[UA] Screams from nowhere

[John C]

> > It reminds me a bit of those apocryphal tales of people vanishing 'into 
>thin
> > air' right in front of witnesses.  The most dramatic concerned a farmer 
>who
> > disappeared in front of his house while his wife and children watched.
> > While he was nowhere in sight, his voice continued in anguished 
>screaming
> > from somewhere under them.  They first thought he had fallen into a
> > sinkhole, but all attempts to dig found nothing but hard packed earth.  
>Over
> > time, his voice began to fade, not from exhaustion, but rather as if he 
>was
> > moving father and farther away.
>
>Wow, that's.... spooky.  Where did you hear of this sort of phenomena?

It's a sort of an Urban Legend, actually.  I was reading about this just the 
other day -- Ambrose Bierce wrote a short story that had this as the plot, 
and apparently a newspaper reporter decided to make use of it on a slow news 
day.  There are several different versions of the story, and none of them 
check out.  Either the people didn't exist, or the town where it happened 
didn't exist, or both.  I can look up the details if anyone likes; I read 
them in a book at work.

Now, the Mad Gasser of Matoon...that's a story.  I'm not sure what to do 
with it yet, but even so!

John Crimmins                     john1x at hotmail.com
     http://www.voicenet.com/~johncrim/index.html

   "We're not at home to Mr. Reasonable, sergeant."
   "I do not hear him knockin', sir."
    --Terry Pratchett, _The Fifth Elephant_

________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com


_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua