The Other World; or, Glimpses of the Supernatural (Vol. 1 of 2): Being Facts, Records, and Traditions Relating to Dreams, Omens, Miraculous Occurrences, Apparitions, Wraiths, Warnings, Second-sight, Witchcraft, Necromancy, etc.
Religion
The Other World; or, Glimpses of the Supernatural (Vol. 1 of 2): Being Facts, Records, and Traditions Relating to Dreams, Omens, Miraculous Occurrences, Apparitions, Wraiths, Warnings, Second-sight, Witchcraft, Necromancy, etc.
Spiritualism; Supernatural
On the 30th January, 1850, was born at Bois d’Haine, a village in the
province of Hainaut, in Belgium, Anne Louise Lateau, the daughter of
Gregory and Adèle Lateau. The family, though of humble condition, were at
the time in tolerably comfortable circumstances. The father was employed
as a workman in a neighbouring metal factory, and the cottage in which
they dwelt, together with the land on which it stood, was their own
property. But a sad change soon took place. On the 30th April, 1850,
Gregory Lateau died of small-pox, leaving the mother and three children
(the infant Louise and two little girls of two and three years of age)
unprovided for. To add to their distress, the widow Lateau was seriously
ill, and the infant had caught the small-pox. Abandoned by all, they were
in danger of perishing of starvation had they not been relieved by the
timely aid of a charitable neighbour. It was a long time, however, before
the mother’s health was sufficiently restored to enable her to better
their condition by her own exertions. When eight years old, Louise was
sent to take charge of an old woman confined to her bed, and almost as
poor as themselves. She afterwards received five months’ schooling, which
is all the education she has ever had. At eleven years old, having made
her first communion, she went as a servant to her aunt, with whom she
remained until her death, which occurred two years later. Her next
situation was with a lady at Brussels, but she was obliged to leave
through illness. On her recovery, she was again employed in a farm at
Manage, where she remained till called home by her mother, with whom she
has since lived, working as a dressmaker. With regard to her moral
character, one of its most important features is charity. During the
ravages of the cholera in Belgium, in 1866, she gave examples of the most
heroic devotedness--nursing the sick when their own relations had fled in
dismay, laying out the dead, and, in some instances, even conveying them
to the cemetery. For the rest, she is of a cheerful disposition, simple
and straightforward in her manner, possessed of good sense, without
smartness or enthusiasm. Owing to the small amount of instruction she has
received, her education is limited, but has been much improved by her own
exertions. She speaks French with tolerable fluency, but is unable to
write correctly or read with ease. The mother of Louise is fifty-eight
years of age, of a frank and outspoken character, upright and religious.
Though poor, she refuses to receive any pecuniary assistance, and
manifests great reluctance to the introduction of the numerous visitors
attracted to her cottage from all parts of the world by the wonderful
accounts respecting her daughter. We now come to the consideration of
those phenomena which for nearly six years have been exciting such
universal interest. On Friday, the 24th April, 1868, manifestations of an
extraordinary character commenced with a flow of blood from the chest. The
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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