It was the more curious, that our first _seance_ in New York, within a few days of our arrival, and in a metropolis where at the time we were _absolute strangers_, should have been so much more successful as regards evidential experiences.
I will again quote from my diary of 1886. The medium visited on this occasion was Mrs Cadwell, who has since died.
We knew nothing beforehand of the medium, who lived in a small flat in an unfashionable quarter. Some eight people only were a.s.sembled in the extremely small room. All were perfect strangers to Miss Greenlow and me, but a fancied likeness in one lady present to a picture I had seen of Mrs Beecher Stowe led me to ask if it were she, and I was told that my surmise was correct.
There was no room for a cabinet, so a curtain was hung across a tiny alcove, just the ordinary "arch" found in most rooms of the kind.
When I went behind the curtain with the female medium, before the sitting began, there was barely s.p.a.ce for us both to turn round in. The carpet on either side the curtain was one piece. There was absolutely no room for any trap-door machinery, even could such have been worked successfully in the perfect silence in which we sat, within two feet of the alcove. The room was about the size of the small back dining-room in an ordinary London lodging--say in Oxford or Cambridge Terrace, for example.
The medium sat amongst us at first, only going behind the curtain after a few moments, when she was "under control" as it is called.
A little child of hers, who died some years ago at the age of four, is supposed to help in the materialisations, but is never seen outside the curtains. If she came out herself she would not be able to help the others to do so. I mention these things in the words in which they were told to me, offering no comment, but putting the case for the moment as spiritualists would put it. To do this, and then to give a faithful and unprejudiced account of what took place, seems to me the only fair way of treating such a subject.
I was told again and again that too much concentration of thought on the part of the audience was deterrent. This accounts for music as an invariable accompaniment of all such sittings. It seems to harmonise the circle, to break up over-concentration, and may also, unfortunately, serve to cover the doings of dishonest mediums.
It must not, however, be supposed that in this case the materialisations went on only whilst we were singing. This might point to a possible "trap-door theory," although in a city where flats abound (rooms, not human beings!) there would still be the difficulty of getting your downstairs neighbours to look kindly upon such proceedings. As a matter of fact, we were often sitting in absolute silence when fresh "spirits"
appeared.
I can corroborate the a.s.sertion that too much concentration of thought upon them proves deterrent to the spirits, for on more than one occasion I heard a voice from the curtain or cabinet saying: "Do get the people"s minds off us; we can do nothing whilst they are fixed upon us so intensely," as though _thought_ in spirit life corresponded to some physical obstacle on the earth plane.
The first spirit who came (the daughter of an old gentleman sitting near me) intimated through him that she would like me to go up and help her to materialise the white veil which all in turn wore, and which, though perfectly transparent, is considered a necessary shield between them and the earth"s influences; on the same principle, I suppose, that we put on blue spectacles to protect us from the blinding rays of the sun.
She came out from the alcove, held both her hands in front of her, turning them backward and forward that I might be satisfied that nothing was concealed in them. The soft, clinging material of her gown ended high up on the shoulders, so there were no sleeves to be reckoned with.
I stood close over her, holding out my own dress, and as she rubbed her hands to and fro a sort of white lace or net came from them, like a foam, and lay upon my gown which I was holding up towards her.
I touched this material, and held it in my hands. It had substance, but was light as gossamer, and quite unlike any stuff I ever saw in a shop.
The very softest gossamer tulle that old ladies sometimes produce as having belonged to their grandmothers is perhaps the nearest approach to what I then lifted in my hands, but even this does not accurately describe it.
When long enough she took up the veil, unfolded it, covering her head with it, and saying very graciously "Thank you" to me.
Other spirits now appeared for the other people in the room, who conversed with them in low tones.
All these had evidently materialised before and could consequently speak with comparative ease. One, called the "Angel Mother" (the mother of the medium), answered questions on the spirit life in a loud American voice, prefacing every remark, whether to man or woman, by an affectionate "Well, de-ar!" Her answers showed considerable shrewdness, but not much depth, and were often rather wide of the mark.
"Nels Seymour" (who appears to have belonged to a sort of Christy Minstrel Company over here) cracked jokes all the time with a gentleman amongst the audience in a good-natured but flippant and very unspiritual manner, and even the ladies joined in the undignified punning and "play upon words" that went on all the time.
The little child"s voice came in as a relief every now and then. She spoke broken, childish English, but used the expressions of a grown-up person. She described several spirits as "chying" (trying) to come, but not being strong enough.
I was becoming drowsy, and rather tired of the performance, when my attention was once more aroused by hearing that a very beautiful female spirit, with a diamond star in her forehead, had appeared and asked for me, saying she had been a friend of mine on earth, and wished to communicate with me.
This was conveyed to me by the little child"s voice, the spirit herself not having yet emerged from the curtain; but the medium"s husband looked behind it, and told me of the diamond star, which he said was some "order" in spirit life.
Having no idea who the friend might be, I begged for some further particulars before going up to speak to her.
"She pa.s.sed from earth life about five years ago, and in Germany,"
answered the medium"s husband, who had conducted the conversation behind the curtain.
This was less vague, and now for the first time a suspicion of the spirit"s ident.i.ty crossed my mind; but I would not go up until a name had been given, and I asked for this before leaving my seat.
My travelling companion--a recent acquaintance--had never heard me mention the lady in question, who _had_ died in Germany at the time specified. The little child said the spirit would give the name through her, and the process was a curious one. Instead of mentioning the whole name or each letter of it to her father, the child _described_ each letter to him as you might describe the lines of the large capitals in a child"s reading-book. The father guessed the letter from the child"s description, and asked me if the first one were correct? It was; but I did not tell him so, merely saying I should like to have the Christian name in full before giving any opinion.
In due time the six letters (Muriel, we will call it) were correctly given, and I had then no further excuse for refusing to speak to the spirit.
I went up to the curtain, and she appeared in front of it. I have been frequently asked: "Should you have recognised her as your friend had no name been given?" With every wish to be perfectly truthful, I find it difficult to answer this question, for the following reason:--None of the "materialisations" I saw were exactly human in face. There was no idea of a mask or clever "get up," but if one could accept the theory of a body hastily put together and a.s.sumed for a time, the result is exactly what might have been expected under the circ.u.mstances.
My friend in real life was very pale, and had exquisitely chiselled features, and the ones I now looked upon were of the same _cast_. The height was also similar, and an indescribable atmosphere of refinement, purity, and quiet dignity, for which she had been remarkable; all this was present with this materialisation. More than this I cannot say, for no materialisation I have ever seen could be truthfully considered _identical_ with the human original.
I did not feel frightened, but I did feel embarra.s.sed, and naturally so, considering how unwilling and grudging my recognition of her individuality must have appeared. She seemed conscious of this, for almost immediately she mentioned her hands, holding them out for inspection, and saying:
"Don"t you remember my hands? I was so proud of my hands!"
Now, as a matter of fact, my friend was noted for her beautiful hands, but she was too sensible and clever a woman to have been conceited about them, and had too much good taste ever to have made their beauty a subject of remark, even to an intimate friend.
Moreover, the hands now _en evidence_, although well shaped and with tapering fingers, were as little identical with a human hand as the face was identical with a human face.
Casting about for something to say to her, my first thought was for an only and dearly loved married sister of hers, also a friend of mine, and I mentioned the latter in a guarded way, saying: "If you are in reality my friend, have you no message for _your sister_?"
In a moment, and without the slightest hesitation, she said: "_Tell poor Jessie_," going on with a message peculiarly appropriate to the facts of the case, but of much too private a nature for publication.
Almost immediately afterwards, and _with no shadow of suggestion from me_, she added:
"_Poor Jessie! She suffered terribly when I pa.s.sed away so suddenly._"
My friend had died in a foreign country, under peculiarly sad circ.u.mstances. She was young, beautiful, and accomplished; a prominent local figure in the well-known capital where she had spent several winters. Her death was so sudden that there was not even time to put off a large afternoon "At Home" arranged for that day. Moreover, this sister, by a most merciful chance, happened to be spending a few months with her, out of England, at the time. These were all special facts, spontaneously referred to by her, but which would _not_ have applied equally well to the death of any other friend, even supposing such a death to have occurred abroad.
The spirit spoke feebly and with difficulty, "not having much strength,"
she told me.
I asked if her father (who had died a few months previously) were with her.
"Not yet," she said gently; "but I know that he has pa.s.sed over." She then kissed my hand, and faded away before my eyes, not apparently returning to the curtain (close to which I stood), but vanishing into thin air.
Some ten days later my friend and I went again to an evening _seance_ at the same house, different people being present on this occasion. A stupid, "_unintelligent_ sceptic" woman put us all out of harmony by making inane suggestions, always declaring that "_she would not for the world interfere with the conditions_," but doing so all the same. The "Angel Mother" came again, and rather lost her temper, I thought, with an aggravating, illogical man in the circle, who hammered away about Faraday"s opinions on the spirit world without much idea of what he was talking about. "Nels Seymour" _appeared_, as well as spoke, this time.
He took my hand and kissed it; but he does not leave the cabinet, as he is the "control." It was eleven years on this day since he had "pa.s.sed over," so he called it his "birthday."
A very beautiful female spirit materialised and offered to sit on my lap; an offer I closed with at once.
She was some five feet eight inches in height, and a large, well-developed woman. Antic.i.p.ating the possibility of her resting her feet on the ground, and so concealing her real weight, I moved my own feet from the ground the moment she sat down, which was easily done, as my chair was a high one.
She remained for several minutes in this position, resting, of necessity, her whole weight upon me, which was about equal to that of a small kitten or a lady"s m.u.f.f, in the days when small m.u.f.fs were in fashion. There was an _appreciable_ weight, but I have never nursed any baby that was not far heavier.
The veil this time was materialised in the usual way, my friend going up to watch the process.
My spirit friend appeared again, and more strongly this time. At a public _seance_, where so many are eager to communicate with their friends, it is impossible to monopolise more than a few minutes of the public time, and consequently any communications are as hurried and unsatisfactory as a conversation with an intimate friend in the public reading-room of a hotel would be.