My second visit to America was paid in the year of the Diamond Jubilee, 1897.
After wintering in the West Indies, I went on to America in the spring, chiefly with the view of meeting Mrs Piper for the first time, and securing a few sittings with her if possible.[5]
[5] The portion of this chapter referring to "Mrs Piper and her Controls" is published by kind permission of Mr Ralph Shirley, editor of _The Occult Review_, in which my article under this heading appeared in March 1906.
I was writing some articles for _Borderland_ at the time, and Mr Stead was specially anxious for me to take this opportunity of "sampling" the famous American sensitive.
This proved no easy task. My visit to Boston, unfortunately, occurred at the very time when an organised attempt was being made by the American branch of the Society for Psychical Research to get into some sort of evidential communication with the late Mr Stainton Moses through his "controls" _Imperator_, _Rector_, etc.
In vain I wrote to Dr Hodgson (to whom I carried letters of introduction) telling him of my chief reason for visiting America a second time. Even the plea that I had known Mr Stainton Moses in earth life, and that we had several intimate friends in common, was of no avail.
Dr Hodgson expressed regrets, but a.s.sured me that _no_ sittings could be allowed under existing circ.u.mstances, and that it was impossible to make any exception to this rule.
We seemed to have arrived at a _cul-de-sac_, when a bright idea struck me.
Why not ask the UNSEEN themselves for a decision in the matter?
I wrote again, therefore, to Dr Hodgson, suggesting this idea, and mentioning that I should arrive in Boston on a certain date, and could be found at the Hotel Bellevue in that city.
The next day but one after my arrival, and quite early in the morning, Dr Hodgson came to call upon me.
It was my first sight of that genial and delightful personality. At the very moment of shaking hands, he said cheerily, and with a look of half-rueful amus.e.m.e.nt at his own discomfiture:
"Well, you"ve got to come! They insist upon it, so there is nothing more to be said."
My preconceived ideas of a critical, elderly, and white-haired professor, taking himself very seriously, were dissipated on the spot; and this was the beginning of a sincere and loyal friendship between us which lasted for nine years on this sphere, and will last, I trust and believe, through whatever forms of existence may succeed to this one.
We made arrangements at once for my joining Dr Hodgson next morning at Arlington Heights, where my first sitting with Mrs Piper took place, and where I met for the first time this refined and interesting-looking woman.
I was told that with the advent of the Imperator and Stainton Moses"
controls, the character of Mrs Piper"s mediumship had undergone a complete change. The former communications through the voice ceased, and gave place to automatic writing, except at the moment of return to the physical body, when a chance sentence or two might be uttered during the transition period, but that these were not always intelligible to the listener.
Mrs Piper"s arm and hand became curiously "dead" and limp when unconsciousness set in; the blood departed, leaving it as white and helpless as that of a corpse. By degrees this dead look disappeared. The blood flowed once more through the veins, and as I noticed this change, the hand moved gropingly towards the pencil held out by Dr Hodgson, and finally grasped it. The latter"s long practice and infinite patience were invaluable in making out the often rather illegible script. The hospitality he gave to all attempts at definite communications, however vague and shadowy at first; the infinite patience with which he repeated again and again a question not fully comprehended--all this, combined with intelligent criticism, alert, dispa.s.sionate judgment and balance of mind, made an investigator of psychic phenomena very rarely to be met in a world where most of us evince in a marked degree "_les defauts de nos qualites_."
To combine sympathy, patience, and receptivity with cool and critical judgment is well-nigh impossible for ordinary men and women.
Dr Richard Hodgson certainly solved the problem to a very remarkable extent.
The first thing that struck me in the two sittings I had with Mrs Piper, was the hopeless breakdown of the Thought Transference Theory, as accounting for the automatic writing.
The ostensible reason for my presence at Arlington Heights was the idea entertained by the "controls" that, having known Mr Stainton Moses in earth life, I might be able to facilitate his communications. I hope this may have been the case, but if so, it was certainly not due to any power of Thought Transference I may have possessed.
Again and again I asked for names of friends we had known in common, but nearly always in vain. Even when, in despair of getting these normally, I concentrated my mind consciously on some short and easy name, the latter was not given.
Yet next day some of these names would appear spontaneously on the script, when my mind was entirely occupied by other subjects.
References were made to Mr Moses" lack of appreciation for music, and he asked whether our mutual friend Mrs Stratton still played LISZT. He also referred to his visiting the Strattons, and finding them playing duets together, in London.
On my return to town Mrs Stratton fully endorsed the fact that Mr Moses disliked music (this was unknown to me), but she denied emphatically that she and her husband ever played duets in his presence. Mr Stratton, however, corrected this impression, and reminded her of several occasions when Mr Moses had come to them from University College, found them at the piano, and being on very intimate terms, had begged they would finish the pa.s.sage or movement; and on one or two occasions this had been done.
These slight but evidential incidents, forgotten by Mrs Stratton herself, and unknown to me, were conveyed quite correctly in the automatic script through Mrs Piper--three thousand miles across the Atlantic--and nearly six years after the death of Mr Stainton Moses.
The most convincing test upon these occasions, however, was the reference to a Mrs Lane--the lady to whom Mr Moses had been engaged when he pa.s.sed away.
Very few of his friends knew of this engagement, even in England. Dr Hodgson, who had never met Stainton Moses in earth life, had naturally not heard of it. It was only by chance that I knew anything of the matter, and this merely through once meeting the lady at Mrs Stratton"s house some time after Mr Moses had died. On that occasion Mrs Lane had a young daughter with her; I knew nothing of any other members of the family.
During my second visit to Mrs Piper I mentioned meeting this lady--already a dim memory with me--and the "control" at once asked if I had met a _sister_ also.
I answered "No," remarking that a young daughter had been with her.
The writing at once continued in these words:
"Well, now I am giving you this as a test: she _has_ a sister, and one who has been the cause of the deepest sorrow of her life. You will find this is true when you go back to England."
These words were amply justified.
On applying to Mrs Stratton for information, she denied the possibility of there being any truth in the test. She said: "I have come to know Mrs Lane very intimately since you met her here. I don"t believe she has any sister; anyway, I am _quite_ sure she would have told me if a sister had caused her such sorrow as you mention."
I persevered, however, in getting at the truth of the matter by writing to Mrs Lane herself (an almost entire stranger), and asking if she cared to hear the references to herself in the Piper records; if so, would she come and lunch with me?
She came, and when I reached the pa.s.sage about the sister, expecting that she would endorse Mrs Stratton"s denial, I noticed, to my great surprise, that her eyes filled suddenly with tears, and that she was literally unable to speak through emotion.
The tears ran down her cheeks, when at length she said in a broken voice: "_That_ is the most convincing test he could have given me! No! I have never mentioned that sister, even to Mrs Stratton, kind and good as she has been" (by this time I had spoken of Mrs Stratton"s denial of the sister"s existence). "I could not speak of her to _anyone_. She was the cause of the greatest sorrow in my life; _but no one upon earth knew this except Mr Stainton Moses_. I was engaged to him at the time, and he was the natural person to turn to in my deep tribulation. No one else ever heard of the circ.u.mstances."
At this second sitting of mine Mr Stainton Moses spoke also of a valuable watch he had possessed, and expressed some regret that it had not been given to Mrs Lane at the time of his death.
I knew nothing at all about any watch of his, but on appealing to one of his executors, an old friend of mine, found there was such a watch, which had been a presentation one, and was of considerable value. Upon the death of Mr Moses it had been given (quite with the approval of Mrs Lane) to the son of a very old and esteemed friend.
This executor also told me, as a curious coincidence, that when I was staying with the excitable sensitive in Suss.e.x Gardens, mentioned in a previous chapter, and he and his wife had come to tea with me one afternoon (to be introduced to this remarkable lady), she had given him a similar message about the same watch, purporting to come from Stainton Moses.
I remember perfectly well having asked Mr and Mrs Harrington to come to tea with me one afternoon to meet my eccentric landlady, and I also remember his having a long talk with her whilst his wife and I were immersed in our own conversation. But I heard no details of this talk.
He had merely said how much interested he had been in meeting Mrs Peters, and that she evidently had some mediumistic power.
It was certainly curious that the watch should have been mentioned, first in Suss.e.x Gardens, London, and six years later in Arlington Heights, Boston, and that on each occasion the same wish with regard to it should have been expressed!
During this Arlington Heights sitting (the second one), Mr Moses also referred to an MS., of which I knew nothing at the time. This allusion also was verified by his other executor, the late Mr Alaric Watts, upon my return to England.
During this visit to America I also came across a Mr Knapton Thompson, a hard-headed Yorkshire man, who had invented a new kind of smokeless combustion stove, which must have been a good one, for our shrewd American cousins were employing him to put up these stoves in several public buildings, including the Smithsonian Inst.i.tute in Washington.
Mr Thompson combined psychic proclivities with his smokeless invention, and had become greatly interested in the New York medium, Mrs Stoddart Gray, who has been already mentioned in connection with my own investigations, twelve years previous to my present visit. He had written to tell Mr Stead of his experiences, which included several in which the Julia of "Julia"s Letters" had purported to be present.
Mr Stead had turned this gentleman over to me by giving me an introduction, accompanied by the request that "I should see the man and report what I thought about him and his wonderful experiences."
So I asked Mr Thompson to call upon me, and arranged to be present with him next day (Sat.u.r.day) at Mrs Stoddart Gray"s circle.
I found that he had taken up his abode with the medium and her son during his short stays in New York, with the openly expressed intention of finding out if there were any trickery behind the scenes. He had, however, convinced himself of her _bona fides_, and was deeply interested in the interviews he was able to obtain by means of these mediums, with a daughter he had lost some years previously. He was much pleased to find that I knew Mrs Gray already and could also testify to some very remarkable phenomena occurring to me at her house.