by far the most valuable story we have from the earlier period was told to us by a taxi driver in 1910 , who said that he once picked up mary beth downtown in the rue royale one day in 1908 , and though he was certain she had gotten into his taxi alone ( this was a horse-drawn hansom ) , he heard her talking to someone all the way uptown when he opened the door for her before the carriage block at first street , he saw a handsome man with her in the cab she seemed deep in conversation with him , but broke off when she saw the driver , and uttered a short laugh she gave the driver two beautiful gold coins and told him they were worth far more than the fare , and to spend them quickly when the taxi driver looked for the man to follow her out of the cab he saw there was no one there there are numerous other servant stories in our files concerning mary beth 's powers , but all have a common theme - that mary beth was a witch and that she showed her powers whenever she or her possessions or her family was threatened but once more , let us emphasize that the stories of these servants differ markedly from the other material we have .