A Ghost in the Mine.
Remarkable Claim for Compensation.
One of the most remarkable claims under the Workmen's Compensation Act has been heard at the Tredegar County Court, the Judge reserving his decision.
Frederick George Shellard, a lad aged fourteen years, was in the employ of the Powells Tillery Steam Coal Collieries Company in May last. He was a pit boy, earning 10s. a week as an assistant to his father, a collier. On one occasion the father sent him to get what is known as a "stick."
Amid the gloom and loneliness of the colliery the lad says that he suddenly felt something brush past him and he was confronted by two glaring eyes. This greatly terrified the lad, for most miners are exceedingly superstitious. He cried out to his father to come and help him, and was so overcome by what he regarded as an apparition that he had to be taken home.
The Judge suggested that the eyes were those of a cat, but the solicitor for the lad did not readily assent to this explanation.
Three days afterwards the father took the boy again to the colliery, with a view to convincing him that there was nothing to alarm him. So great was the shock, however, that the boy had not been able to work underground since. The medical evidence showed that the lad now suffered from St. Vitus's dance, brought about by fright.
Compensation was claimed at the rate of 5s. 3d. a week, but the company repudiated liability
Leeds Mercury, 22nd January 1904.
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