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diff --git a/22593-h/22593-h.htm b/22593-h/22593-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a29a5d --- /dev/null +++ b/22593-h/22593-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7958 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Shadow World, by Hamlin Garland</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + hr.smler { width: 10%; } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + text-indent: 0px; + } /* page numbers */ + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .right {text-align: right;} + .tbrk { margin-top: 2.75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em;} + + /* index */ + + div.index ul li { padding-top: 1em ;text-align: center; } + + div.index ul ul ul, div.index ul li ul li { padding: 0; text-align: left; } + + div.index ul { list-style: none; margin: 0; } + + div.index ul, div.index ul ul ul li { display: inline; } + + div.index .subitem { display: block; padding-left: 2em; } + + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + pre {font-size: 75%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Shadow World, by Hamlin Garland</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Shadow World</p> +<p>Author: Hamlin Garland</p> +<p>Release Date: September 13, 2007 [eBook #22593]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHADOW WORLD***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Bethanne M. Simms, Martin Pettit,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>THE<br />SHADOW WORLD</h1> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>HAMLIN GARLAND</h2> + +<p class="center">AUTHOR OF<br />"THE CAPTAIN OF THE GRAY-HORSE TROOP"<br />"MONEY MAGIC" ETC.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="center"><img src="images/002.png" width='123' height='150' alt="Publishers logo" /></p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<h4>NEW YORK AND LONDON</h4> + +<h3>HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS</h3> + +<h4>MCMVIII</h4> + +<hr class="smler" /> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="center">Copyright, 1908, by <span class="smcap">Hamlin Garland</span>.<br /> +Copyright, 1908, by <span class="smcap">The Ridgway Company</span>.<br /> +<i>All rights reserved.</i><br />Published September, 1908.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<hr /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="index"> +<ul> +<li><a href="#FOREWORD">FOREWORD</a></li> +<li><a href="#I">CHAPTER I</a></li> +<li><a href="#II">CHAPTER II</a></li> +<li><a href="#III">CHAPTER III</a></li> +<li><a href="#IV">CHAPTER IV</a></li> +<li><a href="#V">CHAPTER V</a></li> +<li><a href="#VI">CHAPTER VI</a></li> +<li><a href="#VII">CHAPTER VII</a></li> +<li><a href="#VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></li> +<li><a href="#IX">CHAPTER IX</a></li> +<li><a href="#ADDENDUM">ADDENDUM</a></li> +</ul> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="FOREWORD" id="FOREWORD"></a>FOREWORD</h2> + +<p>This book is a faithful record, so far as I can make it, of the most +marvellous phenomena which have come under my observation during the +last sixteen or seventeen years. I have used my notes (made immediately +after the sittings) and also my reports to the American Psychical +Society (of which I was at one time a director) as the basis of my +story. For literary purposes I have substituted fictitious names for +real names, and imaginary characters for the actual individuals +concerned; but I have not allowed these necessary expedients to +interfere with the precise truth of the account.</p> + +<p>For example, <i>Miller</i>, an imaginary chemist, has been put in the place +of a scientist much older than thirty-five, in whose library the +inexplicable "third sitting" took place. <i>Fowler</i>, also, is not intended +to depict an individual. The man in whose shoes he stands is one of the +most widely read and deeply experienced spiritists I have ever known, +and I have sincerely tried to present through <i>Fowler</i> the argument +which his prototype might have used. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span><i>Mrs. Quigg</i>, <i>Miss Brush</i>, +<i>Howard</i>, the <i>Camerons</i>, and most of the others, are purely imaginary. +The places in which the sittings took place are not indicated, for the +reason that I do not wish to involve any unwilling witnesses.</p> + +<p>In the case of the psychics, they are, of course, delineated exactly as +they appeared to me, although I have concealed their real names and +places of residence. <i>Mrs. Smiley</i>, whose admirable patience under +investigation makes her an almost ideal subject, is the chief figure +among my "mediums," and I have tried to give her attitude toward us and +toward her faith as she expressed it in our sittings, although the +conversation is necessarily a mixture of imagination and memory. <i>Mrs. +Hartley</i> is a very real and vigorous character—a professional psychic, +it is true, but a woman of intelligence and power. Those in private life +I have guarded with scrupulous care, and I am sure that none of them, +either private or professional, will feel that I have wilfully +misrepresented what took place. My aim throughout has been to deal +directly and simply with the facts involved.</p> + +<p>I have not attempted to be profound or mystical or even scientific, but +I have tried to present clearly, simply, and as nearly without bias as +possible, an account of what I have seen and heard. The weight of +evidence seems, at the moment, to be on the side of the biologists; but +I am willing to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span>reopen the case at any time, although I am, above all, +a man of the open air, of the plains and the mountains, and do not +intend to identify myself with any branch of metapsychical research. It +is probable, therefore, that this is my one and final contribution to +the study of <i>the shadow world</i>.</p> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Hamlin Garland.</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chicago</span>, <i>July, 1908</i>.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<h1>THE SHADOW WORLD</h1> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2> + +<p>A hush fell over the dinner-table, and every ear was open and inclined +as Cameron, the host, continued: "No, I wouldn't say that. There are +some things that are pretty well established—telepathy, for instance."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe even in telepathy," asserted Mrs. Quigg, a very +positive journalist who sat at his right. "I think even <i>that</i> is mere +coincidence."</p> + +<p>Several voices rose in a chorus of protest. "Oh no! Telepathy is real. +Why, I've had experiences—"</p> + +<p>"There you go!" replied Mrs. Quigg, still in the heat of her opposition. +"You will all tell the same story. Your friend was dying in Bombay or +Vienna, and his spirit appeared to you, <i>à la Journal of Psychic +Research</i>, with a message, at the exact hour, computing difference in +time (which no one ever does), and so on. I know that kind of thing—but +that isn't telepathy."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p><p>"What is telepathy, then?" asked little Miss Brush, who paints +miniatures.</p> + +<p>"I can't describe a thing that doesn't exist," replied Mrs. Quigg. "The +word means feeling at a distance, does it not, professor?"</p> + +<p>Harris, a teacher of English, who seldom took a serious view of +anything, answered, "I should call it a long-distance touch."</p> + +<p>"Do you believe in hypnotism, Dr. Miller?" asked Miss Brush, quietly +addressing her neighbor, a young scientist whose specialty was +chemistry.</p> + +<p>"No," replied he; "I don't believe in a single one of these supernatural +forces."</p> + +<p>"You mean you don't believe in anything you have not seen yourself," +said I.</p> + +<p>To this Miller slowly replied: "I believe in Vienna, which I have never +seen, but I don't believe in a Vienna doctor who claims to be able to +hypnotize a man so that he can smile while his leg is being taken off."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's a fact," stated Brierly, the portrait-painter; "that happens +every day in our hospitals here in New York City."</p> + +<p>"Have you ever seen it done?" asked Miller, bristling with opposition.</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Well," asserted Miller, "I wouldn't believe it even if I saw the +operation performed."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p><p>"You don't believe in any mystery unless it is familiar," said I, +warming to the contest.</p> + +<p>"I certainly do not believe in these childish mysteries," responded +Miller, "and it is strange to me that men like Sir Oliver Lodge and Sir +William Crookes should believe in slate-writing and levitation and all +the rest of that hocus-pocus."</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless, hypnotism is a fact," insisted Brierly. "You must have +some faith in the big books on the subject filled with proof. Think of +the tests—"</p> + +<p>"I don't call it a test to stick pins into a person's tongue," said Mrs. +Quigg. "We newspaper people all know that there are in the hypnotic +business what they call 'horses'—that is to say, wretched men and boys, +women sometimes, who have trained themselves so that they can hold hot +pennies, eat red pepper, and do other 'stunts'—we've had their +confessions times enough."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but their confessions are never quite complete," retorted young +Howard. "When I was in college I had one of these 'horses' appeal to me +for help. He was out of a job, and I told him I'd blow him to the supper +of his life if he would render up the secrets of his trade. He took my +offer, but jarred me by confessing that the professor really could +hypnotize him. He had to make believe only part of the time. His +'stunts' were mostly real."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p><p>"It's the same way with mediums," said I. "I have had a good deal of +experience with them, and I've come to the conclusion that they all, +even the most untrustworthy of them, start with at least some small +basis of abnormal power. Is it not rather suggestive that the number of +practising mediums does not materially increase? If it were a mere +matter of deception, would there not be thousands at the trade? As a +matter of fact, there are not fifty advertising mediums in New York at +this moment, though of course the number is kept down by the feeling +that it is a bit disreputable to have these powers."</p> + +<p>"You're too easy on them," said Howard. "I never saw one that wasn't a +cheap skate."</p> + +<p>Again I protested. "Don't be hasty. There are nice ones. My own mother +had this power in her youth, so my father tells me. Her people were +living in Wisconsin at the time when this psychic force developed in +her, and the settlers from many miles around came to see her 'perform.' +An uncle, when a boy of four, did automatic writing, and one of my aunts +recently wrote to me, in relation to my book <i>The Tyranny of the Dark</i>, +that for two years (beginning when she was about seventeen) these powers +of darkness made her life a hell. It won't do to be hasty in condemning +the mediums wholesale. There are many decent people who are possessed by +strange forces, but are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> shy of confessing their abnormalities. Ask your +family physician. He will tell you that he always has at least one +patient who is troubled by occult powers."</p> + +<p>"Medical men call it 'hysteria,'" said Harris.</p> + +<p>"Which doesn't explain anything," I answered. "Many apparently healthy +people possess the more elementary of these powers—often without +knowing it."</p> + +<p>"We are all telepathic in some degree," declared Brierly.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps all the so-called messages from the dead come from living +minds," I suggested—"I mean the minds of those about us. Dr. Reed, a +friend of mine, once arranged to go with a patient to have a test +sitting with a very celebrated psychic who claimed to be able to read +sealed letters. Just before the appointed day, Reed's patient died +suddenly of heart-disease, leaving a sealed letter on his desk. The +doctor, fully alive to the singular opportunity, put the letter in his +pocket and hastened to the medium. The magician took it in his hand and +pondered. At last he said: 'This was written by a man now in the spirit +world. I cannot sense it. There isn't a medium in the world who can read +it, but if you will send it to any person anywhere on the planet and +have it read and resealed, I will tell you what is in it. I cannot get<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> +the words unless some mind in the earth-plane has absorbed them.'"</p> + +<p>Harris spoke first. "That would seem to prove a sort of universal mind +reservoir, wouldn't it?"</p> + +<p>"That is the way my friend figured it. But isn't that a staggering +hypothesis? I have never had a sealed letter read, but the psychic +research people seem to have absolutely proved psychometry to be a fact. +After you read Myers you are ready to believe anything—or nothing."</p> + +<p>The hostess rose. "Suppose we go into the library and have more ghost +stories. Come, Mr. Garland, we can't leave you men here to talk +yourselves out on these interesting subjects. You must let us all hear +what you have to say."</p> + +<p>In more or less jocose mood the company trooped out to the library, +where a fire was glowing in the grate and easy-chairs abounded. The +younger people, bringing cushions, placed themselves beside the hearth, +while I took a seat near Mrs. Cameron and Harris.</p> + +<p>"There!" said Miss Brush, with a gurgle of delight. "This is more like +the proper light and surroundings for creepy tales. Please go on, Mr. +Garland. You said you'd had a good deal of experience—tell us all about +it. I always think of you as a trailer, a man of the plains. How did you +happen to get into this shadow world?"</p> + +<p>"It came about while I was living in Boston.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> It was in 1891, or +possibly 1892. A friend, the editor of the <i>Arena</i>, asked me to become a +member of the American Psychical Society, which he was helping to form. +He wished me to go on the Board of Directors, because, as he said, I was +'young, a keen observer, and without emotional bias'—by which he meant +that I had not been bereaved."</p> + +<p>"Quite right; the loss of a child or a wife weakens even the best of us +illogical," commented Harris. "No man who is mourning a relative has any +business to be calling himself an investigator of spiritualism."</p> + +<p>"Well, the upshot was, I joined the society, became a member of the +Executive Board, was made a special committee on 'physical +phenomena'—that is to say, slate-writing, levitation, and the like—and +set to work. It was like entering a new, vague, and mysterious world. +The first case I investigated brought out one of the most fundamental of +these facts, which is, that this shadow world lies very close to the +sunny, so-called normal day. The secretary of the society had already +begun to receive calls for help. A mechanic had written from South +Boston asking us to see his wife's automatic writing, and a farmer had +come down from Concord to tell us of a haunted house and the mysterious +rappings on its walls. Almost in a day I was made aware of the illusory +side of life."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p><p>"Why illusory?" asked Brierly.</p> + +<p>"Let us call it that for the present," I answered. "Among those who +wrote to us was a woman from Lowell whose daughter had developed strange +powers. Her account, so straightforward and so precise, determined us to +investigate the case. Therefore, our secretary (a young clergyman) and I +took the train for Lowell one autumn afternoon. We found Mrs. Jones +living in a small, old-fashioned frame house standing hard against the +sidewalk, and through the parlor windows, while we awaited the psychic, +I watched an endless line of derby hats as the town's mechanics plodded +by—incessant reminders of the practical, hard-headed world that filled +the street. This was, indeed, a typical case. In half an hour we were +all sitting about the table in a dim light, while the sweet-voiced +mother was talking with 'Charley,' her 'poltergeist'—"</p> + +<p>"What is that, please?" asked Mrs. Quigg.</p> + +<p>"The word means a rollicking spirit who throws things about. I did not +value what happened at this sitting, for the conditions were all the +psychic's own. By-the-way, she was a large, blond, strapping girl of +twenty or so—one of the mill-hands—not in the least the sickly, morbid +creature I had expected to see. As I say, the conditions were such as to +make what took place of no scientific value, and I turned in no report +upon it; but it was all very curious."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p><p>"What happened? Don't skip," bade Mrs. Cameron.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the table rapped and heaved and slid about. A chair crawled to my +lap and at last to the top of the table, apparently of its own motion. A +little rocking-chair moved to and fro precisely as if some one were +sitting in it, and so on. It was all unconvincing at the time, but as I +look back upon it now, after years of experience, I am inclined to think +part of it at least was genuine. And this brings me to say to Mrs. +Quigg, and to any other doubter, that you have only to step aside into +silence and shadow and wait for a moment—and the bewildering will +happen, or you will imagine it to happen. I will agree to furnish from +this company a medium that will astonish even our materialistic friend +Miller."</p> + +<p>There was a loud outcry: "What do you mean? Explain yourself!"</p> + +<p>"I am perfectly certain that if this company will sit as I direct for +twenty-one days at the same hour, in the same room, under the same +conditions, phenomena will develop which will not merely amaze but scare +some of you; and as for you, Mrs. Quigg, you who are so certain that +nothing ever happens, you will be the first to turn pale with awe."</p> + +<p>"Try me! I am wild to be 'shown.'"</p> + +<p>Harris was not so boastful. "You mean, of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> course, that some of these +highly cultured ladies would develop hysteria?"</p> + +<p>"I am not naming the condition; I only say that I have seen some very +hard-headed and self-contained people cut strange capers. The trance and +'impersonation' usually come first."</p> + +<p>"Let's do it!" cried out Miss Brush. "It would be such fun!"</p> + +<p>"You'd be the first to 'go off,'" said I, banteringly.</p> + +<p>Harris agreed. "She is neuropathic."</p> + +<p>"I propose we start a psychic society here and now," said Cameron. "I'll +be president, Mrs. Quigg secretary, and Garland can be the director of +the awful rites. Miss Brush, you shall be the 'mejum.'"</p> + +<p>"Oh no, no!" she cried, "please let some one else be it."</p> + +<p>This amused me, but I seized upon Cameron's notion. "I accept the +arrangement provided you do not hold me responsible for any ill +effects," I said. "It's ticklish business. There are many who hold the +whole process diabolic."</p> + +<p>"Is the house ready for the question?" asked Cameron.</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay!" shouted every one present.</p> + +<p>"The society is formed," announced Cameron. "As president, I suggest a +sitting right now. How about it, Garland?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p><p>"Certainly!" I answered, "for I have an itching in my thumbs that tells +me something witching this way comes."</p> + +<p>The guests rose in a flutter of pleased excitement.</p> + +<p>"How do we go at it?" asked Mrs. Cameron.</p> + +<p>"The first requisite is a small table—"</p> + +<p>"Why a table?" asked Mrs. Quigg.</p> + +<p>"The theory is that it helps to concentrate the minds of the sitters, +and it will also furnish a convenient place to rest our hands. Anyhow, +all the great investigators began this way," I replied, pacifically. "We +may also require a pencil and a pad."</p> + +<p>Miller was on his dignity. "I decline to sit at a table in that foolish +way. I shall look on in lonely grandeur."</p> + +<p>The others were eager to "sit in," as young Howard called it, and soon +nine of us were seated about an oblong mahogany table. Brierly was very +serious, Miss Brush ecstatic, and Mrs. Harris rather nervous.</p> + +<p>I was careful to prepare them all for failure. "This is only a trial +sitting, you know, merely to get our hands in," I warned.</p> + +<p>"Must we keep still?"</p> + +<p>"Oh no! You may talk, if you do so quietly. Please touch fingers, so as +to make a complete circuit. I don't think it really necessary, but it +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>sometimes helps to produce the proper mental state; singing softly also +tends to harmonize the 'conditions,' as the professionals say. Don't +argue and don't be too eager. Lean back and rest. Take a passive +attitude toward the whole problem. I find the whole process very +restful. Harris, will you turn down the lights before—"</p> + +<p>"There!" said Miller, "the hocus-pocus begins. Why not perform in the +light?"</p> + +<p>"Subdued light will bring the proper negative and inward condition +sooner," I replied, taking a malicious delight in his disgust. "Now will +some one sing 'Annie Laurie,' or any other sweet, low song? Let us get +into genial, receptive mood. Miller, you and your fellow-doubters please +retire to the far end of the room."</p> + +<p>In a voice that trembled a little, Mrs. Harris started the dear old +melody, and all joined in, producing a soft and lulling chorus.</p> + +<p>At the end of the song I asked, matter-of-factly: "Are the conditions +right? Are we sitting right?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Quigg sharply queried, "Whom are you talking to?"</p> + +<p>"The 'guides,'" I answered.</p> + +<p>"The 'guides'!" she exclaimed. "Do you believe in the guides?"</p> + +<p>"I believe in the <i>belief</i> of the guides," was my cryptic rejoinder. +"Sing again, please."</p> + +<p>I really had no faith in the conditions of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> circle, but for the joke +of it I kept my sitters in place for nearly an hour by dint of +pretending to hear creakings and to feel throbbings, until at last +little Miss Brush became very deeply concerned. "I feel them, too," she +declared. "Did some one blow on my hands? I felt a cold wave."</p> + +<p>Harris got up abruptly. "I'll join the doubters," said he. "This +tomfoolery is too idiotic for me."</p> + +<p>Cameron followed, and Mrs. Quigg also rose. "I'll go with you," she +said, decidedly. I was willing to quit, too, but Mrs. Harris and Miss +Brush pleaded with me to continue.</p> + +<p>"Close up the circle, then. Probably Harris was the hoodoo. Things will +happen now," I said, briskly, though still without any faith in the +experiment.</p> + +<p>Hardly had Harris left the table when a shudder passed over Mrs. Harris, +her head lifted, and her eyes closed.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, Dolly?" whispered Mrs. Cameron. "Do you feel faint?"</p> + +<p>"Don't be alarmed! Mrs. Harris is only passing into a sleep. Not a word, +Harris!" I said, warningly. "Please move farther away."</p> + +<p>In the dusky light the faces of all the women looked suddenly blanched +and strange as the entranced woman seized upon the table with her hands, +shaking it hard from side to side. The table seemed to wake to diabolic +energy under her palms. This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> was an unexpected development, and I was +almost as much surprised as the others were.</p> + +<p>"Sing again," I commanded, softly.</p> + +<p>As they sang, Mrs. Harris withdrew her hands from the table and sat +rigidly erect, yet with a peaceful look upon her face. "She does it +well," I thought. "I didn't think it in the quiet little lady." At +length one hand lifted and dropped limply upon the table. "It wants to +write," said I. "Where is the pad? I have a pencil."</p> + +<p>As I put a pencil under the hand, it was seized in a very singular way, +and almost instantly Mrs. Cameron gasped, "That's very strange!"</p> + +<p>"Hush!" said I. "Wait!"</p> + +<p>Holding the pencil clumsily as a crippled person might do, the hand +crept over the paper, and at last, after writing several lines, stopped +and lay laxly open. I passed the pad to Brierly. "Read it aloud," I +said.</p> + +<p>He took it to the light and read:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Sara, be not sceptical. Believe and you will be happier. Life is +only the minutest segment of the great circle.</p> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Martin</span>."</p></blockquote> + +<p>"My father!" exclaimed Mrs. Cameron. "Let me see the writing." Brierly +handed the pad to her. She stared upon it in awe and wonder. "It is his +exact signature—and Dolly held the pen just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> as he did—he was +paralyzed toward the last—and could only write by holding his pen that +way."</p> + +<p>"Look! it's moving again," I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>The hand caught up the pencil, and, holding it between the thumb and +forefinger in a peculiar way, began moving it in the air. Brierly, who +sat opposite, translated these movements. "She is drawing, free-hand, in +the air. She is sketching the outline of a boat. See how she measures +and plumbs her lines! Are you addressing me?" he asked of Mrs. Harris.</p> + +<p>The sleeper nodded.</p> + +<p>"Can't you write?" I asked. "Can't you speak?"</p> + +<p>A low gurgle in the throat was the only answer at the moment, but after +a few trials a husky whisper began to be heard. "I will try," she said, +and suddenly began to chuckle, rolling upon one hip and throwing one +foot over the other like a man taking an easy attitude. She now held the +pencil as if it were a cigarette, laughing again with such generous tone +that the other women recoiled. Then she spoke, huskily. "You know—San +Remo—Sands," came brokenly from her lips.</p> + +<p>"Sands?" queried the painter; "who is Sands?"</p> + +<p>"Sands—San Remo—boats."</p> + +<p>The painter was puzzled. "I don't remember any Sands at San Remo. It +must be some student I knew in Paris. Is that what you mean?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p><p>Mrs. Harris violently nodded. As abruptly as it came, this action left +her, and then slowly, imperceptibly, her expression changed, a look of +ineffable maternal sweetness came into her face; she seemed to cradle a +tiny babe upon her arm. At last she sighed, "Oh, the pity of it, the +pity of it!"</p> + +<p>For a minute we sat in silence, so compelling were her gestures and her +tone. At last I asked, "Has any one here lost a little child?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cameron spoke, hesitatingly, "Yes—I lost a little baby—years +ago."</p> + +<p>"She is addressing you—perhaps."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Harris did not respond to this suggestion, but changed into an +impersonation of a rollicking girl of rather common fibre. "Hello, +Sally!" she cried out, and Mrs. Cameron stared at her in blank dismay as +she asked, "Are you talking to me?"</p> + +<p>"You bet I am, you old bag o' wool. Remember Geny? Remember the night on +the door-step? Ooo! but it was cold! <i>You</i> were to blame."</p> + +<p>"What is she talking about?" I asked, seeing that Mrs. Cameron was +reluctant to answer this challenge.</p> + +<p>"She seems to be impersonating an old class-mate of mine at college—"</p> + +<p>"That's what!" broke in the voice.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cameron went on, "Her name was Eugenia Hull—"</p> + +<p>"Is yet," laughed the voice. "Same old sport.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> Couldn't find any man +good enough. You didn't like me, but no matter; I want to tell you that +you're in danger of fire. Don't play with fire. Be careful of fire—"</p> + +<p>Again a calm blankness fell upon the psychic's delicate and sensitive +face, and the hand once more slowly closed upon the pencil.</p> + +<p>"My father again!" exclaimed Mrs. Cameron. "How could Dolly have known +that he held his pen in just that way? She never saw him."</p> + +<p>"Do not place too much value on such performances," I cautioned. "She +has probably heard you describe it. Or she might have taken it out of +your subconscious mind."</p> + +<p>The pencil dropped. The hand lifted. The form of the sleeper expanded +with power. Her face took on benignity and lofty serenity. She rose +slowly, impressively, and with her hand upraised in a peculiar gesture, +laid a blessing upon the head of her hostess. There was so much of +sweetness and tolerance in her face, so much of dignity and power in +every movement that I was moved to applaud the actress. As we all sat +thus, deeply impressed by her towering attitude, Mrs. Cameron whispered: +"Why, it is Bishop Blank! That is exactly the way he held his hand—his +robe!"</p> + +<p>"Is it the bishop?" I asked.</p> + +<p>The psychic bowed and in solemn answer spoke.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> "Tell James all will yet +be well," she said, and, making the sign of blessing once more, sank +back into her chair.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the irreverent ribalds in the far end of the room were +disturbing the solemnity of all this communion with the shades, and at +my suggestion we went up-stairs to Mrs. Cameron's own sitting-room, +where we could be quiet. Seizing a moment when Mrs. Harris was free from +the "influence," I woke her and told her what we were about to do. She +followed Mrs. Cameron readily, although she seemed a little dazed, and +five of us continued the sitting, with Mrs. Quigg and Cameron looking on +with perfectly evident doubt of our psychic's sincerity. Harris was +rigidly excluded.</p> + +<p>In the quiet of this room Mrs. Harris passed almost immediately into +trance—or what seemed like a trance—and ran swiftly over all her +former impersonations. Voice succeeded voice, almost without pause. The +sweet mother with the child, the painter of San Remo, the jovial and +slangy girl, the commanding and majestic figure of the bishop—all +returned repeatedly, in bewildering mixture, dropping away, one after +the other, with disappointing suddenness. And yet each time the messages +grew a little more definite, a little more coherent, until at last they +all cleared up, and this <i>in opposition to our thought, to our first +interpretations</i>. It developed that the painter was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> not named "Sands," +but "Felipi," and that he was only trying to tell Brierly that to +succeed he should paint rocks and sands and old boats at San Remo. +"Pauline," the woman who had seemed to hold a babe, was a friend of Mrs. +Cameron's who had died in childbirth. And then swiftly, unaccountably, +all these gentle or genial influences were scattered as if by something +hellish, something diabolic. The face of the sweet little woman became +fiendish in line. Her lips snarled, her hands clawed like those of a +cat, and out of her mouth came a hoarse imprecation. "I'll tear your +heart out!" she snarled. "I'll kill you soul and body—I'll rip you limb +from limb!" We all recoiled in amazement and wonder. It was as if our +friend had suddenly gone insane.</p> + +<p>I confess to a feeling of profound astonishment. I had never met Mrs. +Harris before, but as she was an intimate friend of Mrs. Cameron, and +quite evidently a woman of culture, I could not think her so practised a +joker as to be "putting all this on."</p> + +<p>While still we sat in silence, another voice uttered a wail of infinite +terror and despair. "I didn't do it! <i>Don't</i> kill me! It was not <i>my</i> +work." And then, still more horrible to hear, a sound like the gurgling +of blood came from the psychic's lips, mixed with babbled, frantic, +incoherent words. I had a perfectly definite impression that she was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +impersonating some one with his throat cut. Her grimaces were disgusting +and terrifying. The women shivered with horror. A few seconds later and +her face changed; the hideous mask became white, expressing rigid, +exalted terror. Her arms were drawn back as if tied at the elbow behind +her back. Her head was uplifted, and in a low, monotonous, hushed voice +she prayed: "Lord Jesus, receive—"</p> + +<p>A gasping, gurgling cry cut short her prayer, and, with tongue +protruding from her mouth, she presented such a picture of a strangling +woman that a sudden clear conception of what it all meant came to me. +"She's impersonating a woman on the scaffold," I explained. "She has +shown us a murder, and now she is depicting an execution. Is it Mrs. R., +of Vermont?" I asked.</p> + +<p>She nodded slowly. "Save me!" she whispered.</p> + +<p>"Waken her, please. Don't let her do that any more," pleaded Mrs. +Cameron, in poignant distress.</p> + +<p>Thereupon I called out, sharply: "That is enough! Wake! <i>Wake!</i>"</p> + +<p>In answer to my command she ceased to groan; her face smoothed out, and +with a bewildered smile she opened her eyes. "What are you saying? Have +I been asleep?"</p> + +<p>"You have, indeed," I replied, "and you've disclosed a deal of dubious +family history. How do you feel?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p><p>"I feel very funny around my neck," she answered, wonderingly. "What +have you been doing to me?" She rubbed her throat. "My neck feels as if +it had a band round it, and my tongue seems swollen. What have you been +about?"</p> + +<p>I held up a warning hand to the others. "You went off into a quiet +little trance, that's all. I was mistaken. Either you are a psychic or +you should have been an actress."</p> + +<p>As we stood thus confronting one another, Mrs. Cameron came between us, +saying, "Do you know, Pauline came and talked with me—"</p> + +<p>At the word <i>Pauline</i> the spell seemed to fall again over the bright +spirit of Mrs. Harris. Her eyelids drooped, her limbs lost their power, +and she sank into her chair as before, a helpless victim, apparently, to +the hidden forces. For a moment I was at a loss. I could not believe +that she was deceiving us, but it was possible that she was deceiving +herself. "In either case, she must be brought out of this," I decided, +and, putting my hands on her shoulders, I said: "If there is any +'control' here, let them stop this. We want no more of it. Stop it!"</p> + +<p>My command was again obeyed, and the psychic slowly came back to +herself, and as she did so I said, warningly, to Mrs. Cameron: "Do not +utter another word of this in Mrs. Harris's presence. She seems to be +extremely sensitive to hypnotic <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>influence, and I think she had better +go out into the air at once."</p> + +<p>In rather subdued mood we went below to rejoin the frankly contemptuous +members of the party.</p> + +<p>"Well, what luck?" cried Howard.</p> + +<p>"You all look rather solemn," said Harris. "What about it? Dolly, what +have you been doing?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cameron described the sitting as wonderful, but Mrs. Harris only +smiled vaguely, and I said: "Your wife seemed to go into a trance and +impersonate a number of individuals. She shows all the signs of a real +sensitive."</p> + +<p>Harris, who had been studying his wife with half-humorous intentness, +now took command. "If you've been shamming, you need discipline; and if +you haven't, you need a doctor. I think we'll go home and have it out," +he added, and shortly after led her away. "Some nice cool air is what we +need," he said at the door.</p> + +<p>No sooner were the Harrises out of the door than the women of the party +fell upon me.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of it, Mr. Garland?" asked Mrs. Cameron.</p> + +<p>"If Mrs. Harris were not your friend, and if I had not seen other +performances of the same sort, I should instantly say that she was +having her joke with us. But I have seen too much of this sort of thing +to take it altogether lightly. That's the way<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> this investigating goes. +One thing corroborates another. 'Impersonation' in the case of a public +medium may mean nothing—on the part of a psychic like your friend Mrs. +Harris it means a very great deal. In support of this, let me tell you +of a similar case. I have a friend, a perfectly trustworthy woman, and +of keen intelligence, whose 'stunt,' as she laughingly calls it, is to +impersonate nameless and suffering spirits who have been hurled into +outer darkness by reason of their own misdeeds or by some singular +chance of their taking off. My friend seems to be able in some way to +free these poor 'earth-bound souls' and send them flying upward to some +heaven. It's all very creepy," I added, warningly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, delightful! Let it be <i>very</i> creepy," called Mrs. Quigg.</p> + +<p>"To begin with, my friend is as keen-eyed, as level-headed as any woman +I know—the last person in the world to be taken for a 'sensitive.' I +had never suspected it in her; but one night she laughingly admitted +having been 'in the work' at one time, and I begged for a sitting. We +were dining at her house—Jack Ross, a Miss Wilcox, and I, all intimate +friends of hers, and she consented. After sitting a few minutes she +turned to me and said: 'My "guide" is here. Be sure to keep near me; +don't let me fall.' She still spoke smilingly, but I could see she was +in earnest.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p><p>"'You see,' she explained, 'I seem to leave the body and to withdraw a +little distance above my chair. From this height I survey my material +self, which seems to be animated by an entirely alien influence. +Sometimes my body is moved by these forces to rise and walk about the +room. In such cases it is necessary for some friend to follow close +behind me, for between the going of "the spirit" and the return of my +"astral self" there lies an appreciable interval when my body is as limp +as an empty sack. I came very near having a bad fall once.'</p> + +<p>"'I understand,' said I. 'I'll keep an eye on you.'</p> + +<p>"In a few moments a change came over her face. She sank into a curious +negative state between trance and reverie. Her lips parted, and a soft +voice came from them. She spoke to Miss Wilcox, who sat opposite her: +'Sister—I am very happy. I am surrounded by children. It is beautiful +here in the happy valley—warm and golden—and oh, the merry children!'</p> + +<p>"Miss Wilcox was deeply moved by this message and for a moment could not +reply. At length she recovered her voice and asked, 'Are you speaking to +me?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes. I am worried about mother. She is sick. Go to her. She needs +help. Good-bye!' The smile faded; my friend's face resumed its +impersonal calm.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p><p>"'Did you recognize the spirit?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"Miss Wilcox hesitated, but at last said: 'My sister was active in the +work of caring for orphan children. But that proves nothing. Anna may +have known it—there is no test in this. It may be only mind-reading.'</p> + +<p>"'You are quite right,' I replied. 'But the message concerning your +mother can be tested, can it not?'</p> + +<p>"At this moment the face of the psychic squared, and a deep, slow voice +came pulsing forth. 'Why do you wilfully blind your eyes? The truth will +prevail. Mystery is all about you. Why doubt that which would comfort +you?'</p> + +<p>"'Who are you?' I inquired.</p> + +<p>"'I am Theodore Parker, the psychic's control,' was the answer.</p> + +<p>"Soon after this my friend opened her eyes and smiled. 'Do you know what +you've said?' I asked. 'Yes, I always have a dim notion of what is going +on,' she answered, 'but why I am moved to speak and act as I do I don't +know. It is just the same when I write automatically. I know when I do +it, but I can't see the connection between my own mind and the writing. +It is as if one lobe of my brain kept watch over the action of the +other.'</p> + +<p>"She now passed into another period of immobility and so sat for a long +time. Suddenly her face hardened, became coarse, common, vicious in +line.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> Flinging out her hand, she struck me in the breast. 'What do you +want of me?' she demanded, in the voice of a harridan. 'What are you all +doing here? You're a nice lot of fools.'</p> + +<p>"'Who are you?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'You know who I am,' she answered, with a hoarse laugh. 'A sweet bunch +you are! Where's Jim?'</p> + +<p>"'Does any one recognize this "party"?' I asked. 'Ross, this must be one +of your set.'</p> + +<p>"Ross laughed, and the 'influence,' thrusting her face close to his, +blurted out, menacingly: 'Don't know me, hey? Well, here I am. I wanted +a show, and they let me in. What you going to do about it?'</p> + +<p>"'I reckon you lit in the wrong door-yard,' I replied; 'nobody knows you +here. Skiddoo!'</p> + +<p>"She made an ugly face at me, and struck at me with her claw-like hand. +'I'd like to smash you!'</p> + +<p>"'Good-bye,' said I. 'Get out!' And she was gone.</p> + +<p>"Before a word could be spoken, a look of hopeless, heart-piercing woe +came over my friend's face. She began to moan and wring her hands most +piteously. 'Oh, where am I?' she wailed. 'It is so cold, so cold! So +cold and dark! Won't somebody help me? Oh, help me!'</p> + +<p>"I gently asked: 'Who are you? Can't you tell us your name?'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p><p>"'Oh, I don't know, I can't tell,' moaned the voice. 'It's all so dark +and cold and lonely. Please tell me where I am. I've lost my name. All +is so dark and cold. Oh, pity me! Let me come in. Let me feel your +light. I'm freezing! Oh, pity me. I'm so lonely. It's so dark.'</p> + +<p>"'Come in,' I said. 'We will help you.'</p> + +<p>"The hands of the psychic crept timidly up my arm and touched my cheek. +'Thank you! Thank you! Oh, the cheer! Oh, the light!' she cried, +ecstatically. 'I see! I know! Good-bye!' And with a sigh of ecstasy the +voice ceased.</p> + +<p>"I can hardly express to you the vivid and yet sombre impression this +made upon me. It was as if a chilled and weary bird, having winged its +way from the winter's midnight into a warm room, had been heartened and +invigorated, had rushed away confident and swift to the sun-lands of the +South.</p> + +<p>"One by one other 'earth-bound souls' who, from one cause or another, +were 'unable to find their way upward,' came into our ken like chilled +and desperate bats condemned to whirl in endless outer darkness and +silence—poor, abortive, anomalous shadows, whose voices pleaded +piteously for release. Nameless, agonized, bewildered, they clung like +moths to the light of our psychic.</p> + +<p>"Some of them appeared to be suffering all the terrors of the damned, +and as they moaned and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> pleaded for light, the lovely face of my friend +was convulsed with agony and her hands fluttered about like wounded +birds. Singular conception! Wonderful power of suggestion!</p> + +<p>"At length, with a glad cry, the last of these blind souls saw, sighed +with happiness, and seemed to vanish upward, as if into some +unfathomable, fourth-dimension heaven. Then the sweet first spirit, the +woman with the glad children, returned to say to Miss Wilcox, 'Be +happy—George <i>is</i> coming back to you.'</p> + +<p>"After she passed, my friend opened her eyes as before, clearly, +smilingly, and said, 'Have you had enough?'</p> + +<p>"'Plenty,' said I. 'You nearly took my eye out in your dramatic fervor. +I must say your ghosts are most unhappy creatures.'</p> + +<p>"She became very serious. 'Please don't think that these spirits are my +affinities. My work is purely philanthropic, so Theodore Parker used to +tell mother. It was my duty, he said, to comfort the cheerless, to +liberate the earth-bound, and so I had to have these poor creatures +waiting around. That's why I gave it up. It got to be too dreadful. We +never could tell what would come next. Murderers and barnburners and +every other accursed spirit seemed to be privileged to come into my poor +empty house and abuse it, although Parker and his band promised to +protect me. I stopped it. I will not sit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> again,' she said, firmly. 'I +don't like it. It would be bad enough to be dominated by one's dead +friends, or the dead friends of one's friends, but to be helpless in the +hands of all the demons and suicides and miscreants of the other world +is intolerable. And if I am not dominated by dead people, I fear I am +acting in response to the minds of vicious living people, and I don't +like that. It's a dreadful feeling—can't you see it is?—this being +open to every wandering gust of passion. I wouldn't let any one of my +children be controlled for the world. Don't ask me to sit again, and +please don't let my friends know of my "gift."'</p> + +<p>"Of course we promised, but the effect of that sitting I shall not soon +forget. By-the-way, Miss Wilcox 'phoned and proved the truth of her +message. Her mother really was ill and in need of her."</p> + +<p>As I closed this story, Cameron said: "Garland, you tell that as if you +believed in it."</p> + +<p>"I certainly do believe in my friend. It's no joke with her. She is +quite certain that she is controlled by those 'on the other side,' and +that to submit is to lose so much of her own individuality. You may call +it hysteria, somnambulism, hypnotism, anything you like, but that +certain people are moved subconsciously to impersonate the dead I am +quite ready to believe. However, 'impersonation' is the least convincing +(from my point of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> view) of all the phases of mediumship. I have paid +very little attention to it in the course of my investigation. It has no +value as evidence. You are still in the tattered fringes of 'spiritism,' +even when you have seen all that impersonation can show you."</p> + +<p>"Well, what do you suggest as the proper method for the society?"</p> + +<p>"As I told you at beginning, I have had a great deal of experience with +these elusive 'facts,' and it chances that a practised though +non-professional psychic with whom I have held many baffling sittings, +is in the city. I may be able to induce her to sit for us."</p> + +<p>"Oh, do, do!" cried Mrs. Cameron and Miss Brush together.</p> + +<p>"Who is she?" asked Miller.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you more about her—next time," I said, tantalizingly. "She +is very puzzling, I assure you. When and where shall we meet?"</p> + +<p>"Here," said Cameron, promptly. "I'm getting interested. Bring on your +marvels."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Miller, and his mouth shut like a steel trap. "Bring on your +faker. It won't take us long to expose her little game."</p> + +<p>"Bigger scientific bigots than you have been conquered," I retorted. +"All right. I'll see what I can do. We'll meet one week from to-day."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Cameron; "come for dinner."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p><p>As I was going out, Mrs. Quigg detained me. "If it had been anybody but +nice little Mrs. Harris, I should say that you had made this all up +between you. As it is, I guess I'll have to admit that there is +something in thought transference and hypnotism. <i>You were her +control.</i>"</p> + +<p>"That will serve for one evening," I retorted. "I'll make you doubt the +existence of matter before we finish this series of sittings." And with +this we parted.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2> + +<p>I was a little late at Cameron's dinner-party, and no sooner had I shown +my face inside the door than a chorus of excited inquiry arose.</p> + +<p>"Where is the medium?" demanded Cameron.</p> + +<p>"Don't tell us you haven't got her!" exclaimed Mrs. Quigg.</p> + +<p>"I haven't her in my pocket, but she has promised to appear a little +later," I replied, serenely.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you bring her to dinner?" asked Mrs. Cameron.</p> + +<p>"Well, she seemed a little shy, and, besides, I was quite sure you would +all want to discuss her, and so—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, do tell us about her. Who is she? Does she perform for a living? +What kind of a person are we to expect?" volleyed Miss Brush.</p> + +<p>To this I replied: "She is a native of the Middle West—Ohio, I believe. +No, she does not do this for a living; in fact, she makes no charge for +her services. She is very gentle and lady-like, and much interested, +naturally, in converting you to spiritualism; for, like most psychics, +she believes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> in spirits. She says her 'controls' have especially urged +her to give me sittings. I am highly flattered to think the spirit folk +should consider me so particularly valuable to their cause. Seriously, I +hope you will appreciate the wonderful concessions Mrs. Smiley is making +in thus putting herself into our hands with the almost certain result of +being discredited by some of us. I believe she really is doing it from a +sense of duty, and is entitled to be treated fairly."</p> + +<p>"Has she been in the business long?" asked Mrs. Quigg, with lurking +sarcasm.</p> + +<p>"Ever since she was about ten years old, I believe, but she sits only +'to spread the glad tidings.'"</p> + +<p>"Is she married?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and has a devoted husband, and a nice little American village +home. I know, for she sent me a photograph of it. She has two children +'in the other world.' Please don't think all mediums the ignorant and +vicious harpies which the newspapers make them out to be. I know several +who are very nice, serious-minded women."</p> + +<p>At this point dinner was announced, and the dining-room became the field +of a hot verbal warfare. The members of the society were all present +excepting Mrs. Harris, who had been greatly upset by her own +performance. Bart Brierly, the painter, was there to defend the mystery +of life against our scientific friend Miller, whose conception of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +universe was very definite indeed. Mrs. Quigg supported Miller. Young +Howard was everywhere in the lists, and his raillery afforded Cameron a +great deal of amusement.</p> + +<p>I contented myself with listening for the first half-hour, but at last +took occasion to say to Miller: "Like all violent opponents of the +metapsychical, you know very little of the subject you are discussing. +To sustain this contention, let me ask if you have ever read the account +of Sir William Crookes's experiments with psychic force?"</p> + +<p>Miller confessed that he had not. "I have avoided doing so, for I +respect Crookes as a chemist," he added.</p> + +<p>I continued: "Crookes began by pooh-poohing the whole subject of +spiritualism, very much as you do, Miller; but after three years of +rigid investigation, he was forced to announce himself convinced of the +truth of many of the so-called spirit phenomena. It is instructive to +recall that when he was willing to hazard his scientific reputation on a +report of this character to the Royal Society, of which he was a member, +his paper was thrown out. The secretary refused even to enter it upon +the files of the institution."</p> + +<p>"I know about that," replied Miller, "and I consider the secretary +justified. To his thinking, Crookes had lost his head."</p> + +<p>"No matter what he thought," I replied. "Any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> paper by a man of +Crookes's standing, with his knowledge of chemistry and of life, and his +long training in exact observation, should have been considered. The +action of the secretary was due simply to prejudice, and many of those +who voted to ignore that report are to-day more than half convinced that +Sir William has been justified. Each of his experiments has been +repeated and his findings verified by scientific men of Europe. It is a +pleasure to add that our own Smithsonian Institution published two of +his speculative papers some years ago. So it goes—the heresy of to-day +is the orthodoxy of to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Didn't Crookes afterward repudiate that early report?" asked Miller.</p> + +<p>"On the contrary, in 1898, upon being elected to the presidency of the +British Association for the Advancement of Science, he said (I think I +can recall almost his exact words): 'No incident in my scientific career +is more widely known than the part I took in certain psychic researches. +Thirty years have passed since I published an account of experiments +tending to show that outside our scientific knowledge there exists a +force exercised by intelligences differing from the ordinary +intelligence common to mortals. This fact in my life is well understood +by those who honored me with the invitation to become your president. +Perhaps among my audience some may feel curious as to whether I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> shall +speak out or be silent. I elect to speak, although briefly. I have +nothing to retract. I adhere to my published statements. Indeed, I might +add much thereto.' And when you realize that this includes his +astounding experience with 'Katie King,' his words become tremendous in +their significance."</p> + +<p>"What was the 'Katie King' experience?" asked Mrs. Cameron. "I never +heard of it."</p> + +<p>"It is a long and very interesting story, but in substance it is this: +While in a condition of contemptuous disbelief as to the alleged +phenomena of spiritualism, Sir William chanced to witness a séance +wherein a young girl named Florence Cook was the medium. Her doings so +puzzled and interested him that he went again and again to see her. +Dissatisfied with the conditions under which the wonders took place, he +asked Miss Cook to come to his house and sit for him and his friends. +This she did. She was a mere girl at the time, about seventeen years of +age, and yet she baffled this great chemist and all his assistants. You +sometimes hear people say, 'Yes, but he was in his dotage.' He was not. +He was in his early prime. He brought to bear all his thirty years' +training in exact observation, and all the mechanical and electrical +appliances he could devise, without once detecting anything deceitful."</p> + +<p>"Even in the 'Katie King' episode?" asked Harris.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p><p>"Even Katie stood the test. But before going into that, let me tell you +some of his other experiments. He says (among other amazing things) that +he has seen a chair move on its own account, without contact with a +medium. He saw Daniel Home—another medium with whom he had +sittings—raised by invisible power completely from the floor of the +room. 'Under rigid test condition,' he writes, 'I have seen a solid, +self-luminous body the size of an egg float noiselessly about the room!' +But wait! I will quote from my notes his exact words." Here I produced +my note-book, and read as follows: "'I have seen a luminous cloud +floating upward toward a picture. Under the strictest test conditions, I +have more than once had a solid, self-luminous, crystalline body placed +in my hand by a hand which did not belong to any person in the room. <i>In +the light</i>, I have seen a luminous cloud hover over a heliotrope on a +side-table, break a sprig off, and carry it to a lady; and on some +occasions I have seen a similar luminous cloud condense to the form of a +hand and carry small objects about. During a séance in full light, a +beautifully formed small hand rose up from an opening in a dining-table +and gave me a flower. This occurred in the light in my own room, while I +was holding the medium's hands and feet. I have retained one of these +perfectly life-like and graceful (spirit) hands in my own, firmly +resolved not to let it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>escape, but it gradually seemed to resolve +itself into vapor, and faded in that manner from my grasp.'"</p> + +<p>"Oh, come now," shouted Howard, "you're joking! Crookes couldn't have +written that."</p> + +<p>I continued to read: "'Under satisfactory test conditions, I have seen +phantom forms and faces—a phantom form came from the corner of the +room, took an accordion in its hand, and glided about the room playing +the instrument.'"</p> + +<p>As I paused, Harris said: "Was all that in his report to the Royal +Society?"</p> + +<p>"It was."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't wonder they thought he was crazy. The whole statement is +preposterous."</p> + +<p>"But that is not all," I hastened to say. "Under rigid conditions scales +were depressed without contact, and a flower, separating itself from a +bouquet, passed through a solid table."</p> + +<p>Miller made a gesture of angry disgust. "To save the reputation of a +really great scientist, don't quote any more of that insane dreaming."</p> + +<p>"I didn't know any one but campers in 'Lily Dale' could be so +bug-house," added Howard.</p> + +<p>I went on. "Crookes might have induced his brother scientists at least +to listen to his report had he stopped with this. But he proceeded to +say that he had witnessed the magic birth of a sentient, palpable, +intelligent human being, who walked about in his household, conversing +freely, while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> the medium, from whom the spirit form sprang, lay in the +cabinet like one dead. It was his account of this 'spirit,' who called +herself 'Katie King,' that caused the whole scientific world to jeer at +the great chemist as a man gone mad."</p> + +<p>"We have a right to draw the line between Crookes the chemist and +Crookes the befuddled dupe," insisted Miller.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cameron drew a long breath. "Do you mean to say that this 'Katie +King' phantom actually <i>talked</i> with the people in the room? Does Sir +William Crookes say that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Over and over again he declares that 'Katie King' appeared as real +as any one else in his house. He becomes quite lyrical in description of +her beauty. She was like a pearl in her purity. Her flesh seemed a +sublimation of ordinary human flesh. And the grace of her manner was so +extraordinary that Lady Crookes and all who saw her became deeply +enamoured of her. She allowed some of them to kiss her, and Crookes +himself was permitted to grasp her hand and walk up and down the room +with her."</p> + +<p>"How was she dressed?" asked Mrs. Brush.</p> + +<p>"There! Now we are getting at the essentials," I exclaimed. "Usually in +white with a turban."</p> + +<p>"Did she look like the medium?"</p> + +<p>"She was utterly unlike Miss Cook in several physical details. She was +half a head taller, her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> face was broader, her ears had not been +pierced, and she was free from certain facial scars that Miss Cook bore; +and once when Miss Cook was suffering from a severe cold, Sir William +tested 'Katie King's' lungs and found them in perfect health. On several +occasions he and several of his friends, among them eminent scientists, +saw 'Katie' and the medium together, and at last succeeded in +photographing them both on the same plate, although never with Miss +Cook's face exposed, because of the danger, to one in a trance, from the +shock of a flash-light."</p> + +<p>"I don't take any stock in that excuse," said Howard. "But go on, I like +this."</p> + +<p>"For months the great chemist brought all his skill to bear on Miss +Cook's mediumship without detecting any fraud or finding any solution of +the mystery. The sittings, which took place in his own library, were +under his own conditions, and he had the assistance of several young and +clever physicists, and yet he could not convict Miss Cook of +double-dealing. The story of the final séance, when 'Katie King' +announced her departure, is as affecting as a scene in a play. She had +said that her real name was 'Annie Morgan,' but that in the spirit world +she was known as 'Katie King.' She came, she said, to do a certain work, +and now, after three years, that work was done, and she must return to +the spirit world."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p><p>"What was that work?"</p> + +<p>"To convince the world of the spirit life, I imagine. 'When the time +came for "Katie" to take her farewell,' writes Crookes, 'I asked that +she would let me see the last of her. Accordingly when she had called +each of the company up to her and had spoken a few words in private, she +gave some general directions for the future guidance and protection of +Miss Cook. From these, which were taken down in shorthand, I quote the +following: "Mr. Crookes has done very well throughout, and I leave +Florrie [the medium], with the greatest confidence, in his hands." +Having concluded her directions, "Katie" invited me into the cabinet +with her, and allowed me to remain until the end.'"</p> + +<p>"Touching confidence!" interrupted Harris.</p> + +<p>"'After closing the curtain she conversed with me for some time, and +then walked across to where Miss Cook was lying senseless on the floor. +Stooping over her, "Katie" touched her and said: "Wake up, Florrie, wake +up! I must leave you now."</p> + +<p>"'Miss Cook then woke, and tearfully entreated "Katie" to stay a little +time longer.</p> + +<p>"'"My dear, I can't; my work is done. God bless you," "Katie" replied, +and then continued speaking to Miss Cook for several minutes. For +several minutes the two were conversing with each other, till at last +Miss Cook's tears prevented her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> speaking. Following "Katie's" +instructions, I then came forward to support Miss Cook, who was falling +onto the floor, sobbing hysterically. I looked round, but the +white-robed "Katie" had gone, never to return to the earth-plane.'"</p> + +<p>I glanced about the table at my silent listeners, and added: "Could +anything be more dramatic than this sad farewell? Evidently the fourth +dimension is both near and very far."</p> + +<p>All the women were deeply impressed with this story, but to Miller it +was as idle as the blowing of the wind. "The man was duped. It is +absolutely impossible to think that he was not grossly deceived."</p> + +<p>"Wait a moment," said I. "I defy you or any man to remain unchanged by +it. The world is just catching up to this brave pioneer. At that time +there were very few scientific men in the metapsychical field. Sir +William stood almost alone. But public sentiment changed rapidly as the +years passed. The English Society for Psychical Research was formed, and +one by one Wallace, Lodge, and other scientific men were convinced of +the truth of these phenomena. In Europe, as early as 1853, the work was +taken up in the true scientific spirit, and Professor Marc Thury and the +Count de Gasparin completely demonstrated the fact of telekinesis; and +at about the same time that the Dialectical Society was getting into +action, Flammarion, the astronomer, took<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> up his study of the subject. +But it was not until 1891 that anything like Crookes's searching +analysis was made of a medium. This important sitting—a sitting which +marks an epoch in science—took place in Milan, and was attended, among +others, by Lombroso and Richet. For the first time, so far as is known, +a flash-light photograph was taken of a table floating in the air."</p> + +<p>At this moment the bell rang, and Mrs. Cameron exclaimed: "There! that +may be your wonder-worker."</p> + +<p>I looked at my watch. "I shouldn't wonder. She is a prompt little +person."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2> + +<p>We trooped into the sitting-room, where Mrs. Smiley, a plain little +woman with a sweet mouth and bright black eyes, was awaiting us. She was +perceptibly abashed by the keen glances that the men directed upon her, +but her manners were those of one natively thoughtful and refined. She +made an excellent impression on every one.</p> + +<p>"Did you bring your magic horn, Mrs. Smiley?" I asked, to relieve her +embarrassment.</p> + +<p>"Oh yes!" she answered, brightly. "I carry that just as a fiddler +carries his fiddle—ready for a tune at any moment."</p> + +<p>She brought a large package from the foot of the sofa and gave it to me. +I took it, but turned it over to Miller. "Here, open this parcel +yourself, Mr. Scientist. I want you to be satisfied as to its +character."</p> + +<p>Miller undid the package as cautiously as if it were an infernal +machine. As the paper opened and fell away, a short, truncated cone of +tin was disclosed, with another smaller one loosely held within it. The +two sections, when adjusted, made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> a plain megaphone, about twenty-four +inches in length and some five inches in diameter at the larger end.</p> + +<p>"What do you do with that?" asked Mrs. Cameron.</p> + +<p>In a perfectly matter-of-fact way Mrs. Smiley replied: "Many of the +spirit voices are very faint, and cannot be heard without this horn. I +am what they call a 'trumpet medium,'" she added, in further +explanation.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say spirits speak through that horn?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. That is my 'phone.'"</p> + +<p>The ladies looked at one another, and Harris said: "Isn't it rather +absurd to expect an immaterial mouth to speak through a tin tube, like +the grocer's boy?"</p> + +<p>She smiled composedly. "I suppose it seems so to you, but to me it just +happens."</p> + +<p>I set briskly to work arranging the library for the circle. In the +middle of the room I placed a plain oaken table, which had been procured +specially for the sitting. On this I stood the tin horn, upright on its +larger end; beside it I laid a pad, a pencil, and a small slate.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Smiley, you are to sit here," I said, drawing an arm-chair to the +end of the table nearest the wall. She took her seat submissively; and +looking around upon my fellow-members with a full <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>knowledge of what was +in their minds, I remarked: "If all goes well to-night, this little +woman, alone and unaided, except by this megaphone, will utterly +confound you. We have had many sittings. We understand each other +perfectly. I am going to treat her as if she were an unconscious +trickster. I am going to use every effort to discover how she +accomplishes these mysterious results, and Miller is to be notably +remorseless. We are going to concede (for the present) the dim light +required. I don't like this, but Mrs. Smiley is giving us every other +condition, and as this is but a trial sitting, we grant it." I turned to +Miller. "The theory is that light acts in direct opposition to the +psychic force, weakening it unaccountably. Nevertheless, darkness is not +absolutely essential. Maxwell secured many convincing movements in the +light, and no doubt we shall be able to do so later."</p> + +<p>"Who is Maxwell?" asked Miss Brush.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Joseph Maxwell, Deputy Attorney-General of the Court of Appeals at +Bordeaux and Doctor of Medicine. He is a noted experimenter with psychic +forces. Indeed, he has the power himself. Now, Mrs. Smiley, I wish to +begin my tests by tying your wrists to the arms of your chair. May I do +so?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly," she cheerfully answered. "You may padlock me, or put me in +an iron cage, if you please. I leave it all to you."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p><p>"Well, there is a certain virtue in knotting a silk thread, for the +reason that it is almost impossible to untie, even in the light, and to +break it, we will agree, invalidates the sitting. For to-night we will +use the thread. Miller, will you watch me?"</p> + +<p>"With the greatest pleasure in the world," he answered, "and as a +scientist I am going to treat you as a possible confederate."</p> + +<p>"Very good. Let each watch the other."</p> + +<p>Beneath the gaze of the smiling company, I took from my pocket a spool +of strong silk twist, and proceeded to fasten the psychic's wrists. Each +arm was tied separately in such wise that she was unable to bring her +hands together, and could not raise her wrists an inch from the chair. +Next, with the aid of Mrs. Cameron, I looped a long piece of tape about +Mrs. Smiley's ankles, knotted it to the rungs of the chair at the back, +and nailed the loose ends to the floor. I then drew chalk marks on the +floor about the chair legs, in order that any movement of the chair, no +matter how slight, might show. Finally, I pushed the table about two +feet away from the psychic's utmost reach.</p> + +<p>"With this arrangement we ought to be able to detect any considerable +movement on your part," I said to my prisoner; "at any rate, I think we +can keep you from jumping upon the table. Miller, you are to sit at her +left; I will keep watch and ward at her right; the others of the society +may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> take seats as they please—only the tradition is that the sexes +should alternate. Cameron, please lock both doors and keep the keys in +your pocket."</p> + +<p>As soon as we were all seated and Cameron had locked the doors, I asked +him to turn down the light, which he did, grumbling: "I don't like this +part of it."</p> + +<p>"Neither do I, but at a first sitting we must not expect too much. I am +sure we shall be able to have more light later on. And now, while we are +all getting into a harmonious frame of mind, suppose we ask Mrs. Smiley +to tell us a little about herself. Where were you born, Mrs. Smiley?"</p> + +<p>She replied, very simply and candidly: "I was born near Cincinnati. My +father was a spiritualist early in the 'craze,' as it was called, and I +was about nine when I became a medium. At first we did not know that I +was the psychic. Demons seemed to take possession of our house, and for +a few weeks nothing movable was safe. After awhile my father became sure +that I was the cause of these disturbances, because everywhere I went +raps were heard: the movement of small objects near where I sat made me +an object of aversion or of actual terror to my school-mates. So finally +my father asked me to sit. I didn't want to do so at first, but he told +me it was my duty. They used to tie me in every way and experiment with +me. It was very wearisome to me, but I submitted, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> I have been +devoted to the work ever since. After my father and mother died I gave +up all opposition to my gift, and now it is a great comfort to me; for +now I get messages from my father and my little daughter almost every +day."</p> + +<p>"Do they speak to you directly?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes. Sometimes clairaudiently, but generally through this cone when I +sit in the dark."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by speaking?" asked Howard. "Do you mean they sound +like actual people?"</p> + +<p>"Just as real as you or any one," she answered.</p> + +<p>I was waiting to say: "Don't be in haste; you will all know from actual +experience what she means by voices."</p> + +<p>"Have you ever seen these forces at work?" asked Harris.</p> + +<p>"No; not the way you mean. I had a terrible shock once that cured me of +being too curious. I was holding an accordion under a table by its +bellows end, as Home used to do, and while the playing was going on I +just believed if I looked under the table I could see something. So I +lifted the cover and peeped under. I didn't know any more for a long +time. When I came to my father was bathing my face and rubbing my hands. +I never tried to 'peek' after that."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that they did this to punish you for your peeping?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p><p>"Yes. They don't like to have you look directly at them when they are +at work."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I never was punished again. I didn't need it."</p> + +<p>"Would 'they' bat me if I were to peek?" asked Howard.</p> + +<p>"They might not; but they refuse to 'work' while any one is looking."</p> + +<p>"All that is suspicious."</p> + +<p>"I know it is, but that is the way they act."</p> + +<p>"You believe 'they' are spirits?"</p> + +<p>"I <i>know</i> they are," she repeated. "If I didn't, I would be desolate. I +have been sitting now for over thirty years, and these friendly voices +are a part of my life. They comfort me more than I can tell."</p> + +<p>She gave this account of herself with an air of quiet conviction that +deeply impressed the circle, and at the end of her little speech I +added: "She has agreed to put herself into our hands for a series of +experiments, and if her health does not fail I think we shall be able to +rival the doings of Florence Cook and Daniel Home, whose mediumships +were the basis of Crookes's report. Now let each one of you spread his +hands, or her hands, upon the table, just touching the little fingers, +in order that a complete circuit may be established. Miller and I will +make connection with our psychic."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p><p>"It all seems childish folly, but we'll do it," said Harris.</p> + +<p>"What may we expect to happen first, Mrs. Smiley?" asked Mrs. Cameron, +after we were in position.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," she answered, frankly. "I have very little control over +these forces. Often, when I am most anxious, nothing happens. Please +don't expect much of anything to-night: my first sittings in a new place +are seldom very good, and so much depends upon those who make up the +circle. I never sit without a fear that my power has gone never to come +back."</p> + +<p>I helped her out in explanation: "The honest medium does not advertise +to perform regularly, for the reason that this force, whatever it is, +seems to lie almost wholly outside the will. Flammarion says 'it may be +set down as a rule that all professional mediums cheat.' That is putting +it pretty strong; but it seems true that the condition which leads to +these phenomena is a very subtle physical and mental adjustment, and +that the slightest distraction or mental unrest defeats everything. If +the medium is paid for her work she is too eager to serve, and +everything tempts her to deceive. Furthermore, it has been proved that +the psychic is in the very nature of the case <i>extremely liable to +suggestion</i>, and the combined wills of the sitters focussed on one +desired phenomena becomes an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> almost irresistible force to certain +psychics. On the other hand, the best observers say that the most +striking proofs of spiritualism lies in the fact that the most amazing +phenomena come in opposition to the will of both the psychic and the +sitters. We may not secure a single movement to-night, and, indeed, we +may have two or three barren sittings, but I am confident that in the +end you will be satisfied. I am going to attempt to put Mrs. Smiley to +sleep now, and when she is in her trance we can discuss her methods +freely."</p> + +<p>I began to hum a low, monotonous tune, and one by one the others joined +in the refrain; soon the psychic's breath became labored, and in the +pauses of the song she moaned. At length she drew her hands as far away +from Miller's and mine as the threads would permit, thus breaking the +circuit.</p> + +<p>"She is in trance," I reported. "Now we have nothing to do but wait. You +may say anything you please, or tell stories or sing songs, only don't +argue. We will remain as we are for a while, and if the 'guides' are +dissatisfied, they will order a change. Generally speaking, the +'controls' are very notional, and when we get into full communication +with 'them' the entire present arrangement may be broken up. The theory +is that all success is due to the co-operation of those 'on the other +side.'"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p><p>"It looks to me like a plain case of hypnotism from this side," +remarked Harris.</p> + +<p>"Aren't there any fixed rules to the game?" asked Howard.</p> + +<p>"After many years' exhaustive study of these antic spirits (approaching +them always from the naturalistic side), Maxwell deduces certain helpful +rules: 'Use a small room,' he says, 'and have it warm. Medium and +sitters must not have cold hands or feet.'"</p> + +<p>"I can understand the psychic having cold feet now and then," +interjected Harris.</p> + +<p>"Maxwell finds dry air and clear weather most favorable; rainy and windy +weather often cause failures. There seems to be some connection with the +electrical condition of the atmosphere. After proving that a white light +deters phenomena, he uses green, violet, or yellow screens for his +lamps. 'Any kind of a table will do for the raps, or for levitation,' he +says, 'but one with a double top seems to give best results.' His +sitters use wooden chairs with cane seats, and my own experience is that +a bare floor helps. He especially directs that the guide be +consulted—'let the phenomena come as spontaneously as possible,' he +adds."</p> + +<p>"Does he find this sandwiching of the sexes helpful?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. He says six or eight people, men and women alternating, make the +best circle. 'Take<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> things seriously, but not solemnly,' he advises. +'Don't argue; address the "control," and follow his advice. Avoid +confusion by electing a director and asking for only one thing at a +time. Keep the same people in the group for at least six sittings. Sit +in a circle and touch hands. Be patient and good-tempered. A worried, +irritated, sullen medium is a poor instrument. Finally'—and this is +most important—'don't overwork the medium.' And with this important +statement he ends: '<i>I am persuaded of the absolute harmlessness of +these experiments, provided they are properly conducted.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"I am glad to know that," said Mrs. Quigg. "After seeing Mrs. Harris's +trance, I was in doubt."</p> + +<p>"Maxwell's hints are extremely valuable to me," I continued, "for they +confirm my own methods, some of which I had to learn by tedious +experience. If I had known, for instance, the folly of allowing +everybody to quiz the psychic, I might have been spared many hours of +tiresome sitting. Maxwell is, indeed, an ideal investigator—he has made +a great advance in methods, and his conclusions, though tentative, are +most suggestive. No unprejudiced reader can finish his book, +<i>Metapsychical Phenomena</i>, without feeling that its author is a brave +and fearless writer, as well as a cautious and sane reasoner. His +published experience throws a flood of light on mediums and their +puzzling peculiarities."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p><p>"But it seems to me those rules give the medium and his 'guides' the +free hand," said Miller, discontentedly.</p> + +<p>"By no means," I retorted. "Maxwell plainly says, 'Where the "control" +is insisting upon something which I do not like, I politely resist, and +end by getting my own way.' Note the 'politely.' In short, he recognizes +that a genuine medium is a very precious instrument, and he does not +begin by clubbing him—or her—into submission. For all their wondrous +powers, the people who possess these powers are very weak. They are not +allowed to make anything more than a living out of the practise of the +magic, and they live under the threat of having the power withdrawn. +They are helpless in the face of a challenge to produce the phenomena, +and yet the hidden forces are themselves helpless without them—"</p> + +<p>"Is the table throbbing?" asked Brierly.</p> + +<p>"I don't feel it."</p> + +<p>"Have you ever had any convincing evidence of this psychic force—such +as movement of objects without contact?" asked Harris.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I have had a table rise at least twenty inches from the floor in +the full light, with no one present but the medium and myself, and while +our finger-tips alone touched the top. It felt as if it were floating in +a thick and resilient liquid, and when I pressed upon it, it oscillated, +in a curious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> way, as if the power were applied from below and in the +centre of the table. The psychic was a young girl, and I am certain +played no trick. I could see her feet on the floor, and her finger-tips +were, like mine, on the top of the table. This was the clearest test of +levitation I ever had, but the lifting of a pencil in independent +writing is the same thing in effect."</p> + +<p>"I see you have acquired all the 'patter,'" remarked Miller.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes indeed; all the 'patter,' and some of the guile. For instance, +when I want to use 'those who have passed on' I do so, and when I don't +I invent means to deceive them."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Quigg caught me up on that. "Can you deceive 'them'?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know that I do, really; but, at any rate, 'they' are not always +mind-readers—that I have proved very conclusively. In all my experience +I have never had any satisfactory evidence of the clairvoyance of these +manifesting intelligences."</p> + +<p>"I thought 'they' could read one's every thought."</p> + +<p>"I do not find that 'they' can read so much as <i>one</i> of my thoughts, and +I would not invest a dollar on their recommendations. Seldom does so +much as a familiar name come up in my sittings, and no message of any +intimate sort has ever come from the shadow world for me. The messages +are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>intelligent, but below rather than above the average. 'They' always +seem very fallible, very human to me, and nothing 'they' do startles me. +I have no patience with those who make much of the morbid side of this +business. To me it is neither 'theism' nor 'diabolism,' and is neither +destruction of an old religion or the basis of a new one—But all this +verges on the controversial, and is not good for our psychic. Let's sing +some good old tune, like 'Suwanee River' or 'Lily Dale.' We must keep to +the genial side of conversation. Spread your hands wide on the table and +be as comfortable as you can. We may have to wait a long time now, all +on Miller's account."</p> + +<p>"Because he is a sceptic?"</p> + +<p>"No; because he's belligerent," I answered. "It doesn't matter whether +you believe or not if you do not stir up controversy. Miller's +'suggestion' is adverse to the serenity of the psychic, that's all. The +old-time sleepy back-parlor logic has no weight with me. Maxwell and +Flammarion are my guides."</p> + +<p><i>For four hours we sat thus, and nothing happened.</i> How I kept them at +it I do not now understand, but they stayed. We sang, joked, told +stories, gossiped in desperate effort to kill time, and not one rap, +tap, or crackle came to guide us or to give indication of the presence +of any unusual power. Part of the time Mrs. Smiley was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> awake and sorely +grieved at her failure. She understood very well the position in which I +seemed to stand. To Miller I was a dupe, the victim of a trickster. He +himself afterward confessed that at the time he almost regretted his +preternatural acuteness, and was ready to take himself away in order to +let the show go on. But he didn't, and from time to time I encouraged +our psychic by saying: "Never mind, Mrs. Smiley, there are other +evenings to come. We will not despair."</p> + +<p>At last she sank into profound sleep, and at exactly twelve o'clock I +heard a faint tapping on top of the piano, just behind Miller. "Hooray, +here they are!" I exclaimed, with vast relief. "What is the matter?" I +asked of "the presence." "Aren't we sitting right?"</p> + +<p>"<i>No</i>," was the answer, by means of one decided tap.</p> + +<p>"Am I right?"</p> + +<p>"<i>No</i>," answered the taps.</p> + +<p>I may explain at this point that in the accepted code of signals one tap +means "<i>No</i>," three taps mean "<i>Yes</i>," and two taps, "<i>Don't know</i>," +"<i>Will try</i>," or any other doubtful state of mind. One has, of course, +to guess at the precise meaning; but one may confirm one's +interpretation by putting it in the form of a question that can be +answered by "<i>Yes</i>" or "<i>No</i>."</p> + +<p>"Shall I change with Miller?" I asked.</p> + +<p>Three brisk taps made affirmative answer.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p><p>I exchanged places with Miller, but did not again touch Mrs. Smiley's +hand. Immediately thereafter the sound of soft drumming came from the +piano at a point entirely out of reach of the psychic, and at my request +the drummer kept time to my whistling. After some minutes of this +foolery "the force" left the piano abruptly, as if with a leap, and +dropped to the middle of the table. A light, fumbling noise followed, +and I called out: "Is every hand in the circle accounted for?"</p> + +<p>While the members of the group were, in turn, assuring me of this, a +small bell on the table was taken up and rung, and the table itself was +shoved powerfully toward the circle and away from the psychic. I assure +you, my sitters were profoundly interested now, and some of the women +were startled. A sharp, pecking sound came upon the cone. I called +attention to the fact that this took place at least six feet from the +psychic, and a moment later, with intent to detect her in any movement, +I leaned far forward so that my head came close to her breast. I could +not discern the slightest motion; I could not even hear her breathe. All +this, while very impressive to me, was referred by the others to +trickery on Mrs. Smiley's part.</p> + +<p>At my request, the drumming on the cone kept time to "Dixey" and "Yankee +Doodle," and at length I said to "the spirit": "You must have liked +topical songs when you were on the earth-plane."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p><p>Instantly <i>the cone was swept violently from the table, and a deep, +jovial, strong whisper came from the horn to me</i>. "<i>I do now</i>," was the +amazing answer.</p> + +<p>"Who are you?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"<i>Wilbur Thompson.</i>"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it is you, is it? Well, I am glad you've found a voice; I felt +rather helpless up to this moment. Are we sitting right?"</p> + +<p>"<i>All right.</i>"</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do for us to-night? Can you raise the table?"</p> + +<p>"<i>I'll try</i>," he whispered again.</p> + +<p>"Are there other 'spirits' here?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Yes; many.</i>"</p> + +<p>"Can't 'they' write their names on the pad?"</p> + +<p>There was a moment's silence, and then the sound of writing began in the +middle of the table. When this had finished, I said, "Did you succeed?"</p> + +<p>Again the cone rose, and another whisper, a fainter voice, answered: +"<i>Yes, but the writing is very miserable.</i>"</p> + +<p>The rest of the sitters were silent with amazement till Miller said, in +a tone of disgust: "That is of no value. It is so easy for Howard, or +some one else, to break the circle and write or speak through the cone."</p> + +<p>"Yes, we'll have to trust one another for to-night," I admitted.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p><p>The psychic now began to twist and moan and struggle, choking, gasping +in such evident suffering that Mrs. Cameron cried out: "Mr. Garland, +don't you hear? She is ill! Let me go to her!"</p> + +<p>"Don't be alarmed," I replied. "This struggle almost always precedes her +strongest manifestations. It seems cruel to say so, but, remember, Mrs. +Smiley has been through these paroxysms hundreds of times. It appears +very painful and exhausting, but she has assured me that 'they' take +care of her. She suffers almost no ill effects from her trance."</p> + +<p>Miller, living up to his character as remorseless scientist, remarked: +"I'd like to control her hands. Shall I try?"</p> + +<p>"Not now, not till the 'guides' consent to it," I replied. "It is said +to be dangerous to the psychic to touch her unexpectedly."</p> + +<p>"I can understand that it might be inconvenient," remarked Harris, with +biting brevity.</p> + +<p>Again we sat in expectant silence until several of the group became +restless. "What is she about now?" asked Cameron, wearily.</p> + +<p>"She is in dead trance, apparently. Please be patient a little while +longer. Are you still with us, 'Wilbur'?"</p> + +<p>I was delighted to hear the three taps that answer "<i>Yes</i>."</p> + +<p>"Will you be able to do something more for us?"</p> + +<p><i>Tap, tap, tap</i>—given apparently with the pencil.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p><p>I observed: "From a strictly scientific standpoint, the movement of +that pencil, provided it can be proved to have taken place without the +agency of any known form of force, is as important as the fall of a +mountain. It heralds a new day in science. Is every hand accounted for?" +Each answered, "<i>Yes</i>." At this moment there was a rustling at the base +of the cone. "Listen! 'they' are at work with the horn."</p> + +<p>The cone rocked slowly on its base, and at last leaped over the +shoulders of the sitters and fell with a crash to the floor. "Mercy on +us!" gasped Mrs. Cameron.</p> + +<p>"Don't touch it! Don't move!" I called out. "Everybody clasp hands now. +Here is a chance for a fine test. 'Wilbur,' can you put the cone back on +the table?"</p> + +<p><i>Tap, tap</i>, answered "Wilbur." The two taps were given slowly, and I +understood them to mean "<i>Don't know</i>" or "<i>Will try</i>."</p> + +<p>"Miller," I said, impressively, "unless some one of our circle is +betraying us, we are having as good a demonstration as we could expect, +barring the absence of light. Be watchful. 'Wilbur,' we're trusting to +you now. Let's see what you can do."</p> + +<p>As I spoke, the horn, with a ringing scrape, left the carpet, and a +moment later bumped down upon Mrs. Quigg's head. "Oh!" she shrieked, "it +hit me!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p><p>Almost immediately a breathy chuckle came from the horn: "<i>Ha, ha! That +shook you up a little, I reckon.</i>"</p> + +<p>The other women were frozen with horror. "Don't let it touch me," +pleaded Miss Brush.</p> + +<p>And Mrs. Quigg, much shaken, called out: "Frank Howard, are you doing +this?"</p> + +<p>He was highly indignant. "Certainly not. Are you not holding one hand +and Miss Brush the other? I am in-no-cent; I swear it!"</p> + +<p>I commented on their dialogue severely. "See how you all treat an event +that is wonderful enough to convulse the National Academy of Science. I +do not believe the psychic's hands have moved an inch, and yet, unless +some one of you is false to his trust, the miraculous has happened—Are +you there, 'Wilbur?'" I queried of the mystic presence.</p> + +<p>The cone swung toward me, and "Wilbur" answered: "<i>I am, old horse.</i>"</p> + +<p>"Well, Wilbur, there are two bigoted scientific people here to-night, +and I want you to put them to everlasting rout."</p> + +<p>"<i>I'll do it, don't you worry</i>," replied the voice, and the cone dropped +with a bang on the table, again making everybody jump.</p> + +<p>"<i>That brought the goose-flesh</i>!" remarked "Wilbur," with humorous +satisfaction.</p> + +<p>I took a malicious delight in the mystification of my fellows. "Go down +and shake up young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> Howard at the foot of the table," I suggested. "He +is a little in the conjuring line himself."</p> + +<p>Almost instantly Howard cried out: "The blooming thing is touching me on +the ear!"</p> + +<p>"Observe," called I, in the tone of a man exhibiting some kind of +trained animal, "the cone is now at least six feet from the psychic's +utmost reach. How do you account for that, Miller?"</p> + +<p>"The boy lied," said Miller, curtly.</p> + +<p>Howard was offended. "I'll take that out of you, old chap, when we meet +in the street. I am telling the square-toed truth. I am not doing a +thing but hold two very scared ladies' hands."</p> + +<p>"Oh, come now!" I interposed. "If we are to be so 'tarnal suspicious of +one another, we might just as well give up the sitting. If each of us +must be padlocked, proof of any phenomenon is impossible."</p> + +<p>A firmer hand now seemed to grasp the cone, and a deep whisper that was +almost a tone came from it. "<i>You are right</i>," this new personality +said, with measured and precise utterance. "<i>We come with the best tests +of a supremely important revelation; we come as scientists from our side +of the line; and you scoff, and take it all as a piece of folly, as an +entertainment. Is this just? No, it is unworthy men of science.</i>"</p> + +<p>"You are entirely justified in your indignation," I responded. "But who +are you?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p><p>"<i>My name on the earth-plane was Mitchell.</i>"</p> + +<p>"I am glad to make your acquaintance, 'Mr. Mitchell,' and your rebuke is +deserved. I, for one, mean to proceed in this matter seriously. What can +you do for us to-night?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Be very patient. Carry this investigation forward, and this psychic +will astonish the world. Do not abuse her; do not tax her beyond her +strength.</i>" He spoke with the precise and rather pedantic accent of an +old gentleman nurtured on the classics, and produced upon me a distinct +impression of age and serious demeanor utterly different from the +rollicking, not too refined "Wilbur."</p> + +<p>"I will see that she is treated fairly, 'Mr. Mitchell,' but of course +this is not a rigid test. Will you be able to permit conditions more +convincing?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Yes, very much more convincing</i>," he replied, slowly and ponderously, +"<i>but do not worry the instrument to-night. Narrow your circle; be +harmonious, and not too eager, and you will be abundantly rewarded</i>."</p> + +<p>"Won't you tell me who you were on the earth-plane?"</p> + +<p>"<i>I was a friend of the father of the instrument</i>," he answered.</p> + +<p>The horn returned to the table quietly, and young Howard was the first +to speak. "That is a fine piece of ventriloquism, any way you look<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> at +it," said he. "It is a nice trick to give that peculiar tinny sound to a +whisper."</p> + +<p>"So far as I can judge, so far as my sense of hearing goes (and I have +kept my ear close to the psychic's face), Mrs. Smiley has not moved, nor +uttered a sound. What is your verdict, Mr. Cocksure Scientist?"</p> + +<p>For the first time Miller's voice indicated some slight hesitation. "I +haven't been able to <i>detect</i> any movement on the part of the psychic," +he replied, "but of course I can't answer for the rest of the company. +The performance has no scientific value. In the dark, deceit is easy. +Harris may be the ventriloquist."</p> + +<p>"Why not accuse the arch-conspirator of us all, our director?" exclaimed +Mrs. Quigg.</p> + +<p>"You flatter me," I responded. "If I could produce those voices I would +go on the vaudeville stage to-morrow. I give you my word I am acting in +entire good faith. I am quite as eager for the truth as any of +you.—But, hark! the cone is on the wing again."</p> + +<p>The megaphone was indeed moving, as if a weak, unskilled hand were +struggling with it, and at last it swung feebly into the air, and a +whisper that was hardly more than a breath was directed toward Mrs. +Quigg: "<i>Daughter!</i>"</p> + +<p>"Are you speaking to me?" she asked, in a voice that trembled a little.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p><p>The answer was but a sibilant sigh: "<i>Yes.</i>"</p> + +<p>"Who are you?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Mother.</i>"</p> + +<p>The answer was so faint that no one save Mrs. Quigg could distinguish +the word. Almost at the same moment I caught the sound of other moving +lips in the air just before me. "Who is it?" I asked. Like a little, +hopeless sigh the answer came: "<i>Jessie.</i>" This was the name of my +younger sister. Then the cone dropped as though falling from exhausted +hands, and I had no further message from this "spirit."</p> + +<p>As we waited breathlessly the clear, silver-sweet voice of a little girl +was heard by every one at the table. "<i>Good-evening, everybody. I am +Maud; I came with my mamma. I have come to ask you to be very kind to +her.</i>"</p> + +<p>"I am very glad to hear you, 'Maud,'" I answered. "Are there other +spirits present?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Yes, many, many spirits. My grandpa is here; he is treating my mamma +so that she will not be sick. Some one is here to see you, but is too +weak to speak. My grandpa says 'we are trusting you.'</i>"</p> + +<p>With astonishing clearness this voice created in my mind (not as light +would create it) the vision of a self-contained, womanly little girl, +whose voice and accent formed a curious silvery replica of the +psychic's, and yet I could not say that the psychic's vocal organs gave +out these words. At last she said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> "<i>Good-bye</i>," and the cone was softly +laid upon the table.</p> + +<p>All of this was performed in profound silence. There was no sound in the +cone, except that of the voice, no rustle of garments, no grasp of +fingers on the tin; and though I leaned far over, and once more placed +my ear close to the psychic's lips, I could not trace the slightest +movement connecting her with the movements on the table. I had the +conviction at the moment that she sat in a death-like trance at my side.</p> + +<p>A few moments later the cone was jammed together and thrown upon the +floor—a movement, I had learned to know, that announced that the +sitting was ended.</p> + +<p>While the sitters still waited, I said: "Now, Cameron, you may turn on +the gas, but do so very slowly. Mrs. Smiley seems in deep sleep, and we +are warned not to startle her."</p> + +<p>When the light became strong enough to see a form, we found our psychic +sitting limply, her head drooping sidewise, her eyes closed, her face +white and calm. The cone was lying not far from her chair, separated +into two parts. The threads that bound her to her seat were to all +appearance precisely as at the beginning of the sitting, except that +they were deeply sunk into the flesh of her wrists. Her chair had not +moved a hair's-breadth from the chalk-marks on the floor.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p><p>A moment later she opened her eyes, and, smiling rather wanly, asked of +me: "Did anything happen?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, a great deal. 'Wilbur' came, and 'Maud,' and 'Mr. Mitchell.'"</p> + +<p>"I am very glad," she answered, with a faint, happy smile.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cameron bent to her pityingly. "How do you feel?"</p> + +<p>"Very numb, but I'll be all right in a very short time. My wrists hurt; +your thread is very tight. My arms always swell. Please give me a drink +of water."</p> + +<p>As I held the glass to her lips I was conscience-smitten to think that +for five hours she had been sitting in this constrained position—a +martyr to science; but I deferred the moment of her release till Miller +had examined every bond. I used a small pair of scissors to cut the +thread out of the deep furrows in her wrist, and it took a quarter of an +hour of chafing to restore her arms to their normal condition, all of +which had a convincing effect upon the doubters.</p> + +<p>Miss Brush was indignant. "I think it is a shame the way you have +treated your psychic."</p> + +<p>"Oh, this is nothing," responded Mrs. Smiley. "I'd be unhappy and uneasy +if you didn't tie me. I'm like the old man's chickens (you've heard the +story?): he had moved so much that the chickens,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> whenever they saw him +put a cover on his wagon, would lie down and cross their feet to be +tied."</p> + +<p>After Mrs. Cameron had taken Mrs. Smiley to the dining-room for a cup of +tea, the rest of us remained staring at one another.</p> + +<p>"Now, which of us did that?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"So far as the psychic was concerned, I don't see how she could have had +any hand in it," said Miller. "But, then, it was all in the dark."</p> + +<p>I had to admit that this diminished the value of the experiment. "But +now listen," I said: "as we all seem to be suspicious of one another, I +propose that we resort to a process of elimination. I shall take +'Mitchell's' advice and narrow the circle. Howard, you are a suspect. +You are ruled out of the next sitting."</p> + +<p>"Oh no," protested Howard. "That isn't fair. I did nothing, I swear!"</p> + +<p>"You admit being a prestidigitator?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but I had nothing to do with this performance."</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless, so far as conclusive proof is concerned, your presence in +the circle invalidates it. Now I propose that Mrs. Smiley go to Miller's +house, with no one present but Mr. and Mrs. Cameron and Mr. and Mrs. +Miller. If we secure these same phenomena under Miller's conditions, we +will then readmit one by one the entire membership of the society."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p><p>Mrs. Quigg resented being left out, and I pretended surprise.</p> + +<p>"I thought from what you had said that these 'dark shows' were of no +value?"</p> + +<p>"The next one ought to have decided value if Professor Miller has any +share in the test," she answered, quickly. "I believe in him."</p> + +<p>"And not in me? That's a nice thing to say."</p> + +<p>"I mean in his method. He is a cold, calm, merciless scientist. You're a +man of imagination."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said I. "My critics would take issue with you there. +However, if we get anywhere in this campaign we must begin with the +smallest possible circle and slowly enlarge it. We hope also to increase +the amount of light."</p> + +<p>After some further argument, Cameron settled the matter by saying: +"Garland is right; and, to show my own scientific temper, I rule Mrs. +Cameron and myself out of the next sitting. That will put the whole +problem up to Miller and Garland."</p> + +<p>Miller and I walked away to the club together, pondering deeply on the +implications of the night's performance.</p> + +<p>"I don't see how it was done," Miller repeated. "Certainly she did not +rise from her chair, not for an instant, and yet to believe that she did +not have a hand in what took place is to admit the impossible. You have +had other sittings with her, haven't you? You believe in her?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p><p>"Yes, I think she is sincere, but possibly self-deceived. The fact that +she is willing to put herself into our hands in this way is most +convincing."</p> + +<p>"There is nothing of the trickster about her appearance, and yet I wish +she had permitted us to hold her hands to-night."</p> + +<p>"Miller," said I, earnestly, "if you'll go with me into this +experimentation with an open mind, I'll convince you that Crookes and +Flammarion are the true scientists. It is the fashion to smile at +Flammarion as a romantic astronomer, but I can't see <i>now</i> that he is +lacking in patience and caution. For all his rather fervid utterances, +he keeps his head and goes on patiently investigating. He has had more +experience than even Crookes or Lombroso. For forty years he has been +searching the dark for these strange forces, and yet he says: 'We create +in these séances an imaginary being; we speak to it, and in its replies +it almost always reflects the mentality of the experimenter. Spirits +have taught us nothing. They have not led science forward a single +step.... I must say that if there are spirits, or beings independent of +us, in action, they know no more than we do about the other world's.' +And yet as regards the physical facts of mediumship, he sustains all the +investigators. 'These phenomena exist,' he says."</p> + +<p>"Candidly, Garland, what is your own belief?" asked Miller, a few +moment's later.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p><p>I evaded him. "I have seen enough to make me believe in Zöllner's +fourth dimension, but I don't. My mind is so constructed that such +wonders as we have seen to-night produce very little effect on me. They +are as normal to me now as the popping of corn or the roasting of +potatoes. As I say, I have demonstrated certain of these physical +doings. But as for belief—well, that is not a matter of the will, but +of evidence, and the evidence is not yet sufficient to bring me to any +definite conclusion; in fact, in the broad day, and especially the +second day after I have been through one of these astounding +experiences, I begin to doubt my senses. Richet speaks of this curious +recession of belief, and admits his own inability to retain the +conviction that, at the moment of the phenomenon, was complete. 'No +sooner is the sitting over than my doubts come swarming back upon me,' +he says. 'The real world which surrounds us, with its prejudices, its +schemes of habitual opinions, holds us in so strong a grasp that we can +scarcely free ourselves completely. Certainty does not follow on +demonstration, but on habit.' And in that saying you have my own mental +limitations admirably put."</p> + +<p>Miller plodded along by my side in silence for a few minutes, and then +asked, abruptly: "What is the real reason that you keep up the fiction +of the 'guide' when you don't believe in him?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p><p>"For the reason that I think Mrs. Smiley honest in her faith, and that +to be polite to the 'guides' is one of the first requisites of a +successful sitting. Suppose the whole action to be terrestrial. Suppose +each successful sitting to be, as Flammarion suggests, nothing but a +subtle adjustment of our 'collective consciousness' to hers. Can't you +see how necessary it is that we should proceed with her full consent? +After an immense experience, following closely Crookes, de Rochas, +Lodge, Richet, Duclaux, Lombroso, and Ochorowicz, Maxwell says: 'I +believe in these phenomena, but I see no need to attribute them to any +supernatural intervention. I am inclined to think they are produced by +some force within ourselves—'"</p> + +<p>"Just what does he mean by that?"</p> + +<p>"I can't precisely explain. It's harder to understand than the spirit +hypothesis. He himself admits this, and goes on to say that while he is +certain that we are in the presence of an unknown force, he is convinced +that the phenomena will ultimately be found orderly, like all other +facts of nature. 'Therefore, in the critical state of research, the +scientific problem, it seems to me, is not whether spiritism be true or +false, but whether metapsychical phenomena are real or imaginary. Some +future Newton will discover a more complete formula than ours,' he +prophesies. 'Every natural fact should be studied, and if it be real, +incorporated in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> patrimony of knowledge.' He then adds, with the +true scientist's humble acknowledgment of the infinite reach of the +undiscovered universe: 'Our knowledge is very limited and our experience +young.'"</p> + +<p>"That is good talk," said Miller in reply, "but the question is, Does he +really experiment in that condition of mind? An astronomer with his eye +to a telescope is a highly specialized and competent being. An +astronomer listening to whispers in the dark may be as simple and +credulous as a child."</p> + +<p>"I grant all that. But I see in it the greater reason why men like +yourself should take up the investigation of these illusive and +disturbing problems. These phenomena, as Flammarion says, introduce us +into uncharted seas, and we need the most cautious and clearest-sighted +scientists in this world as pilots. Will you be one of them?"</p> + +<p>"You flatter me. As a matter of fact, I'm a very poor sailor," he +answered, with a smile.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2> + +<p>If there is any one thing true in these manifestations of "spirit +power," it is that the psychic is the agent for their production. +Actively or passively, consciously or unconsciously, she completes the +formula—her "odic force" is the final chemical which permits +precipitation. Sometimes her will to produce, her wish to serve, hinders +rather than helps. Often when she is most persistent nothing happens. +Sometimes an aching foot or a disturbing thought cuts off all phenomena. +For the best results, apparently, the psychic should be confident, easy +of mind, and not too anxious to please.</p> + +<p>I approached this sitting at Miller's house with some fear that it might +end in disappointment to him and be a source of chagrin to Mrs. Smiley. +The house was strange, our attitude intensely critical, and she was very +anxious to succeed. It would be remarkable, indeed, if under these +conditions she were able to meet us half-way. As we walked up the street +together I did my best to reassure her.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p><p>"You may trust me fully, Mrs. Smiley," said I; "and Miller, though an +inexorable scientist, is a gentleman. I am sure he will not insist on +any experiment which will injure your health or give you needless pain. +This is but our second sitting, and I, for one, do not expect you to be +at your best."</p> + +<p>"I <i>hope</i> we will have good work," she replied, earnestly, "but it is +always harder to sit for tests. Tell me about Mrs. Miller. Is she nice? +Will I like her?"</p> + +<p>"She is very gentle and considerate; you will like her at once. I am +sure she will be a help to you."</p> + +<p>Her voice was very sincere as she said: "You don't know how anxiously I +watch the make-up of my circle. It isn't because I am afraid of +sceptics; I have no fear of those who do not believe; but each person +brings such diverse influences, and these influences conflict and worry +me, and then nothing takes place. I don't want to disappoint you and +your friends, and that may hinder me."</p> + +<p>The Millers occupied a modest little house far up-town, and were +suburban, almost rural, in their manner of living. The chemist himself +met us at the door, and, after greeting us cordially, ushered us into +his library, which was a small room at the back of the hall. I observed +that it had only one door and two windows, rather high up in the east +wall—an excellent place for our sitting.</p> + +<p>"So this is the den of inquisition," I began; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> turning to Mrs. +Smiley, I added: "I hope you are not chilled by it."</p> + +<p>"Not a bit," she answered, cheerily.</p> + +<p>As Mrs. Miller, a quiet little woman (not so far removed from Mrs. +Smiley's own type), entered the door and greeted us both, the psychic's +face lighted up with pleasure. This argued well for our experiment.</p> + +<p>I could see that Miller had made careful preparation along the lines of +my suggestion. A plain old table was standing lengthwise of the room, +the windows were hung with shawls, and a worn hickory chair stood with +arms wide-spread to seize its victim. After surveying the room, Mrs. +Smiley turned to me with a note of satisfaction in her voice, and said: +"I like this room and this furniture; I feel the right associations +here. The air is full of spirit power."</p> + +<p>"I am glad your mind is at ease," said I, "for I am anxious for a very +conclusive sitting. You tell 'Mitchell' that Miller is decidedly worth +converting. I want 'Wilbur' to do his best, for I intend to tighten the +bonds on you to-night."</p> + +<p>She fearlessly faced me. "I am in your hands, Mr. Garland; do as you +like. Mr. Mitchell told me this morning that he would yet convince you +of the reality of the spirit world. He is assembling all the forces at +his command, and will certainly do everything in his power."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p><p>"I am delighted to get that assurance," I responded.</p> + +<p>"You are to sit here," said Miller, indicating the hickory chair, which +he had placed near the north wall.</p> + +<p>She took her seat meekly, placing her hands resignedly on the wings of +the chair. "I like this chair," she said, with a smile; "it is so +old-fashioned."</p> + +<p>"Now," said I, "I am going to ask Mrs. Miller to fasten this long tape +about your ankles. We mean to take every precaution in order that you +may not involuntarily or subconsciously move your limbs."</p> + +<p>Under close scrutiny, Mrs. Miller secured each foot in such wise that +the knots came in the middle of the tape, and to make untying them +absolutely impossible, I drew the two ends of the long ribbon back under +the psychic's chair and tacked them securely to the shelf of a bookcase +about two feet from the hind legs. To loosen them was entirely out of +our victim's power.</p> + +<p>Miller then unreeled a spool of silk twist, and this I tied squarely to +the arm of the chair at a point about six feet from the loose end which +I intended to hold. I knotted the silk about the psychic's wrists, +drawing it to a hard knot each time, and gave the spool to Miller, while +retaining the loose end of the thread in my own hands. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> psychic +could neither touch the tips of her fingers together nor lift her arms +an inch from the chair. She was as secure as if bound with a rope, but +as an extra precaution I passed the thread beneath the chair-arm and +pulled it taut. "This will enable us to feel the lightest movement of +her hands," I said to Miller, who had copied my device. "Are you +satisfied with the conditions?"</p> + +<p>He answered, with some reservation: "They will do. I would like to have +light, but that I suppose is impossible."</p> + +<p>"No, not impossible," replied Mrs. Smiley, "but the work is always +weaker in the light; the voices are stronger in the dark."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Miller took her seat exactly opposite Mrs. Smiley. I was at her +right. Miller, after turning out the gas, sat opposite me and at the +psychic's left.</p> + +<p>At first the room was black as ink, but by degrees I (from my position, +opposite the window) was able to perceive a faint glow of light through +the curtain. Mrs. Smiley's back was near a wall of books, and, the room +being narrow, Miller's chair pretty well filled the space between the +table and the window behind it. The action of a confederate was excluded +by reason of the bolted door. To enter the room by the window was +impossible, for the reason that the slightest noise could be heard and +the least movement of the curtain would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>admit the light. Barring the +darkness, conditions were all of our own making.</p> + +<p>However, we were hardly settled in place when Miller was moved to +further precaution. "Mrs. Smiley, I would like to pin over your dress a +newspaper, so that any slightest movement of your knees or feet could be +heard. Do you object?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all," she instantly replied. "I am sure my guides will do +anything they can to meet your wishes. You may nail my dress to the +floor if you wish."</p> + +<p>Miller turned on the light, and together we pinned a large, crisp +newspaper over her knees and tacked it securely to the floor in front of +her feet. The corners where the pins were inserted were well out of the +reach of her tethered hands.</p> + +<p>Again the lights were lowered, and at my direction Miller placed his +right hand on the psychic's left and touched fingers with Mrs. Miller. I +did the same, thus connecting the circle. In this way we sat quietly +conversing for some time.</p> + +<p>"I want to make it quite plain to you," I said to them all, "that I am +trying to follow Crookes's advice, which is to strip away all romance +and all superstitious religious ideas from this subject. I am insisting +on the normal character of these phenomena. Whatever happens to-night, +Mrs. Miller, please do not be alarmed. There is nothing inherently +uncanny or unwholesome in these <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>phenomena. No one knows better than +your husband the essential mystery of the simplest fact. +Materialization, for example, is unusual; but if it happens it cannot be +supernatural. Nothing is supernatural. Am I right, Miller?"</p> + +<p>"We explain each mystery by a deeper mystery," he replied.</p> + +<p>"All depends upon the point of view. I am interested in these obscure +phases of human life. If they are real they are natural. To me the +spiritistic 'demonstrations' are intensely human and absorbingly +interesting as dramatic material, and yet I hope I am sufficiently the +scientist to be alive to the significance of these telekinetic +happenings, and enough of the realist to remain critical in the midst of +the wildest carnival of the invisible forces."</p> + +<p>"Don't you believe in them?" asked Mrs. Miller, with a note of surprise +in her voice.</p> + +<p>I replied, cautiously: "I am at this moment convinced of the reality of +<i>some</i> of these phenomena by reason of my own experiments; but leaving +one side my personal investigation, I must believe that Crookes, +Maxwell, and Flammarion are competent witnesses. As to +spiritualism—well, that is another matter."</p> + +<p>"But where does all this lead to if not to spiritualism?" asked Mrs. +Miller.</p> + +<p>"As to the exact country, no one knows," I answered; "but the best of +our experimenters are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> agreed that the gate opens upon a new field of +science. These powers seem to be in advance of us and not a survival, +and they may prove of value in the evolution of the race. That is why I +want to enlist men like your husband in the work. Mediumship needs just +such critical attention as his. Nothing like Maxwell or Richet's +thoroughness of method has ever been used by an American physicist, so +far as I know. On the contrary, our leading scientific men seem to have +let the subject severely alone."</p> + +<p>"Why?" asked Mrs. Smiley.</p> + +<p>"Partly because of inherited prejudice, and partly because of their +allegiance to opposing theories; and finally, I suspect, because they +are connected with institutions that would not sanction such work. You +can imagine how the physical department of a denominational college +would investigate spirit phenomena! It was much the same way in England +during the early part of last century, but they are far in advance of us +now. The first notable step in the right direction was taken—as perhaps +you may know—in 1869, by the Dialectical Society of London, which +appointed a committee to look into the subject of spiritualism, with the +expectation, no doubt, of being able to stop the spread of the delusion.</p> + +<p>"The investigations which followed were under the especial charge of +Alfred Russel Wallace;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> Cromwell Varley, chief of Electrical Engineers +and Telegraphers; and Professor Morgan, president of the Mathematical +Society. This committee, after careful investigation, reported +voluminously to this effect: 'The phenomena exist.... There is a force +capable of moving heavy bodies without material contact, which force is +in some unknown way dependent upon the presence of human beings.'"</p> + +<p>"Which was a long way from saying that spiritism was true," remarked +Miller.</p> + +<p>"It certainly was sufficiently vague, you would think, to be harmless; +but several of the committee refused to join in even this cautious +report, insisting that the conclusions ought to be verified by some +other scientist. They suggested Sir William Crookes, who was at this +time in the early prime of his life and a renowned chemist—just the man +for the work. This suggestion was acted upon by Crookes a little later, +and his report on this 'psychic force' had a good deal to do with the +formation of the now famous Society for Psychical Research."</p> + +<p>"I'd hate to be held responsible for that," said Miller, with humorous +intent—"of all the collections of 'hants' and witches."</p> + +<p>"On the Continent scientific observation had already begun. Count Agénor +de Gasparin, of Valleyeres, was one of the first to take up this problem +of telekinesis in the modern spirit. He made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> a long and complicated +study of table-tipping in 1853, and published his conclusions in two +large volumes in Paris a year later. His experiments were careful and +searching, and drew the line squarely between the supernatural and the +natural. He said, positively, 'The agency is not supernatural; it is +physical, and determined by the will of the sitters,' and may be called +the Charles Darwin of the subject. A year later Professor Marc Thury, of +Geneva, added his testimony. He also said: 'The phenomena exist, and are +mainly due to an unknown fluid, or force, which rushes from the organism +of certain people.' To this force he gave the name 'psyscode.' The +spirit hypothesis, he was inclined to think, was not impossible or even +absurd. He used <i>absurd</i> in the scientific sense, of course."</p> + +<p>"It is the most natural thing in the world to me," said Mrs. Smiley. "I +would be desolate without it."</p> + +<p>"Some ten years later Flammarion, the renowned French astronomer, began +his studies of these unknown forces, and for a long time fought the +battle alone in France as Sir William Crookes endured the brunt of the +assault in England."</p> + +<p>Miller here interposed with a covert sneer in his voice: "Yes, but +Flammarion has always had the reputation of being more of the romancer +than of the astronomer."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p><p>"You scientists do him an injustice," I answered, with some heat, "just +as you have all been ignorantly contemptuous of Crookes. I confess I +used to share in some small degree your estimate of Flammarion; but if +you will read his latest book with attention and with candor, you cannot +but be impressed with his wide experience and his patient, persistent +search for the truth. I am persuaded that he has been a genuine pioneer +all along. I cannot see but that he has examined very critically the +scores of psychics who have come under his observation, and his reports +are painstaking and cautious. His work must be considered by every +student of this subject. It won't do to neglect the words of a man who +has seen so much.—But here we go along lines of controversy when we +should be sitting in quiet harmony. Let us defer our discussion until +after our séance. Have patience, and I believe we can duplicate, if not +surpass, the marvellous doings of even Richet and Lombroso. We may be +able some day to take flash-light photographs of the cone while it is +floating in the air."</p> + +<p>"Has that ever been done?" asked Mrs. Miller.</p> + +<p>"Oh yes; Flammarion secured photos of a table floating in the air. These +pictures show conclusively that the psychic had nothing to do with +it—at least, not in any ordinary way. Richet succeeded in fixing the +apparition of a helmeted soldier on several plates. Crookes photographed +'Katie King'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> and her medium once or twice, and Fontenay has succeeded +in getting clear-cut images of the 'spirit' hands which play round the +head of Paladino. But it must be confessed that in Crookes's pictures +there is a lack of finality in the negatives. He never succeeded in +getting the faces of both 'Katie' and Miss Cook at the same time—and +Richet's photographs have a made-up look."</p> + +<p>Passing abruptly to a low, humming song, I made the attempt to put our +psychic to sleep. In a few minutes her hands became cold and began to +flutter. At last she threw my fingers away as if she found them +scorching hot. Miller's hand was similarly repulsed. She then seemed to +pass into quiet sleep, and I said: "Withdraw a little, Miller, but keep +your silk thread taut."</p> + +<p>Almost immediately faint raps came upon the table, and I asked: "Are you +there, 'Mitchell'?"</p> + +<p>Tap, tap, tap—"<i>Yes.</i>"</p> + +<p>"Are we sitting right?"</p> + +<p>Tap, tap, tap—"<i>Yes</i>," answered the force, in a grave and deliberate +way.</p> + +<p>"As to these raps," I remarked, "they are easily simulated, but they +have been absolutely proven by several of our best investigators. They +have been obtained on a sheet of paper held in the air, on pencils, on a +strip of cloth, on an open umbrella—under every possible condition. +Maxwell secured them by pinching his own ear or by squeezing the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> arm of +his neighbor. I have heard them on a man's shirt-front. They are the +first manifestations of intelligent spirit power, and may be regarded in +the light of established fact."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't be hasty about admitting even that," remarked Miller. "In +the dark—or in the light—these obscure sounds may seem very ghostly, +and yet be due to purely physical causes."</p> + +<p>We sat in silence for a few moments, and at last I asked: "Is any spirit +present?"</p> + +<p>Almost immediately a childish voice came from the direction of the +psychic, apparently issuing from her lips. "<i>Mr. Mitchell would like to +have you tie the threads to the legs of the table.</i>"</p> + +<p>"Are you 'Maud?'" I asked.</p> + +<p>"<i>Yes, I am Maudie</i>," she answered. "<i>Mr. Mitchell wants to try some +experiment. He wishes you to tie the threads to the legs of the table.</i>"</p> + +<p>I confess I didn't like the looks of this, but as a compromise measure I +was willing to grant it. "If you don't object, Miller, we will do as the +guides desire."</p> + +<p>He hesitated. "It weakens our test. I don't understand the reason for +the demand."</p> + +<p>"I suggest we yield the point for the present. Perhaps 'they' will +permit us to resume the thread a little later. I have found that by +apparently meeting the forces half-way at the beginning we often get +concessions later which will be of greater value than the tests we have +ourselves devised."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p><p>Accordingly, I tied my end of the silk twist to the table leg at a +distance of about twenty-six inches from the utmost reach of the +psychic's hands. Miller did the same with his end. We then resumed our +seats, and waited for over an hour.</p> + +<p>During this time the psychic was absolutely silent and apparently in +deep trance, and I was beginning to feel both disappointed and +chagrined. Miller's tone was a bit irritating. I knew exactly what was +in his mind. "I've fixed her now," he was exultantly saying to himself. +"She can't do a thing; even her request to have the threads tied to the +table does not avail her. Accustomed to have everything her own way, she +fails the first time any real restraint is applied to her."</p> + +<p>I was quite at the end of my confident expectancy, when the psychic +began to stir uneasily and "Maudie" spoke complaining of the thread on +her mother's right wrist. "<i>It's so tight it stops the blood</i>," she +said. "<i>Please loosen the thread a little. You may turn up the light</i>," +added the little voice.</p> + +<p>While Miller gave me a light, I loosened the thread on her right wrist, +which was very tight; but I tied a second thread about her arm in such +wise that I would surely know at the end of the sitting if it had been +disturbed. The table, I observed at the time, was more than two feet +from her finger-tips. I called Miller's attention to this,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> and said: +"She can't possibly untie these threads, and if she breaks them the +sitting is invalidated."</p> + +<p>Soon after the light was turned out "Maudie" requested that we all move +away from Mrs. Smiley, down to the lower end of the table; and although +Miller thought this permitted too much liberty of action on the part of +the medium, I urged consent. "There are other sittings coming," I +repeated once more.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Smiley fell again into deep sleep, but nothing took place for a +long time. During this period of waiting I told stories of my experience +and the curious folk I had met in search for the true explanation of +these singular phenomena.</p> + +<p>"Have you ever witnessed any materializations?" asked Mrs. Miller.</p> + +<p>"Yes; but none of it was of the sort that I could swear to. I mean that +it seemed to me to be either downright trickery or subconscious actions +on the part of the psychic, and yet I've seen some very puzzling +phantoms. I am persuaded that a great deal of what is called 'fraud' +arises from the suggestibility of the psychics. Lombroso speaks of this +'fixed idea' of the mediums, and their persistent, almost insane, +attempt to produce the phenomena desired by the circle. You can +understand how this would be if there is anything at all in hypnotism. +Sometimes it all seems to belong to the realm of hypnotic visions. One +medium helps another to build up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> this unreal world. Early in my career +as an investigator I went to Onset Bay, where in July of each year all +the spiritualists and 'mejums' of New England used to gather (do yet, I +believe), and I shall never forget the singular assemblage of +'slate-writers,' 'spirit artists,' 'spirit photographers,' 'palmists,' +and 'psychometrists' whose signs lined the street and pointed along the +paths of the camp.</p> + +<p>"In its way it was as dramatic a contrast of light and shade, of the +real and the unreal, as this otherwise prosaic republic can show. There +under the vivid summer sun, beside the glittering sea, men and women met +to commune on the incommunicable, to question the voiceless, and to +embrace the intangible. It was, indeed, such a revelation of human +credulity as might well have overpowered a young novelist. From the +warm, pine-scented afternoon air I crept into one of these tiny cabins, +and sat with my hands upon a closed slate in order to receive a message +from Lincoln or Cæsar; I slipped beneath the shelter of a tent to have a +sealed letter read by a commonplace person with an Indian accent; and I +sat at night in dark little parlors to watch weak men and weeping women +embrace very badly designed effigies of their lost darlings."</p> + +<p>"Isn't it incredible? Can you imagine any reasonable person believing +such things?" asked Miller.</p> + +<p>"Millions do," I replied.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p><p>"Please go on," entreated Mrs. Miller. "What happened to you?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing really worth reporting upon. In that day of utter credulity no +tests were possible, but immediately after my return to Boston I had my +first entirely satisfactory test of the occult. I went with Mrs. Rose, +one of our members, to sit for 'independent slate-writing'—that is to +say, writing on the inner surfaces of closed slates. Up to this moment I +was profoundly sceptical, but I could not doubt the reality of what +happened. I took my own slates—the ordinary hinged school slates; but +whether they were my own or not made no difference really, for the final +test which I demanded was such that any prepared slates were useless. +I'm not going into tiresome detail. I only say that while sitting at the +table with both Mrs. Rose's hands and my own resting upon the slates <i>I +dictated</i> certain lines to be drawn upon the inside of the slates."</p> + +<p>Miller's voice expressed growing interest. "And this was done?"</p> + +<p>"It was done. I had in mind the test which Alfred Russel Wallace had +used in a similar case. He dictated several words to be written while +holding the slates securely in his own hands. In this instance I asked +for the word 'Constantinople' to be written. The psychic smiled, +shrugged her shoulders, and replied: 'I'll try, but I don't <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>believe +they can spell it.' 'Draw a straight line, then,' said I. 'I'll be +content with a single line an inch long.' She laughingly retorted: 'It's +hard to draw a straight line.' 'Very well, draw a crooked line. Draw a +zigzag—like a stroke of lightning. Draw it in yellow. Draw a circle.' +She said no more, but became silent, and we waited without change of +position. Remember that I was holding the slate during all this talk. It +did not leave my hands."</p> + +<p>"What were the conditions? Was it light?" asked Miller.</p> + +<p>"It was about two o'clock of an afternoon, and we sat in the bay-window +of the parlor. It was perfectly light. No one moved. The psychic sat +opposite us, leaning back in a thoughtful pose. Her hands lay in her +lap, and she seemed to be merely waiting. At last a tapping came upon +the slate, and she brightened up. 'It is done!' she called, exultingly. +I opened the slates myself, and <i>there, drawn in yellow crayon, was a +small circle with a zigzag yellow line crossing it exactly as I had +dictated</i>, and under Mrs. Rose's hands in the corner of the slate was a +gayly colored bunch of pansies. There were messages also, but I paid +very little attention to them. The production of that circle under those +conditions overshadowed everything else. It was a definite and complete +answer to my doubt. It was, in fact, a 'miracle.' I recall going<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +directly to a meeting of the society and reporting upon this sitting. +You will find the bald statement of my experiment in the minutes of the +secretary."</p> + +<p>Miller was silent for a moment, then asked: "You're sure it was done +after you took the slates in hand?"</p> + +<p>"I am as certain of it as I am of anything."</p> + +<p>"How do you account for it? Of course it was a trick."</p> + +<p>"Trickery can't account for that yellow line. The messages could have +been written beforehand, but no trick of prepared slates can account for +my dictated design. I have had other cases of slate-writing which were +almost as inexplicable, and Crookes and Wallace and Zöllner, as you +remember, were quite convinced by evidence thus secured. Crookes <i>saw</i> +the pencil at work. I have never witnessed the writing, but I have heard +it at work under my hands and I have felt it under my feet. I have had +writing on ten separate pages in a closed Manila-pad held between my +hands."</p> + +<p>Miller seemed to be impressed by these statements. "I have always +considered slate-writing a cheap trick, but I don't quite see how that +was done—always providing your memory is not at fault."</p> + +<p>"I would not place much dependence on my present recollection," I +frankly responded, "but I reported on the case at once while my mind +was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> most accurate as to details. Speaking further of these tricks, if +you choose to call them such, I have had several failures, where the +failure meant as much as a success. I have held two slates with a +psychic (while we were both standing) when the creaking and scratching +and grinding went on between my hands. I give you my word I was +convinced at the moment of holding between my palms a sentient force. I +felt as Franklin must have felt when he played with the lightning in the +bottle at the tail of his kite. Once I heard the writing going on in a +half-opened slate, but I did not see the pencil in motion. Some of these +cases of 'direct-writing' are the most convincing of all my experiences. +People ask me why I didn't talk with the spirits about heaven and +angels. I was not interested in their religious notions. I kept to this +one line—I wanted to see a particle of matter move from A to B without +a known push or pull. I paid very little attention to 'trance-mediums' +like Mrs. Piper; and although I saw a great deal of what is called +'mind-reading' and 'thought-transference,' I did not permit the cart to +get before the horse. 'Independent slate-writing' interested me, for the +reason that I could put the clamps on it. Materialization, on the +contrary, is so staged and arranged for that to prove its genuineness +seems impossible at present; but slate-writing under your hand is a +different matter."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p><p>"I'd like to have it under <i>my</i> hand," said Miller, grimly.</p> + +<p>"You can have it if you'll go after it," I retorted, "and you can have +it hard."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Miller was deeply interested. "Tell us more. Have you had other +messages written in that wonderful way?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, many of them. One of the most curious examples of this kind I have +ever seen came to me in Chicago. It was a 'new one,' as Howard would +say. Old Mr. MacVicker told me one day that there was a woman on the +West Side who had a trick of producing independent slate-writing beneath +the stem of a goblet of water—"</p> + +<p>"Why under a goblet of water?" interrupted Miller.</p> + +<p>"As a test. You see, nearly every one who goes to a psychic wants first +of all to witness a miracle. Each seeker demands that his particular +message shall come hard—that is to say, under conditions impossible to +the living. His reasoning is like this: 'The dead are free from the +limitations of our life, therefore they should manifest themselves to us +as befits their wider knowledge of the laws of the universe, and +especially is it their business to outdo the most skilful conjurer! +Hence each man insists on locked slates and sealed letters. These the +poor psychics are forced to grant. To be just to them, I must say that I +have found most mediums fairly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> willing to meet any reasonable test; in +fact, many of them seem perfectly confident of the inscrutable, and +venture upon what seems to be the impossible with amazing +imperturbability. All they ask is to be treated like human beings. They +are seldom afraid of results. Sometimes they bully the forces sadly, and +make them work when they don't want to.</p> + +<p>"Well, this particular psychic ushered me into her back parlor (which +was flooded with sunlight), and asked me to be seated at a small table +covered with a strip of cloth. She was a comfortable, plump person, +evidently from Kansas, in manner somewhat like the humorous wife of a +prosperous village carpenter. I remember that we were rather sympathetic +on various political questions. After some remarks on populism and other +weighty matters, she filled a goblet with water, and, placing it upon a +slate, passed it under the table with her right hand, asking me to put +my hand beneath hers."</p> + +<p>"There it is!" said Miller, with infinite scorn. "Always in the dark or +under the table. No wonder Emerson called it 'a rat-hole philosophy.'"</p> + +<p>"Suppose it's all the work of an 'astral' who can't abide the light?" I +suggested.</p> + +<p>"I know the theory, but I can't allow it."</p> + +<p>"Why not? You permit the photographer his dark-room."</p> + +<p>Then, with malicious delight in his petulance, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> calmly continued: "I +put my left hand beneath hers and my right upon the table. I could see +her left hand lying in her lap, and as she turned sidewise to the table +I was able to keep in view both of her feet. We held the slate so that +the top of the goblet lightly touched the under side of the stand. The +psychic was all accounted for, except the hand which was resting +outspread on the under side of the slate. We sat for several minutes in +this way, while she explained that 'they' would probably take words out +of our conversation as a test, if I desired it. 'I am here to be shown,' +I replied. She laughed at me, and on two different occasions brought the +slate from beneath the table with writing under the stem of the goblet. +This was all very well, but I said: 'A better test would be to have them +write words that I dictate.'</p> + +<p>"'I will ask them,' she said. She seemed to listen as if to voices +inaudible to me, and at last said: 'They will try it.'</p> + +<p>"Again we placed the goblet of water on the clean slate under the table, +and while holding it as before, I said: 'Now ask them to write the name +"William Dean Howells."'</p> + +<p>"Almost immediately there was a decided movement of the slate—or so it +seemed to me. A power seemed to wake on the slate, not through the +psychic's hand, but independent of it. I heard plainly the scratching of +a pencil, at the same time that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> psychic's left hand and both of her +feet were in full view, and at the same time that her hand was +outspread, apparently motionless, upon the under side of the slate. In a +few moments the scratching paused, and the psychic, with an embarrassed +smile, said: 'They don't know how to spell the middle name.'"</p> + +<p>"That is to say, <i>she</i> was the one who could not spell the name," said +Miller.</p> + +<p>"That's what I thought at the time, but I helped her out, and a moment +later a decided tapping on the top of the table announced the completion +of the task.</p> + +<p>"As she slowly drew the slate out from under the table I was alert to +see what had happened. The glass remained in the middle of the slate as +before, with the water undiminished, and under the glass and confining +itself to the circle of the stem were the words:</p> + +<p class="center"><img src="images/108.png" width='200' height='192' alt="William Dean Howells" /></p> + +<p>written as though acknowledging the barrier of the glass where its edge +rested upon the slate."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p><p>"Wonderful!" exclaimed Mrs. Miller.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure the writing was there as she drew the slate out?" queried +Miller.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I saw the writing as she was removing the goblet; and while with +her left hand she drew a little circle around the outer edge of the stem +I read the words. Now to say that the psychic wrote this with her +finger-nail on the bottom of the slate and then turned the slate over is +to me absurd. The glass of water prevented that. And yet she did it in +some occult way. The transaction remains unexplained to me. I am +perfectly sure she willed it, but <i>how</i> she caused the writing—the +physical change—is quite another problem. Zöllner (I believe it was) +secured the print of feet on the inside of a closed slate, and reasoned +that only on the theory of a fourth dimension could such phenomena be +explained. That reminds me of a sitting I once had with a young man +wherein, to utterly confound us, the invisible hands removed his +undershirt while his coat-sleeves were nailed to the chair."</p> + +<p>"Oh, come now, you don't expect us to believe a miracle like that, even +on your serious statement?" remarked Miller.</p> + +<p>"I certainly do not," I responded, readily. "I wouldn't believe it on +any one's statement. That is the discouraging thing about this whole +business; you can't convince any one by any amount of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>evidence. A man +will stand out against Zöllner, Crookes, Lodge, and Myers, discounting +all the rest of the great investigators, and then crumple up like a +caterpillar at the first touch of The Invisible Hand when it comes to +him directly. This same young man gave me the most convincing +demonstrations of materialized forms I have ever seen. In his own little +home, under the simplest conditions, he commanded forth from a little +bedroom a figure which was unmistakably not a mechanism. A lamp was +burning in the room, and the young fellow was perfectly visible at the +same moment as the phantom which stood and bowed three times."</p> + +<p>"What did it look like?"</p> + +<p>"It looked like a man's figure swathed in some white drapery. I could +not see the face, but it was certainly not a 'dummy.' But come, let us +see what the forces can do for us here to-night. I think we will need +'Annie Laurie' to clear the air of debate."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Miller began the song, and we all joined in softly.</p> + +<p>"Our newspaper is a trusty watch-dog," remarked Miller, significantly.</p> + +<p>As he spoke the psychic began to toss and writhe and moan pitifully. Her +suffering mounted to a paroxysm at last; then silence fell for a minute +or two—absolute stillness; and in this hush the table<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> took life, rose, +and slid away toward us as if shoved by a powerful hand.</p> + +<p>"So far as my hearing goes, the psychic does not move," I said. "Barring +the light, this is a very good demonstration of movement without +control. Every movement of the table our way removes it farther from the +reach of the psychic."</p> + +<p>"I hear nothing from the paper," confessed Miller, "and yet the table is +certainly moving."</p> + +<p>"I can believe this, because I have proved these movements without +contact. In this case Mrs. Smiley cannot reach the table with her knees +and her feet secured by tape nailed to the bookcase. You cannot believe +she has gotten out of her skin. The newspaper is still on guard, and has +uttered no alarm."</p> + +<p>"It is very perplexing," Miller admitted; "but anything can happen in +the dark."</p> + +<p>"I admit it is very easy to deceive our senses, but the silk thread is +not to be fooled."</p> + +<p>Three times the table was urged in the same direction, each paroxysm of +suffering, of moaning, of struggle, on the part of the psychic, being +followed a few seconds later by absolute silence. It was in these +moments of profound sepulchral hush that the heavy table lurched along +the floor. It was a strange and startling fact.</p> + +<p>"Why are you doing this?" I asked of the forces. "As a test?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p><p>"<i>Yes</i>," the raps replied.</p> + +<p>"How do you account for it, Miller?" I asked, with challenge in my +voice. "My conviction is that we are confronting a case of +telekinesis—not as convincing as Flammarion's, but still inexplicable. +If that table has moved an inch, it is the same as if it had moved a +foot. You should feel rewarded."</p> + +<p>Miller did not reply; and even as he pondered the megaphone, which had +been standing on the top of the table, began to rock on its base, and a +pencil which lay beside it was fumbled as if by a rat or a kitten. In +our state of strained expectancy this sound was very startling indeed.</p> + +<p>"What about that, Miller?" I asked, in a tone of exultation. "Who's +doing that? Last time you suspected Howard, now here you must suspect +the psychic. The movement of that pencil is of enormous significance. +How can she possibly reach and handle that cone?"</p> + +<p>"She can't, unless she has freed her hands," he admitted. "Let us touch +hands." I gave him my left hand, and sitting thus, with all hands +accounted for, we entered into communication with the "spirit" that was +busy in the centre of the table.</p> + +<p>"Are you present, 'Wilbur'?"</p> + +<p><i>Tap, tap, tap.</i></p> + +<p>"Are you moving the table?"</p> + +<p><i>Tap, tap, tap.</i></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p><p>"To get it out of reach of the psychic?"</p> + +<p><i>Tap, tap, tap.</i></p> + +<p>Suddenly, with a loud bang, something heavy fell upon the table. +Releasing the hands of my fellow-investigators, I felt about for this +object and found that a book had been brought and thrown upon the table. +A shower of others followed, till twenty-four were piled about the cone. +They came whizzing with power, yet with such precision that no head was +touched and the cone remained undisturbed. It was as if some roguish +poltergeist had suddenly developed in the room.</p> + +<p>"Miller, I find this exciting!" said I, after silver fell upon the +table. "Suppose we ask 'Wilbur' to fetch some small object whose +position you know."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Miller then said: "There is a box of candy on a shelf back of Mrs. +Smiley. It is quite out of her reach. Can you bring that to me, +'Wilbur'?"</p> + +<p><i>Tap, tap, tap!</i> was the decided answer, and almost immediately the box +was placed on the top of the table and shoved along toward Mrs. Miller.</p> + +<p>"That's a good demonstration," I remarked, and 'Wilbur' drummed a sharp +tattoo of satisfaction.</p> + +<p>At my request he then wrote his name on a pad while Miller waited and +listened, his mind too busy with surmise to permit of speech. (He told +me afterward that he was perfectly sure the psychic had wrenched free of +her tacks and he was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>wondering how she would contrive to put herself +back again.)</p> + +<p>Finally I asked: "Are you still with us, 'Wilbur'?"</p> + +<p>The force tapped smartly on the tin.</p> + +<p>"Now, just to show you that the psychic is not doing this, can't you +hold up a book between me and the light? I want to see your hand."</p> + +<p>Instantly, and to my profound amazement, a book rose in the air, and I +could see <i>two hands</i> in silhouette plainly and vigorously thumbing the +volume, which was held about three feet above the table, and to the +psychic's left.</p> + +<p>"Miller," I said, excitedly, "I see hands!"</p> + +<p>"I do not," he answered; "but I hear a rustling."</p> + +<p>Swift on the trail, I called out: "Now, show me your empty hand, +'Wilbur.' I want to see how big it is." A moment later I exclaimed, in +profound excitement: "I can see a <i>large</i> hand against the window, and, +strangest part of all, the spread fingers are pointing <i>toward</i> Mrs. +Smiley, the wrist is nearest you and at least six feet from the psychic. +It is a man's hand. You are not doing this, Miller?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not!" he answered, curtly.</p> + +<p>"This is astonishing! It certainly is a hand and much larger than that +of a woman, and <i>the wrist is toward you</i>. It is still at least four +feet from the psychic. Oh, for a flash-light camera now! I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> was +perfectly certain that this is not the psychic's hand, and yet to admit +that it is not is to grant the whole theory of materialization."</p> + +<p>At last the shadow disappeared. The book fell. With a ringing scrape the +cone rose in the air and the voice of "Wilbur" came from it +life-like—almost full-toned, and with a note of humorous exultation +running through it. "<i>I told you I'd astonish you!</i>" he said. "<i>Don't +get in a hurry; there's more coming.</i>"</p> + +<p>For nearly two hours thereafter this "spirit voice" kept us all +interested and busy. He was very much alive, and we alternately laughed +at his quaint conceits or pondered the implications of his casual +remarks. It was precisely as if a rollicking Western, or, rather, +Southern, man were speaking to us over the 'phone. I asked: "Who are +you? Is 'Wilbur' your surname?"</p> + +<p>"<i>No; my middle name. My family name is Thompson.</i>"</p> + +<p>His characterization was perfect. He responded to every question with +readiness and perfect aplomb. At times he played jokes on us. He bumped +Miller on the head, and touched him on the cheek farthest from the +psychic. At my request he covered Mrs. Miller's ear with the large end +of the horn, then reversed and nuzzled her temple with the small end. +She said it felt like a caress, as if guided by a tender hand. She had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +become clairvoyant also, and saw many forms about the room. I could see +nothing.</p> + +<p>"Tell us more about yourself, 'Wilbur'?" I asked. "Who are you? What did +you do on the earth?"</p> + +<p>"<i>I was a soldier.</i>"</p> + +<p>"In the Civil War?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Yes.</i>"</p> + +<p>"On which side?"</p> + +<p>"<i>That's a leading question</i>," he answered, with some hesitation.</p> + +<p>"Oh, come now, the war is over!"</p> + +<p>"<i>I was on the Southern side. I am Jeff. W. Thompson. I was a +brigadier-general.</i>"</p> + +<p>"Where were you killed?"</p> + +<p>"<i>I was invalided home to Jefferson City, and passed out there.</i>"</p> + +<p>"How do you happen to be 'guide' to this little woman?"</p> + +<p>He hesitated again. "<i>I was attracted to her</i>," he said, and gave no +further explanation.</p> + +<p>"Mitchell" then came and said: "<i>We are deeply interested in your +experiments, Mr. Garland, and will afford you all the aid in our power. +It is hard to meet your tests—hard, I mean, for our medium, but we will +assist her to fill the requirements.</i>"</p> + +<p>"Thank you. I don't see how any psychic could be more submissive."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Miller, deeply impressed by all this, began to inquire concerning +those of the invisible host<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> whose names were familiar to her. It was +evident that she, at least, was convinced of their reality.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the movement of the cone interested Miller more than the +messages. "How does she do it?" he exclaimed several times. "To touch +Mrs. Miller means that the psychic must not only have free use of her +hands: she must rise from her chair and pass behind me and the wall."</p> + +<p>"The precision of the action is my amazement," I replied. "I've noticed +this same thing many times. Apparently, darkness is no barrier to action +on the part of these forces. That cone, you will observe, can touch you +on the nose, eyelid, or ear, softly, without jar or jolt. It came to me +just now like a sentient thing—like something human. Such unerring +flight is uncanny. Could any trickster perform in the dark with such +precision and gentleness? Of course this is not conclusive as argument, +but at the same time it has weight. Whose is the eye that directs this +instrument? Can you tell us, 'Wilbur'?"</p> + +<p>A chuckle came through the cone. "<i>I'm doing it.</i>"</p> + +<p>"How can you see?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Day and night are all the same to me.</i>"</p> + +<p>Miller held up his right hand. "Prove it; touch my knuckles!" he +commanded.</p> + +<p>After a moment's silent soaring the cone struck his left hand, which was +farthest from the psychic,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> and a voice followed it with laughter, +asking: "<i>What made you jump?</i>"</p> + +<p>Before Miller had recovered from the surprise of this, the table seemed +to be grasped and shaken as if by a man of giant strength—and yet the +cone and the books did not shift position. Hands patted the pillows on a +sofa at Miller's right, and one of these cushions was flung against his +chair. The room seemed to swarm with tricksy Pucks. At last the cone +took flight again, and moved about freely among the heap of books and +over Miller's head, while a variety of voices came successively from it, +some of them speaking to Mrs. Miller and some to me. Several of the +names given were known to Mrs. Miller, and a few were recognizable by +me. They all claimed to be spirits of the dead with messages of good +cheer for friends on "the earth-plane," but they were all rather vague +and stereotyped. Once I thought I could see the cone passing between me +and the window, high above the table. It seemed to float horizontally as +if in water. Some of the spirits were too weak to raise the cone—so +"Wilbur" said; too weak, even, to whisper.</p> + +<p>During all this time the psychic remained in trance—deathly still; but +"between the acts" her troubled breathing and low moans could be heard. +So far as hearing could define, she was still at the end of the table, +where she had been placed at the beginning of the sitting. None of +these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> movements occasioned the slightest rustling of the newspaper. +When the cone was moving no sound was heard. The floor was of hard-wood, +and, as one's hearing becomes very acute in the darkness, I am certain +the psychic did not rise from her chair. She was, for the most part, +silent as a dead woman.</p> + +<p>The force expended on the table was very great, almost furious, and even +if the psychic had been able to extend her foot or release a hand she +could not have produced such movement, and if she had done so we could +have detected it. Intelligent forces were plainly at work on the table, +and writing was going on. So far as I was concerned, I was convinced +that the psychic had externalized her power in some occult fashion, and +that it was she who was speaking to us. It was as if she were able to +<i>will</i> the cone to rise and then to project her voice into it, all of +which seems impossible the moment it is stated.</p> + +<p>At length "Wilbur" said: "Good-night." I rose, and Miller, eagerly, +expectantly, turned the light slowly on. <i>Mrs. Smiley sat precisely as +we had last seen her. Her eyes were closed, her head leaning against the +back of her chair. Her hands were fastened exactly as we had left them, +and, strangest thing of all, the table was pushed away from her so that +the silk threads were tight.</i></p> + +<p>"Do you see that, Miller?" I exclaimed. "Will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> you tell me how that +final movement was made? 'Wilbur' has given us an unexpected test. Even +if she had freed her hands, she could not have tied the threads and +returned to her bonds; and if she first returned to her bonds, how could +she, then, have pushed the table away? The two things are mutually +exclusive. Her feet are nailed to the floor, and the newspaper still on +guard. Are we not forced to conclude that the table was moved by some +supernormal expenditure of force? Her hands were here, the table there. +Does it not seem to you a case of the 'psychic force,' such as Crookes +and Richet describe?"</p> + +<p>Miller was confounded, but concealed it. "She may have shoved the table +with her feet."</p> + +<p>"How? Your newspaper is unbroken. Not a tack is disturbed. But suppose +she did! How about the books? Did she get the books with her feet? How +about the broad hand which I saw? How about the candy-box which was +moved from a point seven feet away? How could she slip from her bonds? +See these threads, actually sunk into her wrists!" I continued. "No, my +conviction is that she has not once moved."</p> + +<p>"I cannot admit that."</p> + +<p>"You mean you dare not!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Miller was indignant at our delay. "The poor thing! It is a shame! +Unfasten her at once! You are torturing her!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p><p>"Wait a few moments," said Miller, inexorably. "I want to make a few +notes."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile I took the psychic's pulse. It was very slow, faint, and +irregular. It was, indeed, only a faint, sluggish throb at long +intervals, and each throb was followed only by a feeble fluttering. Her +skin was cold, her arms perfectly inert and numb, and she came very +slowly back to consciousness. I had a conviction at the moment that she +had been out of her body.</p> + +<p>While I rubbed her hands and arms, Miller took notes and measurements. +There were more than two dozen books on the table, and some of them had +come from shelves three feet distant and a little above the psychic's +shoulders. It was true she could have reached them with a free arm, but +she had no free arm! The pad in the middle of the table was scrawled +upon. "Wilbur" was written there, and short messages from "Mr. Mitchell" +and other "ghosts." Therefore, it is of no value to say we were +collectively hypnotized.</p> + +<p>As she came to life, Mrs. Smiley complained of being numb. "My arms are +like logs," she said, "and so are my feet. My 'guides' say that if you +will put one palm to my forehead and the tips of your fingers at the +base of my brain it will help me to liven up."</p> + +<p>I did as she requested, and was at once conscious of great heat and +turmoil in her head. It appeared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> to throb as if in receding excitement. +I thought of Richet's observations (that in cases of materialization the +psychic seemed shrunk and weakened), and narrowly scanned the helpless +woman. She seemed at the moment small and bloodless.</p> + +<p>"Were you conscious of groaning and gasping?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"No, I have no recollection of anything. I am told I do make a great +fuss, but I don't know it. Did anything happen?"</p> + +<p>"A very great deal happened," I answered.</p> + +<p>She smiled in quiet satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad. Mr. Miller has been good and patient; it would have been a +shame to disappoint him. If you will only keep from being too anxious +you'll get anything you want."</p> + +<p>"That's what 'Mitchell' said."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Miller patted her hands. "You must be very tired, poor thing?"</p> + +<p>"I do feel weak, but that will soon pass away. What time is it?"</p> + +<p>Miller looked at his watch. "Great Scott! It's after one o'clock."</p> + +<p>"Absorbing business, isn't it?" said I.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Miller invited Mrs. Smiley to stay the remainder of the night and +took her away to bed, leaving us to measure and weigh and surmise. It +seemed absurd—like a dream; and yet there lay the visible, tangible +proofs of the marvel.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p><p>"Everything took place within her reach, provided she could have freed +her hands," Miller repeated, as he sat in her chair and studied the +books on the table.</p> + +<p>"Miller," said I, with conviction, "<i>that woman did not lift her wrists +from that chair</i>!</p> + +<p>"I don't see how she did it; but to say she did not, is to admit the +preposterous. I wish she had permitted us to hold her hands."</p> + +<p>"I don't know of another psychic in America who would have submitted to +the test we put upon Mrs. Smiley to-night, but 'Mitchell' has assured me +he will go further: he will let us hold her hands and turn on the light. +I feel as if the great mystery were almost within our grasp. By the +ghost of Euclid! I have the conviction at this moment that we are at the +point of proving for ourselves the elongation of the psychic's limbs! +Suppose Flammarion is right? Suppose that the psychic can extend her +arms beyond their normal proportions? You should be ready to give a +year, ten years, to demonstrating a single one of these physical +effects. If I am any judge of character, this little woman is as honest +and as wholesome as Mrs. Miller herself. It isn't this one performance +alone which proves it. It is the implication of a dozen other sittings, +almost as convincing as this, that gives me hope of proving something. +Let us have our next sitting at Cameron's. It is only fair to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> readmit +them, for we have proven that they had nothing to do with our +performance that first night. Let us ask to be permitted to hold the +hands and feet of the psychic, and also to take a flash-light picture of +the floating cone. We may yet see these ghostly hands in the light of +the lamp."</p> + +<p>Miller was shaken. I could see that. He sat like one who has been dealt +a stunning blow.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe it—I can't believe it," he repeated.</p> + +<p>"Crookes got some photos of 'Katie King,' and I fully believe that Mrs. +Smiley may be developed further. Anyhow, let's test her. Now for a word +of theory. This is the way it all appears to me at this time. She seems +to enter successively three stages of hypnotic sleep. In the first stage +the 'spirits' speak through her own throat—or she impersonates, as Mrs. +Harris did. Her second and deeper sleep permits of the movement of the +cone—'telekinesis,' 'independent slate-writing,' etc. But in this final +deathly trance she has the power of projecting her astral hands, +whatever that may mean, and the production of spirit voices. Perhaps she +has an astral head—"</p> + +<p>"I don't believe a word of it! It is all impossible, monstrous!"</p> + +<p>"Well, how will you explain this performance? What about the tacks, the +threads, the tapes that bound her? She brought books, shook the table, +touched us—How?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p><p>"I don't know; but there must be some perfectly natural way of +explaining it. There is no place for the supernatural in my world. She +seems a nice, simple little woman, and yet this very simplicity may be a +means of throwing us off our guard. I will give a hundred dollars for +permission to hold her hands while the cone is moving."</p> + +<p>"If you do not believe in tacks, will you believe in the touch of your +fingers?"</p> + +<p>"If she permits me to hold her and the cone moves I will surrender."</p> + +<p>"No, you won't. You think you will, but you won't. Don't deceive +yourself. I've been all through it. You <i>can't</i> believe until some +fundamental change takes place in your mind. You must struggle just as +Richet did."</p> + +<p>"Anyhow, let's turn the screws tighter. Let's devise some other plan to +make ourselves doubly certain of her part in the performance."</p> + +<p>With this understanding I said good-night, and took my lonely way to my +apartment.</p> + +<p>It was deliciously fresh and weirdly still in the street, and as I +looked up at the glowing stars and down the long, empty street my mind +revolted. "Can it be that the good old theory of the permanence of +matter is a gross and childish thing? Do the dead tell tales, after all? +I wish I could believe it. Perhaps old Tontonava was right. Perhaps if +we were all to pray for the happy hunting-grounds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> at the same moment +and in perfect faith, the lost paradise would return builded by the +simple power of our thought."</p> + +<p>Then Richet's moving confession came to me: "It took me twenty years of +patient research to arrive at my present conviction. Nay (to make one +last confession), I am not yet absolutely and irremediably convinced. In +spite of the astounding phenomena which I have witnessed, I have still a +trace of doubt—doubt which is weak, indeed, to-day, but which may, +perchance, be stronger to-morrow. Yet such doubts, if they come, will +not be due so much to any defect in the actual experiment as to the +inexorable strength of prepossession which holds me back from adopting a +conclusion which contravenes the habitual and almost unanimous opinion +of mankind."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2> + +<p>At this point the sittings, which had begun so interestingly, suddenly +began to fail of results. The power unaccountably weakened. Miller and +several others of the circle believed these failures to be due to the +increased rigidity of the restraint we had imposed upon the medium. The +next "session" was held in Fowler's down-town office, against the +hesitating protest of the psychic, who said: "The atmosphere of the +place is not good." By which she meant that the associations of the +office, with the hurry and worry of business, were in opposition to the +mood necessary for the production of the phenomena.</p> + +<p>"The real reason," declared Howard, "is this: we're now getting down to +brass tacks in her business."</p> + +<p>This was literally true. At Miller's suggestion a strong tape, perhaps +half an inch wide, had been passed about the psychic's wrist and tied in +a close, square knot, and finally a long brass tack was driven down +through both strands of the tape into the chair-arm. This was in reality +as secure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> as a handcuff. Nothing happened this night beyond the +movement of the table and some rather weak raps, and we all rose from +our seats worn and disappointed.</p> + +<p>When we met the next night in the same place, and adjusted the +ever-tightening bands upon the psychic, she sat helplessly for three +hours. I began to lose confidence in her power to do anything beyond the +ordinary. Howard, Mrs. Quigg, and Miss Brush dropped out before the +sitting was over. Only Brierly and myself met the psychic at the +Camerons' on the following Thursday. Again we sat patiently for long +hours, with only the movement of the table and a drumming upon the top +in response to our requests. Miller now said: "I would like to have one +more sitting in my library, to see if we can duplicate the marvels of +our previous séance."</p> + +<p>We did not. The table alone moved, but it did this under absolutely test +conditions. Over each of the psychic's arms a lady's stocking was drawn, +and pinned to her dress at the shoulder. On each hand a luminous +pasteboard star was fastened, and her wrists were tied and tacked, as +before. Again we nailed her dress to the floor and covered her knees +with a newspaper, and Miller and I held threads which were knotted to +her wrists. Nevertheless, under these conditions the table moved while +no one touched it, but always<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> in a line away from the psychic. At the +moment of the sliding of the table I closely watched the luminous stars, +and asserted to the others that her hands did not stir. So that this +movement, though slight, was genuinely telekinetic.</p> + +<p>A very curious incident now cut short our sitting. Miller, who thought +the left hand of the psychic was not in place, twitched the string which +he held, and immediately Mrs. Smiley began to twist and sigh, and "Maud" +complained that her mamma had been injured by the jerking of the thread +by Professor Miller, and said that the sitting would have to stop. We +lighted up and found the psychic apparently suffering keenly from a +severe cramp all through her left side, and a good deal of rubbing was +necessary to restore her to anything like a normal condition.</p> + +<p>It really seemed like failure for my psychic, and I began to wonder +whether the books really did fly from Miller's shelves. I could not +suspect the gentle little lady of <i>conscious</i> deceit, but with a +knowledge of the wonderful deceptions of somnambulists and hysterics, I +began to doubt. I urged Miller to try one more sitting. He consented, +and we met at Brierly's house. Nothing happened during the first two +hours, and at ten o'clock, or thereabouts, Miller, Brierly, and Fowler +withdrew, leaving me to untie and restore Mrs. Smiley, who was still +apparently in deep sleep.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p><p>It was evident that the guides had not released the psychic, and +"Maudie" soon spoke, asking me to put her mamma into a wooden chair, and +to take the cone apart and put the smaller end upon the table. I did as +she requested, and drew the psychic's chair and table together. "Wilbur" +insisted that I tie the psychic as before, but I replied, rather +dejectedly: "Oh no; let things go on as they are."</p> + +<p>He insisted, and, with very little faith in the power of the psychic, I +did as I was told. I tied her wrists separately and then together, and, +drawing both ends of the tape into my left hand, I passed them under the +tip of my forefinger in such wise that I could feel any slightest +movement of the psychic's hands. The guides asked me to fasten her +wrists to the chair, but I replied: "I am satisfied."</p> + +<p>Again I was brought face to face with the mystery of mediumship. Sitting +thus, with no one present but Mrs. Brierly, a woman to be trusted, the +cone was drummed upon and carried about as if by a human hand. It +touched my cheek at a distance of two feet from Mrs. Smiley's hands, and +"Wilbur's" voice—strong, vital, humorous—came to me, conversing as +readily, as sensibly, as any living flesh-and-blood person, <i>and all the +time I held to my tapes, carefully noting that no movement, beyond a +slight tremor</i>, took place in the psychic's arms. Just <i>before</i> each +movement of the cone she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> shivered convulsively and sighed, but while +the cone moved she was deathly still. Each time as the cone left the +table it seemed to rock to and fro as though a hand were trying to grasp +it, and a moment later it rose with a light spring. My impression +was—my <i>belief</i> at the moment was—that Mrs. Smiley had nothing to do +in any ordinary way with the movement of the horn. If there is any +virtue in a taut tape and my sense of touch, her arms lay like marble +during the precise time the voice was speaking to me. I could detect no +connection between herself and the voice.</p> + +<p>"Mitchell" assured me that he approved of every test we were putting +upon "the instrument," and expressed confidence that she would triumph +over Miller. "But the circles have been too often changed," he asserted, +"and the places have not been well chosen. All must be unhurried and +harmonious," he added, and I replied that I had been discouraged, but +that this sitting had given me new interest. "I will be faithful to the +end," I assured him.</p> + +<p>"Wilbur" and "Mitchell" were perfectly distinct personalities, and +appeared to confer and act together. I had a sense of nearness to the +solution of the mystery that thrilled me. Here in the circle of my +out-stretched arms the incredible was happening. I held Mrs. Brierly's +hands, and controlled (by means of my tightly stretched tape) the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>movements of the psychic, and yet the megaphone was lifted, handled, +used as a mouthpiece by "spirits." I felt that if at the moment I had +been able to turn on a clear light I could have seen <i>my</i> ghostly +visitors. This final hour's experience revived all my confidence in Mrs. +Smiley, and not even another long series of absolute failures could +destroy my faith in her honesty or my belief in her occult powers.</p> + +<p>My patience was sorely tried by twelve almost perfectly useless +sittings, during which everybody dropped away but Mr. and Mrs. Fowler, +Dr. Towne, Brierly, and myself. They were not utterly barren sittings, +but the phenomena were repetitious or slight and fugitive.</p> + +<p>Mr. and Mrs. Fowler were friends of Brierly, and, like him, avowed +spiritists, but they both lent their best efforts to make the tests +complete and convincing. After trying sittings here and there, we +finally settled upon a series of afternoon sessions in Fowler's own +house. This was the twenty-sixth sitting of the series, and Cameron's +Amateur Psychical Society was practically a memory. I was now going +ahead pretty much on my own lines, but with an eye to catching Miller +and the Camerons at a successful séance before concluding my search.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Smiley was in great distress of mind over the failure of her +powers. "I guess I'm no good any more," she said. "I never sit now +without a feeling that perhaps my power is gone forever.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> This Eastern +climate is so harsh for me, and I long for my own California. If you +will not give up, I will keep trying as long as my guides advise it."</p> + +<p>"You have done your part," I said, with intent to console her.</p> + +<p>"Please don't give up," she pleaded.</p> + +<p>"I am not giving up—on the contrary, I am only beginning to fight," I +assured her, paraphrasing General Grant, or some other obstinate person. +"I recognize the truth of what you complain about, but I am sure that at +Fowler's, in a small, warm, well-aired room, you will feel at home and +be secure of interruption."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Fowler, a very sensitive, thoughtful, dark-eyed little lady, +received us at the appointed hour with quiet cordiality, and suggested +that her own room up-stairs would be a comfortable and retired place.</p> + +<p>To this I agreed, and we set to work to prepare it for the sitting. +Fowler and I assumed control of the psychic, though Brierly insisted +that, as the house belonged to Fowler, it would be more convincing if he +were not connected with the preparation of the room. "I don't think we +need to consider hair-drawn objections," I retorted.</p> + +<p>As before, we placed Mrs. Smiley in an arm-chair at one end of a small +table; as before, we secured her ankles by looping a long tape about +them and nailing the two ends to the floor behind her. Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> Fowler +introduced an innovation by <i>sewing the tape to the sleeves of our +psychic</i>. This made slipping out of the tape an impossibility, but, to +push security still further, I drove a long brass tack down <i>through +both tape and doubled sleeve</i>. Not content even with this, Fowler put a +second tape about each wrist, to add further security and to take off +the strain in case of any unconscious movement. Another tape was carried +across Mrs. Smiley's dress about four inches below her knees, and pinned +there. Next the ends were drawn tight and tied to the back rung of her +chair. By this we intended to prevent any pushing action of the knees. +As a final precaution, we nailed her dress to the floor in front with +three tacks. The small end of the tin cone was then placed on the table +(at the request of the psychic) and the large end deposited upright on +the carpet near Fowler. Some sheets of paper and a pencil were laid upon +the table. Everything movable was entirely out of the psychic's reach.</p> + +<p>It was about three o'clock of the afternoon when, after darkening the +windows, we took our seats in a little circle about the table. As usual, +I guarded the psychic's right hand, while Fowler sat at her left. +Brierly and Mrs. Fowler were opposite Mrs. Smiley. The room was lighter +than at any other of our sittings—both on account of the infiltering +light of day, and also because an open grate fire in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> the north wall +sent forth an occasional flicker of red flame.</p> + +<p>We sat for some time discussing Miller and Harris and their attitude +toward the psychic. I remarked:</p> + +<p>"To me our failures, some of them at least, have been very instructive, +but the gradual falling away of our members makes evident to me how +unlikely it is that any official commission will ever settle the claims +of spiritualism. As Maxwell has said: 'It is a slow process, and he who +cannot bring himself to plod patiently and to wait uncomplainingly for +hours at a time will not go far.' I confess that the half-heartedness of +our members has disappointed me. I told them at the outset not to expect +entertainment, but they did. It <i>is</i> tiresome to sit night after night +and get nothing for one's pains. It seems foolish and vain, but any real +investigator accepts all these discomforts as part of the game. Failures +are sure to come when the psychic is honest. Only the juggler can +produce the same effects. A medium is not a Leyden-jar nor an Edison +battery; materialization is not precisely a vaudeville 'stunt.'"</p> + +<p>"I don't call the last sitting a failure," said Fowler. "The conditions +were strictly test conditions, and yet matter was moved without contact. +Of course, the mere movement of a table, or even of the trumpet, seems +rather tame, as compared with the doings of 'Katie King'; but, after +all, a single<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> genuine case of telekinesis should be of the greatest +value to the physicist; and, as for the psychologist, the fact of your +friend, Mrs. Thomas, becoming entranced by 'Wilbur' was startling +enough, in all conscience."</p> + +<p>"I don't think Miller believed in her trance," said I.</p> + +<p>"What happened?" asked Brierly, who had not been present at this +particular sitting.</p> + +<p>I answered: "Mrs. Thomas, a friend of mine, a very efficient, +clear-brained person, whom, by-the-way, we had asked to come in order to +fully preserve the proprieties, suddenly felt a twitching in her left +hand, which was touching mine. This convulsive movement spread to her +shoulder, until her whole arm began to thresh about like a flail in a +most alarming way. The action became so violent at last that she called +upon me for aid. I found it exceedingly difficult to subdue her +agitation and silence her rebellious limb, but I did finally succeed. +Nor was this all. A few moments later, while helping us in the singing, +my friend suddenly stopped singing and began to laugh in a deep, +guttural fashion, and presently a voice—the voice of a man, +apparently—came from her throat: '<i>Haw! haw! I've got ye now! I've got +ye now!</i>' It sounded like 'Wilbur.'"</p> + +<p>This seemed to amuse Mrs. Smiley. "It was 'Wilbur,'" she said. "He loves +to jump in and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> seize upon some one's vocal chords that way. It's a +favorite joke with him."</p> + +<p>"What horrible taste!" Mrs. Fowler shudderingly exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know," remarked Brierly. "It is actually no worse than +having your hand controlled."</p> + +<p>"To have a spirit inside of one's throat is a little startling, even to +me," I admitted, sympathetically. "But there was more of this business. +Another member of the circle—a young man—became entranced, and +proceeded to impersonate lost souls, 'earth-bound spirits,' in the +manner of our friend Mrs. Harris, and wailed and wept and moaned in most +grewsome fashion. However, I think Miller considered both of these +performances merely cases of hysteria, induced by the darkness and the +constraint of sitting about the table. And perhaps he was correct."</p> + +<p>"Anything a doctor doesn't understand he calls hysteria," put in +Brierly. "I consider these specialists nuisances."</p> + +<p>"Well, anyhow, our 'Amateur Spook-spotter Association' seems to have +come to an untimely end," said I, regretfully. "Of the original number, +only Brierly remains. Wouldn't our deserters be chagrined if we should +now proceed to enjoy a really startling session?"</p> + +<p>"We will," Mrs. Smiley responded. "I feel the power all about me."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p><p>"Good!" cried Fowler. "That is the way you should feel. If you are at +ease, the spirits will do the rest."</p> + +<p>"Sit back and rest," I said. "We have plenty of time. You've been too +anxious. Don't worry."</p> + +<p>In the mean while, between the sitting at Miller's house and this +present one, I had been reading much on the subject of the trance and of +"the externalization of the fluidic double," of which the Continental +philosophers have much to say. If not convinced, I was at least under +conviction that the liberation of the astral self was possible (if at +all) only in the deepest trance, and I now attempted to discover by +interrogation of Mrs. Smiley precisely what her own conception of the +process was.</p> + +<p>"You told me once that you are conscious of leaving your body when in +trance," I said. "Do you always have that sensation?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I almost always have a feeling of floating in the air," she +answered. "It often seems as if I had risen a few feet above and a +little to one side of my material self, to which I am somehow attached. +I can see my body and what goes on around it, and yet, somehow, it all +seems kind of dim, like a dream. It's hard to tell you just what I mean, +but I seem to be in both places at once."</p> + +<p>"Do you ever have any perception of a physical connection between +yourself and the sitters?"</p> + +<p>She seemed to me to answer this a bit reluctantly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> "Yes, I sometimes +feel as though little shining threads went out from me and those in the +circle, and sometimes these threads meet and twine themselves around the +cone or the pencil. This means that I draw power from all my sitters."</p> + +<p>This was in accord with the accounts of a "cobwebby feeling" which both +Maxwell and Flammarion had drawn from their mediums. Maxwell makes much +of this curious physical sensation which accompanied certain of M. +Meurice's phenomena. Here also seemed to be an unconscious corroboration +of Albert de Rochas's experiments in the "externalization of motivity," +as he calls it. The "cobwebby feeling" of the fingers might mean an +actual raying-out of some subtle form of matter. Indeed, M. Meurice, +Maxwell's medium, declared he could see "a sheath of filaments pass from +his fingers to the objects of experimentation."</p> + +<p>"Tell us about your journeys into the spirit land," I suggested. "You +sometimes seem to go far away, do you not?"</p> + +<p>Her voice became very wistful as she complied. "Yes, sometimes I seem to +go to a far-off, bright world. I don't always want to come back, but +there is a little shining white ribbon that unites my spirit with my +body and holds me fast. Once when I had resolved never to return, that +little band of light began to tug at me, and, although it broke my heart +to leave my children, who were there with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> me, I yielded, and came back +to life. It was very cheerful and lovely in that land, and I hated to +come back to the cold and cruel earth-plane."</p> + +<p>"Can't you tell us about it more particularly?"</p> + +<p>"No; it is so different from this plane that I have no words in which to +describe it. All I can say is that it seems glorious and happy and very +light."</p> + +<p>Something in her gentle accent excited Fowler's sympathy. "Mrs. Smiley, +you have the blood of the martyrs in you. It takes courage to put one's +self into the hands of a cold-blooded scientist like Miller. Even +Garland, here, has no pity. He's like a hound on the trail of a fawn. +It's all 'material' for him. Now, I am nothing but a mild-mannered +editor. I have all the facts I require concerning the spirit world. I am +busied with trying to make people happy here on this earth. But these +scientific 'sharps' are avid for any fact which sustains the particular +theory they happen to hold. Not one in a hundred will go where the facts +lead. Their investigation is all a process of self-glorification, +wherein each one thinks he must prove all the others liars or +weak-minded in order to exalt himself."</p> + +<p>To this I could only reply: "I'm not a scientist, though, I must say, I +sympathize with the scientific method. And as for my treatment of Mrs. +Smiley, I am following exactly the advice of her controls. They assure +me that they will take care of her."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p><p>"And so they will," responded the devoted little psychic.</p> + +<p>By the closest questioning I had never been able to change a single line +of her simple faith. She was perfectly certain of the spirit world. She +had daily messages from "Wilbur" and her spirit father, partly by +voices, but mainly by intuition. Her children hovered over her while she +slept. "Mitchell" healed her if she were ill. "Maudie" comforted her +loneliest hours. These voices, these hands were an integral part of her +world—as necessary and as dear to her as those of her friends in the +flesh. As she talked on I experienced a keen pang of regret. "Why +disturb her belief in the spirit world?" I asked myself. "Why attempt to +reduce her manifestations to natural magic? To rob her of her conviction +that 'Maudie' is able to come back to her would leave her poor indeed."</p> + +<p>However, as the scientist cannot permit pity to hinder his purpose, I +was determined to disassociate the <i>facts</i> of spiritualism from the +<i>cult</i> of spiritualism. I was not concerned with faith or consolation. I +returned to a study of the facts as a part of nature. I was now +observing closely the three levels of sleep into which Mrs. Smiley +seemed to lower herself at will, or upon the suggestion of those in the +circle. I had adopted the theory that in the lighter trance she spoke +unconsciously and wrote automatically. In the second, and deeper,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +trance she became the somnambulist possessed of diabolic cleverness, +when, with the higher senses in abeyance, she was able to deceive and to +elude all detection. In the third, or death-like, trance, I was ready to +admit, for the sake of argument, that she was able, as De Rochas and +Maxwell seem to have demonstrated, to exert an unknown form of force +beyond the periphery of the body—that is to say, to move objects at a +distance and to produce voices from the horn.</p> + +<p>To prove that she actually left the body would do much to explain the +phenomena, and I was very eager to push toward this demonstration. I had +now been her chief inquisitor for nearly thirty sittings, and had +developed (apparently) the power to throw her into trance almost +instantly. A few moments of monotonous humming, intoned while my hand +rested upon hers, generally sufficed to bring the first stage of her +trance. As we had been sitting for half an hour, I now proceeded to +chant my potent charm, with intent to liberate the "spirits" to their +work.</p> + +<p>In a few moments she responded to my suggestion. A nervous tremor, now +expected and now familiar, developed in her hands. This was followed by +a slight, convulsive, straining movement of her arms. Her fingers grew +hot, and seemed to quiver with electric energy. Ten minutes later all +movement ceased. Her temperature abruptly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> fell. Her breath grew +tranquil, and at last appeared to fail altogether. This was the first +stage of her trance. "Take your hand away, Fowler," I said. "We have +nothing to do now but wait. The psychic is now in the hands of +'Mitchell.'"</p> + +<p>Fowler remarked, with some humor: "I can tell by your tone that you're +still unconvinced."</p> + +<p>"I'm like the Scotchman—ready for convincement, but I'd like to see the +man who could do it."</p> + +<p>After a few minutes' silence Mrs. Fowler asked: "What is the most +conclusive phenomenon you have ever witnessed, Mr. Garland?"</p> + +<p>"That's a little difficult to answer," I replied, slowly, "but at the +moment I think the playing of a closed piano, which I once heard, is the +most inexplicable of all my experiments."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by 'the playing of a closed piano'?" queried Brierly.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you about it. It happened during the second sitting I ever +had with Mrs. Smiley. I was lecturing in her home town at the time, and +after the close of my address, and while we were talking together, some +one who was aware of Mrs. Smiley's mediumship suggested: 'Let's go +somewhere and have a sitting.' The plan pleased me, and, after some +banter pro and con, we made up a party of six or eight people, and +adjourned to the home of the chairman of the lecture committee, a +certain Miss Halsey. I want to emphasize the high character<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> of Miss +Halsey, as well as the casual way in which we happened to go to her +rooms, for it puts out of the way all question of collusion. There was +no premeditation in the act, and Miss Halsey, who was the librarian of +the city, and a pronounced disbeliever in spiritistic theories, had +never met Mrs. Smiley before.</p> + +<p>"The circle was made up about equally of men and women, all of them +well-known residents of the town. So far as most of the phenomena +resulting from this sitting are concerned, they have very little value, +for they took place in the dark and the medium was not closely guarded. +It was only toward the end of the sitting, which, by-the-way, took place +in Miss Halsey's library and music-room, that the unexpected suddenly +happened, the inexplicable came to pass.</p> + +<p>"We were gathered about a long table, with Mrs. Smiley at one end +sandwiched between the editor of the local paper and myself. Behind me, +and just within reach of my hand, stood an upright piano, with its cover +down, but not locked. We had heard drumming on the table for some time, +and writing had apparently taken place on the pads in the middle of the +table. But all this was inconclusive, for the reason that Mrs. Smiley +was not fastened as she is now. I took it all with a pinch of salt. My +mental reservations must have reached the minds of the 'guides,' for +with startling suddenness they left the table and fell upon the top of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +the piano. After drumming for some time, the invisible fingers seemed to +drop to the strings beneath, and a treble note was sounded as if plucked +by a strong hand."</p> + +<p>"You are sure the piano was closed?"</p> + +<p>"I am coming to that. Highly delighted by this immediate response to my +request, I said to the 'forces': 'Can't you demonstrate to us that these +sounds are not accidental or caused by the jarring of cars in the +street? Can't you pluck the bass strings?' Instantly, and with clangor, +the lower strings replied. Thereupon I said: 'Can't you play a tune?' To +this only a confused jangle made answer. I was unable to secure any +orderly succession of notes. 'Can't you keep time while I whistle?' I +insisted, with intent to show that intelligence guided these sounds. The +'spirits' twanged three times in the affirmative, and when I began to +whistle 'Yankee Doodle' the invisible musician kept perfect time, +playing according to my request—now on the treble, now on the bass. +Leaning far back in my chair, I placed my hand upon the lid of the +closed piano, and called out to the others in the circle: 'The lid of +the piano is closed. My hand is upon it. So far as the sense of touch +and hearing are concerned, we have here an action absolutely unaccounted +for by any scientific law.</p> + +<p>"This was at the moment absolutely convincing to me, as to the others, +and I promptly reported the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> case to the American Psychical Society in +Boston. Since then I may say I have had many experiments quite as +convincing, but never a repetition of this peculiar phenomenon. It is +useless to talk about secret wires, or a mouse running up and down the +strings, or any other material explanation of this fact. It took place +precisely as I relate it, and remains a mystery to this day."</p> + +<p>Fowler remained very calm. "Crookes saw in a full light an accordion +playing beneath the touch of invisible fingers."</p> + +<p>"Yes," I retorted, in protest, "but this action of a closed piano +happened in my presence, under my hand, and there is always so much more +convincing quality in the miracle which happens in one's own house. But, +seriously, that performance on the closed piano remains a profound +mystification to me. If it had happened in the medium's house, or in the +home of some one who knew her, I might have suspected fraud—but it did +not! It happened in the study of one of the most respected women in the +city, a student who did not believe in psychic phenomena. Furthermore, +my own hand was on the lid of the piano. I was so convinced of Mrs. +Smiley's possession of some occult force that I at once wrote to the +society, telling them that a study of her phases would, in my judgment, +be the most important work its directors could engage upon. This is one +of my crack stories, and I wouldn't <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>believe it as related by any one +else. However, you may read my report, which I made at the time, if that +will be of any satisfaction to you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't need it," responded Mr. Fowler. "I was merely trying to +find out what your best experiments had been. Have they all been on the +physical plane?"</p> + +<p>"They are all on the physical plane—that is to say, on one plane for +me. Any 'spirit manifestation,' so long as we are what we are, must be +an agitation of what we call 'molecules of matter,' and is to that +extent physical. I have no patience with those highfilutin teachers who +speak of matter as though it were ignoble in some way. Matter to me is +as mysterious as spirit."</p> + +<p>At this moment a slight movement of the psychic arrested me, and as we +listened the silvery sweet voice of "Maudie" issued from the darkness, +saying: "<i>Mr. Mitchell wants Mr. Garland to change places with Mr. +Fowler. Be very careful as you move about. Don't joggle mama. It's very +dangerous to her.</i>"</p> + +<p>As I rose to comply, "Maude" called out: "<i>Mr. Mitchell wishes the +threads fastened to mama's wrists. He wants you and Mr. Fowler to hold +them the way you did at Mr. Miller's house.</i>"</p> + +<p>Turning up the lights, we tied a strong silk thread to each wrist, and +passed the ends under each arm of the chair. Fowler took one of these +ends while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> I retained the other. I then called the attention of Brierly +to the fact that the table was seventeen inches from the feet of the +psychic, and that the fastenings were unchanged. When his examination +was completed, the lights were again turned off, and the circuit of +hands restored.</p> + +<p>"Maudie" then requested that the pieces of cone be put together and +placed on the floor beside the table. Fowler did this, and drew a chalk +mark about it, numbering it "Position No. 1." Immediately after his +return to his seat the table was strongly pushed away from the psychic. +It moved in impulses, an inch or two at a time, until it was certainly +six or eight inches farther from the psychic.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to conceive how this movement without contact takes +place; but, then, what do we know about the action of the magnet on a +pile of iron filings? How can a thought in the brain of man contract a +set of muscles and lift a cannon-ball? At bottom we do not know how the +will, as we call it, crosses the chasm between mind and matter—we don't +even know there is a chasm.</p> + +<p>"Do you feel any motion in your thread, Fowler?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Nothing but a faint quiver," he replied.</p> + +<p>"Neither do I, and yet the table moved."</p> + +<p>"The table is crowding against me!" called Mrs. Fowler, in some +excitement.</p> + +<p>The fact that the table moved toward us and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> directly away from the +psychic was in itself suspicious; but, as a matter of fact, at other +sittings we obtained sidewise movements of the table—generally to the +left. The present experiment did not stand alone. You must remember also +that the table was at this time more than two feet from Mrs. Smiley's +toes, her dress was tacked to the floor, and her ankles controlled by a +tape whose ends were nailed to the floor four feet behind her chair.</p> + +<p>"So far as matter can testify, Mrs. Smiley is not concerned in this +movement of the table," I said. "The question is now up to us. Which of +us is doing this?"</p> + +<p>"I am not," answered Brierly.</p> + +<p>"Nor I," declared Fowler.</p> + +<p>"Nor I," chimed in Mrs. Fowler.</p> + +<p>At this moment the psychic began to stir again. "Look out!" I called, +warningly. "Let every hand be accounted for. Some new demonstration is +preparing. These periods of suffering are strangely like the pangs of +childbirth. I wonder if, after all, Archdeacon Colley was not in the +right when he asserted that he had seen the miraculous issue of +phantoms. I confess that when I read it first I smiled with the rest, +for his description of the process was not very poetic. He declared that +he saw a white vapor steam from the side of the psychic, like vapor from +a kettle, forming a little cloud, and from this nebulous mass various +phantasms appeared,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> ranging from a little child to a full-grown man. It +is curious how exactly similar all the reports of this process are. +Crookes speaks of a milky-white vapor which condensed to a form, and +Richet and Maxwell describe it as a sort of condensing process. I have +seen it myself, but could not believe in the evidence of my own eyes. +One can see all kinds of things in the dark."</p> + +<p>Peace had again fallen upon our psychic—the peace of exhaustion; as if, +her struggles being over, her flesh-free spirit were at large in the +room. The silence was profound, yet somehow thrilling with potency.</p> + +<p>In this hush the megaphone was lifted slightly and dropped, making us +all start. It was as if a feeble hand had tried to manipulate it without +success. "Let us keep test conditions," I urged. "Please do not make a +movement now without warning me of your intentions. Keep the circuit +closed." Here I addressed "Wilbur": "Let's see if you can handle the +cone under strictly test conditions. Come now, lift it! Lift it!" I +repeated the command with intent to concentrate all will-power of both +psychic and sitters upon the thing desired, as Maxwell was accustomed to +do in his experiments with Meurice.</p> + +<p>Several times the forces strove to carry out my wishes, but could not. +Twice the horn rose from the carpet, only to fall back helplessly. +Fowler placed it in position each time, marking each new<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> position, +while I took note of the convulsive tremor which swept from time to time +over the psychic. It was exactly as if she were a dynamo generating some +unknown electrical energy, which, after accumulating for a time in her +organism (as in a jar), was discharged along the direction of our will, +and yet I could not detect any marked synchronism of movement between +these impulses and the movement of the horn.</p> + +<p>After each fall of the cone she moaned and writhed, <i>but not till the +hush of death came over her did the horn move</i>. So intense was the +silence each time that we could hear the slightest breath, the minutest +movement of the tin as it scraped along the rug.</p> + +<p>"It is useless to talk of a confederate," I remarked; "it is of no value +to refer this action to the hands of the psychic. We must look to +subtler causes for this phenomenon. Perhaps Maxwell's theory that some +magnetic power is liberated by the contraction of the larger muscles +will account for it, but in no other way."</p> + +<p>At last the megaphone soared into the air, passed over our heads, and +dropped gently upon the table. It did not fall with a bang; on the +contrary, it seemed to descend gently—<i>as if under perfect control of +both hand and eye</i>. And yet I assert there was nothing to indicate that +the psychic shared in these movements. She lay as still as a corpse. +Nothing but a minute continuous tremor in the thread told that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> she was +still alive. I was enormously impressed by the silence. The darkness +seemed athrill with mystery—not the mystery of the discarnate soul, but +the mystery of the X-ray. I felt that we were ourselves involved in a +production of each and every one of these movements.</p> + +<p>"There is no use attempting to deny this fact," I insisted to the other +sitters. "Either the psychic is able to control that cone by the +exercise of her will over some unknown invisible force, or she has left +her body and is now at work, a sentient entity in the air about us. +There is the same precision in all this which Lombroso observed. It +really seems that the medium has the faculty of using her senses at a +distance. To say that she is handling that cone with her ordinary +physical limbs is absurd. This single inexplicable moving of a mass of +matter from A to B makes the experiments of Crookes and Maxwell very +much more vital to me. I shall reread their books with new interest."</p> + +<p>This result should have awed me, but it did not. I felt a deep interest, +of course, but no bewilderment. My mind was perfectly clear and my +senses alert to every sound, every ray of light.</p> + +<p>At this moment the psychic again began to twist and turn as if in pain, +and at last the little voice of "Maudie" anxiously asked: "<i>Is Mr. +Garland going to take a train at seven o'clock?</i>"</p> + +<p>This query convinced me that deep in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>subconscious mind of the +psychic lay the knowledge that I had thought of catching this train, and +that a sense of my plan was disturbing her and interfering with our +experiment. To remove the uneasiness, I replied: "No, I am going to +stay; for I think 'Mr. Mitchell' has something very special in store for +me. Tell her not to think of it any more. I am in no hurry. I have no +appointment elsewhere."</p> + +<p>To this "Maudie" replied: "<i>Mr. Mitchell says, 'Thank you'; he will do +the best he can for you. He says go down-stairs now and get your supper. +Leave mama just where she is. He will take care of her.</i>"</p> + +<p>As we had been sitting for nearly three hours in a dark close room we +welcomed this suggestion from our thoughtful guide, although it tended +to make the sitting less conclusive. As I followed my hostess down the +stairs I shared her remorseful pity of poor Mrs. Smiley, bound and +helpless in her inquisitorial seat. "Mitchell" did not ask that she be +fed, only that she be covered with a shawl to keep her warm.</p> + +<p>"If she is doing this for her own entertainment," I said, "she has +singular tastes. If she is doing it to advance the cause of +spiritualism, she is a noble creature—though a mistaken devotee, in the +eyes of Miller."</p> + +<p>Our hostess's uneasiness concerning the psychic made the meal a hurried +one. None of us felt very much like eating, and I could see that Fowler +was disposed to cut corners. "Well, Garland, what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> do you intend to do +with the facts obtained this afternoon? You have plenty of authority +behind which to shelter yourself. Why not admit the truth? So far as I +am concerned, I am willing to swear that Mrs. Smiley had no actual hand +in the movement of the cone."</p> + +<p>To this I replied: "From one point of view, these phenomena are slight; +but considered in the light of the manifestation of a totally new force, +they are tremendous in their implication, and I must be absolutely sure +of them before I assert their truth. The most impressive fact of all is +that every phenomenon we obtain coheres with those obtained by Maxwell, +Crookes, and Flammarion. It will not do to admit the spirit hypothesis, +or grant the objectivity of phantasms, merely because we have proved the +movements of a particle of matter from A to B without a known push or a +pull, for such admission is far-reaching. If Maxwell is right, these +phenomena—even the most complicated of them—are metapsychical, but +perfectly normal. For example, he says: 'A movement without contact was +forthcoming this afternoon. I placed a table upside down on a linen +sheet. M. Meurice and I then put our hands on the sheet, some distance +away from the table. The table turned completely over. The movement was +performed slowly and gently. It was four o'clock in the afternoon, and +the sunlight was streaming in through an open window.' Now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> here was a +perfectly clear case of telekinesis, with no one present but Dr. Maxwell +and his friend; but the turning over of the table does not imply the +action of spirit hands."</p> + +<p>"I don't see why not," responded Mrs. Fowler, "if Dr. Maxwell had +mediumistic power."</p> + +<p>"It was Meurice who had the power; but it was a physical power, which +went out from his organism like heat. He was often ill after his +experiments, and felt nausea and a disturbing weakness in the solar +plexus, as though his bodily powers had been seriously drawn upon. I +have felt this myself—or so it seemed; perhaps I imagined it."</p> + +<p>Fowler struck in: "But what will you do with materializations such as +Dr. Richet studied at the Villa Carmen in Algiers? What will you do with +the photographs of the spectre of the helmeted soldier which he obtained +under what he declares were test conditions?"</p> + +<p>"But were they? That's the point."</p> + +<p>"I am willing to trust a man of Richet's wide knowledge and known skill +in experimentation. When he says he saw, touched, and heard the +apparition of a man, I am ready to believe that he had taken quite as +many precautions as his newspaper critics would have done. He saw a +helmeted soldier leave the séance cabinet and walk about. He clasped his +hand, he affirmed, and found it warm and jointed (perfectly real), and +he secured the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> breath of this phantom in a tube of baryta so +unmistakably that the liquid was chemically changed in accordance with +his test. There are thousands of other well-authenticated cases of +materialization. I have seen scores of them myself. I am only quoting +Richet because I know you believe in his methods."</p> + +<p>"I do, indeed; but he may have been deceived, all the same. The failure +of all his experiments in Algiers lay in the fact that he was never able +to nail his psychic down, as we have done. He was the on-looker, after +all—not the experimenter he should have been and wished to be. Really +his photographs of the spirit 'B. B.' have not the weight as evidence of +the physical manifestation, as the phenomena which we have this evening +secured."</p> + +<p>Fowler rose. "I have his report in my library. Let me get it."</p> + +<p>He returned in a few minutes with a small blue book in his hand, from +which he began to read with gusto: "'I saw, as it were, a white luminous +ball floating over the floor; then rising straight upward, very rapidly, +as though issuing from a trap-door, appeared B. B., born, so to speak, +out of the flooring outside the curtain, which had not stirred. He +tries, as it seems to me, to come among us, but he has a limping, +hesitating gait. At one moment he reels as if about to fall, limping on +one leg; then he goes toward the opening of the curtains of the +cabinet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> Then, without (as I believe) opening the curtains, he sinks +down, disappears into the floor.'"</p> + +<p>"What are you reading from?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I am reading from the report which Richet made to the Annals of +Psychical Science. He goes on to say: 'It appears to me that this +experiment is decisive, for the formation of a luminous spot on the +ground, which then changes into a living and walking being, cannot +seemingly be produced by any trick. On the day after this experiment I +minutely examined the flagstones [which made up the floor of the séance +room], and also the coach-house and stable immediately under that part +of the kiosque.' There was no trap-door, and the cobwebs on the roof of +the stable were undisturbed. The photographs of the apparition were +taken on five different plates simultaneously, and the figure is the +same on each."</p> + +<p>"Yes; but those experiments were afterward made of no value by the +confession of a coachman, who admitted his complicity in the fraud."</p> + +<p>"No; that story is not true. The experiments stand, and Richet still +defends both himself and the circle against the charge of fraud."</p> + +<p>"But read on," I insisted. "Does he not say that, in spite of all his +proof, he will not even hazard an affirmation of the phenomena?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he does say that," admitted Fowler; "but he also says: 'I have +thought it my duty to mention these facts in the same way as Sir William +Crookes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> thought it his duty in more difficult times to report the +history of "Katie King." I do not believe I have been deceived. I am +convinced that I have been present at realities, not deceptions. +Certainly I cannot say in what materialization consists. <i>I am only +ready to maintain that there is something profoundly mysterious in it, +which will change from top to bottom our ideas on nature and on life.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"He apparently was profoundly affected by what he saw," I assented, "and +I am perfectly willing to grant that the character of his friends in the +circle add value to what he saw. But, after all, the fact of +materialization is so tremendous in its implications that even to admit +its possibility is to admit more than any man of our day, who has been +trained in scientific ways, is willing to be answerable for. However, +the most extraordinary story I have ever read is that of Archdeacon +Colley, Rector of Stockton, Warwickshire, who declared in a public +lecture—and many times since, over his signature—that he saw the +miraculous issue of phantoms born directly from the side of a psychic. +He declares he saw a winsome little girl emerge—a laughing, +golden-haired creature, as alive as any one. I confess that this is too +much for me, and yet if a Spanish soldier can be born from a spot of +light, anything at all that anybody may imagine can happen.—But let us +return to our own psychics."</p> + +<p>We found Mrs. Smiley sitting precisely as we left<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> her, and, picking up +our thread, Fowler and I located the table and the cone and reassumed +our positions. The table, which was quite out of reach of Mrs. Smiley's +hands, now stood with its end toward the three of us, sitting in a +crescent shape opposite the psychic—a position which produced, so the +guides said, one pole of a battery.</p> + +<p>Hardly were we seated in our places when the psychic suddenly awoke and +spoke in her natural voice, and I for one felt that the sitting was +over. I was perfectly certain that nothing could happen out of the +ordinary unless the medium were in either one or the other of her states +of trance.</p> + +<p>I was now both amazed and delighted to find that the cone could be +drummed upon and voices delivered through it while Mrs. Smiley, mentally +normal, took part in the conversation. My theories were upset. I was +completely mystified, though I said nothing of this to Fowler.</p> + +<p>Once or twice Mrs. Fowler declared she heard the sound of lips, and at +last a voice came to her speaking the name of her father. His voice +answered some of her questions correctly, but could not utter the pet +name which her father used to call her. This breakdown of the +individuality of the phantom voices is very characteristic. This ended +the sitting. The voices had not been as strong as we had hoped for, but +as we threw on the light we found a number of messages written upon the +sheets of paper<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> which Fowler had put in the middle of the table. These +messages were lying with the writing wrong side up, so far as the +psychic was concerned. Altogether we felt that the results were both +significant and encouraging, and we agreed to meet three days later in +the same room and under the same conditions.</p> + +<p>"What I want to do now is to hold your arms while the horn is in the +air, or while the writing is going on," I said to Mrs. Smiley.</p> + +<p>And to this she replied: "You may make any test you please. I feel that +in this house my powers will return."</p> + +<p>"That is a real gain," I said, to encourage her.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2> + +<p>The next sitting was an almost exact duplication of the last so far as +the binding (and nailing) of the psychic was concerned, except that we +sewed <i>two</i> bands of tape to her sleeves and <i>four</i> tacks were used at +each wrist. Her feet were tied separately in the middle of a long tape, +and the ends brought together, carried back beneath her chair, and +tacked to the floor. As before, we placed the large end of the cone on +the floor, out of her reach, leaving the smaller end on the table, which +we left just out of her utmost reach. On the table we placed some sheets +of paper specially marked and dated, and took our seats as usual.</p> + +<p>No one was present at this sitting but Mr. and Mrs. Fowler and myself. +Even the faithful Brierly had been unable to share in this, the +twenty-ninth experiment. I was delighted to have the circle narrow down, +for Fowler was a good investigator and a man of vast experience in +psychic matters. Outside interference was absolutely excluded. "Whatever +happens to-night, Fowler," I said, "you and I or the spirits must be +responsible for it."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p><p>We began, as usual, by putting Mrs. Smiley into hypnotic sleep. In a +few moments the familiar shuddering action took place. Her palms grew +moist. She said she found it difficult to submit to our touch. She asked +us to put our fingers above hers, and soon after, in the midst of our +singing, her voice ceased, her hands grew heavy as lead, and lay +perfectly limp and dead in their bonds.</p> + +<p>Again following the guidance of the raps, Fowler and I moved back and +sat opposite her, with Mrs. Fowler between us. "Maudie" then spoke from +the psychic's lips, asking us to move the table farther away. This I +did, leaving it at least twelve inches from the utmost tips of her +fingers. "Maudie" then asked us to take up the larger half of the cone +and unite it with the smaller part, and lay the entire cone flat across +the table.</p> + +<p>We did so, marking its position by means of chalk. It was nearly three +feet from the utmost extension of the psychic's hands, and yet, almost +immediately, tapping came upon the cone keeping time to our singing. +Later, sounds were produced like the beating of a kettle-drum. A +hammering was then carried on as if within the cone, and "Maudie" spoke, +telling us to go down and get supper, as before.</p> + +<p>I regretted this necessity very much, for up to this moment all had been +clear sailing; the tapping on the cone was inexplicable on the basis of +any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> normal action of the psychic; but to leave her alone, even while so +well accounted for, weakened the test.</p> + +<p>I said as much to Fowler as we sat at the dinner-table. He admitted his +own disappointment. "However," he added, philosophically, "we have to +take these things as they offer. We can't construct them."</p> + +<p>We discussed the implications of the sittings we had already held. "It +isn't one thing only," he reminded me; "it is because of the larger fact +that one phenomenon supports another that one comes to believe. Thus far +to-night we have <i>proved</i> that Mrs. Smiley is not concerned with the +drumming on the cone, haven't we?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but I want to hold her hands while the drumming takes place. I +want to hear her voice at the same time with 'Mitchell's.'"</p> + +<p>"We'll get it," he responded, confidently. And a little later we +returned to the room where our psychic was sitting, still in deep +trance.</p> + +<p>After some moments of waiting, "Maudie" said: "Mr. Mitchell says take +the table away and put the cone in its place."</p> + +<p>We moved the table a short distance to the left, and I put the cone in +the centre of the rug where the table had stood, and marked the position +of the cone. The psychic then passed through a period of suffering, of +effort, but nothing took place. Again "Maudie" spoke, asking us to +restore the table<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> and cone to their former positions. "Evidently the +experiment designed by 'Mitchell' has failed," I said, "but these +failures instruct us."</p> + +<p>A convulsive restlessness again seized upon the psychic, and "Maudie" +asked us to sing. I hummed softly, in order to hear anything that might +take place. A minute clicking sound at once developed, as though some +one were lightly beating the cone with a key. These clicks answered our +questions. It was "Wilbur" once more. I asked him if he were going to be +able to speak to us, and he tapped "<i>Yes</i>." Soon after this the cone was +swung into the air and "Wilbur's" throaty whisper was heard. I asked him +if the psychic could not be awake and speak while he was present, and he +answered: "<i>Yes; we have planned that.</i>"</p> + +<p>Even as he spoke Mrs. Smiley passed into what seemed like a struggle for +breath and awoke!</p> + +<p>"Are you with us, Mrs. Smiley?" asked Fowler.</p> + +<p>"Yes. What time is it?"</p> + +<p>"About half-past eight. How do you feel?"</p> + +<p>"Very numb and cold," she answered, plaintively.</p> + +<p>"I don't wonder at that," I remarked. "You've been sitting there for +five hours."</p> + +<p>"Is anybody present?" she asked, anxiously.</p> + +<p>I knew what she meant, and answered: "Yes, 'Wilbur' is here—or was a +few moments ago. Are you still with us, 'Wilbur'?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p><p>A rapping on the cone made vigorous answer, and a few seconds later the +cone took flight and "Wilbur's" voice resumed general conversation with +us. It was noticeable to me all through this sitting, as at others, that +neither "Wilbur" nor "Mitchell" nor "Maud" ever addressed the psychic; +<i>they spoke of her, but never to her</i>.</p> + +<p>I requested further tests. "'Wilbur,' I want the privilege of going to +the psychic's side. I don't like this long-distance experiment. I want +to get closer to these facts—if they are facts."</p> + +<p>"<i>You shall have the privilege</i>," was the reassuring answer.</p> + +<p>"Shall I go now?"</p> + +<p>There was no reply through the horn, but a tapping on the table gave a +doubtful "<i>Yes</i>," and I crept slowly forward and took a seat at Mrs. +Smiley's right hand. "I am very close to the ultimate mystery, Mrs. +Smiley," I said, as I placed my hand upon her wrist. "Proceed, 'Wilbur.' +Let me hear your voice now."</p> + +<p>With tense expectation, I put my ear close to the psychic's lips and +listened breathlessly. The horn soared into the air and was drummed +there, as if to show that it was out of the reach of the psychic, but no +voice came from it! This was a disappointment to me, as well as to +Fowler, and I banteringly said: "You know this failure is suspicious, +Wilbur.' It seems to indicate that Mrs. Smiley is only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> a wonderful +ventriloquist, after all. Can't you prove that she is independent of +your voice? Can't you do something decisive at this moment?"</p> + +<p>No reply came to this; but while my hand was firmly pressed upon her +wrist (both sleeves being nailed to the chair), the loose leaves of the +paper in the centre of the table were whisked away to the left. I could +follow their flight, and we all heard their deposition on a couch in a +corner of the room.</p> + +<p>"Fowler," I said, "are you controlling your wife's hands?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; we had nothing to do with that noise."</p> + +<p>This was another tense moment, for the movement of those papers was very +ghostly indeed. We had demonstrated clearly that their movement was +supernormal.</p> + +<p>"May I come forward?" asked Fowler.</p> + +<p>Tap—"<i>No</i>," was the decided answer.</p> + +<p>I then asked: "'Wilbur,' do you want me to change with Fowler and +control Mrs. Fowler's hands?"</p> + +<p>An emphatic "<i>Yes</i>" was rapped in reply.</p> + +<p>"They seem as anxious for a conclusive test as we are," remarked Fowler. +"Did you mean you didn't want Mrs. Fowler unaccounted for?"</p> + +<p>A perfect fusillade of raps followed: "<i>Yes, yes, yes.</i>"</p> + +<p>Fowler then came forward to Mrs. Smiley's left,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> while I returned to the +table. Taking both of Mrs. Fowler's hands in mine, and setting the toes +of my shoes upon hers, I awaited developments. At this moment, while +Fowler was pressing the psychic's imprisoned wrists, the cone banged +about most furiously, describing wide circles entirely out of Mrs. +Smiley's reach. This action was another perfectly convincing test of the +psychic's supernormal powers. As the same movement had taken place with +<i>each</i> of us in control of the psychic, each was absolved from any +complicity in the matter; but I did not forget my further test. "Mrs. +Smiley," I said, "I want Mr. Fowler to return to his seat, and I want to +place my hand over your lips—or to muffle you in some way. <i>I must</i> +prove that you have nothing to do with the production of those voices. +Will you permit this test?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly," she answered, with patient sweetness. "You may gag me in +any way you please. I am perfectly sure you can secure the proof you +want." Upon this hint I acted. Taking a large kerchief from my pocket, I +tied it tightly around her mouth, knotting it at the back, and then, in +growing excitement, challenged the ghostly voice: "Now, 'Wilbur,' let's +hear from you."</p> + +<p>A moment later the voice came from the cone, but apparently very much +muffled and blurred. "You are not articulating well," I rather +sarcastically observed.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p><p>Instantly the voice came out clearly, more sharply than ever before. +"<i>I was fooling you!</i>" jeered "Wilbur."</p> + +<p>We all applauded. "There, that's better," I said. "Your voice improved +wonderfully."</p> + +<p>"Wilbur" chuckled with glee. "<i>I've taken a lozenge</i>," he whimsically +retorted, expressing a very human delight in our mystification.</p> + +<p>Fowler then said: "Now let's consider this a moment, Garland. Suppose +Mrs. Smiley has been able to loosen the gag. How does she handle the +cone? We will suppose she is a marvellous ventriloquist. How does she +write on the pads on the table, and how does she whisk them away? You +see, it isn't the matter of one thing, but of all that has happened."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I admit that everything points to an exercise of supernormal +force. It really looks, so far as anything in the dark can look, like +spirits, but I prefer to think Mrs. Smiley has the power to project her +will in some way."</p> + +<p>"I don't see how we are going to escape the spirit hypothesis," replied +Fowler.</p> + +<p>"'Mitchell,'" I said, addressing the phantom, "I want to examine that +gag, and I want to hold both hands of the psychic. Will you permit +that?"</p> + +<p>There was no reply to this, and Fowler offered an explanation: "We had +that test at a previous sitting."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p><p>I explained to the invisible ones: "'Wilbur,' it is absolutely +essential that you should prove to me that your voice is not dependent +upon the vocal chords of the psychic. You see the importance of this, do +you not, Mrs. Smiley?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed, I do," she earnestly answered, her voice sounding very faint +and muffled through the kerchief. "I am anxious for the test."</p> + +<p>"Very well, then. Now I want you to sing a song, and while you are +singing I am going to insist on 'Wilbur's' speaking. Will you do that, +'Wilbur'?" The cone was drummed upon as if in vigorous promise of +success.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Smiley sang, or rather hummed; but there was no response on the +part of the ghostly voices, and a moment later she called, faintly: "The +kerchief is slipping down, Mr. Garland."</p> + +<p>I rose and went to her side. As I untied the kerchief, she said, +plaintively: "I am sorry we didn't get the voices. I am sure we can if +we try again. Please try again." And a vigorous drumming on the cone +seemed to second her plea.</p> + +<p>However, it was getting very late, and I said: "I think we will postpone +further experiment to-night. What are your sensations now?"</p> + +<p>"I am almost paralyzed, and still deaf, too, but that often happens. My +feet are as if they did not exist."</p> + +<p>"But your mind is perfectly normal?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p><p>"Yes, it seems to be."</p> + +<p>Soon after this I returned to my seat; the cone was lifted high into the +air silently, broken apart, and then, with the small end jangling inside +the larger one, was carried over the table and back to the floor. It +fell with a bang that seemed final and decisive. "That is 'good-bye,'" +said Mrs. Smiley.</p> + +<p>Upon lighting the gas we found our victim as before, sitting absolutely +as we had left her. The table edge was twenty-four inches from her +finger-tips. The place where the cone lay, which we had marked with +chalk when it was first drummed upon, was thirty-six inches from one +hand and forty inches from the other. But the most inexplicable of +all—the tangible, permanent record—was the seven sheets of paper which +were lying upon a couch six feet from Mrs. Smiley's left hand. <i>They +were all written upon legibly, and pinned together with a black pin, +which had been thrust through the writing.</i> "Wilbur" had scrawled his +name, Mrs. Fowler's father's name was signed to a message, and there +were other signatures unknown to any of us. The pencil was on the +carpet, forty inches from Mrs. Smiley's hand. The leaves of paper, at +the moment when they were grasped and lifted, were more than forty +inches from her finger-tips. How this was done I do not know: but of +this I am absolutely sure: the psychic did not remove them from the +table by means of her ordinary, material limbs. Barring the failure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> to +disassociate her voice from that of "Wilbur," she had met every demand +upon her. Her powers were truly magical. I cannot say I <i>saw</i> the cone +move, but I have proven that the psychic did not surreptitiously touch +it or fraudulently write upon the papers during this sitting. I cannot +swear that Fowler was controlling his wife's hands while the cone was +floating (and while I held the psychic's imprisoned hands), but I +<i>believe</i> he was. In short, barring the one sense of sight—an +all-important one, I admit—these happenings were convincing and fitted +in with phenomena which I had secured with other psychics.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, I was not satisfied. I wanted Brierly, or some other fifth +person, in the room, in order that <i>both</i> of the psychic's hands could +be controlled at the same time that Mrs. Fowler's were secured. So long +as a single hand was left free, the doubter would be warranted in +questioning our results.</p> + +<p>The next two or three sittings were partial failures—so much so that I +made no record of them. Possibly, conditions were not strict enough. At +any rate, the final and most conclusive sitting came three days later. +It was held in Fowler's house. We followed the conditions of the +previous sitting very closely—the same room, the same table, the same +fastenings as before.</p> + +<p>There was present a friend of Fowler's, a young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> man who was possessed +of some psychic power. We will call him Frank. Fowler and I took entire +charge of the psychic, and her bonds were even more carefully nailed +than before. We began the séance, as before, by putting her to sleep.</p> + +<p>Not long after "Maudie" spoke, saying: "<i>Mr. Mitchell wishes the thread +fastened to mama's hands in the way Mr. Garland desires.</i>"</p> + +<p>I fastened a strong thread to each wrist as I had done several times +before, passing the ends under the chair-arm in such wise that any +movement of the psychic would be plainly and instantly detected. We then +returned to our seats, and, though conditions seemed favorable, no +marked phenomena took place; the cone was lifted, it is true, but we +were used to this now, and accepted it as quite commonplace.</p> + +<p>At six o'clock the voice of "Maudie" came: "<i>Please go down to supper. +Mr. Mitchell says he will be able to give you what you ask for after you +return.</i>"</p> + +<p>I did not ask to what he referred, but I had in mind the test to prove +the voices independent of the psychic's vocal organs, and at the dinner +we discussed methods by which this could be made clear.</p> + +<p>"If they will let me put my hand over her mouth," I said to Fowler, "I +will be satisfied."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that you will believe in spirits?" he smilingly challenged +me.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p><p>"Oh, I won't go so far as to promise that, but I confess it would help +to prove their existence."</p> + +<p>"We may be about to get something more conclusive than that."</p> + +<p>"Let us fix our minds on two things: first, to get the writing, or at +least movement, with every hand controlled; and, second, the voices, +while one of us covers Mrs. Smiley's mouth with a hand."</p> + +<p>"Very well," acquiesced Fowler. "But the unexpected is what usually +happens in these performances."</p> + +<p>We were gone but twenty minutes, so eager were we for our demonstration. +We found everything quite as when we left: the psychic was asleep, the +fastenings undisturbed. Fowler and I regained our threads and resumed +our places at the sides of the table, while Frank and Mrs. Fowler sat +close together at the end opposite Mrs. Smiley. I ask the reader to +recall that the psychic's ankles were encircled with tape which was +nailed to the floor behind her chair. Two bands of tape, after being +sewn to her cuffs, had been tacked solidly to the chair, three strong +tacks were driven down through the hem of her dress, and, finally, +Fowler and I were holding the threads which, after encircling the +psychic's wrists, passed under the chair-arm.</p> + +<p>And yet, in spite of all these bonds and precautions, the cone was +almost immediately lifted, and "Mitchell" spoke through it. In a deep, +clear,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> well-delivered, and decidedly masculine whisper, and with +stately periods, he promised the complete co-operation of the spirit +world in the great work to which I was devoting myself. He directed his +exhortation to me, as usual; and for the benefit of those who think the +spirits are always trivial or foolish, I wish to say that "Mitchell's" +remarks were dignified and very suggestive. He produced in my mind the +distinct impression of a serious man of seventy, ornate of rhetoric, but +never vague or wandering in his thought, and he never went outside the +circle of Mrs. Smiley's mind.</p> + +<p>For fully a quarter of an hour he discussed with me the value of the +investigation which we were pursuing. "<i>I and my band</i>," he assured me, +"<i>are working as hard from our side as you are from yours, equally +intent upon opening up channels of communication between the two +worlds</i>." He solemnly urged me to proceed in this "<i>grand work</i>," and at +last said, "<i>Good-bye for the present</i>," and fell silent.</p> + +<p>The cone was then deposited on the table, and "Maud" said: "<i>If Mr. +Garland and Mr. Fowler will go quietly up to mama's side, holding all +the time tightly to the threads, 'Mr. Mitchell' will do what Mr. Garland +so much desires. Please be very careful not to touch mama until I tell +you. Keep as far apart as you can as you go up to her. When you reach my +mama's side, you may put one hand on her</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> <i>head and one on her wrist. +'Mr. Mitchell' says please have Frank take Mrs. Fowler's hands, so that +every hand in the circle is accounted for.</i>"</p> + +<p>I was now very eager and very alert. I felt that at last, after many, +many requests and many trials, I was about to secure a clear, complete, +and satisfying demonstration. Surely no trickster would permit such +rigorous control as that toward which we were now invited. I was sorry +that Miller was not present to share with me the satisfaction of the +moment. My admiration went out toward this heroic little woman, who was +enduring so much pain and suspicion for the sake of science. "She +believes in herself," I thought. "If she succeeds, all honor to her."</p> + +<p>Slowly we crept to her side, being careful to touch nothing until +directed by the voice of "Maud." At last the childish voice said: "<i>Mr. +Garland may put his right hand on top of mama's head and his left hand +on her wrist. Mr. Fowler may place his left hand above Mr. Garland's and +his right hand on mama's wrist. 'Mr. Mitchell' says he will then see if +the voices will not come.</i>"</p> + +<p>I then said aloud: "My right hand is on the psychic's head, my left is +on her wrist."</p> + +<p>Fowler repeated: "My left hand is above Garland's right, which is on the +psychic's head, and my own right hand is on the right wrist of the +psychic. Now, 'Wilbur,' go ahead."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p><p>Our challenge was almost instantly caught up. While thus +double-safeguarding the psychic, the cone, which was resting on the +table a full yard away, rose with a sharp, metallic, scraping sound, and +remained in the air for fully half a minute, during which I called out, +sharply: "We are absolutely controlling the psychic; her hands are +motionless; Mrs. Fowler, be sure you are holding both of Frank's hands."</p> + +<p>"I have both his hands in mine," she answered.</p> + +<p>As the cone was gently returned to the carpet Fowler was moved to say: +"Garland, that was a supreme test of the psychic. She was absolutely not +concerned in any known way with that movement. Save for a curious +throbbing, wave-like motion in her scalp, she did not move. If she +lifted the horn, it was by the exercise of a force unrecognized by +science."</p> + +<p>To this I was forced to agree. I here definitely declare that the +psychic was not concerned with the flight of the cone in any way known +to biology. If she produced the voices, they too must have been examples +of supernormal ventriloquism, for they came through the megaphone. Of +that I am as certain as one can be of an auditory impression.</p> + +<p>A few moments later we returned to our seats, while "Wilbur" and +"Mitchell" and several other voices spoke to us. Fowler, now that I had +admitted telekinesis, wanted me to go further. "Is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> the psychic speaking +to us," he asked, "or are these voices independent of her?"</p> + +<p>"An investigator is never satisfied," I answered. "I must have the +voices <i>through</i> the cone while I am covering the psychic's mouth."</p> + +<p>To this "Mitchell" replied: "<i>We are doing all we can, and we will yet +be able to meet every demand you make upon us.</i>"</p> + +<p>"I am anxious for conviction," I said. "I want to secure the voice of +the psychic and your voice at the same time, 'Mr. Mitchell.' Can you do +that for me?"</p> + +<p>He seemed to hesitate, and at last said: "<i>We will try.</i>" I perceived in +his tone a certain doubt and indecision. Again we were permitted to hold +the psychic's wrists, and, as before, the cone was lifted and drummed +upon as if to show its position high in the air; but no voices came. +Hidden forces seemed to be struggling for escape beneath our hands; the +woman's brain seemed a powerful dynamo. I could not rid myself of a +sense that there was an actual externalization of the psychic's nerve +force, and with this conviction I could well understand why the command +had so often been given not to touch her unbidden. Suppose the poor +naked "astral body" were abroad and a strong light were suddenly turned +upon it!</p> + +<p>Now came on a singularly engrossing game of "hide-and-seek." Convinced +that Mrs. Smiley<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> was innocent of any trick in the movement of the horn, +I tried every expedient to satisfy myself that "Wilbur's" voice was +independent of her own; but I did not succeed. Mrs. Smiley spoke +<i>almost</i> at the same moment but never precisely synchronous with +Wilbur's whisper. She answered all my questions perfectly unconcerned +and unexcited, lending herself to my experiments. All in vain. At no +time did I succeed in getting "Wilbur's" voice at <i>precisely</i> the same +moment with her own, though the whisper, following swiftly on her +speech, interjected remarks as if echoing her questions. There was +always an approximate interval between her voice and the spirit whisper.</p> + +<p>This was to me very significant, and strengthened me in my belief that +the entire process, while inexplicable, was, after all, not the work of +spirits.</p> + +<p>When the gas was lighted we found the cone had been placed on the table, +a distance of forty inches from the utmost reach of the psychic's hands. +Her feet were twenty-three inches from the nearest leg of the table. We +carefully examined the tapes which were sewed to her sleeves. They were +tied, and the doubled ends tacked precisely as described so many times, +and to remove the tacks we were forced to use a hammer. It is useless to +talk of a possible release of her arms during the phenomena of the cone.</p> + +<p>As I was about to leave the house that night,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> Mrs. Smiley said: "I do +not feel able to sit any more for the present, Mr. Garland. I feel +myself growing weaker, and 'Mitchell' tells me I would better stop for +the present. I feel that my power belongs to the world, and I want to do +all I can to convince you of the truth of spiritualism, but I feel the +strain very greatly."</p> + +<p>"I do not wonder at that," I responded, "and I cannot blame you for +demanding a rest. No one could have endured more uncomplainingly. You +have been a model subject, and we are deeply in your debt. I am sorry +Miller was not with us to-night; he would have been convinced of your +supernormal power at least. Have no fear of my report; for while I am +not convinced of the spirit hypothesis, I have found you honest and +patient and very brave. I thank you very sincerely for what you have +done."</p> + +<p>And in this spirit we parted.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Since these words were written I have <i>seen</i> the cone move. +In the presence of another medium, with no one in the room but myself, I +held the psychic's hands what time the horn circled over my head. It +shone like a golden rod as it moved. I could see the gleam of light +along its entire side. At last it came softly down and laid itself +across my shoulder. In order to satisfy myself of its presence, I bent +and touched it with my forehead. The touch seemed to disturb conditions, +to break the current, for it dropped instantly to the floor. Twice it +answered to my request in this manner until my doubts were satisfied. It +seemed to move with the swiftness of a dragonfly as silent and +horizontal it hung in the air about my head.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2> + +<p>Cameron's Amateur Psychic Club, which had so nearly disintegrated by +reason of the long series of barren sittings, was drawn together again +by the news of my startling success at Fowler's house. Cameron at once +decided that the members should hear my report, and I was notified to be +ready to relate my experiences in full. We met, as before, at Cameron's +table, and even before the soup-plates were removed the interrogation +began, and by the time the company was in full possession of the facts +the coffee and cigars had appeared.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't these wonders take place in our presence?" asked Mrs. Quigg, +who had returned to something like her original truculence of doubt. +"Why should you and Brierly be so favored?"</p> + +<p>"In this business everything comes to him who waits," I replied, a tinge +of malice in my voice. "You obtained a few results, Miller a few more; +but Fowler and I, for our pains, reaped the rich reward. By remaining +long on the watch-tower we saw the armies pass. Harmony and patience +are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> essentials in the production of these marvels. With people yawning +or shuffling about uneasily, results are necessarily unimportant."</p> + +<p>Miller continued firm in his agnosticism. "Although puzzling, I cannot +grant so much as even one of the phenomena. Belief in the smallest of +those manifestations at my house would be uprooting to all established +theories of matter—not to mention time and space."</p> + +<p>"Were not the notions of Galileo and Darwin also subverting?" asked +Fowler. "Is there anything sacred in error? If we are wrong in our +theories about the universe, let's correct them. You do not stand out +against wireless telegraphy or the Röntgen ray?"</p> + +<p>Miller fired at this. "I'm not going to take instruction from a tipping +table or a flying hair-brush!" he fiercely retorted.</p> + +<p>"I'll take illumination from any source whatsoever," responded Fowler.</p> + +<p>Here I interposed: "The only question that concerns me at this stage is: +Does the table tip and the brush really fly? No physical fact is +trivial, for it stands related to mountains and the clouds."</p> + +<p>Fowler's eyes gleamed with contempt. "That's the way of you so-called +scientists: you narrow the mighty fund of occult phenomena down to a +floating feather. As a matter of fact, there is a sea of evidence +accumulated by the investigations of men quite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> as scientific as Miller, +testimony that is neither petty nor ignoble. It is because you and your +associates are so trifling in methods that the tables and the chair play +leading parts in your drama."</p> + +<p>"Good for you!" cheered Brierly. "You're quite right. When these +materialistic investigators get done with trying to prove that +independent slate-writing exists, they'll begin to give some attention +to the fundamental truths of the messages which the slates set forth. +Going after small things, they get small things. If Miller and his like +went forth seeking the essentials of the faith, they would find them +instead of being amazed with foolish tricks of hand."</p> + +<p>"Essentials such as what?" interrupted Harris, with snappy suddenness.</p> + +<p>"Such as—as—direct spirit communication, a knowledge of the astral, +the reincarnation of souls, and—and—faith in the upward progression of +the self," stammered Brierly, much disturbed.</p> + +<p>Here again I interposed a quieting word: "I confess that it begins to +look as though the theosophist's theory of the astral (at which some of +us have smiled) were in a fair way to be scientifically demonstrated. +Since our last meeting I have been studying the bound volumes of <i>The +Annals of Psychic Science</i>, and I have found them full of comfort. They +sustain Mrs. Smiley at every point. To my mind, the most important event +in the history of spiritism is the entrance of Eusapia Paladino into the +clinical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> laboratory of Cesare Lombroso. Nothing since Crookes's +experiments has had such value for the scientist."</p> + +<p>"We have heard of Lombroso, but who is Paladino?" asked Mrs. Quigg. "Is +she a psychic?"</p> + +<p>"She is the most renowned now living. Though only an illiterate peasant +woman, she has been able for more than twenty years to baffle every +scientist who has studied her. Her organism remains the most potent +mystery on this earth."</p> + +<p>"Tell us about her! Who is she? Where does she live?"</p> + +<p>"She was born at Minerva-murge, a mountain village near Bari, in Italy. +According to Lombroso's daughter, who has written a sketch of her, she +is about fifty-three years of age. Her parents were peasants. She is +quite uneducated, but is intelligent and rather good-looking. Her hands +are pretty and her feet small—facts which are of value when studying +her manifestations, as you will see later on. Her mother died while +Eusapia was a babe, and her father 'passed over' when she was twelve, +leaving her at large in the world 'like a wild animal,' as she herself +says. A native family of her village took her to Naples, and her own +story is that she was adopted soon after by some foreigners 'who wished +to make me an educated and learned girl. They wanted me to take a bath +every day and comb my hair every day,' she explains, with some humor.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p><p>"She didn't like the life nor the people, and she soon ran away back to +her friends, the Apulians, and it was while she was in their house and +at the precise moment when they were planning to put her in a convent +that her occult powers were discovered. Some friends came in to spend +the evening, and, in default of anything better to do, formed a circle +to make a table tip. No sooner were they all seated, as she herself +relates, than 'the table began to rise, the chairs to dance, the +curtains to swell, and the glasses and bottles to walk about, till +everybody was scared.' After testing every other person present, the +host came to the conclusion that the medium was his little ward, +Eusapia. This put an end to her going into a convent. She was proclaimed +a medium, much to her disgust, and made to sit whole evenings at the +table. 'I only did it,' she says, 'because it was a way of recompensing +my hosts, whose desire to keep me with them prevented their placing me +in a convent. Finally I took up laundress work, thinking I might render +myself independent and live as I liked without troubling about +spiritualistic séances.'"</p> + +<p>"It is remarkable how many of these women psychics begin their career +when they are ten or twelve years old," said Miller. "Mrs. Smiley was +about that age, wasn't she?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and so was Mrs. Hartley, another psychic of my acquaintance. Mrs. +Smiley complained of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> tedium of sitting. She tells me that her +father kept her at it steadily, just as Eusapia was not permitted to +escape her fate. One day an Englishwoman, wife of a certain Mr. Damiani, +came to a séance, and was so impressed by what took place that she +interested her husband in Eusapia's performances. Damiani then took up +the young medium's development along the good old well-worn lines of +American spiritualism, and she acquired all the tricks and all the +'patter.' Among other notions, she picked up the idea of an English +'control' known as 'John King,' who declared himself a brother of 'Kate +King,' of Crookes fame, and from that day Eusapia has been a +professional 'mejum.'"</p> + +<p>"What does she do?" asked Cameron. "What is her 'phase,' as you call +it?"</p> + +<p>"It must be confessed that most of her phases are of the poltergeist +variety, but they are astounding. She produces the movement of +mandolins, chairs, sofas, and small tables without contact (at least, +such is the consensus of opinion of nearly a score of the best-known +scientists of France and Italy), and also materializes hands and arms. +There is vastly more than the poltergeist in her, that is evident; for +she has conquered every critic with her miracles. Take, for instance, +Lombroso's conversion, a fairly typical case. He was not only sceptical +of spirit phenomena, but up to 1888 was openly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>contemptuous of those +who believed in them. However, in an article called 'The Influence of +Civilization upon Genius,' published in 1888, he made this admission: +'<i>Twenty or thirty years are enough to make the whole world admire a +discovery which was treated as madness at the moment when it was +made.... Who knows whether my friends and I who laugh at spiritualism +are not in error, just like hypnotized persons, or like lunatics; being +in the dark as regards the truth, we laugh at those who are not in the +same condition.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"True enough," said Fowler. "The man who has made no study of these +phenomena is like one color-blind: he has never seen a landscape."</p> + +<p>"It was this candid statement by Lombroso that moved Professor Chiaia, a +friend of Eusapia's, to write the great alienist a letter which was in +effect a challenge. After recounting a score or two of the wonderful +doings of Paladino, whom he had studied carefully, he ended in this +amusing fashion: 'Now you see my challenge. If you have not written the +paragraph cited above simply for the fun of writing it, if you have the +true love for science, if you are without prejudices—you, the first +alienist of Italy—please take the field. When you can afford a week's +vacation, indicate a place where we can meet. Four gentlemen will be our +seconds: you will choose two, and I will bring the other two.... If the +experiment does not succeed, you will consider me but as a man suffering +from hallucination, who longs to be cured<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> of his extravagances.... If +success crowns our efforts, your loyalty ... will attest the reality of +these mysterious phenomena and promise to investigate their causes.'"</p> + +<p>"I hope Lombroso was man enough to accept the challenge," said Cameron. +"Nothing could be fairer than the spook-man's offer."</p> + +<p>"He did not at once take up the gage. It was not, in fact, till +February, 1891, that he was able to go to Naples to meet Eusapia, who +had begun to interest some of his trusted scientific friends. He found +the great psychic quite normal in appearance and rather attractive in +manner. She was of medium size, with a broad and rather serious face lit +with brilliant dark eyes. The most notable thing about her physical self +was a depression in her skull caused by a fall in her infancy. This scar +figures largely in nearly all the reports of her."</p> + +<p>"Why?" asked Harris.</p> + +<p>"Because they all agree that a singular sort of current of force, like a +cool breeze, seems to come and go through this spot."</p> + +<p>Harris groaned, and Howard said: "Oh, rubbish!"</p> + +<p>"Rubbish or not, they all speak of this scar and its singular effects. +At the time when Lombroso saw her first, Eusapia was just beginning to +be known to scientists, but no one of special note had up to this time +(1891) reported upon her. She was known as the wife of a small +shop-keeper in Naples, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> seemed a decent, matronly person, quite +untouched by mysticism. Although not eager to sit for Lombroso and his +party of scientists, she finally consented. Among those who took part in +these celebrated experiments were Professor Tamburini, an eminent +scientist; Dr. Bianchi, the superintendent of the Insane Asylum of +Sales; and Dr. Penta, a young nephew of Lombroso, a resident of Naples. +Lombroso had charge of the sittings, which were held in a room of his +own choice and with the medium entirely under his control. He was +astonished at the prompt response obtained. At the first sitting, while +he and Professor Tamburini held the psychic's hands, a bell was carried +tinkling through the air and a small table moved as if it were alive. +Many other mysterious movements took place. Lombroso was very much +disturbed by these inexplicable phenomena, and could not rest till he +sat again. At the second séance spectral hands developed, profoundly +mystifying every sitter, and Lombroso went away, promising to carry +forward a study of spiritism. In a letter written the following June he +manfully said: '<i>I am filled with confusion, and regret that I combated +with so much persistence the possibilities of the facts called +spiritualistic. I say facts, for I am opposed to the theory.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"Did Lombroso say that?" asked Harris.</p> + +<p>"He wrote it, which is still more to the point, and it was his +acceptance of the main <i>facts</i> of Paladino's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> mediumship that led other +groups of scientists to take up her case. Professor Schiaparelli, +Director of the Observatory at Milan; Gerosa, Professor of Physics; +Ermacora, Doctor of Natural Philosophy; Aksakof, Councilor of State to +the Emperor of Russia; and Charles du Prel, Doctor of Philosophy in +Munich, were in the next group, which met at Milan with intent to settle +the claims of this bold charlatan.</p> + +<p>"The sittings took place in the apartment of Monsieur Finzi at Milan, +and were more rigid and searching than any Paladino had ever passed +through, but she was again triumphant. She bewildered them all. Lombroso +himself was present during some of the sittings. The results of the +series of experiments were very notable and very far-reaching. For the +first time, so far as I know, a table was photographed while floating in +the air—"</p> + +<p>"No!" shouted Howard.</p> + +<p>"Yes; and certain other telekinetic happenings were proved, to the +stupefaction of most of those in the group. One special experiment, the +success of which confounded the shrewdest, was the attempt to secure on +a smoke-blackened paper the print of one of the spectral hands."</p> + +<p>"Did it succeed?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. The impression was made while Paladino's hands were imprisoned +beyond all question, and, what was most singular of all, the hand <i>that +made the print smudged the wrists of one of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>experimenters, and yet +not a particle of black appeared on the fingers of the psychic</i>."</p> + +<p>"That ought to have convinced them of her honesty," remarked Fowler, +with a note of amusement in his voice, "but it didn't; these scientific +folk are so difficult."</p> + +<p>"No," I replied, "it didn't convince them, but it jarred them not a +little. In their report they admitted this much. They said, 'We do not +believe we have the right to explain these things by the aid of +insulting assumptions.' (By this they meant to acquit the psychic of +fraud.) 'We think, on the contrary, that <i>these experiments have to do +with phenomena of an unknown nature</i>, and we confess that we do not know +what the conditions are that are required to produce them.'"</p> + +<p>"That seems to me like a very mild statement, but I suppose they +considered it epoch-making," remarked Fowler.</p> + +<p>"From this time forward learned men in Russia, France, and Italy +successively sought Paladino out and tried to expose her to the world. +Professor Wagner, of the Department of Zoölogy at the University of St. +Petersburg, made a study of her in 1893, and found her powers real. A +year later M. Siemeradski, correspondent of the Institute, experimented +with her in Rome, obtaining, among other miracles, the plucking of the +strings of a closed piano under strictly test conditions."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p><p>"You had that experience, did you not?" asked Mrs. Cameron.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I've had that."</p> + +<p>"How do you account for a thing of that sort?"</p> + +<p>"I don't account for it—or if I did give my theory, you would laugh at +me. Wait till I tell you what these Italians are doing. Among the most +eminent and persuasive of all Eusapia's investigators was Professor +Charles Richet, the French physiologist and author. Eusapia came to +revere and trust him, and gave him many sittings. He, too, was bowled +over. He tells the story of his conversion very charmingly. 'In my +servile respect for classic tradition,' he writes, 'I laughed at Crookes +and his experiments; but it must be remembered in my excuse that as a +professional physiologist I moved habitually along a road quite other +than mystical.' His attention, he goes on to say, was first drawn to +spiritist phenomena by the word of a friend who had discovered a power +that caused a table to move intelligently. He was trying to explain this +and one or two other little things like telepathy and prophetic vision +by the word 'somnambulism,' when his friend Aksakof, a great psychical +expert, reproached him for not interesting himself more keenly in +experiments with mediums. 'Well,' said Richet, 'if I were sure that a +single true medium existed, I would willingly go to the ends of the +world to meet him.'"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p><p>"That's the spirit!" exclaimed Fowler. "That is the way the scientist +should feel. What then? Aksakof told him all he needed to do was to go +round the corner, didn't he?"</p> + +<p>"Not exactly. Two years later Aksakof wrote to him: 'You needn't come to +the end of the world; Milan will do.' So Richet went to Milan, and took +part in those very celebrated séances with Eusapia. 'When I left Milan,' +Richet says, 'I was convinced that all was true; but no sooner was I +back in my accustomed channels of work than my doubts returned. I +persuaded myself that all had been fraud or illusion.'"</p> + +<p>Here Harris interrupted: "Miller can testify to this inability to retain +a conviction. He, too, has slumped into doubt. How about it, Miller?"</p> + +<p>"I never professed to believe," declared Miller.</p> + +<p>"You were pretty well convinced that night in your study, weren't you?" +I asked.</p> + +<p>"I was puzzled," he replied, guardedly.</p> + +<p>There was a general smile of amusement at his manifest evasion, and I +resumed: "Richet went to Rome, and together with Schrenk-Nötzing, the +philosophic expert, and Siemeradski, the correspondent of the French +Institute, made other and still more convincing experiments, and yet +doubt persisted! 'I was not yet satisfied,' he says, further. '<i>I +invited Eusapia to my house for three months. Alone with her and +Ochorowicz, a man of penetrating</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> <i>perspicuity, I renewed my experiments +in the best possible conditions of solitude and quiet reflection. We +thus acquired a positive proof of the reality of the facts announced at +Milan.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"By George, that's going it strong!" said young Howard. "You've got to +believe that a man like Richet has seen something after three months' +experiment in his own house."</p> + +<p>Miller faced them all stubbornly: "And yet even Richet may have been +deceived."</p> + +<p>"Are <i>you</i> the only one competent to study these facts?" asked Brierly, +hotly. "The egotism of you professional physicists is a kind of +insanity. The moment a man like Richet or Lombroso admits a knowledge of +one of these occult facts, you who have no experience in the same +phenomena jump on him like so many wolves. Such bigotry is unworthy a +scientist."</p> + +<p>"Would you have us accept the word of any one man when that word +contradicts the experience of all mankind?" asked Miller.</p> + +<p>"Listen to what Richet says in confession of <i>his</i> perplexity," I called +out, soothingly. "He writes: 'It took me twenty years to arrive at my +present conviction—nay! to make one last confession. <i>I am not yet +absolutely and irremediably convinced.</i> In spite of the astounding +phenomena which I have witnessed during my sixty experiments with +Eusapia, I have still a trace of doubt. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span><i>Certainty does not follow on +demonstration; it follows on habit.</i>' So don't blame Miller or myself +for inability to believe in these theories, for our minds are the kind +that accept the mystical with sore struggle."</p> + +<p>"Go on with Eusapia's career," said Harris. "I am interested in her. I +want the story of the investigations."</p> + +<p>"Her story broadens," I resumed. "Her fame spread throughout Europe, and +squad after squad of militant scientists grappled with her, each one +perfectly sure that he was the one to unmask her to the world. She was +called before kings and emperors, and everywhere she triumphed—save in +Cambridge, where she made a partial failure; but she redeemed herself +later with both Lodge and Myers, so that it remains true to say that she +has gone surely from one success to another and greater triumph."</p> + +<p>"But there have been other such careers—Slade's and Home's, for +instance—which ended in disaster."</p> + +<p>"True, but nothing like her courage has ever been known. The crowning +wonder of her career came when she consented to enter the special +laboratories of the universities of Genoa and Naples. It is in the +writings of Morselli, Professor of Psychology at Genoa, and in the +reports of Bottazzi, head of the Department of Physics at Naples, that +scepticism, such as my own, is met and conquered. I defy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> Miller or any +man of open mind to read the detailed story of these marvellous +experiments and deny the existence of the basic phenomena produced by +Eusapia Paladino."</p> + +<p>"You speak with warmth," said Harris.</p> + +<p>"I do. I am at this moment fresh from a reading of the reports of +Bottazzi's up-to-date experiments, and I am compelled to grant that he +has not only sustained Crookes at every point, but has gone beyond him +in his ingenuity of test and thoroughness of control. He adds the touch +of certainty that we all needed to complete our own experience. He has +given me courage to say what I believe Mrs. Smiley did for us."</p> + +<p>"Won't you tell us all about it?" pleaded Mrs. Cameron. "Please do."</p> + +<p>"It is too long and complicated. You must read it for yourself. It is +too incredible to be told."</p> + +<p>"Never mind, Garland; we'll take it as part of your fiction. Go ahead."</p> + +<p>As I looked about me, I could detect in the faces of some of my friends +an expression of apprehension. The coffee had grown cold. Our ice-cream +had melted with neglect. Every eye was fixed upon me. It was plain that +Harris and Miller considered me "on the high-road to spiritualism." +Quite willing to gratify their wish to be startled, I proceeded:</p> + +<p>"You will find the latest word on all these matters in a small but +valuable review, published <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>simultaneously in London and in Paris, +called <i>The Annals of Psychic Science</i>. It is edited by César de Vesme +in France, and by Laura I. Finch in England, and is a mine of reliable +psychic science. Its directors are Dr. Dariex and Professor Charles +Richet. Its 'committee' is made up of Sir William Crookes, Camille +Flammarion, Professor Lombroso, Marcel Mangin, Dr. Joseph Maxwell, +Professor Enrico Morselli, of Genoa; Dr. Julien Ochorowicz, head of the +General Psychologic Institute of Paris; Professor Porro, the astronomer; +Colonel Albert de Rochas, author of <i>The Externalization of Motivity</i>, +and others of like character."</p> + +<p>"We don't want the review, we want your account," said Harris. "Don't +spare us. Give us detail—lots of it."</p> + +<p>"Thank you; you shall have it hot-shot, but I'll have to generalize the +story for you. The most decisive of all the tests have been made during +the last eighteen months, and the final and most convincing of all +within the year, under the direction of Lombroso, Morselli, and +Bottazzi. It is safe to say that with these experiments (and the reports +which accompany them) a new era has dawned in biology. The facts of +mediumship are in process of being scientifically observed by a score of +the best-qualified men in Europe, and at last we are about to study +mediumship apart from any question of religious tenets."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p><p>Fowler took issue with me here: "It is absurd to say that no one but +these physicists has ever properly studied spiritualistic phenomena; +spiritists themselves have put the screws on quite as effectively as +ever Crookes or Richet has done. Some of the best investigators ever +known have been spiritists."</p> + +<p>"Even if that were true, their testimony would lack the convincing power +that flames from Morselli's book or Bottazzi's report. The essential +weakness of the spiritist's testimony lies in the fact that for the most +part he assumes that the facts of mediumship are somehow, and +necessarily, in opposition to somebody's religion. He finds it sustained +(or opposed) by the Bible, or he fancies it mixed with deviltry or the +black art. He trembles for fear it will affect the scheme of redemption +or assist some theosophical system. Whereas, a man like Bottazzi is +engaged merely with the facts; he lets the inferences fall where they +may. He is not concerned with whether Eusapia's manifestations oppose +Christian theology or not; he wants the phenomena. He is alert to note +their effect on biologic science, but he does not shrink from any report +of them. So far as I am concerned, my lot is cast with these men who put +the clamps on the fact and wait for larger knowledge before constructing +a system of religion on the half-discovered."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p><p>"I'm with you there," said Miller. "And if our university officials +took the same view, we Americans would hold higher rank in the world's +thought."</p> + +<p>"Bottazzi himself says, with reference to his experiments: 'In spite of +all the hundreds of those who have observed Eusapia, it still remained +true to say that hitherto she had been free to throw things about as she +pleased.' But all this took a sharp turn when she came into Bottazzi's +laboratory."</p> + +<p>"Just who is Bottazzi?" Harris asked.</p> + +<p>"He's the head of the Physiological Institute of the University of +Naples; of his age and general character I am not precisely informed, +but he writes delightfully of his experiments. Morselli, who preceded +him in his study of Eusapia, is the Professor of Psychology in the +University of Genoa. Foà and Herlitzka are of the same university. +Within the last two years Eusapia has also been rigorously studied in +Lombroso's clinical laboratory at Turin. All honor to her for breaking +away from the traditions of mediumship!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Quigg caught me up on this: "What do you mean by 'traditions of +mediumship'?"</p> + +<p>"I mean that for the most part investigators have nearly always been +kept at arm's-length by the fiction that the 'guide' should control +everything, that the séance is a religious rite, that the medium must +not be touched nor exposed to the light, and so on, till<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> the scientist +was reduced to the feeble rank of an on-looker in the dark, so that no +real test was possible. These Italians did not grant any of these +traditions. They were scientists, not devotees at a new shrine."</p> + +<p>"However, I am ready to grant that some of the good old rules were +justified. As you have seen in my own experiments, I have proceeded +cautiously, for if you suppose mediumship to be a psycho-dynamic +adjustment of the organisms in the circle—a subtle physical +relationship—there is all the more reason to be careful. I did not find +it necessary to mistreat Mrs. Smiley in order to test her powers. But +<i>Eusapia has set a new pace for mediums</i>. She has gone into the lion's +den alone and unarmed—not once, but a hundred times. She entered +Lombroso's study, a room previously unexplored by her, and there placed +herself before a cabinet that she was not permitted to examine—a +cabinet filled with machines for dividing the true from the false. In +Morselli's presence she submitted to tests the like of which not even +Crookes was permitted to apply, and all sacred rules and regulations, +all ideas of religion or questions of morality, vanished when she +entered the cold, clear air of Bottazzi's physiological laboratory."</p> + +<p>"This begins to sound like the grapple of a cuttlefish and a mermaid. +Was the woman crushed?"</p> + +<p>"No; she more than sustained her great <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>reputation. She conquered the +remorseless scientist and performed the impossible."</p> + +<p>I had the strained attention of my audience now. Time was forgotten, and +cries of "Tell us!" "Tell us all!" arose.</p> + +<p>"It is an exciting story, an incredible story—"</p> + +<p>"So much the better!" exclaimed Miss Brush.</p> + +<p>"I am full of enthusiasm for Bottazzi," I resumed. "His was the kind of +investigation I should like to put through myself. It appeals to me as +no spiritualistic performance has ever done. In a sense the facts he has +demonstrated make all material tests inoperative. Matter is all we have +to cling to when it comes to physical tests. A nail driven down through +the sleeve of the medium's dress <i>seems</i> to increase our control of her, +and a metronome or a Morse telegraphic sounder does add value to our +testimony, and yet Zöllner seems nearer right than Miller: matter seems +only a condition of force, and subject to change at the will of the +psychic.</p> + +<p>"Up to the beginning of last year Bottazzi confesses that he had read +little or nothing on the subject, and, like our friend Miller here, +considered it beneath the dignity of a scientist to be present at +spiritualist circles. It is highly instructive to note that Paladino, +the most renowned medium of her time, was in Naples at his very door; +but that doesn't matter—a scientist is blind to what he does not wish +to see. In this case Bottazzi's eyes were opened by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> a young friend, +Professor Charles Foà, of Turin, who sent him an account of what he and +Dr. Herlitzka had witnessed in Eusapia's presence."</p> + +<p>"They really seem to be taking the phenomena seriously over there," said +Harris.</p> + +<p>"These particular sittings at Turin made a great sensation in Italy. +They were under the direction of Drs. Herlitzka, Foà, and Aggazzotti, +assistants to Professor Mosso, of the University of Turin. Dr. Pio Foà, +Professor of Pathologic Anatomy, was also present during one séance. The +conditions were all of the experimenters' own contriving. They were +young men and had been companion workers in science for many years, and +were accustomed to laboratory work. They all came to this experiment +perfectly sure that no mediumistic phenomena could endure the light of +science. At the end of their three sittings they manfully said: '<i>Now +that we are persuaded of the authenticity of the phenomena</i>, we feel it +our duty to state the fact publicly in our turn, and to proclaim that +the few pioneers in this branch of biology (destined to become one of +the most important) generally saw and observed correctly.... We hope +that our words may serve to stimulate some of these colleagues to study +personally and attentively this group of interesting and obscure +phenomena.' You will note they relate their tests, not to theology, but +to unexplored biology."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p><p>"I like the ring of that declaration of theirs," said Harris. "Go on! +Come to Hecuba!"</p> + +<p>"Bottazzi was enormously impressed by this account, which detailed +coldly, critically, the most amazing experiments. With ingenuity that +would have seemed satanic to Paladino (had she known of it), Foà and +Aggazzotti had laid their pipes and provided for every trick. They were +confident that nothing genuine could occur, but, as a matter of record, +weird performances began at once. Bells were rung, tables shifted, +columns of mercury lifted, mandolins played, and small objects were +transported quite in the same fashion as the books were handled during +our own sittings at your house, Miller—in fact, the doings were much +the same in character. A small stand was broken to pieces under the very +eyes of the learned doctors, <i>and hands hit and teeth bit those whom the +medium did not like</i>. Each of the machines for registering movement, +though utterly out of reach of Paladino, was operated, and some of these +movements were systematically recorded.</p> + +<p>"It was this care, these scrupulous and cold-blooded tests, that so +profoundly affected Bottazzi. These men were his friends. He knew their +level-headed and remorseless accuracy. The fact that they considered the +whole investigation biologic in character, and that the results of their +experiments strengthened their theory of the physiological <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>determinism +of the phenomena, added to his eagerness to try for himself."</p> + +<p>"Wait a moment," said Cameron. "What do you mean by 'physiological +determinism'?"</p> + +<p>"He means that the phenomena began and ended in the psychic's organism."</p> + +<p>"Do you intend to convey that they considered the medium dishonest?"</p> + +<p>"Oh no. Merely that they did not relate the phenomena to the +intervention of the spirits of the dead."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" gasped Mrs. Cameron.</p> + +<p>"Merely!" exclaimed Harris. "'Merely' is good in that case."</p> + +<p>"'After reading these articles with avidity,' Bottazzi's report begins: +'Professor Galeotti, my associate, and I looked at each other astounded, +and the same thoughts in the same words came simultaneously to our lips: +"We, too, must see, must touch with our hands—and at once—here in this +laboratory where experiments of the phenomena of life are daily carried +on, with the impartiality of men whose object is the discovery of +scientific truth, here in this quiet place where sealed doors will be +superfluous. Everything must be registered. Will the medium be able to +impress a photographic plate? Will she be able to illuminate a screen +treated with platino-cyanide of barium? Will she be able to discharge a +gold-leaf electroscope without touching<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> it?" And so we travelled on the +wings of imagination, always having before us the plummet of the +strictest scientific methods.'"</p> + +<p>"Now you're getting into my horizon," said Miller. "That is the way I +wished to proceed in Mrs. Smiley's case. Did Bottazzi get these things +done?"</p> + +<p>"You're as impatient as Miss Brush," I replied, highly amused at his +eagerness. "First you must catch your medium. Bottazzi succeeded at last +in getting Paladino's consent, but only through the good offices of +Professor Richet, whom she deeply loves and reverences. Submissively she +entered into this most crucial series of tests. She was no longer afraid +of any scientist, but it was not precisely a joy to her. Bottazzi +invited his friend Galeotti, Professor of General Pathology in the +University of Naples; Dr. de Amicis, Professor of Dermatology; Dr. Oscar +Scarpa, Professor of Electro-chemistry at the Polytechnic High School of +Naples; Luigi Lombardi, Professor of Electro-technology at the same +school; and Dr. Pansini, Professor Extraordinary of Medical Semiotics; +and these gentlemen certainly made up a formidable platoon of +investigation. The room in which the experiments took place was an +isolated one, connected with the laboratory of experimental physiology, +and belonged to that part of the university set aside for Bottazzi's +exclusive use. Nothing could have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> further from the ordinary stuffy +back parlor of the 'materializing medium.' No women were present, and no +outsider; as you see, conditions were as nearly perfect as the ingenuity +of Bottazzi and his assistants could make them."</p> + +<p>The members present nestled into their chairs with looks of +satisfaction, and Mrs. Cameron said: "Don't leave anything out. Tell it +all."</p> + +<p>"It is hardly necessary to say that every precaution was taken. +Photographs of the cabinet were made before the sittings and afterward, +in order that all displacements might be recorded. Provision was made +for registering the action of 'John King's' spectral hands. Some of +these devices were concealed in an adjoining room and watched by other +attendants. One little touch early in Bottazzi's account impressed me +deeply. A little electric motor was used to furnish power for the lamps +and other apparatus, and Bottazzi, in speaking of it, says: 'At the +moment when the phenomena to be registered began to manifest, the +circuit was closed, <i>and suddenly in the complete silence of the night +the feeble murmur of the motor was heard</i>.' I thrill to the action of +that faithful little material watch-dog. Ghosts and hobgoblins could not +silence or affright it. After all, matter is both persistent and bold."</p> + +<p>"But not sovereign," defiantly called out Brierly; "the psychic +dominates it."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p><p>"We shall see. Bottazzi declares in italics that Paladino neither put +her hand into the cabinet nor knew the contents of it. 'Rarely has she +been surrounded by such an assembly of unprejudiced minds, by such +strict and attentive intellects,' he declares. And when you consider the +absence of women, the mystery of the machinery, together with the stern +character of the sitters, the medium's courage becomes marvellous. +Perfect honesty alone can sustain a medium in such an ordeal. I am ready +to agree that a new era began for spiritism when Eusapia entered that +room, April 17, 1907."</p> + +<p>"Poor Paladino!" sighed Mrs. Cameron. "I tremble for her."</p> + +<p>"Bottazzi grimly says: 'We began by restraining her inexhaustible +mediumistic activity. We obliged her to do things she had never done +before. We limited the field of her manifestations.... I was convinced +that it was much easier for her to drag out of the cabinet a heavy table +than to press an electric knob or displace the rod of a metronome.' And +this theory he set himself to prove. It was beautiful to see the way he +went about it."</p> + +<p>Howard was also impressed. "I see Eusapia's finish. She won't do a +thing. The influences will criss-cross. Bottazzi's cabinet is her +Waterloo."</p> + +<p>"Observe that Bottazzi was not perverse. He met the psychic half-way by +forming the usual chain about the table, placing Eusapia before the +curtains<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> of the little cabinet, which was a recess in the wall. +Bottazzi himself and his assistants had constructed this cabinet and +placed everything in position before Eusapia entered the room at all, +and throughout the sitting she was controlled by at least two of the +investigators so that she could not so much as put a hand inside the +curtains. She was very uneasy, as though finding the conditions hard. +Nevertheless, <i>even at this first sitting, everything movable in the +cabinet was thrown about</i>. The table was violently shaken and the +metronome set going. Bottazzi ends his first report by saying: 'The +séance yielded very small results, but this is always the case at first +séances. Nevertheless, how many "<i>knowing</i> people and <i>savans</i>" have +formed a judgment on phenomena after séances such as this one?'"</p> + +<p>"That's a slant at you, Miller," remarked Harris.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I agreed, "it's a slant at all commissions and committees who +think they can jump in and settle this spiritistic controversy in the +course of half an hour. Bottazzi, like Lombroso and Richet, was aware +that he had entered upon a long road. He knew that a tired or worried +medium was helpless. He called the same circle together for the 20th, +willing to try patiently for developments. All came but Lombardi, whose +place was taken by M. Jona, an engineer. The second sitting was a +wonder. Warned by his first experience, Bottazzi nailed or screwed every +movable thing fast to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> walls of the cabinet. He was resolute to +force 'John,' the supposed 'guide,' to touch the electric button and +press the ball of India-rubber that connected with a mercury manometer. +He intended to teach the spirit hand to register its actions on a +revolving cylinder of smoked tin. He wanted graven records, so that no +wiseacre like Harris, here, could say: 'Oh, the thing never moved. You +were all hypnotized!' In effect, he said: 'They tell us that a cold wind +blows from the cabinet. I will put a self-registering thermometer in the +cabinet and see. They say tables weighing forty pounds have been lifted. +All I ask is that the bulb of a self-registering manometer be pressed. +They say a Morse telegraphic key has been sounded by spirit hands. Very +well; I will arrange a connection so that every pressure of the key will +be registered on a sheet of smoked paper, so that the fact of the sound +of the key shall be recorded by an infallible instrument.'"</p> + +<p>"Did he get the records?" asked Harris.</p> + +<p>"Wait and see!" commanded Cameron.</p> + +<p>"These indicate the methods which Bottazzi and his assistants brought to +bear on the medium. No more worship here, no awe, no hesitation, no +superstition. Among other things, he put into the cabinet a small table +weighing about fifteen pounds, and on top of it arranged a hair-brush, a +hen's feather, a bottle full of water, and a very thick glass.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> These +articles and the table were the only objects that could be moved. His +aim was to limit the spirit hands to a few movables—to see whether they +could not be taught to do what was required of them. Well, <i>that little +table came out of the cabinet of its own accord in a light that made it +perfectly visible</i>, at the precise time when three of the inexorable +professors were rigidly clasping the psychic. But that is not the most +remarkable thing. The psychic's feet were held by the engineer, and he +observed that at <i>the exact moment when Paladino pushed against his knee +the table moved</i>. 'Each advance of the table corresponded,' says +Bottazzi, 'with the most perfect synchronism, to the push of Eusapia's +legs against Jona's knees'; in other words, she really executed +movements identical with those that she would have made had she been +pushing the table out of the cabinet with her <i>visible</i> limbs."</p> + +<p>As I paused for effect, Fowler said: "You say that as if you considered +it very significant."</p> + +<p>"I do. In my judgment, it is the most valuable fact developed by these +most searching experiments. Flammarion noted this same significant +relation between the movements of the psychic and the spirit hands, and +so did Maxwell. Maxwell proved it by experiments on his own person, and +now Bottazzi is proving it in a larger way. 'A few moments later,' he +says, 'a glass was flung from the cabinet by these invisible agencies, +and this fling coincided exactly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> with a kick which Paladino gave to +Jona, as if the same will governed both movements.'"</p> + +<p>Miller was thinking very hard. "That certainly is very strange," he +said, "but I observed nothing of it in Mrs. Smiley's case; on the +contrary, it seemed to me that our strongest manifestations came when +she was perfectly still."</p> + +<p>"Hasten!" urged Fowler. "Come to the phantoms. I perceive his theory, +but it will all be upset later by the materialized forms."</p> + +<p>"On the contrary, Bottazzi declares the phantoms also conformed to this +same law. He was determined upon educating 'John King,' and kept +insisting that the invisible hands press the rubber ball, or lower the +registry balance, or set the metronome going, and Eusapia repeatedly +moaned: '<i>I can't find</i>,' '<i>I can't see</i>,' or '<i>I don't know how</i>.' Once +she complained that the objects were <i>too far off—that she could not +reach them!</i>—all of which sustained Bottazzi in his belief that these +activities were absolutely under her psychic control, just as the +synchronism of movements convinced him that she was 'the physiologic +factor in the case.' All of this is very exciting to me, for I have had +the same feeling with regard to the several mediums whose activities I +have closely studied. Bottazzi says, with regard to the results of the +first two sittings: 'These first séances show that Eusapia needed to +learn how to make these movements with which her invisible hands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> were +unfamiliar, just as she would have had to learn to make them with her +visible hands. You will all observe that he did not permit awe or +superstitious reverence for the medium or her phantoms to balk his +experiments.' A convinced spiritist who attended one of the séances was +scandalized by the tone and character of the tests. These professors +were continually bobbing up to see what was going on, disturbing +conditions, stirring things up as with a spoon to see how it was all +going on. They broke the chain of hands whenever they wanted to see what +'the spirits' were doing. In other words, these scientists were +students, not devotees. They were experimenting, not communing with the +dead."</p> + +<p>"Others have tried that," said Fowler. "But they succeeded in preventing +any manifestations whatsoever."</p> + +<p>"It didn't work out so in this instance. Bottazzi says that during the +first séance Professor Scarpa irritated Eusapia greatly by his +impertinent curiosity, but Bottazzi himself quieted her by saying: 'You +see, dear Eusapia, we are not here only to admire the marvellous +phenomena you are able to produce, but also, and chiefly, to observe and +verify and criticise. We do not doubt you or suspect any fraud, but we +want to see clearly, and to follow the development of the phenomena. +That is why M. Scarpa surveys the cabinet between the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> curtains, +illuminating it occasionally with an electric pocket-lamp. Which do you +prefer, passive admiration, of which you must have had more than enough +already, or the calm affirmation of physicists who are accustomed to +extort from Nature secrets which she hides from physical eyes? 'In this +way,' adds the master, 'Eusapia's irritation was softened; she rebelled +no further, but yielded with docility to the sharp, attentive scrutiny +of the observer, who finally declared himself beaten, not having been +able to discover at any point a shadow of fraud.'"</p> + +<p>"Hurrah for Eusapia!" shouted Howard. "She must be a wonder!"</p> + +<p>"A spiritist would say that her guides were insisting on the most rigid +test. The account goes on to say that the psychic, when entranced, was +not satisfied with the grasp of two of the spies; she frequently asked, +in a faint voice, for a third or even a fourth hand in order that there +could be no question of her freedom from connection with the phenomena. +As in the case of our own psychic, Mrs. Smiley co-operated to the utmost +with us. She never refused to permit any test."</p> + +<p>Miller here remarked: "I can't but think that our control of Mrs. Smiley +was complete, and yet I could not (under the conditions) assert that she +was not the author of the acts we witnessed in my library. I cannot +bring myself to entertain, even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> for an instant, the spirit hypothesis, +but in Bottazzi's theory I glimpse an alternative."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Bottazzi plainly hints at his conclusions by saying: '<i>The +invisible limbs</i> of the psychic explored the cabinet.' He repeats, 'I am +convinced that these <i>"mediumistic limbs" are capable of being taught +unfamiliar duties</i>, like pressing an electric button of squeezing a +rubber ball,' and this he proceeded patiently to exemplify. At the third +sitting Madame Bottazzi was present (Lombardi and Jona being absent), +and the 'force' was much greater and more active than before, probably +because of the psychic's growing confidence. A small table floated in +the air '<i>while we watched it in amazement</i>,' he says. One levitation +lasted long enough to count fifty. 'We all had time to observe that the +piece of furniture was quite isolated,' he adds. Furthermore, a big +black hand came from the curtain and touched Madame Bottazzi on the +cheek, and frightened her from her place beside the medium."</p> + +<p>"I can understand that," said Mrs. Cameron. "Think of being touched by +even one's own dead!"</p> + +<p>"Professor de Amicis was not only touched on the arm but forcibly +pulled, as if by an invisible hand. The curtain of the cabinet then +enveloped him as if to embrace him, and he felt the contact of another +face against his, and a mouth kissing him—"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p><p>The women cried out at the thought, but I hurried on to make Bottazzi's +point: "<i>'At the same time Eusapia's lips moved as if to kiss, and she +made the sound of kissing, which we all distinctly heard.'</i> Here again, +you see, is that astounding synchronism which Maxwell and Morselli +observed between the movement of objects and the contraction of the +muscles in the medium's arms and legs. Bottazzi pauses to generalize: +'Whatever may be the mediumistic phenomena produced, there is almost +always at the same time movement of one or several parts of the medium's +body.'"</p> + +<p>"What does he mean? Does he mean that Eusapia performed all these +movements with her 'astral hands'?" asked Mrs. Quigg.</p> + +<p>"That is precisely his inference. 'Mysterious hands,' Bottazzi calls +them."</p> + +<p>"But how will he account for the difference in size between Eusapia's +hands and the <i>large black hand</i> that she saw and felt?" asked Fowler.</p> + +<p>"Bottazzi himself remarks upon this discrepancy. 'To whom does this hand +belong?' he asked—'this hand, a half a yard away from the medium's +head, seen while her visible hands are rigorously controlled by her two +neighbors? Is it the hand of a monstrous long arm which liberates itself +from the medium's body, then dissolves, to afterward "materialize" +afresh? Is it something analogous to the pteropod of an amœba, which +projects itself from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> the body, then retreats into it only to reappear +in another place? Mystery!' But this is not the most grewsome sight; one +of the professors, stealing a glance behind the medium, saw remnants of +legs and arms lying about the cabinet."</p> + +<p>"Horrible!" exclaimed Mrs. Cameron. "I'd rather believe in spirits. What +does he mean to infer?"</p> + +<p>"Apparently he would have us believe that materialization is a process +due to the medium—or at least dependent on her will—and that these +partially completed forms represent fragmentary impulses. But I'm not so +much concerned just now with that as with the course of schooling +through which he drove Eusapia. He stuck to his plan. He put into his +cabinet each time certain sounders, markers, and lamps, which could be +moved, ticked, or lighted only by hands in the cabinet, and he kept the +same rigid control of his medium <i>outside</i> the cabinet. For the most +part she was in the light. By means of a series of lamps the séance-room +could be lighted dimly or brightly at a touch, and, while many of the +phenomena in the cabinet were being performed by 'John,' Eusapia's hands +could be plainly seen in the grasp of her inquisitors. After seeing a +mandolin move and play of itself, after having the metronome set in +motion, stopped, and set going again, after having the registrations he +most desired, Bottazzi concludes his third sitting by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> saying: 'An +invisible hand or foot <i>must</i> therefore have forced down the disk, +<i>must</i> have leaned on the membrane of the receiving-drum of my +apparatus, because I assured myself next day that to obtain the highest +lines registered the disk had to be pressed to the extreme point. This +was no ordinary case of pushing or pulling. The mysterious hand had to +push the disk, and push it in a certain way. <i>In short, the "spirit +hand" was becoming educated to its task.</i>'"</p> + +<p>Miller asked: "Did these performances take place, as in the case of Mrs. +Smiley, within the reach of her ordinary limbs?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, many of them took place within a yard of her head; but some of +them, and the most marvellous of them, not merely took place out of her +reach, but under conditions of unexampled rigor. 'Eusapia's mediumistic +limbs penetrated into the cabinet,' says Bottazzi. 'I begged my friends +not to distract the medium's attention by requests for touches, +apparitions, etc., but to concentrate their desires and their wills on +the things I asked for....' What he wanted her to do was very simple, +but conclusive. He wished 'the spirit hand' to press an electric button +and light a red lamp within the cabinet. The coil and the switch had +been dragged out of the cabinet and thrown on the table. Bottazzi begged +them all not to touch it. No one but Scarpa, Galeotti, and Bottazzi knew +what it was for. 'At<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> a certain moment Eusapia took hold of the first +finger of my right hand and squeezed it with her fingers. A ray of light +from the interior of the cabinet lit up the room'—she had pressed the +contact-breaker with her invisible fingers at the precise time when she +had squeezed with her visible hand the forefinger of Bottazzi. She +repeatedly did this. 'If one of us, be it observed, had lit the lamp, +she would have screamed with pain and indignation.'"</p> + +<p>"Was this the climax of his series? Is this <i>all</i> he is willing to +affirm?" queried Harris, with ironic inflection.</p> + +<p>"Oh no, indeed. The greatest is yet to come. At the fourth sitting a new +person, Professor Cardarelli, was introduced, and this new sitter +disturbed conditions. Nevertheless, the inexplicable took place. Small +twirling violet flames were seen to drift across the cabinet curtains, +and hands and closed fists appeared over Paladino's head. These have +been photographed, by-the-way. Some of them were of ordinary size, and +others at least three times larger than the psychic's hand and fist. +These flames interest me very much, for I have seen them on several +occasions, but could not believe in them, even though Crookes spoke of +handling them. I must admit their objective reality now. It is absurd to +suppose they were fraudulently produced in this laboratory.</p> + +<p>"A stethoscope was taken from Cardarelli's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>pocket and put together—a +movement requiring the action of two hands. The noise of fingers running +over the keys of a typewriter in the cabinet was plainly heard, although +no writing came. At the fifth sitting the mandolin again moved as if +alive (no one touching it), in a light that made all its movements +observable; and as it did so <i>Eusapia's hand</i> (tightly controlled by +Bottazzi) <i>made little movements as if to help the instrument to move</i>. +<i>Each movement, though it ended in the air, seemed to affect the +mandolin.</i> Bottazzi says: 'It would be necessary to have Paladino's +fingers in the palm of one's hand, as I had that evening, in order to be +convinced that the evolutions, twangings of the strings, etc., all +synchronized with the very delicate movements of her fingers.... I +cannot describe the sensation one experiences when seeing an inanimate +object moved, not for a moment merely, but for many minutes in +succession, by a mysterious force.'"</p> + +<p>"We observed no such synchronism," repeated Fowler. "We not only +controlled Mrs. Smiley's hands, but nailed her to her chair. In a way, +our test was more rigid than those you are describing. Our results were +not so dramatic, but they were produced under test conditions, and their +significance is as great as that of Bottazzi's lamp-lighting."</p> + +<p>"But we did not have as much light on the medium, and, by-the-way, +Miller, the spectral hands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> that I saw in your study, each larger than +Mrs. Smiley's hands, were as real to me as those Scarpa studied, and the +books deposited on your table form as good a record, in their way, as +the marks on his smoked-glass cylinder."</p> + +<p>"Furthermore, we had writing," added Fowler. "All of which Bottazzi +would explain by his theory of an 'astral arm.'"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but he secured something still more marvellous. He obtained the +print of human hands in clay and also on smoked glass. He demonstrated +that the invisible limbs of the psychic cannot only move objects at a +distance, <i>but that they can feel at a distance</i>. 'Eusapia's attitude +was that of a blindfolded person exploring space with her hands to find +a lost object!' he exclaims, at one point. 'Eusapia opened my right +hand, stretched out my three middle fingers, and, bending them on the +table, tips downward, said, in a whisper: "How hard it is! What is it?" +I did not understand,' says Bottazzi. 'She continued: "There, on the +chair." "It is the clay," I said, quickly; "will you make the impression +of a face?" "No," she replied, "it is too hard; take it away.'" Some one +broke the chain to carry out her desire. He looked at the desk and saw +the imprint of three fingers."</p> + +<p>"What I would like to know at this point," Harris quickly interposed, +"is this: were the fingermarks lined like Bottazzi's or like the +medium's?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p><p>"He does not say in this case, but, as I recall it, they found in other +instances that the lines on the impressions made by Eusapia's invisible +fingers were precisely like those of her material fingers, and yet no +mark of flour or lamp-black remained attaching to her hands. In one case +a perfumed clay was used, and, although the impressions secured +'resembled Eusapia's face grown old,' no scent of the wax could be +detected on her cheeks. Bottazzi gives much space to these 'mediumistic +explorations of the cabinet.' He could follow these blind, mysterious +gropings of the invisible Eusapia by closely controlling the real +Eusapia. 'Presently she asked: "What is that round object? I feel +something round."' This was, in fact, the rubber ball which connected +with a tube—the tube, in its turn, passing through the wall into +another room where it operated a manometer. She pressed this ball with +her invisible limbs, and the column rose and registered the pressure. +This was entirely satisfactory to Bottazzi, who then says: 'I desire +again to affirm that with her invisible limbs Eusapia feels the forms of +objects and their consistency, feels heat and cold, hardness and +softness, dampness and dryness neither more nor less than if she were +touching and feeling with the hands imprisoned in ours. She feels with +other hands, but perceives with the same brain with which she uses to +talk with us.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p><p>"The most astonishing physical phenomena came when the contact-breaker +was thrown on the table, and Eusapia called out: 'See how it moves!' +'<i>We all directed our gaze toward the small object</i>,' says Bottazzi, +'<i>and we saw that it oscillated and vibrated at an elevation of an inch +or two above the surface of the table, as if seized with internal +shivering—Eusapia's hands, held by M. Galeotti and myself, being more +than a foot from the contact-breaker</i>.'"</p> + +<p>My auditors were now in the thrall of Bottazzi's story, and the silence +was eloquent. At last Cameron said: "It certainly seems like a clear +case of 'astral.' I begin to believe in our first sitting with Mrs. +Smiley. What do you want us to do—announce ourselves converted?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," I replied. "We must not relax our vigilance, even +though Bottazzi, Morselli, and their fellows seem to have proved the +genuineness of the phenomena. At the same time, I admit it is a source +of satisfaction to me to know that these Italian scientists, with +conditions all their own, are willing to affirm that Eusapia '<i>feels +with her invisible limbs</i>,' and explores a cabinet while sitting under +rigid control more than a yard away from the objects moved. My +experiences point to this. How else could the cone be handled with such +precision as was shown at your house, Miller? Lombroso observed that +chairs and vases<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> moved as if guided by hands and eyes, and that the +psychic could see as well behind her as in front. Mrs. Smiley has always +been able to direct me <i>exactly</i> to the point where the cone or pencil +had been flung. How can letters within closed slates be formed so +beautifully and so precisely without some form of seeing?"</p> + +<p>Fowler was ready with an answer: "At the final analysis all perception +is due to some form of vibration. To be clairaudient is simply to be +able to lay hold upon a different set of pulsations in the ether, and to +be clairvoyant is to perceive directly without the aid of the eye, which +is only a little camera, after all."</p> + +<p>"All this is merely a kind of prelude," I resumed, "for Bottazzi +apparently proved that the invisible hand of Eusapia's invisible arm +could not penetrate a cage of wire mesh that covered the telegraphic key +in the cabinet. 'How, then, can we consider it to be a spirit hand—an +immaterial hand—when a wire-netting can stop it?' he very pertinently +inquires."</p> + +<p>"That's what troubles me," said Miller. "If a phantom hand can bring a +real book and thumb its leaves, or drum with a real pencil or write, why +isn't it, for all practicable purposes, a real hand?"</p> + +<p>"What <i>is</i> a real hand?" retorted Fowler. "Isn't the latest word of +science to the effect that matter like the human body is only a +temporary condition of force?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p><p>"Precisely so; and every advance along the line of these experiments +goes to prove the power of mind to transform matter. It almost seems to +me at times as though these psychic minds were able to reduce matter to +its primal atom and reshape it. In Bottazzi's seventh sitting, under the +same rigorous restraint of Eusapia, a vase of flowers was transported, a +rose was set in a lady's hair, a small drum was seized and beaten +rhythmically, an enormous black fist came out from behind the curtain, +and an open hand seized Bottazzi gently by the neck. Now listen to his +own words: 'Letting go my hold of Professor Poso's hand,' he says, 'I +felt for this ghostly hand and clasped it. <i>It was a left hand, neither +hot nor cold, with rough, bony fingers which dissolved under pressure. +It did not retire by producing a sensation of withdrawal—it dissolved, +"dematerialized," melted.</i>'"</p> + +<p>I paused to say: "Remember, this is not the tale of a perfervid +spiritist. On the contrary, it is the scientific account of a laboratory +experiment by a physiologist of high rank. The incident is not a part of +a séance in the home of a medium in a dark parlor full of side-doors and +trick windows. It is a registered phenomenon in the physiological +department of a great university, occurring under scientific test +conditions. I confess it gives verity to many a doubtful thing I have +myself seen."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p><p>"It certainly staggers me," said Cameron. "How does the scientific +gentleman explain it?"</p> + +<p>"He goes on to say: 'Another time, later on, the same hand was placed on +my right forearm—I saw a human hand, of natural color, and I felt with +mine the back of a lukewarm hand, rough and nervous. <i>The hand dissolved +(I saw it with my own eyes) and retreated as if into Madame Paladino's +body, describing a curve.</i> If all the observed phenomena of these seven +séances were to disappear from my memory, this one I could never +forget.'"</p> + +<p>Fowler was smiling with calm disdain. "Let him go on with his +psycho-dynamic theories. He will be confounded yet. These are only the +first stages of the game."</p> + +<p>"But all this happened while the hands of the psychic were merely held," +protested Miller. "He says he controlled her hands rigorously. Why +didn't he handcuff her, or nail her down? The facts he claims to have +established are too subversive to accept on his word alone."</p> + +<p>This amused me. "There you go again! Not satisfied with wonders, you +want miracles. Happily, you may be satisfied. In the eighth sitting, +which took place in the same room of the physiological laboratory, with +Bottazzi, Madame Bottazzi, Professor Galeotti, Doctors Jappelli and +d'Errico present, Eusapia submitted to the most rigorous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> restraint of +her life. Two iron rings were fastened to the floor, and by means of +strong cords, which were sealed with lead seals like those used in +fastening a railway car, her wrists were rigidly confined. She was, in +fact, bound like a criminal; and yet the spectral hands and fists came +and went, jugs of water floated about, and as a final stupendous climax, +while Galeotti was controlling Eusapia's right arm, which was also +manacled, he <i>saw</i> the duplications of her left arm. '<span class="smcap">Look!</span>' he +exclaimed, '<span class="smcap">I see two left arms identical in appearance. One is on the +little table. The other seems to come out of the medium's shoulder, +touch Madame Bottazzi, and then return to Eusapia's body again. This is +not an hallucination. I am conscious of two simultaneous visual +sensations when Madame Bottazzi says she has been touched.</span>'"</p> + +<p>For a moment the entire company sat in silence, as though stunned by the +force of my blow. Then all turned to Miller as though to ask: "What do +you think of that?"</p> + +<p>He slowly replied: "To grant the possible putting forth of a +supernumerary arm and hand would make physiological science foolish. It +is easier to imagine these gentlemen suffering a collective +hallucination."</p> + +<p>"Ah! Bottazzi provided against all that. He called in the aid of +self-registering contrivances.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> It won't do, Miller—he proved the +objective reality of 'spirit phenomena.' He lifted the whole performance +to the plane of the test-tube, the electric light, and the barometer. +His experiments, his deductions, came as a splendid sequence to an +almost equally searching series by Crookes, Zöllner, Wallace, Thury, +Flammarion, Maxwell, Lombroso, Richet, Foà, and Morselli. His laboratory +was the crucible wherein came the final touch of heat which fuses all +the discordant facts into a solid ingot of truth."</p> + +<p>"But, to me, he is misreading the facts," objected Fowler. "I maintain +that he is as prejudiced in his way as the spiritist. He says: 'The +mediumistic limbs explored the cabinet.' A spiritist would say: '<i>John +King</i> explored the cabinet.' The synchronism he speaks of might exist, +and only be a proof of what the spiritist admits—that the presence and +activity of the materializing spirit are closely circumscribed by the +medium."</p> + +<p>"Bottazzi proved the relationship to be something more intimate than +that. He demonstrated that the movement of the hands in the cabinet and +of those outside had a common origin—namely, the will and brain of +Eusapia. He proved that these invisible hands were, after all, material, +and limited in their powers. He proved that the 'spirits' shared all +Eusapia's likes and dislikes, and knew no more of chloride of iron or +ferro-cyanide<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> of potassium than she herself possessed—in short, while +admitting the mystery of the process, he reduces all these phenomena to +human, terrestrial level, and relates them wholly and simply to the +brain and will of the psychic. Perhaps his state of mind is best +expressed at the close of his statement concerning the registration of +the movements of 'the spirit hand.' He says, in effect: 'These tracings +demonstrate irrefutably that the keys were repeatedly pressed with +perfect synchronism, the outside key with Eusapia's left hand, the one +inside the cabinet by another, which a convinced spiritist would call +that of a "materialized spirit," and which I believe to be neither the +one nor the other, although I am not able to explain what it was.'"</p> + +<p>"Oh, lame and impotent conclusion!" exclaimed Brierly. "After that +superb test, why didn't he frankly say the discarnate had been proved?"</p> + +<p>"Because his proof, his knowledge, was not yet sufficient. Besides, it +requires heroic courage to admit our ignorance. 'I don't know,' he says, +and that is the attitude of Morselli. Dr. Foà believes the phenomena to +come within the domain of natural law, and to result from a +transmutation of energy accumulated in the medium. He calls this 'vital +energy' or 'psychic energy,' and adds: 'If these phenomena appear +strange by virtue of their comparative rarity, they are not really more +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>marvellous than the biological phenomena which we witness every day.'"</p> + +<p>"According to this theory, then," said Miller, "Mrs. Smiley has +remained, as you believe, motionless in her chair, but has been able to +'energize' at a distance."</p> + +<p>"More than that. She has been able to emit supernumerary etheric limbs, +perhaps a complete material double of herself, which is able to move +with lightning speed and perfect precision. It is this actual +externalization of both matter and sense that makes darkness so +essential to the medium. Vivid light forces this effluvia, this +mysterious double, back into its originating body with disrupting haste. +Witness the several times when Mrs. Smiley was convulsed merely by being +touched at the wrong moment."</p> + +<p>"There is a different interpretation to be put upon the psychic's hatred +of light," remarked Howard.</p> + +<p>"By-the-way, yet bearing on this very subject, I read in the <i>Annals of +Psychic Science</i> the account of a singular experiment in the matter of +independent writing. A certain Dr. Encausse, in giving a lecture before +the Society for Psychical Research at Nancy, said that in 1889, having +heard that a professional magnetizer named Robert was able to put a +subject into such a state of hypnosis that he could project lines of +writing on paper without use of pen or pencil, he was curious to see the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>performance. Together with a colleague, Dr. Gibier, Encausse hastened +to witness this marvel. One of the subjects was a girl of seventeen. The +magnetizer put her to sleep, 'and during this séance,' says Dr. +Encausse, 'we were able to obtain in full light on a sheet of paper +signed by twenty witnesses, the precipitation of a whole page of written +verses signed "Corneille." I examined under the microscope the substance +that formed the writing, and I was led to the conclusion that it +consisted of globules of human blood, some scattered as if calcined, +others quite distinct. I thus verified the theory of the occultists of +1850 that the nervous energy as well as the physical force of a medium, +the material of which he is constituted, such as his blood, could +exteriorize itself and reconstruct itself at a distance.'"</p> + +<p>"What a stunning experiment!" exclaimed Cameron.</p> + +<p>"Important, if true," sneered Harris.</p> + +<p>"What do you know about this learned doctor?" asked Miller.</p> + +<p>"Nothing; but you will see that these later experiments of the Italian +scientists are sustaining De Rochas and Aksakof in their claim that the +medium is in a sense dematerialized to build up the phantasms. Dr. +Encausse goes on to say: '<i>Moreover, the medium who had produced this +phenomenon was preparing for the stage and had been studying</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> <i>Corneille +during the whole of the preceding day.</i> I was thus able to discover the +origin of the substance of the materialization of the writing, and also +its psychic origin.' In other words, he claims that the message was not +from the shade of the great dramatist, but was a precipitation of the +blood of the psychic and an exercise of her subconscious mind, all of +which accords with Bottazzi's theory.</p> + +<p>"Now, then," said I, in the tone of one about to conclude, "in the light +of these experiments, my own sitting at Miller's, and especially those +that I held at Fowler's house, take on the greatest significance. +Miller, Mrs. Smiley's <i>visible limbs</i> did not handle the books—of that +I am positive—and yet I am equally certain that she governed every +movement."</p> + +<p>"But what about the voices?" asked Fowler. "Does this theory cover the +whispering personalities we heard? What about 'Wilbur' and 'Maudie'?"</p> + +<p>"That's easy," retorted Howard. "Once you explain the manipulation of +the cone, the rest is merely clever ventriloquism."</p> + +<p>"There is nothing 'easy' about any of these phenomena," I answered. "As +Richet says, they are absurd, but they are observed facts. It would not +be fair to the spiritists to end the account of these sittings without +frankly stating that there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> were many other phenomena very difficult to +explain by Bottazzi's theory. There came a time, as he admits, when 'a +mysterious entity behind the curtain, among us, almost in contact with +us, was felt all the time.' This entity was supposed to be 'John King,' +the psychic's control. This being, invisible for the most part, gave +roses to those he liked, conversed freely, and in one case threw a bunch +of flowers in the face of one of the sitters to whom Eusapia had taken a +dislike. A little later 'John' presented a small drum from behind the +curtain, and, when Galeotti tried to take it, 'John' pulled it out of +his hands. Again he offered it, and Galeotti seized it, and the two +fought for its possession with such violence that the drum was nearly +torn to pieces."</p> + +<p>"Where was Paladino meanwhile?" asked Miller.</p> + +<p>"Seated quietly in the grasp of Bottazzi and Madame Bottazzi. Galeotti +then raised the drum in his hand, high above his head and against the +curtain, and requested 'John' to beat it. 'John' pushed a hand against +the drum and beat a muffled tattoo. All this was utterly out of the +psychic's reach. The strife over the drum would seem to argue a complete +and powerful figure behind the curtain."</p> + +<p>"In other words, a spirit," said Brierly.</p> + +<p>"Not so fast," put in Miller. "I am content to plod with these Italian +scientists. Let us establish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> one supernormal fact and then reach for +another. You fellows with your 'reincarnations,' and the spiritist with +his foolish messages from Cleopatra, Raphael, and Shakespeare, have +confused the situation. We must begin all over again. If all that +Garland is detailing is true—I have not read these reports he speaks +of—then it is our duty to take up the scrutiny of these facts as a part +of biologic science."</p> + +<p>Fowler clapped his hands. "Bravo! that is all we ask of you. To study +frogs and mosquitoes, to peer close into the constitution of the blood +or the brain of man, is useful; but, to my mind, the questions raised by +these Continental experimentalists are the most vital now clamoring for +answer."</p> + +<p>"Bottazzi says, with regard to his eighth and final sitting: 'The +results of this séance were very favorable, because they eliminated the +slightest trace of suspicion or uncertainty relative to the genuineness +of the phenomena. We obtained the same kind of assurance as that which +we have concerning physical, chemical, or physiological phenomena. +Henceforth sceptics can only deny the facts by accusing us of fraud and +charlatanism. I should be very much surprised if any one were bold +enough to bring the charge against us, but it would not disturb our +minds in the least. From this time forward the medium who wishes to +prove the truth of her phenomena will be obliged to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>permit the same +kind of experimentation which Eusapia so adequately sustained.'"</p> + +<p>"Well, now," said Cameron, "the practical question is this: are we to go +on with our investigation?"</p> + +<p>"I am ready," said Miller, promptly. "Garland, will you purvey another +psychic and conduct the pursuit?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, provided you all come in with spirits attuned, ready to wait +patiently and observe silently. The law of these materializations seems +to be this: the forces of the psychic are proportional to the +harmoniousness of the circle and in inverse proportion to the light. +Accepting this law as proved by our illustrious fellow-experimenters +abroad, are you ready to try again along the lines they have marked +out?"</p> + +<p>As with one voice, all agreed.</p> + +<p>"Very well," said I; "I will see what I can do for you in the way of a +new psychic and new phenomena. We will now experiment with design to +prove the identity of the reappearing dead. Of this I am fully +persuaded. Men will be discovering new laws of nature ten thousand years +from now, just as they are to-day. It is inconceivable that the secrets +of the universe should ever be entirely made plain. The world of mystery +retires before the dawn. Nothing is really explained—what we call +familiar facts are at bottom inexplicable mysteries, and must ever +remain so."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p><p>"Then why go on? Why not stop now and save ourselves the trouble of +investigation?"</p> + +<p>"Because there is joy in the pursuit—because it is in the nature of man +to pursue this quest. Who knows but the conclusions of Venzano and +Morselli, of Bottazzi and Foà, have opened new vistas in human nature? +These 'supernormal powers' may chance to be of immense value to the +race, quite aside from their bearing upon the problem of death. +Furthermore, these reports come at a time when a hard-and-fast +literalism of interpretation is the fashion among scientists like +Miller. Perhaps they and the art of the day will alike be offered new +inspiration by these mystifying enlargements of human faculty. I for one +feel profoundly indebted to these brave and clear-brained Italian +scientists. I should like to see the physicists of our own universities +busying themselves with this most absorbing and vital problem."</p> + +<p>"But they don't," retorted Fowler. "They will not even read Bottazzi's +reports."</p> + +<p>And I fear he is justified in his belief.</p> + +<blockquote><p>[As I am reading proof on this page a fat letter from a friend in +Naples comes to my desk, filled with the several corroborative +accounts of a special sitting with Paladino which Professor +Bottazzi kindly arranged for them. My correspondent is a New York +editor, and in his party of six was the associate professor of +chemistry in a big Eastern college. After detailing the many +marvellous phenomena which took place in his presence, Professor +M—— says: "In view of the phenomena with which I am habitually +concerned, I did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> not <i>want</i> to believe in Paladino's supernormal +powers, but I had to accept what I saw." These reports bring +Bottazzi's experiments closer to the dead. I hope they will bring +them a little nearer to my readers. "Bottazzi has no slightest +doubt of the phenomena," is the concluding line of my friend's +letter.]</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2> + + +<p>Cameron's society never came together again in formal session, and I was +not able to carry out my plan for developing a psychic along the line of +proving the identity of the spirits manifesting. However, between the +final sitting of the club and my next meeting with Fowler and Miller, I +passed through a series of very interesting experiences more or less +corroborative of the phenomena which the members had witnessed either +individually or as a body. These additional experiments I proceeded at +once to lay before my friends as we met at the club one quiet afternoon +a couple of weeks later.</p> + +<p>"We haven't heard of any new psychic," Miller began at once, as we +settled into easy-chairs in a retired corner.</p> + +<p>"No," I replied. "I've been unable to get the consent of any other +psychic to undergo just the inquisition I know you'd like to give, but +I've had some extremely suggestive sittings recently with a young +professional man who does a little mediumistic 'work' on the side."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p><p>"A male psychic? That's amusing. I thought they were all female."</p> + +<p>"No. There are men psychics," replied Fowler, "but they're scarce. One +of the most wonderful I have ever known is a big, burly fellow of most +aggressive manner. The reason why there are so few men in the business I +take to be this: men are less subjective, less passive, than women, and +the psychic's rôle seems to be a negative one. Men are aggressive and +impatient, engaged in some kind of struggle with material things, or +they are intolerant of the process of developing their psychic gifts. If +Garland has found a male psychic, he is in luck."</p> + +<p>"So I thought. The young fellow, whom we will call Peters, is only about +twenty-four, a boyish professional man of refined habits. He comes of +good family, and, being ambitious in his profession, is careful not to +permit a knowledge of his psychical powers to reach the ears of his +employers. I heard of him through a friend who is deeply interested in +these matters, and who procured for me an invitation to be present at a +sitting in the home of a certain Dr. Towne, on the East Side.</p> + +<p>"We met at dinner, and during the meal Dr. Towne told us all he knew of +Mr. Peters, which was little, and, turning to me, said: 'We expect you +to take charge of the circle, Mr. Garland; it's all new to us.'</p> + +<p>"'The first thing to do,' I answered, 'is to put<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> the young fellow at +his ease. It is a mighty good sign when a medium is willing to come into +a strange house to perform for a circle as critical and as unfriendly as +this.' 'Oh, not unfriendly,' said Dr. Towne. 'Well,' I said, 'I wouldn't +call three practising physicians, who have never seen a psychic at close +range, a friendly group.'"</p> + +<p>"Were there three doctors present?" asked Fowler.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and my friend was a notably keen-eyed man himself. I really had no +faith that the young fellow could do anything remarkable for us, but I +didn't say so.</p> + +<p>"We were still at the table when our young psychic was announced, and, +with a knowledge of how necessary it was that he should be in a +comfortable frame of mind, I went out to the library to meet him and +make his acquaintance. I wished to put him at his ease—so far as I was +concerned, at least.</p> + +<p>"I found him to be but a pale stripling, with slender limbs and +brilliant eyes. He was plainly nervous and a little dogmatic in manner. +He told me that he was twenty-four years of age, but he did not look to +be nineteen. He said he had been aware of his power about four years, +and that his grandfather and a man named 'Evans' were those who most +frequently spoke. 'I have no "guides,"' he said, rather contemptuously.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p><p>"The place for the sitting was not especially favorable. It was a +reception-room midway between the doctor's office and the dining-room, +and was rather large and difficult to close off from the rest of the +house. After the windows had been darkened in the usual manner, Peters +arranged the chairs so that his seat came between Dr. Towne and Mrs. +Towne. Dr. Merriam came next to Towne. This brought me two places away +from Peters and next to a stout German woman whose name, as I understood +it, was Mrs. Steinert. On Mrs. Towne's right sat Dr. Paul and Professor +Franks, my friend. Within the circle Towne had set a small table, on +which were placed pencils and paper. The chain was formed by locking our +little fingers tightly. If we may depend on the word of those present, +this chain of hands remained unbroken for two hours. The room at first +was perfectly dark.</p> + +<p>"For half an hour we sat at ease, talking a little now and then, but +leaving the direction of the whole affair to Peters. He hinted to +us—and this I wish to particularly emphasize—that he went out of his +body. He said: 'When I think toward any one or toward a thing, I am +there. I am all around it. If I think toward a person, I am there—all +around him—inside of him.' In pursuit of this idea, I then asked: 'Are +you conscious of your body which you have left behind? Are you conscious +of being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> in the upper part of the room, for instance, and do you see +your body below you?'</p> + +<p>"'No,' said he; 'I am conscious of being in a certain place, but I am +not conscious of being in two places at the same time.' He told us of +his development, which came about through attendance on a circle with +another psychic. He said he had been experimenting for about four years. +I asked him if it had affected his health in any way, and he replied: +'No, it does not weary me any more than prolonged study might do. I am +very fond of playing chess, and I find that I do not play so well after +a sitting—that's all.' He said the only sign of the special condition +which produced these phenomena was a nervous tremor in his limbs.</p> + +<p>"The first evidence of 'the force' came in steady tappings upon Mrs. +Towne's chair. The young man said: 'This is my friend "Evans,"' and +thereupon I began to direct the sitting through 'Evans.' In answer to my +questions, he said that he would do what he could do for us. I asked him +if he would write, and he answered by tapping that he would try.</p> + +<p>"Shortly after this promise, sounds as of hands were heard about the +table. Sheets of paper were plainly being written upon and torn off the +pad. One of these was flourished in my face, while the linked fingers of +the psychic were firmly held by Dr. Towne and his wife. All of those in +the circle <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>excepting Mrs. Steinert and myself were new to this +business, and much impressed.</p> + +<p>"At the precise moment when these hands were at work writing, and a +little later while they patted Mrs. Towne's cheek and tapped on the +doctor's shirt-front, I asked: 'Are you controlling his hands?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes,' responded the doctor, who, by-the-way, is a vigorous young +scientist and had never before experimented with these forces. His reply +was echoed by Mrs. Towne, who remained perfectly calm and clear-headed +throughout the entire sitting.</p> + +<p>"Thus far the phenomena were precisely similar to those we have had with +Mrs. Smiley, but we were soon to have proofs of greater power. While the +chain of hands continued unbroken, mysterious fingers clutched Dr. +Towne's arm and drummed upon his shirt-front. At length the same mystic +fingers began to take off his tie, and, while I warningly called out, +'Be sure of your psychic's hands,' the doctor's collar was taken away +and put around his wife's neck. His tie was then added to the collar. +Mrs. Towne announced that, while holding firmly to the psychic, she felt +the touch of <i>two</i> hands about her face, and a few moments thereafter +Dr. Merriam, seated next to Dr. Towne, said he felt a strong pressure +upon his arm, as if some one were leaning upon it.</p> + +<p>"A little later these hands began to unbutton Dr. Towne's shirt-front, +and several pencils were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> stuffed inside. Hands patted and touched those +who sat within a radius of about a yard of the psychic; apparently the +forces could not reach to where I sat. I complained of this, and almost +immediately the psychic said there was some one for me, and in answer to +my question, 'Is there some one present for me?' the pencil rapped three +times upon the table in the affirmative. At my request this 'spirit' +wrote his name upon a piece of paper, tore it off, and threw it in my +lap. A moment later something hard and crackling came over the table. +'My cuffs have been removed,' the psychic called out.</p> + +<p>"Having in mind one of the extraordinary experiments of Zöllner, I then +asked 'Evans' to remove Dr. Towne's vest. I said: 'If we can get that, +it will be in effect a confirmation of Zöllner's theory of the fourth +dimension.'</p> + +<p>"For a few moments hands touched and patted Dr. Towne as if with intent +to make this experiment but gave it up, and Peters announced that they +were at work around him. It could not have been more than a minute later +when I felt something soft thrown in my lap. I did not know what this +was, and did not care to break the circle at the moment to find out, and +the information was volunteered by the psychic that the 'spirits' had +removed his vest, and this we afterward found to be the case, for at the +close of the sitting his vest was lying at my feet."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p><p>"Oh, come now," said Miller, "you don't intend to convey—"</p> + +<p>"I am telling exactly what took place," I replied.</p> + +<p>"Peters then said to Dr. Towne: 'Think of some signature, not your own, +that you know very well, and I will reproduce it.' After a little +silence the sound of writing could be heard, and the tap of a pencil +announced that its task was done. The sheet of paper was then ripped +from the pad, a very definite action, as you may believe, and the sound +of the sheet being folded was plainly heard."</p> + +<p>"That would require a thumb and finger and afterward two hands," +remarked Miller.</p> + +<p>"Precisely; and they were there, notwithstanding the hands of the +psychic could be felt (so Dr. Towne and Mrs. Towne both said) with no +movement but a convulsive quivering.</p> + +<p>"I then asked 'Evans' if he could not lift the table for us, and he +replied by tapping that he would try; and a few moments later the +psychic, whose hands and feet began to pass through a period of tremor, +warningly called out: 'Now please be very quiet, and don't break the +circle.' I could hear him take a deep breath, and a moment later the +table rose and passed over Mrs. Towne's head so closely that she was +obliged to lean to the right to avoid it, and we all heard it gently +deposited not far from the psychic's right hand. While this was done, +both Dr. Towne and Mrs. Towne affirmed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> that their fingers were locked +with those of the psychic.</p> + +<p>"Here, again, was a phenomenon, inconclusive in itself, from the fact +that we could not see the table move, and yet which coheres with an +immense body of inexplicable similar movements in the reports of +Flammarion and Lombroso. It was impossible for the medium to lift this +weight over Mrs. Towne's head, even if his right arm had been completely +free, for the stand, though small, was heavy. I regarded this, at the +moment, as an authentic case of telekinesis, and my further experience +with this psychic has not weakened that conviction.</p> + +<p>"Shortly after this the psychic broke up the circle, saying that, as +conditions were favorable, he would try to produce materialized forms.</p> + +<p>"Taking the chair which was occupied by Mrs. Steinert, he withdrew into +the passage-way leading to the dining-room, requesting that the circle +resolve itself into a half-circle facing the cabinet. You will remember +that we were in a private house, and that all question of collusion is +barred out. Shortly after he took his seat in this little recess, two or +three brilliant lights, like the twisting flame of a small candle—a +curious, glowing, yet not radiant violet flame—developed, high up on +the outside of the portières which formed the cabinet, and drifted +across and up toward the ceiling, where they silently vanished. I think +there must have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> been three of these, which were followed by a broad, +glowing mass of what looked like white-hot metal—a singular light, +unlike anything I had ever seen. It made me think of the substance +described by Sir William Crookes and other experimenters abroad. At the +moment this appeared—or possibly a little before it—a wild whoop was +heard—very startling indeed, as if a door had suddenly been opened by a +roguish boy and closed again. This practically ended the séance.</p> + +<p>"As we lighted up I had first interest for the object which had been +thrown across to me. It proved to be a vest, which the psychic said was +his. It was a soft gray vest, and matched his suit, and was without any +trick seams—so far as I could see—being whole and uninjured. In the +inside pocket a folded leaf of the paper from the pad was stuffed, and +on this was the signature 'Alfred Towne,' which Dr. Towne said was an +exact reproduction of his brother's autograph. On the sheet of paper +which had been thrown to me was the simple word 'Taft.' This was taken +by the circle to be a prophecy on the election, but, as my wife's family +name is Taft, I put a different interpretation upon it. On the whole, +the sitting made a profound impression upon me. It was not so much one +thing as many things, all cohering with what I already knew of +telekinetic phenomena. It was not a test sitting, as Peters +acknowledged, but it was by no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> means easy to deceive under the control +we exercised.</p> + +<p>"There were many things of interest aside from the physical happenings. +The young man did not go into a trance, but remained perfectly normal. +He took part in the conversation, answered all questions, and lent +himself perfectly to the experiment. He said that if we would sit with +him again he was sure we could have more light. 'I don't care to be +known as a medium,' he declared. 'I like the study of law, and I want to +be a lawyer—not a sensitive. In the first place, the law pays better, +and, in the second place, it isn't considered a nice thing to be a +medium. However, I will sit again for you, if you want me to, and I am +sure you will get many other things in the light.' And he added to me +later: 'We can get all these phenomena with no one present but +ourselves. Come down to my home some evening and we will try again.'"</p> + +<p>"Did you accept his invitation?" asked Miller.</p> + +<p>"Yes; but before I did so we had another sitting at Dr. Towne's house, +which gave me a closer view of all that went on, for I was permitted to +sit at his left and grip his little finger. The circle was slightly +changed the next time, and on his right sat a young lady whom we will +call Miss Brown. She was a wide-awake and very unexcitable person, and I +believe kept close hold on the psychic's right hand.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> In addition to our +linked fingers, the psychic's hands were tied to ours with dental floss.</p> + +<p>"There was considerable light in the room this time, and as the nervous +tremor developed in the psychic's hands and legs I imagined I could see +a grayish vapor form just between and a little above our clasped hands. +Suddenly I saw a shadowy arm dart forth from the cloud, and I felt the +clasp of a firm hand on my wrist. It was a right hand. 'Are you +controlling the psychic's hand?' I demanded of Miss Brown. 'Yes,' she +replied, alertly. Even as I spoke I saw the mysterious limb dart out and +seize upon a pencil which lay upon the table. Again and again I saw this +'apparition' emerge from that vaporous cloud and handle the pad in the +middle of the table. I could see three fingers on the under-side of the +pad as it was held before the psychic's face, and these facts I +announced to the other members of the circle, who could not see as +plainly as I could. Sometimes the arm seemed white, sometimes black, and +always it appeared to be a right hand."</p> + +<p>"That is to say, <i>your</i> control was more vigorous than that of Miss +Brown," remarked Miller.</p> + +<p>"A doubter might say so, and yet the thread which bound us had some +value. One of the most extraordinary performances was the lifting of a +glass of water which set in the centre of the table. I could see the +glass plainly as it rose to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>psychic's lips. It seemed to be +sustained by a broad beam of vapor, or it may have been a slim arm +clothed in white."</p> + +<p>"Probably the psychic's."</p> + +<p>"Possibly; but I don't see how it could have been. However, I do not +place very much value upon it as standing alone, but considered in +connection with the performances of Eusapia, it becomes a little more +nearly credible."</p> + +<p>"But all this is very far from being an evidence of anything like +intelligence," protested Fowler. "It seems very trivial to me."</p> + +<p>"It does not seem trivial to me," I answered; "but I will admit that is +has nothing like the value of a series of sittings I held last spring +with a psychic in a mid-Western city."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2> + +<p>The reader will have observed that up to the present moment I have not +emphasized in any way the question of the identity of the +"intelligences" that have manifested themselves. The reason for this +lies in the fact that I was still seeking evidence concerning the +processes of mediumship. However, being convinced (by reason of my own +experiments, supported by those of Lombroso, Morselli, and Bottazzi) +that the facts of mediumship exist, it is my purpose to take up +definitely the question of identity, which is the final and most elusive +part of the problem—it may turn out to be the insoluble part of the +problem.</p> + +<p>If you ask why it should be insoluble, I reply, because it concerns the +mystery of death, and it may be that it is not well for us to penetrate +the ultimate shadow. Among all the men of the highest rank who admit the +reality of apparitions and voices, there are but few as yet who are +willing to assert that the dead manifest themselves. By this I mean that +though some of them, like Crookes, for example, believe in "the +intervention of discarnate <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>intelligences," they are not ready to grant +that these intelligences are their grandfathers returning to the scene +of their earthly labors.</p> + +<p>I said something like this to Miller and Fowler, when we met at the club +one afternoon not long after the final meeting of Cameron's Amateur +Psychical Society, and I added: "I must confess that most of the spirits +I have met seem to me merely parasitic or secondary personalities (to +use Maxwell's term), drawn from the psychic or from myself. Nearly every +one of the mediums I have studied has had at least one guide, whose +voice and habit of thought were perilously similar to her own. This, in +some cases, has been laughable, as when 'Rolling Thunder,' a Sioux chief +(Indians are all chiefs in the spirit world), appears and says: 'Goot +efening, friends; id iss a nice night alretty.' And yet I have seen a +whole roomful of people receive communications from a spirit of this +kind with solemn awe. I burn with shame for the sitters and psychic when +this kind of thing is going on."</p> + +<p>"You visit the wrong mediums," said Fowler. "Such psychics are on a low +plane. I never go to those who associate with Indians."</p> + +<p>"But mediums are all alike in this respect. I don't suppose Mrs. Smiley +realizes that 'Maudie' would be called by a doubter a falsetto disguise +of her own voice, and 'Wilbur' a shrewd and humorous personification of +her subconscious self; or, if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> she does, she probably ascribes it to the +process of materialization which 'takes from' the medium. Never but once +have I had the sensation of being in the presence of a real spirit +personality, and that happened to me only a few days ago."</p> + +<p>"It must have been an extraordinary experience to have made so deep an +impression upon you," said Fowler.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it was extraordinary. It had the personal element in it to a much +greater degree than any case I had hitherto studied, and seemed a direct +attempt at identification on the part of a powerful and original +individuality but recently 'passed out.' It came about in this way:</p> + +<p>"I met, not long ago, at the home of a friend in a Western city, a woman +who was said to be able to produce whispers independent of her own +organs of speech. I was assured by those in whom I had confidence that +these voices could be heard in the broad light of day, in the open air, +anywhere the psychic happened to be, and that her 'work' was of an +exceptionally high character. I was keenly interested, as you may +imagine, and asked for a sitting. Mrs. Hartley, as we will call her, +fixed a day and hour in her own house for the trial, and I went to the +sitting a few days later with high expectations of her 'phase.' I found +her living in a small frame house on a pleasant street, with nothing to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> +indicate that it was a meeting-place of mortals and their 'spirit +guides.'</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Hartley was quite evidently a woman of power and native +intelligence. After a few minutes of general conversation she took me up +to her study on the second floor, a sunny little den on the east side of +the house, which was not in the least suggestive of hocus-pocus. A broad +mission table, two bookcases, a few flowers, and a curious battered old +black walnut table completed the furnishing of the room, which indicated +something rather studious and thoughtful in the owner.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Hartley asked me to be seated, and added, 'Please write on a sheet +of paper the names of such friends as you would like to communicate +with.' She then left the room on some household errand, and while she +was gone I wrote the name of her guide, 'Dr. Cooke' (out of compliment), +and added that of a musical friend whom I will call 'Ernest Alexander.' +I also wrote the names 'Jessie' and 'David,' folded the sheet once, and +retained it under my hand. Upon her return the psychic seated herself at +the battered oval table, and, taking up a pair of hinged school slates, +began to clean them with a cloth. I am not going to detail my +precautions. You must take my detective work for granted. Moreover, in +this case I was awaiting the voices; the slate-writing was gratuitous. +She took the slates (between which I had dropped my slip<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> of paper), +and, putting them beneath the table, asked me to hold one corner."</p> + +<p>"I <i>wish</i> they wouldn't do that," protested Fowler. "It isn't necessary. +I've had messages on slates held in my own hands six feet from the +psychic."</p> + +<p>"As we sat thus she told me that she had never been in a trance, and +that she never permitted the dark. 'I force my guides to work in the +light,' she said. She declared that the whispers which I was presently +to hear came to her under all conditions, and that her spirit friends +talked to her familiarly as she went about her household duties. She +assured me that 'they' were a great help and comfort to her. 'Dr. Cooke' +was her ever-present guide and counsellor, and her father and brother +were always near.</p> + +<p>"It was plain that she did not stand in awe of them, for after half an +hour's wait she grew impatient and called out in an imperious tone: +'Come, dear, I want you. Come, anybody.' Two or three times she spoke +loudly, clearly, as if calling to some one through a thick wall. This +interested me exceedingly. Generally psychics are very humble and +patient with their 'guides.' A few moments later the slates began to +slam about so violently beneath the table that her arm was bruised, and +she protested sharply: 'Don't do that. You will break the slates and the +table both!' Thereupon the 'forces' quieted down till only a peculiar +quiver<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> remained in them. I could hear writing going on steadily.</p> + +<p>"At last a tap came to announce that the messages were written. The +psychic withdrew the slates and handed them across the table to me. I +opened them and took out my paper. On one slate was a message from 'Dr. +Cooke,' the guide; on the other were these words, written in +slate-pencil: '<i>I would that you could see me as I am now, still +occupied, and happy to be busy.</i>' This was followed by four lines and +three little marks, evidently intended to symbolize a bar of music, and +the whole was signed, 'E. Alexander.' The writing was firm and manly, +but I did not recognize it as that of my friend.</p> + +<p>"The second trial resulted in this vague communication: '<i>My dear +friend, don't overdo. Earth is but one life. Many I recall. I tried to +give expression to my one talent.</i>' This was signed 'Ernest Alexander.' +Both these replies, as you see, were very general in phraseology, but +the third message came closer to the individual: '<i>I was so tired and +not myself. I am well and in the world of progress. Ernest Alexander.</i>' +The bar of music again appeared, this time much more 'developed.'"</p> + +<p>Miller stopped me here. "All this is quite simple. Mrs. Hartley opened +and read your note and, following up the clew, simply did some neat +trick-writing beneath the table."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p><p>"It is not so simple as all that," I answered. "She was interrupted +about this time by the doorbell, and while she was gone I wrote on +another piece of paper: 'Ernest, give me a test of your identity. Write +a bar from the "—— Sonata."' This note I folded close and put in an +inside pocket.</p> + +<p>"In answer to this request, when the medium returned I got these +pertinent words: '<i>I was not a disappointment to myself, but I was at a +point where nerve force failed me.</i>' This was signed '<i>Ernest</i>,' and was +accompanied by another sketchy bar of music. It all looked like a real +attempt to give me what I had asked for, and yet it was the kind of +reply that might have been made by the medium had she known the history +of my musical friend, or had she been able to take it out of my mind."</p> + +<p>"Even that is a violent assumption to me," remarked Miller.</p> + +<p>"So it is to me," I answered. "I can't really believe in thought +transmission, and yet— I then asked for the signature of the staff, and +a small '<i>c</i>' was written in the bar above, and another bar was added. +Now on the slates there came (with every evidence of eager haste) +intimate questions concerning Alexander's family: '<i>Is my wife cared +for?</i>' and the like. To these I replied orally. I must tell you that all +along the whisper spoke of Alexander's wife as 'Mary,' which was wrong, +although it was close to the actual name. Also, after I began<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> to speak +of him as 'E. A.' the messages were all signed in that manner, all of +which would seem to argue a little confusion in the psychic's mind.</p> + +<p>"A little later, <i>while I held the slate myself</i>, the mysterious 'force' +wrote, '<i>I thank you for what you have done. I have been told my mind is +clear</i>,' which was particularly full of meaning to me, for the reason +that my friend's mind was clouded toward the close of his life."</p> + +<p>"All of which proves nothing," insisted Miller. "Your friend, if I +conjecture rightly, was a well-known man, and the psychic could have +read, and probably did read, all about his illness in the public press."</p> + +<p>"It may be so. About this time I began to hear a faint whisper, which +<i>seemed</i> to come from a point a little to the right of and a foot or two +above the psychic's lips. This, she informed me, was the voice of 'Dr. +Cooke,' her guide. I could catch only a few of the whispered words, and +Mrs. Hartley was forced to repeat them. 'Dr. Cooke,' thus interpreted, +said: '<i>Your friend Alexander is present, and overjoyed to talk with +you.</i>' The conversation went on with both 'Dr. Cooke' and the psychic +standing between the alleged spirit and myself; but even then I must +admit that 'Alexander's' queries and answers were to the point.</p> + +<p>"Under what seemed like test conditions I got two more bars of music, +both much more definitive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> in form than the others; and these, the +whisper declared, were from the third movement of the '—— Sonata.' +This message was accompanied by a curious little device like the letter +<i>C</i> with a line drawn through it, and I said to myself: 'If this should +prove to be a mark which "Ernest" used in signing his manuscript, +something like Whistler's butterfly, I shall have a fine test of thought +transmission.'</p> + +<p>"I now secured under excellent tests the writing of a singular word, +which was plainly spelled but meant nothing to me. It looked like +'<i>Isinghere</i>.' In answer to oral questioning, the whisper said that +these bars of music were part of an unpublished manuscript, a fragment, +which the composer had meant to call 'Isinghere.'"</p> + +<p>"What about the process?" asked Miller. "Did the writing appear to be +supernormal?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and so did the whispering. I could detect no connection between +the lips of the psychic and the voice. In one way or another I varied +the conditions, so that I was at last quite convinced of the psychic's +supernormal power; but that was not my quest. I was seeking proof of the +identity of my friend 'E. A.'</p> + +<p>"Seeing that the chief means of identification might be in the music, I +persuaded my friend Blake, who is a fairly competent musician, to sit +with me and decipher the score which 'E. A.' persisted in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> setting down. +I was now eager to secure a complete phrase of the music. I saw myself +establishing, at the least, the most beautiful case of mind-tapping on +record. 'If we can secure the score of an unpublished manuscript of +Alexander's composition we shall have worked a miracle,' I said to +Blake.</p> + +<p>"Our first sitting, which took place in the home of a common friend, was +mixed as to results; but the second, which we held in Mrs. Hartley's +study one bright morning, was very fruitful. The 'powers' started in at +once as if to confound us both. Blake received a message written on a +slate under his foot, and I got the name '<i>Jessie</i>,' with the word +'<i>sister</i>' written beneath it; and then suddenly the whispers changed in +character. The words became swift, impetuous, imperious. '<i>Line off all +the leaves of a slate</i>,' the voice commanded. I understood at once, for +in the previous sitting 'E. A.' had seemingly found it difficult to draw +a long line.</p> + +<p>"We had brought some silicon slates of the book variety, and Blake now +proceeded to rule one of them with the lines of a musical staff, and on +these slates, held as before beneath the table, we began to get bars of +music of a character quite outside the knowledge of the psychic and +myself; and, more remarkable still, the whispers, so the psychic +informed us, were no longer from 'Dr. Cooke';<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> 'E. A.,' she declared, +was there in person and directing the work.</p> + +<p>"Furthermore, the requests that we now received were entirely different +in character from 'Cooke's' impersonal remarks. The whispers were quick +and masterful, wonderfully like 'Alexander' in content. 'He' was +humorous; 'he' acknowledged mistakes in the score, calling them '<i>slips +of the pen</i>.' 'He' became highly technical in his conversation with +Blake, talking of musical matters that were Greek to me and, I venture +to say, Coptic to the psychic. 'He' corrected the notations himself, +sometimes when Blake held the slate, sometimes when I held it. Part of +the time 'he' indicated the corrections orally. 'He' asked Blake to try +the air.</p> + +<p>"At last 'he' broke off, and imperiously said: '<i>Take the table to the +piano.</i>' This seemed to surprise the psychic, but she acquiesced, and we +moved the small stand and our slates down to the little parlor; and +there, with Blake now holding the slate beneath the table and now +playing the notes upon the piano, the score grew into a weird little +melody with bass accompaniment, which seemed to me at the moment exactly +like a message from my friend Alexander. The first bar went through me +like the sound of his voice."</p> + +<p>"Now you are getting into the upper air of spiritualism," exulted +Fowler. "You are now receiving a message that has dignity and meaning."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p><p>"So it seemed at the moment, both to Blake and to myself. The music was +manifestly not the kind of thing that Mrs. Hartley could conceive. It +was absolutely <i>not</i> commonplace. It was elliptical, touched with +technical subtlety, although simple in appearance. At last a complete +phrase was written out and partly harmonized. This, 'E. A.' said, was +the beginning of a little piece that he had intended to call 'Unghere' +or 'Hungarie.' Nothing in all my long experience with psychics ever +moved me like the first phrase of that sweet, sad melody. It seemed like +the touch of identification I had been seeking."</p> + +<p>"But your friend Blake was a musician," interrupted Miller. "And how +about your own subconscious self? You are musical, and your mind is +filled with your friend Alexander's music."</p> + +<p>"That is true, and I had that reservation all along. 'E. A.' may have +been made up of our combined subconscious selves; I admit all that. But +no matter; it was still very marvellous, even on its material side, for +some of this music was written in while the slates were in Blake's +entire control. At times he not merely inserted them himself but +withdrew them—the psychic merely clutched one corner of them. +Furthermore, throughout all this composition 'Ernest' was master of the +situation. 'Dr. Cooke' was superseded. There was neither feebleness nor +hesitation in the voice. I could now distinguish most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> of the words, and +the dialogue went forward exactly as if a master musician were dictating +to an intelligent amanuensis a new and subtle sketch."</p> + +<p>"Did the medium look at the music?" asked Miller.</p> + +<p>"Yes, now and then. However, most of the corrections were put in upside +down, as regards her position, and during the last sitting she appeared +to be no more than a mere on-looker. Once as we sat holding the slate +'Ernest' whispered to me: '<i>Blake is a fine fellow. I met him twice.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"'Can you tell me where?' asked Blake.</p> + +<p>"'<i>It was in New York City</i>,' was the reply; then, after a moment's +hesitation: '<i>It was at dinner—both times!</i>' 'You are right,' said +Blake, much impressed. 'Can you tell me the places?' '<i>Once was on Fifth +Avenue. The other was—I can't tell the location exactly; but it was +where we went down a short flight of steps.</i>' 'That is correct also,' +said Blake. 'How many persons were there?' '<i>Five.</i>' 'Quite right. Can +you tell me who they were?' '<i>Well, Mary was there, and you, of course; +but I can't be sure of the others.</i>'</p> + +<p>"Blake looked at me in astonishment, and our minds flashed along the +same line. Suppose the whisper were only a bit of clever ventriloquism, +how did the psychic secure the information conveyed in this dialogue? It +was given as I write it, with only a bit of hesitation once or twice; +and yet, it may have been merely thought transference."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p><p>"<i>Merely</i> thought transference!" exclaimed Miller. "I consider thought +transference quite as absurd as slate-writing."</p> + +<p>Fowler interposed. "I consider this a simple case of spirit +communication. You should be grateful for such a beautiful response."</p> + +<p>"This significant fact is not to be overlooked," I resumed: "the psychic +secured almost nothing else that concerned either Blake's affairs or my +own. Mainly the whispers had to do with 'E. A.,' which, of course, bears +out Miller's notion that the psychic could deal only with what was +public property, and yet this little colloquy about the dinners in New +York is very convincing so far as mind-reading goes.</p> + +<p>"During the third sitting, Blake again being present, 'E. A.' took +control, as before, from the start, and carried forward the recording of +the musical fragment. '<i>I want you to fill in the treble, Blake</i>,' he +said. '<i>It's nothing but the bare melody now.</i>' Blake protested: 'I'm +not up to this.' And the whisper came swiftly, '<i>You're too modest, +Blake</i>'; and a moment later it said: '<i>I hope you're not bored, +Garland.</i>' If all this was a little play of the psychic's devising it +was very clever, for after a few minutes of close attention to Blake, +'E. A.' turned toward me and asked, with anxious haste: '<i>Where's +Garland?</i>' 'I am here,' I answered. '<i>Don't go away</i>,' he entreated. It +was as if for the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>moment he had lost sight of me by reason of fixing +his attention upon Blake."</p> + +<p>"That is singular!" exclaimed Fowler. "Their field of vision is +evidently much more restricted than we thought."</p> + +<p>"It must be very small indeed, for Blake and I sat touching elbows. Two +or three times the whispering voice called, '<i>Is Garland here?</i>' and +once it asked: '<i>What is Garland doing? I see his hand moving.</i>' I +explained that I was making notes. '<i>Don't do it!</i>' was the agitated +request."</p> + +<p>"A very neat little touch," remarked Miller.</p> + +<p>"We worked for a long time over this music, directed by the voice, both +in the notation and in the execution of it. The lines were drawn for +both bass and treble lengthwise of the slate, and Blake found the little +piece difficult to play, partly because the staves were on different +leaves of the slate and partly because the notes, especially some of +those put in at the beginning by the composer, were becoming blurred. It +was marvellous to see how exactly these dim notes were touched up by the +mysterious pencil beneath the table. But our progress was slow. 'E. A.' +was very patient, though now and then he plumply opposed his will to +Blake's. Once, especially, Blake exclaimed: 'That can't be right!'</p> + +<p>"'<i>Yes, it is right!</i>' insisted 'E. A.'</p> + +<p>"'But it is very unusual to construct a measure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> in that way.' For there +was a seeming confusion of three-four time with six-eight time.</p> + +<p>"'<i>It is a liberty I permit myself</i>,' was the swift reply.</p> + +<p>"In the last bar, which did not appear to be filled satisfactorily, the +composer directed the insertion of a figure 2. This meant, as became +clear through a subsequent reference to his printed scores, the playing +of two quarter-notes in the time of three eighth notes, but was not +understood at the moment by Blake.</p> + +<p>"'<i>Never mind</i>,' said 'E. A.,' pleasantly, '<i>I will write it +differently</i>.' The figure '2' was cancelled, and the measure was +completed by a rest. This is only one of many astonishing passages in +this dialogue.</p> + +<p>"In all this work 'E. A.' carried himself like the creative master. He +held to a plane apparently far above the psychic's musical knowledge, +and often above that of his amanuensis. He was highly technical +throughout in both the composition and the playing, and Blake followed +his will, for the most part, as if the whispers came from Alexander +himself. And yet I repeat the music and all may have come from a union +of Blake's mind with that of the psychic, with now and then a mixture of +my own subconscious self."</p> + +<p>"What was the psychic doing all this time?" asked Miller.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p><p>"She was listening to the voice and repeating the words which Blake +could not hear. She seemed merely the somewhat bored interpreter of +words which she did not fully understand. It was precisely as if she +were catching by wireless telephone the whispered instructions of my +friend 'E. A.' I can't believe she consciously deceived us, but it is +possible that these ventriloquistic voices have become a subconscious +habit.</p> + +<p>"One other very curious event I must note. Once, when Blake was asking +for a correction, the whisper exclaimed: '<i>I can't see it, Blake!</i>'</p> + +<p>"'<i>Cover it with your hand</i>,' interjected the 'control.' Blake did so, +and 'E. A.' spoke, gratefully: '<i>I see it now.</i>"</p> + +<p>"Seeing cannot mean the same with them that it does with us," exclaimed +Fowler. "You remember Crookes put his finger on the print of a newspaper +behind his back, and the 'spirit' spoke the word that was under his +finger-tip. They apprehend by means of some form of etheric vibration +not known to us."</p> + +<p>I resumed: "Let me stop here for a moment to emphasize a very curious +contradiction. Between my first séance with Mrs. Hartley and this, our +third attempt to secure the music, I had held two sittings in the home +of a friend. Mrs. Hartley had come to the house about ten o'clock in the +morning, bringing nothing with her except a few tips of soft<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> +slate-pencil. During the sitting I had secured in the middle of a manila +pad (a pad which the psychic had never seen and which I had taken from +my friend's desk) these words: '<i>Have Schumann.—E. A.</i>' This writing I +had taken to mean that 'Ernest' wanted to hear some of Schumann's music, +and in that understanding I had called Blake in to play. This had seemed +at the moment perfectly conclusive and entirely satisfactory; yet now, +in this final sitting, 'E. A.' suddenly reverted to this message, and +whispered: '<i>Garland, there is a certain étude which I took to Schumann. +I want you to regain it and take it to Smart. Mary will know about it. I +meant to take it away, but did I? I was so badly off mentally that I +don't know whether I did or not.</i>' Whereupon Blake said: 'Do you mean +Schumann the publisher?' '<i>Yes</i>,' 'E. A.' replied; and I said: 'And you +want the manuscript recalled from Schumann and given to Smart?' '<i>Yes</i>,' +was his very definite answer.</p> + +<p>"'Very well, I will attend to it,' I replied. 'What do you want done +with this fragment, "Isinghere"?' I pursued. 'Shall I publish it?' +'<i>That is what it is for</i>,' he answered, curtly.</p> + +<p>"'How many bars are in it?' asked Blake. 'Forty?' '<i>More</i>,' returned the +whisper.</p> + +<p>"Blake made the mistake of again suggesting an answer. 'As many as +sixty?'</p> + +<p>"'<i>Yes, sixty or seventy</i>,' was the answer, like an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> echo. Here Blake's +thought governed, but it was evident that the psychic had no clear +conception of what this reference to Schumann meant in the first +instance, for 'E. A.' was unable to complete his sentence, which should +have read: '<i>Have Schumann return a certain étude which I took.—E. A.</i>' +Furthermore, the psychic evidently believed in the truth of the message +or she would not have gone into it with such particularity; she would +have been lacking in caution to have given me such definite and detailed +information, knowing that it was all false.</p> + +<p>"So far as my own mind is concerned, I had no knowledge of such a music +publisher as Schumann. Smart I had met. Blake, however, knew of both +firms. The entire message and the method of its communication were +deeply exciting at the time, and completed what seemed like a highly +intellectual test of identity, and we both left the house of the psychic +with a feeling of having been very near to our dead friend.</p> + +<p>"'To identify one of these bars of music would be a good test,' said +Blake, 'but to find that <i>étude</i> at Schumann's would be a triumph.'</p> + +<p>"'To find the manuscript fragment would be still more convincing,' was +my answer.</p> + +<p>"Imagine my disappointment when, in answer to my inquiry, Schumann +replied that no such <i>étude</i> had ever been in his hands, and Alexander's +family<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> reported that no fragment called 'Unghere' could be found among +the composer's manuscripts."</p> + +<p>Fowler shared my regret. "What about the other messages? Were they all +disappointing?"</p> + +<p>"No; some of them were not. The most intimate were true; and a signature +which came on the slate under test conditions, and which I valued very +little at the moment, turned out to be almost the exact duplicate of +Alexander's signature as he used to write it when a youth twenty years +ago. As a matter of fact, it closely resembled the signature appended to +a framed letter which used to hang upon the wall of his study. But, even +so, its reproduction under these conditions is sufficiently puzzling."</p> + +<p>"What was Blake's conclusion? Did he put the same value upon it all that +you did?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think he was quite as deeply impressed as I. He said the music +seemed like Alexander's music, somehow distorted by the medium through +which it came. 'It was like seeing Alexander through a pane of crinkly +glass,' he put it. And he added: 'I had the sense of being in +long-distance contact with the composer himself.' He had no doubt of the +supernormal means through which our writing came, but he remains +doubtful of the value of the music as evidence of 'Ernest's' return from +the world of shadows."</p> + +<p>"Have you tried to secure more of the music?" Fowler asked.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span></p><p>"No, not specifically; but I've had one further inconclusive sitting +since then with Mrs. Hartley. Almost immediately 'Ernest' whispered a +greeting and said: '<i>I want to go on with that music, Garland. I want to +put B and D and A into the first bar—it's only a bare sketch as it +stands.</i>'</p> + +<p>"To this I replied: 'I can't do it, 'Ernest.' It's beyond me. Wait till +I can get Blake again.'</p> + +<p>"This ended his attempt, although he was 'terribly anxious,' so the +psychic said. I am going to try for the completion of this score through +another psychic. If I can get that eighth bar taken up and carried on by +'Ernest' through another psychic the case will become complicated.</p> + +<p>"I have gone into detail in my account of this experiment, for the +reason that it illustrates very aptly the inextricable tangle of truth +and error which most 'spirit communications' present. It typifies in +little the elusive problem of spirit identification which many a veteran +investigator is still at work upon, after years of study. Maxwell gives +a case of long-continued unintentional and unconscious deception of the +general kind which went far to prevent his acceptance of the spirit +hypothesis."</p> + +<p>"I don't think the failure to find the musical fragment invalidates this +beautiful communication," declared Fowler. "You admit that many of the +messages were to the point, and that some of them were very intimate and +personal."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p><p>"Yes, speaking generally, I would say that 'E. A.' might have uttered +all the words and dictated all the messages except those that related to +the publishing matter; but there is the final test. Schumann declares +that no such manuscript has ever been in his hands."</p> + +<p>"He may be mistaken, or 'E. A.' may have misspoken himself—for, as +William James infers, the spirits find themselves tremendously hampered +in their attempts to manifest themselves. Furthermore, you say you could +not hear all that 'E. A.' spoke—you or the psychic may have +misunderstood him. In any case, it all seems to me a fine attempt at +identification."</p> + +<p>"I wish I could put the same value on it now that I did when Blake +played the first bar of that thrilling little melody; but I can't. As it +recedes it loses its power over me."</p> + +<p>"What did Alexander's family think of the music?"</p> + +<p>"They thought it more like a Cheyenne or Omaha love-song than like a +melody of 'Ernest's' own composition."</p> + +<p>"But that only adds to the mystery of the mental process," objected +Miller. "That supposes it to have come out of your mind."</p> + +<p>"I can't believe that I had any hand in the musical part of it, and I +can't persuade myself that my dead friend was present."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span></p><p>"Suppose you had been able to find that musical fragment, would it have +converted you?" This was Miller's challenge.</p> + +<p>"No, for even then some living person might have known of it—must have +known of it; and if a knowledge of it lay in some other mind, no matter +where and no matter how deeply buried in the subconscious, that +knowledge, according to Myers and Hudson, would have been accessible to +the supernormal perception of the psychic."</p> + +<p>Fowler interrogated me: "But suppose a phantom form resembling 'E. A.' +had <i>spoken</i> these things to you face to face—what then?"</p> + +<p>"I would not have believed, even then."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Well, for one reason, belief is not a matter of the will; it is not +even dependent upon evidence."</p> + +<p>Miller interrupted me. "I am interested in the writing. How do you +account for the writing? As I understand it, the psychic did not, in +some instances, touch the slate while the writing was going on. Are you +sure of Blake?"</p> + +<p>"Blake is as much to be trusted as I am. No, I am forced to a practical +acceptance of the theory of the fluidic arm, and yet this is a most +astounding admission. We must suppose that the psychic was able to read +our minds and write down our mingled and confused musical conceptions by +means of a supernumerary hand. It happens that I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> since seen these +etheric hands in action, which makes it easier for me to conceive of +such a process. I have seen them dart forth from another medium +precisely as described by Scarpa. I have seen them lift a glass of +water, and I have had them touch my knees beneath a table while +slate-writing was going on—so that, given the power to read my mind, +there is nothing impossible (having regard to Bottazzi's definite +experiments) in the idea of the etheric hand's setting down the music +and reproducing the signature of 'E. A.' In fact, at a recent sitting in +a private house with a young male psychic, we had this precise feat +performed. Said the psychic to our host, Dr. Towne, 'Think hard of a +signature that is very familiar to you,' and Dr. Towne fixed his mind +upon the signature of his brother, and immediately, while the young +man's material hands were controlled, his etheric hand seized a pencil +in the middle of the table and reproduced the signature."</p> + +<p>"Could you see this hand?" Miller asked.</p> + +<p>"Not in this case; but at a sitting which followed this, during such +time as I sat beside the psychic and controlled one hand, I plainly saw +the supernumerary arm and hand dart forth and seize a pencil. I saw a +hand very plainly cross my knee and grasp me by the forearm. All of this +has its bearing upon this very curious phenomenon of the reproduction of +'E. A's.' youthful signature, which remained very puzzling to us all."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p><p>"But did you not say that 'E. A.' at times represented an opposing +will?" questioned Fowler—"that he disputed certain passages with Blake, +and that he finally carried his point in opposition to every mind in the +circle?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that happened several times, and was all very convincing at the +time. And yet this opposition may have been more apparent than real. It +may have concerned our conscious wills only; our subconscious selves may +have been in accord, working together as one."</p> + +<p>Fowler was a bit irritated. "If you are disposed to make the +subconscious will all-powerful and omniscient, nothing can be proved. It +seems to me an evasion. However, let me ask how you would explain away a +spirit form carrying the voice, the features, and the musical genius of +'E. A.'?"</p> + +<p>"Well, there is the teleplastic theory of Albert de Rochas. He claims to +have been able not merely to cause a hypnotized subject to exteriorize +her astral self, but to mould this vapory substance as a sculptor models +wax. So I can imagine that a momentary radiant apparition might have +been created in the image of my sister or 'David' or 'E. A.'"</p> + +<p>"To my thinking, that is more complicated and incredible than the spirit +hypothesis," objected Fowler.</p> + +<p>"Nothing can be more incredible to me than the spirit hypothesis," I +replied. "But, then, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>everything is incredible in the last analysis. I +am the more disposed to believe in the teleplastic theory, for the +reason that I have recently had an opportunity to witness a particularly +incredible thing: the materialization of a complete human form outside +the cabinet and beside the psychic—a phenomenon which has a special +bearing upon the matter of identity which we are discussing. The sitting +took place in a small private house here in the city. The psychic in the +case was a young business man who is careful not to advertise his power. +For four years he has been holding secret developing circles whereto a +few of his friends only are invited. I was present last Sunday, and +shared in the marvels. The place of the séance was the parlor of his +apartment, his young wife and little daughter being present. There was, +in addition, an elderly lady, mother-in-law of the psychic, and a Polish +student whom I will call Jacob. I am quite sure that no one else entered +or left the room during the evening. Mrs. Pratt, the mother-in-law, +occupied a seat between me and Jacob. The little girl sat at the window, +and was under my eye all the time. The wife spent most of the evening at +the piano on my right. The room was fairly dark, though the light of a +far-away street lamp shone in at the window.</p> + +<p>"The psychic retired into a little alcove bedroom, which served as +cabinet, and the curtain had hardly fallen between him and our group +when the spirit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> voices began. The first one to speak was 'Evan,' the +'guide,' and I remarked that his voice was precisely like a falsetto +disguise of the psychic's own.</p> + +<p>"Soon 'Evan' and other spirits appeared at the opening of the curtain. +The wife called them each by name, but I could see only certain curious +fluctuating, cloud-like forms, like puffs of fire-lit steam. The effect +was not that of illuminated gauze, but more like illuminated vapor. At +length came one that spoke in a deep voice, using a foreign language. +Jacob, the young Pole, sprang up in joyous excitement, saying that he +had sat many times in this little circle, but that this was the first +time a spirit had spoken to him in his own tongue. As they conversed +together, I detected a close similarity of accent and of tone in their +speech. It certainly sounded like the Polish language, but I could not +rid myself of the impression that the Pole was talking to himself."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by that?"</p> + +<p>"I mean that the accent, inflection, and quality of the ghost's voice +were identical with that of the living man, and this became still more +striking when, a little later, Jacob returned to his seat, and the +'Count,' his visitor, called for the Polish national hymn. Jacob then +sang, and the phantom sang with him. Now this seemed like a clear case +of identification, and was perfectly satisfactory to Jacob, but I had +observed this fact: the Pole was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> an indifferent singer—having hard +work to keep the key—and the 'Count' was troubled in the same way. His +deep, almost toneless, singing struck me as a dead, flat, wooden echo of +Jacob's voice. In short, it was as if the psychic had built up a +personality partly out of himself, but mainly out of his Polish sitter, +and as if this etheric duplication were singing in unison with its +progenitor."</p> + +<p>"What nonsense!" exclaimed Fowler.</p> + +<p>"Did he manufacture a double out of you?" queried Miller.</p> + +<p>"No one spoke to me from the shadow, except the 'guide,' although I was +hoping for some new word from 'Ernest,' and kept him uppermost in my +mind. A form came out into the centre of the room, which the wife said +was 'Evan,' and requested me to shake his hand. This I did. The hand +felt as if it were covered with some gauzy veiling. My belief is that it +was the psychic himself who stood before me, probably in trance. I could +see nothing, however. I do not remember that I could detect any shadow +even; but the hand was real, and the voice and manner of speech were +precisely those of the psychic himself."</p> + +<p>"I repeat that this does not necessarily imply fraud, for the mind and +vocal organs of the psychic are often used in that way," Fowler argued.</p> + +<p>"I grant that. Up to this point I had been able to see nothing but dim +outlines. But toward the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> end of the evening the psychic advanced from +the cabinet and in a dazed way ordered the lamp to be lit. This was +done. He then asked that it be turned low. This was also done. +Thereupon, directing his gaze toward the curtain, he called twice in a +tone of command, '<i>Come out!</i>'</p> + +<p>"I could place every one in the room at the moment. I could see the +psychic distinctly. I could discern the color of his coat and the +expression of his face. He stood at least six feet from the opening in +the curtain. At his second cry, in which I detected a note of entreaty, +I saw a luminous form, taller than himself, suddenly appear before the +curtain and stand bowing in silence. I could perceive neither face, +eyes, nor feet, but I could make out the arms under the shining robe, +the shape of the head and the shoulders, and as he bowed I could see the +bending of his neck. It certainly was not a clothes-horse. The covering +was not so much a robe as a swathing, and we had time to discuss it +briefly.</p> + +<p>"However, my eyes were mainly busy with the psychic, whose actions +impressed me deeply. He had the air of an anxious man undergoing a +dangerous ordeal. His right hand was stretched stiffly toward the +phantom, his left was held near his heart; his knees seemed to tremble, +and his body appeared to be irresistibly drawn toward the cabinet. +Slowly, watchfully, fearfully, he approached the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>phantom. The figure +turned toward him, and a moment later they met—they clung together, +they appeared to coalesce, and the psychic fell through the curtain to +the floor of the cabinet, like a man smitten with death."</p> + +<p>"What do you wish to imply?" asked Miller. "Do you mean that the man and +the ghost were united in some way?"</p> + +<p>"Precisely so. The 'spirit' seemed drawn by some magnetic force toward +the psychic, and the psychic seemed under an immense strain to keep the +apparition exterior to himself. When they met the spectre vanished, and +the psychic's fall seemed inevitable—a collapse from utter exhaustion. +I was at the moment convinced that I had seen a vaporous entity born of +the medium. It seemed a clear case of projection of the astral body. In +the pause which followed the psychic's fall the young wife turned to me +and said: 'Sometimes, if my husband does not reach the spirit form in +time, he falls <i>outside</i> the curtain.' She did not seem especially +alarmed.</p> + +<p>"The young psychic himself, however, told me afterward that he was +undergoing a tremendous strain as he stood there commanding the spirit +to appear. 'I had a fierce pain in the centre of my forehead,' he said. +'I couldn't get my breath. I felt as if all my substance, my strength, +was being drawn out of me. My legs seemed about to give<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> way. It is +always hard to produce a form so far away from me when I am on the +outside of the cabinet in the light. The greater the distance, the +greater the strain.' I asked him what happened when he and the form +rushed together, and he answered: 'As soon as I touched it, it +re-entered my body.'"<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>"I wonder why the spirits are always clothed in that luminous gauze?" +queried Miller.</p> + +<p>"They are not," replied Fowler. "More often they come in the clothing +which was their habitual wear."</p> + +<p>"I asked this young psychic if drapery were used out of respect to us +mortals, and he replied: 'No; the forms are swathed not from sense of +propriety so much as to protect the body, which is often incomplete at +the extremities.' The wife and Jacob told me that at one of their +meetings a naked Hercules suddenly appeared before the curtain. The Pole +declared: 'He was of giant size and strength. I felt of his muscles (he +was clothed only in a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>loincloth), and I closely studied his tremendous +arms and shoulders. The medium, as you know, is a small, thin man. We +called this figure "the man from Mars." He was at least six feet high, +and strong as a lion. He rushed back into the cabinet, and came out +holding the medium above his head on his upraised palms. It was very +wonderful.'"</p> + +<p>"You didn't see anything like that, did you?" asked Miller.</p> + +<p>"No," I replied; "but I did see the development of a figure apparently +from the floor between me and the curtain of the cabinet. My attention +was called to something wavering, shimmering, and fluctuating about a +foot above the carpet. It was neither steam nor flame. It seemed +compounded of both luminous vapor and puffing clouds of drapery. It rose +and fell in quivering impulses, expanding and contracting, but +continuing to grow until at last it towered to the height of a tall man, +and I could dimly discern, through dark draperies edged with light, a +man's figure.</p> + +<p>"'This,' the young wife said, 'is Judge White, the grandfather of the +psychic,' and she conversed with him, but only for a few moments. He +soon dwindled and faded and melted away in the same fashion as he had +come, recalling to my mind Richet's description of the birth and +disappearance of 'B. B.,' in Algiers. I know this sounds like the +veriest dreaming, but you must remember that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>materializations much more +wonderful have been seen and analyzed in the clinical laboratories of +Turin and Naples. Morselli, Bottazzi, Lombroso, Porro, and Foà have been +confronted by similar apparitions. They saw 'sinister' faces, and were +repelled by 'Satanic hands agile and prompt' in cabinets of their own +construction, surrounded by their own registering machinery, and Richet +photographed just such figures as this I have described.</p> + +<p>"The question with me is not, Do these forms exist? but, What produces +them? I am describing this sitting to explain what I mean by the +ideoplastic or teleplastic theory. If, for example, this psychic had +known me well enough to have had a very definite picture of 'E. A.,' he +might have been able to model from the mind-stuff that he or the circle +had thrown off, a luminous image of my friend, and, aided by my +subconscious self, might have united the presence and the musical +thought of Ernest Alexander."</p> + +<p>"It won't do!" exclaimed Miller. "It's all too destructive, too +preposterous!"</p> + +<p>"I insist that the spirit hypothesis is simpler," repeated Fowler.</p> + +<p>"It isn't a question of simplicity," I retorted. "It's a question of +fact. If the observations of scientific experimentalists are of any +value, the teleplastic theory is on the point of winning acceptance."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span></p><p>"I will not admit that," rejoined Fowler. "For, even if you throw out +all the enormous mass of evidence accumulated by spiritistic +investigators, you still have the conversion of Wallace, Lodge, and +Lombroso, not to speak of De Vesme, Venzano, and other well-known men of +science, to account for. Even Crookes himself admits that nothing but +some form of spirit hypothesis is capable of explaining <i>all</i> the +phenomena; and in a recent issue of the <i>Annals of Psychic Science</i> +Lombroso writes a paper making several very strong points against the +biologic theory. One of these is the simultaneous occurrence of +phenomena. 'Can the subconscious self act in several places at once?' he +asks. A second objection lies in the fact that movements occur in +opposition to the will of the psychic—as, for example, when Eusapia was +transported in her chair. 'Can a man lift himself by his boot-straps?' +is the question. 'The centre of gravity of a body cannot be altered in +space unless acted upon by an external force. Therefore, the phenomena +of levitation cannot be considered to be produced by energy emanating +from the medium.'"</p> + +<p>"I don't think that follows," I argued. "Force may be exerted +unconsciously and invisibly. Because the psychic does not <i>consciously</i> +will to do a certain thing is no proof that the action does not +originate in the deeps of her personality. We know very little of this +obscure region of our minds."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p><p>Fowler was ready with his answer: "But let us take the case that +Lombroso cites of the beautiful woman spirit whose hand twice dashed the +photographic plates from the grasp of those who wished to secure her +picture. Here was plainly an opposing will, for the psychic was lending +herself to the experiment, and the spectators were eager for its +success. Notwithstanding which co-operation this phantom bitterly +opposed the wishes of every one present, and it was <i>afterward</i> learned +that there was a special reason why she did not wish to leave positive +proofs of her identity. 'It is evident, therefore,' concludes Lombroso, +'that a third will can intervene in spiritistic phenomena.'</p> + +<p>"Furthermore, Dr. Venzano, as well as De Vesme, have taken up the same +body of facts upon which Foà and Morselli base their theory, and arrive +at a totally different conclusion. They call attention to a dozen events +that can be explained only on the theory of discarnate intelligences. +Venzano observed that the forms occurred in several places at once, that +they appeared in many shapes and many guises. Some were like children, +some had curly hair, some had beards. In one case identification was +made by introducing the finger of one of the sitters within the phantom +mouth to prove the loss of a molar tooth. Sometimes the hair of these +heads was plaited like that of a girl. Some of the hands were large and +black, others fair and pink<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>—like a child's. In short, he argues that +the medium could not have determined the size, shape, or color of the +phantoms."</p> + +<p>"All that does not really militate against the ideoplastic theory," I +retorted. "It is as easy to produce a phantom with hair plaited as it is +to produce one with hair in curls. If it is a case of the modelling of +the etheric vapor by the mind of the psychic, these differences would be +produced naturally enough. The forcible handling of the medium by the +invisible ones is a much more difficult thing for me to explain, for to +imagine the psychic emitting a form of force which afterward proceeds to +raise the psychic herself against her will—as Mrs. Smiley testifies +happened again and again in her youth—is to do violence to all that we +know of natural law. And yet it may be that the etheric double is able +to take on part of the forces resident in the circle of sitters, and so +become immensely more potent than the psychic himself, as in the case of +the 'Man from Mars'—the Hercules I have just been telling you about. +Then, as to the content of these messages, they may be impulses, hints, +fragments of sentences caught from the air as one wireless operator +intercepts communications meant for other stations than his own. So that +my interview with 'E. A.' may have been a compounding of the psychic, +Blake, and myself, and fugitive natures afloat in the ether. In fact, I +am not as near a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>belief in the return of the dead as I was when I began +this last series of experiments. These Italian scientific observers, I +confess, have profoundly affected my thought."</p> + +<p>"Your idea is, then," said Miller, "that these apparitions are +emanations of the medium's physical substance, moulded by his will and +colored by the minds of his sitters?"</p> + +<p>"That is the up-to-date theory, and everything that I have experienced +seems capable of a biologic interpretation against it."</p> + +<p>Fowler hastened to weaken the force of this statement. "Spiritists all +admit that the forms of spirits are made up—partly, at least—of the +psychic's material self, but that does not prove that the mind of the +ghost is not a separate entity from that of the psychic. I grant that +the only difference between the psycho-dynamic theory and the +spiritualistic theory lies in the question of the origin of the +intelligences that direct the manifestation. Foà would say they spring +from the subconscious self of the psychic. We say they come from the +spirit world, and there we stand."</p> + +<p>Miller's words were keen and without emotion. "Until all phenomena are +explained there will be obscure happenings and things to be explained by +some one who can, but it is no final explanation to say 'a man did it' +or 'an intelligence did it.' I have often been told that things cannot +move in certain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> ways or certain things cannot be done except by +intelligent action or guidance, but it may be remembered that Kepler +thought guiding spirits were needful for making the planets move in +their elliptical orbits."</p> + +<p>"Your scientists are feeding millions of people stones," exclaimed +Fowler. "They ask for bread, and you give them slices of granite."</p> + +<p>"Better granite than slime," said Miller. "I am with the biologists in +this campaign. Let us have the truth, no matter how unpalatable it may +be. If these phenomena exist, they are in the domain of natural law and +can be weighed and measured. If they are imaginary, they should be swept +away, like other dreams of superstition and ignorance."</p> + +<p>Fowler was not to be silenced. "I predict that you and your like will +yet be forced, like Lombroso, to take your place with Aksakof, Lodge, +Wallace, Du Prel, and Crookes, who have come to admit the intervention +of discarnate intelligences. Lombroso says, 'We find, as I already +foresaw some years ago, that these materialized bodies belong to the +radiant state of matter, which has now a sure foothold in science. This +is the only hypothesis that can reconcile the ancient and universal +belief in the persistence of some manifestation of life after death with +the results of science.' He adds: 'These beings, or remnants of beings, +would not be able to obtain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> complete consistency to incarnate +themselves, if they did not temporarily borrow a part of the medium. +<i>But to borrow force from the medium is not the same thing as to be +identical with the medium.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, "of this I am certain: we cannot afford to ignore such +experiments as those of Morselli and Bottazzi. I am aware that many +investigators discountenance such experiments, but I believe with +Venzano that the physical phenomena of mediumship cannot be, and ought +not to be, considered trivial. It was the spasmodic movement of a +decapitated frog that resulted in the discovery of the Voltaic Pile. +Furthermore, I intend to try every other conceivable hypothesis before +accepting that of the spiritists."</p> + +<p>"What is your reason for that?" asked Fowler.</p> + +<p>"Because I am a scientist in my sympathies. I believe in the methods of +the chemist and the electrician. I prefer the experimenter to the +theorist. I like the calm, clear, concise statements of these European +savans, who approach the subject, not as bereaved persons, but as +biologists. I am ready to go wherever science leads, and I should be +very glad to <i>know</i> that our life here is but a link in the chain of +existence. Others may have more convincing knowledge than I, but at this +present moment the weight of evidence seems to me to be on the side of +the theory that mediumship is, after all, a question of unexplored human +biology."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p><p>"I don't see it that way," rejoined Fowler, calmly. "Suppose your +biologists prove that the psychic can put forth a supernumerary arm, or +maintain, for a short time, a complete double of herself. Would that +necessarily make the spiritist theory untenable? Is it not fair to +conclude that if the soul or 'astral' or 'etheric double' can act +outside the living body, it can live and think and manifest after the +dissolution of its material shell? Does not the experimental work of +Bottazzi, Morselli, and De Rochas all make for a spiritual +interpretation of life rather than for the position of the materialist? +I consider that they have strengthened rather than weakened the mystic +side of the universe. They are bringing the wonder of the world back to +the positivist. Let them go on. They will yet demonstrate, in spite of +themselves, the immortality of the soul."</p> + +<p>"I hope they will," I replied. "It would be glorious at this time, when +tradition begins to fail of power, to have a demonstration of +immortality come through the methods of experimental science. Certainly +I would welcome a physical proof that my mother still thinks and lives, +and that Ernest and other of my dearest friends are at work on other +planes and surrounded by other conditions, no matter how different from +the conventional idea of paradise these environments might be; but the +proof must be ample and very definite."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p><p>Miller put in a last word of warning: "Because a phenomenon has not +been explained, and no one knows how to explain it, is no reason for +supposing there is anything extraphysical about it. No one has explained +the first cause of the development of an embryo. No one knows what goes +on in an active nerve, or why atoms are selective in their associates. +Ignorance is not a proper basis for speculation, and if one must have a +theory, let it be one having some obvious continuity with our best +physical knowledge."</p> + +<p>And at that point our argument rested. We separated, and each went his +way, to be met by questions of business and politics, and to be once +more blended to the all-enveloping mystery of life.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Since this conversation I have had a letter from another +well-authenticated psychic, a man making his living by honest labor as a +carpenter, who gives very definitely his experience on emitting an +etheric double. He says: "One evening, while sitting at the table, I +began to feel as if I were swelling up. My thumb felt as big as my arm, +and my arm as big as my leg. While I was perfectly aware that I was at +the dinner-table, I also felt myself in the hall trying to enter the +dining-room. I found the knob, I opened the door. The others saw me +traverse the room toward myself. My dual body came close beside me and +vanished with a snap."</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="ADDENDUM" id="ADDENDUM"></a>ADDENDUM</h2> + +<blockquote><p>A CORROBORATIVE AND TECHNICAL ACCOUNT OF PSYCHICAL PHENOMENA, +INVOLVING THE PRODUCTION OF A MUSICAL SCORE ON A SLATE, SECURED BY +"BLAKE."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p></blockquote> + +<p>This record was secured during three sittings, which took place on the +forenoon and afternoon of Friday, March 13th, and on the forenoon of +Saturday, March 14, 1908. These sittings were held in a dwelling-house +on a quiet street of ordinary character. They began in a second-story +front room, and were transferred to a parlor just below, where there was +a piano. The room, in either case, was fairly light; now and then the +window-shades were lowered, but reading and writing were easy at all +times. Three persons were present: the psychic, a robust, alert, +intelligent woman of thirty-five; Hamlin Garland; and the writer, who +combined the functions of amanuensis and editor.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p><p>The psychic was not in a trance, and stated that she had never gone +into one. She conversed throughout in ordinary voice and manner, save +when, with a certain emphasis, she undertook to hasten the pace of her +lagging "controls." The three sittings were attended by little noise, +pounding, or violence; there was no breaking or crumpling up of slates, +as had been the case during an earlier sitting on Thursday.</p> + +<p>The psychic's principal "control"—to be known here as "Dr. +Cooke"—spoke in whispers, and his words were repeated aloud by the +psychic herself. These whisperings were only occasionally audible to the +writer, but they were plainly heard by Mr. Garland. It may be added that +on at least two occasions, however, the writer heard and understood +replies which the psychic declared had not been audible to her. During +the latter portion of these sittings, especially that of Saturday, the +"control" seemed to withdraw altogether, and for two or three hours the +circle was in apparent communication—direct, rapid, uninterrupted—with +an intelligence that may conveniently be termed the "Composer."</p> + +<p>The paraphernalia for these sittings comprised the following:</p> + +<p>1. A small, light, walnut centre-table, which Mr. Garland himself had +assisted in repairing before the proceedings began.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p><p>2. A silicon book-slate, eight inches by five inches. There were six +pages—the insides of the covers and a double leaf. These leaves lay +close and flat, like those of a book.</p> + +<p>3. A few bits of slate-pencil, from one-quarter of an inch to +three-eighths of an inch in length; also a longer slate-pencil used by +the writer.</p> + +<p>4. A small writing-pad and lead-pencil, for general memoranda and +notations.</p> + +<p>5. Certain fruits and flowers, such as roses, sweet-peas, pineapples, +and grape-fruit. These met the psychic's needs or fancies, and were +brought into close relation with pad or slate when the "forces" seemed +inclined to weaken.</p> + +<p>6. The piano.</p> + +<p>Shortly after the opening of the Friday-morning sitting the Composer +requested that the whole slate be ruled with staves for writing music. +Throughout the preceding Wednesday and Thursday attempts at the writing +of music had been of constant occurrence; they had come on slates, on +writing-pads, and on the leaves of closed books. These bits of musical +notation had been very fragmentary and obscure; often they had consisted +of less than half a dozen notes placed upon staves consisting of but +three or four lines, instead of five. The most successful of these +earlier efforts had been produced on a double school-slate, with a +wooden, list-bound frame: two measures on a treble staff<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> had been +sprinkled with vague indications of musical script. No attempts had yet +been made to bring even the best of these various writings to order and +intelligibility. We were soon to learn that a scrap of music set down +within three or four minutes was to require as many hours for revision, +emendation, elucidation—for editing, in brief. It is but fair, however, +to state that some of this time was taken up by the registering of +irrelevant messages from other quarters and by digressions toward the +Composer's own private concerns.</p> + +<p>The staff drawn on the wooden-framed slate had been ruled crosswise. The +Composer now directed that the new staves to be drawn on the silicon +slate should run lengthwise and should cover every page of it. This was +done by the editor. Provision was asked for seven measures, to which an +eighth was added later.</p> + +<p>During the three minutes or so required for writing on the six pages of +the slate, the position of the slate, in reference to the editor, was as +follows: After considerable moving about beneath the top of the table, +during which time it was principally in the hands of the psychic, it +approached the writer and remained with him. The under cover of the +slate (with a bit of slate-pencil tightly enclosed) rested on his knee; +the upper cover was pressed against the frame of the table. The editor's +thumb rested rather lightly on the middle of the nearer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> half of the +upper cover, and his fingers assisted in supporting the nearer half of +the under cover. The psychic herself had surrendered the control of the +slate to the editor, and could have had no contact with it beyond +touching the edge farthest from him. On the second day, Saturday, during +which the bass for the last four measures was produced, the slate was in +the exclusive control of the editor, the psychic not touching it at all. +The progress of the musical writing was both felt and heard; it was a +combination of light and rapid scratching, pecking, and twitching, with +an occasional slight waving motion up and down.</p> + +<p>The score, as first revealed, consisted of open-headed notes with curved +stems. They gave no indications of varying values; it was impossible to +distinguish quarter-notes from eighth-notes, sixteenth-notes, or +grace-notes; and no rests were set down. The notes were placed but +approximately as regarded lines and spaces. No stems, save in one or two +instances, united the chords, the notes of which were written more or +less above one another, yet detached. A few unsatisfactory attempts were +made by the Composer to place the bars. These were mostly put in by the +editor—sometimes by the direction or with the acquiescence of the +Composer—and, when they were drawn in advance of the writing, their +presence was always properly observed.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span></p><p>As the revision became more close and careful, the Composer directed +that the work be continued down-stairs beside the piano. Here every bar +of the treble was played separately as soon as edited, to be pronounced +satisfactory by the Composer, or to be modified under his direction. The +treble, on its completion—eight measures—was then played over in its +entirety and pronounced by the Composer to be correct. (He made one or +two further emendations, however, on the following day.) The eight bars +of the bass were gone over in the same fashion. The attempt to play the +entire composition, treble and bass, was not satisfactory, partly owing +to mechanical difficulties occasioned by the distribution of the matter +on the slate and the multiplicity of corrections, and partly from lack +of skill in the performer. However, two or three very brief passages +were given by both hands and pronounced correct by the Composer, who +showed surprise that anything so "<i>simple</i>"—as he characterized +it—should give so much trouble. In one instance he noted that, while +the two parts, treble and bass, were correct separately, they were not +played in correct time together. The Composer, throughout, was most +patient, persevering, courteous, and encouraging, though toward the +end—in the closing measures of the bass—he showed some confusion and +uncertainty. "<i>Wait a moment</i>," he would say; and once the whisper +asked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> that, as an aid to sight, the editor's hand be spread over that +leaf of the slate on which work was in progress. The Composer had +thought, earlier—and so said—that a trained musician could easily +supply the bass from the melody. His amanuensis was obliged to +acknowledge frankly an inability to cope successfully with so +complicated and unusual a matter. The psychic herself, though expressing +a fondness for the opera, disclaimed any knowledge of musical notation, +and added that never before had she performed such a function as at +present.</p> + +<p>As the work of correction progressed, the Composer several times asked +for opportunity to make the changes himself; whereupon the pencil-tip +would be enclosed in the slate and satisfactory emendations be +forthcoming. In cases where corrections were made by the writer, the +Composer often watched the progress of the slate-pencil (a longer one +than that which was used between the leaves) and gave directions: "<i>Not +there</i>"; "<i>Yes, here</i>," and the like; and he would often acknowledge a +correction with a "<i>Thank you</i>," or meet a suggestion with a "<i>Yes, if +you please</i>." On these occasions the slate was some four feet distant +from the psychic, and practically out of her sight.</p> + +<p>Repeated attempts were made on both sides to get down the name of the +composition. Various related versions of the word appeared, none of them +quite satisfactory. The Composer seemed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> to acquiesce in our attempts to +relate his title to different Slavic and Italian words for "gypsy," but +no importance can be attached, of course, to such a piece of direct +suggestion.</p> + +<p>The final version of this brief but laborious score has been preserved, +and all the stages in its progress have been abundantly annotated. To +follow it through in detail, however, would be but weariness. All the +salient points in its production fall under one of three heads. There +are, first, the passages that seem to have been produced in co-operation +with the sitters. There are, second, the passages that seem to have been +produced in independence of the sitters. And there are, third, the +passages that seem to have been produced in direct opposition to the +sitters. Examples of all three classes follow; perhaps only those of the +third and last class are really important.</p> + +<p>1. The Composer in Co-operation. The piece, in three sharps, opened on +the tonic, yet the very first note in the bass was a G-sharp. The +following colloquy ensued: Editor: "Does the piece begin with the tonic +chord of A?" Composer: "<i>Yes.</i>" Editor: "Is the G-sharp, then, to be +regarded as a suspension?" Composer: "<i>Of course. That makes it right. +How could it be correct otherwise?</i>"</p> + +<p>Another example. In the second bar a note which the editor had taken for +an eighth-note was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> explained by the Composer as being a grace-note. The +editor pointed out that this left only five eighth-notes to fill a +six-eight measure. The Composer directed the insertion of an eighth-rest +at the beginning of the bar.</p> + +<p>In the fourth bar there was a partial chord, E-B—a fifth. The +Composer's attention was drawn to this blemish. He requested the +insertion of a G-sharp between, thus completing his triad.</p> + +<p>But the above examples, and others which might be related, are not +without resemblances to thought transference.</p> + +<p>2. The Composer in Independence. Under this head may be placed his +various instructions relative to tempo, expression, and the like. The +signature, three sharps, was set down by the editor, as the result of an +answer to his inquiry. But the time—six-eight—was written in (on the +editor's request) by the Composer himself. It was a distinct and +separate effort, for which the pencil was put in the slate and the slate +placed beneath the table. The time was set down before the notes +themselves were secured. The six-eight sign was clearly and neatly +written on the proper staff, in correct relation to the G-clef and to +the signature; and the two figures were also in correct relation to each +other. The word "Moderato" was written in by the Composer's direction, +without any request from the editor. Later, the words "With<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> feeling" +and the mark of expression "pp," were obtained in the same way. Ties, +grace-notes, and staccato-marks were insisted upon, here and there, with +great vigor and earnestness.</p> + +<p>Two further examples of the Composer's independence will perhaps +suffice. In the sixth measure there was a run of three eighth-notes in +the treble, exactly above a corresponding run of three eighth-notes in +the bass. In making his revision the Composer directed that each of +these three pairs of notes should be joined by stems. This took the +treble notes down to the bass, and left the last half of the treble bar +empty—a fact unnoticed by the editor and beyond the purview of the +psychic. The Composer, however, observed the hiatus, and directed the +insertion of two rests.</p> + +<p>One other instance: The bar at the end of the first measure, as +originally drawn by the Composer, cut off two notes on leger-lines and +gave them to the succeeding measure. Another little colloquy: Editor: +"Shall I draw the bar where it belongs?" Composer: "<i>Yes, if you +please.</i>" Editor: "Here?" Composer: "<i>No.</i>" Editor: "There?" Composer: +"<i>Yes. Thank you.</i>"</p> + +<p>3. The Composer in Opposition. Numerous interesting cases of +cross-purposes between the Composer and the circle developed during +these two days. A number of salient examples follow:</p> + +<p>On the first opening of the slate, the seventh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> measure of the treble +contained but two notes, which the Composer presently declared to be +quarter-notes. This left the first third of the measure vacant; and the +Composer, interrogated, directed the insertion of a quarter-rest. The +editor objected that this gave the measure a three-quarter look, instead +of the proper six-eighth look. "<i>That is a liberty I take</i>," came the +answer, like a flash.</p> + +<p>At one stage the Composer requested that a certain note should have a +"dot" added. The editor placed the dot to the right of the note, thus +lengthening its value by one-half. "<i>No, no</i>," objected the Composer; +"<i>put it on top, above the staff</i>." His intention had been, once more, +to make a note "staccato," and he had been misunderstood.</p> + +<p>The editor, in setting down the signature of sharps on the second page +of the slate, intentionally placed the last sharp a third below its +proper position. He was at once brought to book by "Dr. Cooke," the +"control." "<i>We are being fair by you, and you must be fair by us.</i>"</p> + +<p>In the eighth and last measure, which did not appear to be +satisfactorily completed, the Composer called for the insertion of a +figure 2. This meant, as became clear enough through a subsequent +reference to his published scores, that he wished two quarter-notes to +receive the value of three eighth-notes, but was not understood at the +time by his helper. "<i>Never mind</i>," said the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>Composer, graciously, "<i>I +will write it differently</i>." He cancelled the figure 2, and completed +the measure with a rest.</p> + +<p>A similar instance occurred in the fifth measure, where the Composer +called insistently for a double sharp (×). The editor ventured to +object, and the passage was tried on the piano, at the Composer's +request. The double sharp was felt by him to be unsatisfactory, and was +sacrificed. "<i>It won't make much difference, anyway</i>," was his whispered +comment.</p> + +<p>A curious point, to finish with: On the first day the editor inquired +about doubtful notes by name, as, A, C-sharp, and the like, while the +Composer indicated their position by specifying lines and spaces—as, +third space, second line, and so on. The next day, when the editor made +his inquiries on the basis of lines and spaces, the Composer oftenest +named the notes by letter.</p> + +<p>Toward the end of the last sitting, "Dr. Cooke" once again came to the +fore and hinted that the result of our endeavors might perhaps be not a +reproduction of one of the Composer's manuscripts, but of a mental +picture in the Composer's mind. The "picture," as secured by us, was +not, it must be admitted, without distortion. The Composer himself used +the word "scattered" in such a way as to imply that he had sketched out +his ideas in life on various detached bits of paper. He added<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> that a +certain member of his family "would know." The hopes raised by this +declaration have not been realized.</p> + +<p>"<i>No more music to-day</i>," whispered "Dr. Cooke"; and the sitting—the +sittings—ended.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> "Blake" is my friend Henry B. Fuller, who had never before +sat for psychic phenomena, and to whom I turned for help in securing the +musical notation.</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +</div> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHADOW WORLD***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 22593-h.txt or 22593-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/5/9/22593">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/5/9/22593</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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