would visit that “house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” She asked het father not to send for doctors, as human instrumentality could not prevent her journey to Paradise, and also to let him not be alarmed, declaring with implicit confidence that, after enduring the sting of death for twenty-five minutes, her mortal and immortal natures would reunite and she would again become a living soul.

Of course the parents were uneasy about the idol of their fireside, and began to think that her reason was abdicating its throne. On the arrival of the day on which she announced she would be taken ill they evinced great solicitude, inquiring hourly as to her condition She answered cheerily and continued to admonish them not to be alarmed. The hands of the clock toiled around until 4 was finally reached, and to the girl’s parents they never seemed to move so rapidly. While the time-piece was upon the stroke of the hour the young lady was prostrated with sickness and violent pains racked her body. Despite her entreaties, the father sent for skilled physicians, who vainly administered their most potent remedies, and at 9 o’clock on the 28th they pronounced life extinct. The sickness and death dccurred as she had predicted, and in time so did the resuscitation. The father remembered the declaration that she would return to life and looked at the clock, and lo! the pendulum had ceased to vibrate, and the time-niece that had for years faithfully tolled off the hours had stopped while upon the stroke of 9. When the girl returned to consciousness the clock started of its own accord, finished striking the hour, and has run Bince without interruption. By reference to the watch of one of the doctors it was found that she had been insensible—shall we say dead? for twen-ty-five minutes. After the return of animation her tongue was paralysed, and*she indicated by signs that writing material was wanted, which was provided, and she wrote letters which she says were dictated by Christ, and the description previously referred to. The whole covers nineteen pages of foolscap paper. She Bays she is commissioned to read her manuscript wherever she goes. While in the house of the blest she wasasked by a woman to write after returning to her great grand daughter, Mrs. Annie B. Shelton, of Kinteroißh, Sumter County, Ala., and tell her how anxiously her great grandame waited her coming Our informant is not positive as to the correctness cf these names, but thinks that of the old lady was Mrs. Annie Belmont, who said she had been dead ninety-five years. By writing to the address the girl gave it was learned that a woman of that name had died in that place in 1772, and that she had a great grand-daughter resident there. Miss Street says she will be told in 1889 the date of her death. ; The statements as given above are established by unimpeachable witnesses. We attempt no explanation, bnt simply give the facts.