Saw the Virgin Mary.

Daily Inter Ocean de Chicago (Illinois), 27 août 1896 s1Clark, J. E.: "BVM in the sky, New Jersey, 1896", Magonia Exchange, 25 septembre 2007

The Apparition Witnessed Recently by a Farmer in New Jersey.

Moses Depue, a well known farmer of Pahaquarry Township, Warren County, had an experience a few days ago that caused his hair to turn white and that produced such a change in his looks that his wife hardly knew him.

He is a veteran fisherman, and went out early in the day to follow his accustomed habits. The morning was hazy and exceedingly hot, and as the gold gentleman was in the act of hauling in a fine bass he heard a peculiar noise up the river. His eyes were at once riveted on a scene that he will never forget.

He says a huge white cloud arose apparently out of the water. It floated upward several hundred feet and seemed to be ablaze with light. He watched it with intense interest and seemed to be spellbound.

He says a very strange feeling came over him, and the very air seemed charged with a heavenly fragrance. Soon the cloud he had been watching parted in the middle, and the most beautiful saintlike figure appeared. It was the form of a woman.

Her face was radiant with brightness, and the most beautiful golden tresses fell in heavy waves over the marble like shoulders. She was robed in spotless white, the loose garment seeming to fall far below her feet in graceful contour.

The cloud had by this time assumed the shape of a cross, and was floating across the river in a southwesterly direction toward the Jersey shore. Mr. Depue says he thought he could distinguish music, but he was so overcome with emotion that he could not trust his own senses.

He declares that the apparition bore a striking resemblance to the Virgin Mary, whose likeness he had often seen in art galleries. He was so overcome that he fell to the bottom of his boat and lay there in a faint for several minutes.

When he recovered the vision had faded, but the impression was so deep on his mind that it will never be obliterated. He hurried home, and his excited condition alarmed his friends. He told the story to his family, and during the day hundreds of friends and neighbors called at his home to learn the particulars of the remarkable vision.

The old gentleman is not superstitious nor are his friends, but they cannot help regarding the apparition as having a meaning that they cannot as yet fathom. The whole neighborhood is excited over the event.  Belvidere (N.Y.) Correspondence New York Herald.